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Nature's Integrity and the Green Classics of Christmas: Practical universal eco messages and Santa traditions instill the value of authentic Christmas cheer and genuine well-being, all year round.
Introduction and Synopsis We
seldom acknowledge that the history
of Christmas season centers on the
profound ability of the original
attraction energy of nature to grow
and
build balanced relationships on sub-atomic and universal levels. This unique ability is a
recognized essence of spirit and the
life of the Universe, including our own.
Because this natural attraction spirit/energy has purifying green powers, it grows and sustains nature's perfection. From moment one, its balanced and beautiful ways in nature's flow have supported the health and integrated relationships of all species, minerals and energies. Christmas actually celebrates nature's eons of building balanced, supportive, peaceful and ecologically sound relationships by and for the world's plant, mineral and animal kingdom, including humanity. As evidenced by the Christmas tree, mistletoe, holly, wreath and solstice date, Christmas includes the nature of Mother Earth The season's greetings of Christmas include those of all seasons, cultures and spiritualities. They are nature's totality, its recycling and restorative powers that maintain and purify its paradise on Earth. They are not our culturally limited stories. Free of them, the natural world does not produce garbage or pollution, or our unreasonable isolation, stress and abusiveness, including war. Humanity constantly seeks, creates and rejoices in the values of the Christmas and Santa spirit because, to our loss, our destructive and excessive indoor lives disconnect our psyche, thoughts and feeling from the green benefits of nature's healing flow. We are foolishly fighting an undeclared war against nature and we foolishly deny it. Our great unsolvable problems result from this hurtful separation of our lives from our natural life support system. The traditions of most spiritualities, dogma and institutions embrace the spirit of Christmas in order to help us implement the corrections we sorely need. However, to our loss, because most of these well-intended efforts are severely disconnected from the renewing gifts and powers of authentic nature, our problems increase and intensify. We presently spend over 95 percent, on average, of our time, thinking and feeling while disconnected from nature's gifts and messages. The addition of eco friendly educating, counseling and healing with nature activities (ECHN) to the power of spiritual life, as well as to studies like the history of Christmas, reverses our hurtful disconnection from our natural roots. The activities are like practical games that help participants consciously bring into play the balancing core and restorative energies of nature/universe that sustain personal, social and environmental well-being. Think about this idea. The whole year around we have the opportunity to benefit from the values of Christmas whenever we have a good experience in nature, yet we continue discount sensory nature contact as being an escape, unreal, freakish or fuzzy thinking. The article, below, is dedicated to help us reverse this great error and produce peace on Earth through peace with Earth. Sample the ECHN program. Enjoy our Free Activity materials and Free Button Activities Visit a press release about this page that you may read or distribute. ARTICLE Nature's Integrity and the Green Classics of Christmas: Practical universal eco messages and Santa traditions that instill the value of authentic Christmas cheer and genuine well-being, all year round A PERSONAL KEY TO THE UNIVERSE THAT YOU SHARE WITH EVERYTHING ELSE Scientists who study the universe suggest that some 14 billion years ago, before the time, space and matter of our Universe began, there only existed the nothingness of a unique vacuum. In this vacuum lay the beginning of our Universe. Reasonable evidence from observing the Universe today suggests that its true beginning consisted of its natural attraction to begin. The universe's original natural attraction had the ability to flow and grow into becoming the attractive time, space and matter that we now recognize as the Universe-Nature. It, as well as each of its parts, including us, are vibrantly held together by the powers of its original natural attraction. Different things experience or relate to natural attraction in different ways. However, the classic ability of natural attraction to bind, resonate and unify a universal, wide range of diversity identifies natural attraction as a prime form of unconditional love. Unconditional love is an essence of Christmas, no matter who is celebrating it or how. Natural attraction was, and continues to be, unconditionally attracted to flow, grow and build relationships in equilibrium. This is the nature of its spirit and cheer. It is also the ability of nature to be conscious on some level that its balanced and beautiful attractiveness can expand by becoming more powerfully attractive, moment by moment, relationship by relationship. Natural attraction is a classic living essence, the heart of all things in the universe. It is the intelligence and integrity of wholeness that is found everywhere, from sub-atomics to galaxies. Its free messages and energy gifts hold together every aspect of the universe including our thoughts, senses, feelings and interactions. If you doubt that nature's "attraction to be attractive" is the essence of everything, just try to change something. Note that the "thing" you are trying to change is attracted to remain in the naturally attractive relationship that it is in. This includes trying to change your mind, or to modify how you think, feel or act. Too often we overlook that natural attraction is the essence of nature's remarkable powers. It is a natural form of love that gives nature the unique ability to create and sustain its optimums of life,
diversity, cooperation, balance, purity, beauty, community, wellness, sensitivity, renewal, spirit, self-organization, restoration, unification, love, balance and regeneration. Via natural attraction love, nature accomplishes this profound achievement without producing garbage. Nothing is discarded, everything belongs. Excessive abusiveness, isolation and destruction, including war, are virtually unknown. Not accidently, these classic qualities of nature are an essence of what Christmas season celebrations adore. Most aspects of nature are included in our human Christmas. This is not surprising since humanity is part of nature. The difference is that in nature these virtues are applied and available to all members of the plant, animal and mineral kingdom and their energies. They are not just gifts, spirit and cheer for humanity alone. All year round, during any given moment, in Christmas-like ways, nature has the ability to make the changes it needs to strengthen itself and grow in wellness. Most of us have experienced and value this free, mind-healing power during quiet times while we are in contact with natural areas or things. Nature, via natural attraction love, sustains its paradise on Earth without using linguistics. There is no evidence that literacy in the form of written or spoken words, metaphors, stories, beliefs, games, ideas or films have been part of the universe...until, of course, nature biologically and spiritually produced humanity. We simply verbalize and applaud in cultural ways, what the life of natural attraction love universally has continued to do since moment one. Although nature is attraction driven, Industrial Society has misguided itself by addicting to nature-disconnected stories, stories we invent that omit nature, including many Christmas season and Santa beliefs. In subtle ways, the stories urge us to excessively exploit and control nature and attraction for profit. In this process, we subdue the desire of our inborn ability to love to genuinely connect with its origins in nature's self-correcting ways. While all other things are attracted to nature consistantly, on average, well over 95 percent of our time, thoughts and feelings are bonded to our nature-disconnected story ways of knowing. We suffer because we have cut ourselves off from our nurturing roots. We see and relate to the world through the color or warp of the nature-disconnected glasses Industrial Society trains us to wear. This makes us create and be responsible for most of the disorders that we suffer. The glasses also blind us to the wisdom of the inherent sensory powers that nature gives us to remedy our problems and to strengthen individual and global wellness. As demonstrated by engaging in the practical process of Educating, Counseling and Healing With Nature (ECHN), its activities, backyard or backcountry, help us reasonably blend our limited, nature-disconnected stories (a free activity link) with the gift of nature's balanced attraction power. This connection enables our stories, thoughts and feelings to create eco friendly, transformative change and increase personal, social and environmental well-being. Like nature works, these presents help us experience and enjoy Christmas during its special solstice season as well as during the rest of the year. “I
believe that the universe is one being, all its parts are different
expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with
each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. … The whole is in all
its parts is so beautiful, and is felt by me so intensely in earnest,
that
I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine.”
-Robinson Jeffers
A Christmas-Like Consideration of the Educating, Counseling and Healing With Nature Process (ECHN) . "I happened to stumble upon the Project NatureConnect web page one day while googling "alternative psychology". The search results brought me to the genuine ECHN organic psychology website. After reading a couple sentences I knew that this course was exactly what I had been looking for. I called Dr. Cohen and signed up for the online orientation course. Once I received my textbook I was amazed by what I read. It described what I'd been feeling and thinking for awhile. It gave reasonable answers to questions I had been asking about why there is so much uncontrollable negativity, destruction and abusiveness in the world today. I discovered that the ECHN Natural Systems Thinking Process is a wonderful tool for personal and global healing, that it helps us find wholeness in our being and that it makes us capable of reversing the negative effects of our nature-disconnected thinking by passing the ECHN process along to others." ^^^ "Our Christmas tree we chose this year is a potted Colorado Spruce. I will plant it on my property after its visit to our home is complete. Sometimes that has been into July...So I chose to sit with this tree. I love its presents, its presence and its aliveness...the spiritual promise of what it will continue to be. This was evident to me when my daughter and I were at the store picking it out. So for some of this assignment I need to also include the nature of a human and spirituality. Which in this case is my daughter. When I was at the store I was feeling my attraction to this tree and to my daughter and that we were all connected. I also wanted to honor her nature and natural attraction process. I could write several paragraphs on the gratitude I was having for this course, the wisdom and the awareness I was plugging into. I was careful not to let the story in my mind manipulate what her attraction was. I asked questions that were invitations for her to explore her senses of which tree she felt connection with. As a father this was a thrilling experience. Beyond words. We didn't have to decide between two different trees between us. We chose the same one. I took a moment before final decision and ask this beautiful tree if it would like to come to our home and be part of our family. As I was silently asking, the scent of pine seemed to surround me. I asked my daughter if she could also smell this and she expressed how strong she could when before it wasn't as strong. I hadn't told her what I was doing at that time." ^^^ I did not grow up in a family that celebrated Christmas or Hanukkah (by birth I am Jewish, and was raised Christian) and the holidays are painful for me. Although I’m not consciously reflecting on negative memories, the past insidiously creeps in and puts a pall on what should be a joy-filled time for me and my family. I formally coped with this by feverishly throwing myself holiday preparations and rituals to the extreme. The house was bursting with homemade gifts, we participated in every holiday activity imaginable and there wasn’t a spare moment to even sit down. People would delight in my gifts, charmed by my professional looking holiday newsletter of our family complete with humorous and touching stories and photos and make references to Martha Stewart. But year after year, after our children would unwrap their gifts from under our perfectly decorated tree I would crash in absolute exhaustion and/or would be physically ill. The last couple of years have increasingly been more challenging due to life circumstances added with a string of devastating events. I’ve barely been able to muster the energy to even acknowledge the holidays, much less truly celebrate them. I’ve felt guilty and conflicted about this, unable to overcome my inner turmoil to try to find a middle ground. Early Christmas Eve I chose to do my assignment and seek Nature’s wisdom. The weather has been intermittently stormy, snowy, wet, sleeting and so forth, not just on any given day but at any moment it could shift without warning. Around the time I stepped outdoors the sky had cleared. I stopped and simply let myself breathe, in and out, in and out. I let my mind go free and think of anything for awhile. My anxiety rose up and unexpectedly so did my tears. Although I did not cry hard, it seemed to have risen up from a low deep place within me. I felt the air chill my hot tears as they sprang from my eyes. I stayed in that feeling for awhile and then as my heart, mind and emotions quieted down in the calm of nature I began to think of my assignment. I followed my attraction and was drawn by the deep emerald green of the fields that spread out in every direction. I began to free-form hum, then little phrases of music began to creep up and spill from my mouth. The green was like balm to my eyes and the music soothed the jangled cords and began to form into song. Perhaps cliché, I began to sing the Christmas songs my little girl had been singing earlier while playing quietly by herself. I felt a strong sense of harmony with what I saw in nature and what I felt inside, as the two were intertwined. Singing required a different kind of breathing and this action regulated it. I suddenly trailed off no longer feeling like singing. I simply listened to the wind in the tall grasses and blowing the branches, to the creeping crackle of a cat walking across the fallen leaves and to the sound of our two ducks swishing their bills around in the water to drink. It was a perfect disjointed and yet perfectly harmonious symphony of it’s own kind and I felt myself a part of it. I thought about how I was a part of it, it was a part of me, a whole community resonating together consciously and unconsciously. I felt calm, quiet and at peace. I didn’t want to interrupt this feeling to go through the natural senses in the book, so I tried to simply sort of generalize from memory what they were. I thought of sense of community (all around me), the sense of feel (the air touching my skin), sight/color (the soothing green fields), but what most stuck out to me was that the longer I stood there, the more I felt like I was part of a larger whole—a community. I felt that as nature resonated with me and me with it that there was no “me” or “it”. I felt accepted, as though I belonged. I carried this feeling of belonging and calm with me into the house as I interacted with my family. I found myself humming and filled with the holiday spirit as I prepared our Christmas meal of fondue. We literally sat and broke bread together, I laughed with them and we enjoyed ourselves. My husband prefers chilly sleeping so he’s been happily enjoying the solitude of sleeping alone. However, this night, apparently drawn by my quiet contemplative calm spirit, he came out and “spooned” me, sort of cocooning me as I nestled against him. We didn’t speak. We merely lay quietly breathing together, completely filled with peace as we gazed with love at our sleeping little children who appeared to be angelic while they slumbered. I felt nature’s gifts to me, which I carried indoors and into my family. It is the best Christmas present I could receive. ^^^ "Each ECHN activity has been a wonderfully enjoyable experience. Each is a present that has produced feelings of peace and connectedness that remained even after the activity was long finished. I was able to increase my awareness of natural attractions and senses that I had not been conscious of previously. I could better think and feel with them. One of the greatest things about it is the restoration of so many genuine different senses that are available all of the time but so buried in our psyche that they usually go unnoticed: 'I found myself attracted
to the sounds of the nearby birds.
I
was able to distinguish at least five separate types of birds from
their unique calls. I was also attracted to the
wind. It
was cool and humid out this morning but I didn't feel cold when the
wind blew-it felt refreshing against my skin. I was also
attracted to the sound the wind made against the leaves of the trees-it
was gentle and very calming. I also reached around
with my
eyes shut and felt various things around me. There was an
attraction to the plants. I was also attracted to the smell
of
the air-it smelled fresh and I enjoyed taking deeper breaths.
When I opened my eyes, I was attracted to the water in the pond-I noticed that I used many senses including depth of the water, distance of the trees (sight) and distance of birds (hearing). I could hear my dog coming close to me and used touch when she came near. Some other senses I used were texture (of rocks, plants, the dog, color-the colors of all of the rocks, the water, trees, plants, flowers, birds, dog, sky, pleasure from the fresh air and the cool breeze, humidity and temperature.' This cheer, awareness and restoration was strengthened more and more as I continued doing each activity. For many of the activities, I visited the same natural area but each time I was amazed at all of the new natural attractions that I experienced. From noticing the free wind, to the temperature of the sun, to the color of flowers, birds, trees, to distance, to sounds, connectedness and peacefulness, it seems that with each new activity, my senses were more and more awakened to all of nature. These attraction connections were experienced by others, too. One eco-experience that impacted me is from Matt, a member of our email interact group. He said: 'This awakening of the senses of community was just a sniff of what might be possible. To be in the moment and aware of things like belonging, nurturing, trust, place, reason, and companionship as well as color, movement and sound is be incredible. I am able to learn as much as I can through reconnecting with nature and experience the intricate complexity and healing powers of all these senses more and more.' Regardless of what is happening in my day, I know I can always seek out a natural area and benefit as well as apply it's natural restorative powers. If I've had a student who has been difficult, I now know how to go to a natural area and be calmed by the present of a breeze or by looking at the beautifully colored flowers. Through ECHN I discovered that I really enjoy spending time in nature. It has helped me remain calm, has kept me outside more instead of watching TV or involved in some other nature-disconnected activity. It has equally helped my students, too, as I share it with them. ^^^ "The attractive value of the Orientation course for myself is that I have been awakened to recognize and appreciate the variety and multitude of natural attractions existing all around me. I have found a deep peace in experiencing them, bringing about feelings of calmness, warmth, and love whenever I recall the encounters or whenever I realize all the potential for more. Additionally I found the creative expression of and the sharing of my experiences was pleasurable, and the feedback or responses were rewarding." ^^^ I feel more connected to Earth and because of that connection, feel a great responsibility to care for Earth. I know I've experienced growth in this course by comparing my before and after scores in the Course Description. My score at the beginning of the course was a 183. My score at the end was 400! As I went through the life-in-balance questions for the second time, I felt confident that I knew the answer to each of them. Through ECHN I feel a growing sense of wholeness with nature. Each lesson includes a nature-connecting activity or game. There are only a few requirements of the activity; first, that the activity take place in a natural area-whether it be a plant, a park, or in the middle of a forest. Second, one must ask for permission from the natural area to visit it. Additionally, one must be as still as possible and observe what they are naturally attracted to through their inherent 53 natural attraction senses, and last, one should thank the natural area for its contribution once the activity is completed. At first it felt a little weird to ask for permission to be in a natural area, or thank it, but the more I learned in the course, the more I understood that when I am in a natural area, I am interacting with another form of life and as such, need to treat it with respect. It is the same as if I were entering another person's home. This is illustrated beautifully with a metaphor: 'Bob: What would happen if you walked past a complete stranger, into his house, opened his refrigerator door, took out his sandwich and ate it? Eileen: You would trespass on his bonded integrity and his territory. He would be frightened, upset, and angry...' I learned that just like Bob and Eileen's conversation, if I enter into a natural area without asking and receiving permission, I, too, am trespassing on a sacred eco-place. The value of this process of asking permission and then noticing natural attractions that suddenly appeared deepened my connection with nature. It helped me realize that I am not separate from nature, that there is an underlying force that I can experience. It connects each thing on this planet. ECHN is designed to help us experience and imprint this truth in our thinking. ^^^ "For the past 20 years the Spruce tree in the front yard has been my year-round Christmas tree. Throughout the seasons, as I help it grow in healthy ways, it has done the same for me. Sometimes, I seek its permission to visit with it and that's when nice things happen. The world becomes more attractive and alive. I've become very attached to it." ^^^ "By doing the activities, I was able to genuinely feel and experience natural attractions and to strengthen this connection by feeling authentically connected to the web of life. I have learned that my actions have an effect on everything and everyone else in the universe. Although no words are exchanged, nature is communicating with me each moment. Feelings of isolation and separateness now don't make sense for me. I can use my senses and connect myself to all things. This is a remarkable and beautiful thing. One classmate said: 'When
I try to think of the river as a dead natural resource I find it
painful and hurtful. I feel a loss of something beautiful,
complex and magical. It is not just water. There is
so much
more there. My being is immensely enriched by knowing it as a
wisely balanced organism. I think hat if this contrast of
feelings is generated when thinking about the river then how would I
feel if I think of the whole of nature /Mother Earth at all times as a
'wisely balanced organism', rather than a dead natural resource, which
I still inadvertently do. Wow this is powerful'.
The essence of this course is to learn how are all connected to the wholeness and integrity of the web-of-life. That authentic nature isn't "out there" it flows all around as well as within and through us -it is us. This truly is powerful. If we were all to live from this state of being and thinking, we would create a "New Earth". I have a vision of that place now and will strive to do what I can to create it. ECHN is a vital tool to help us overcome the runaway devastation that humans have inflicted on each other and on the environment. Although ECHN has helped me heal personally, I feel that its real power is in it's ability to heal on a global scale. One only needs to read about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to realize and understand the effects of our nature-disconnected thinking. I was using Facebook to post a quote from the reading and the quote was: "This is what you shall do: Love the Earth and Sun and the Animals" from Walt Whitman. A friend of mine responded that BP should take the quote to heart. I responded to him saying that if BP took the quote to heart, there never would have been an oil spill. I believe that the ECHN course has the power to do just this- to reverse our thinking from dominating and exploiting nature to loving and caring for it. This is achieved first by individuals taking the course and regenerating their natural senses. It is through the total online communication with the group that I've gained even more insight than any lesson alone has taught me or that I've gained through an activity. It is through the group interaction that I can see what others are experiencing in their words. I have gained just as much by reading my interact groups postings as I did reading each chapter. This was one of the great joys I had each week. Once each student has completed the course, they have the ability to pass on the ECHN process to others. It is by doing this that we can truly change the world. Now when I talk with children who fall into trouble, I look for which step in Nature’s communication will help them the most. Listening with our senses keeps returning as the number one need. We are together in building a new culture by sharing how it works for us and its value to it. What you share with me changes me. After this course my thinking will only go forward with yours. ECHN gives us the free power to produce change on this planet. I see it changing the way we think about ourselves and our relation to Earth and each other. I see changes from the way we produce food and materials, build, develop, purchase, package, clean, treat illness, and use products. Lastly, I definitely relate in a much more empathetic and caring manner towards the flow of mother Earth when I think if it/her as a 'wisely balanced organism'. It makes me want to do more to protect the flow and Earth from the ravages of humanity. One thing in particular is my choices of food. I still eat mostly conventionally farmed produce, which is grown by treating Earth as a dead natural resource, where chemicals are added to the dead soil to make food plants grow. I feel compelled to explore options for buying more organically farmed food, that process treats the Earth as a living and breathing thing" Learning ECHN has been of exceptionally value to me. It has taught me many lessons, the biggest of which are that it is a wonderful tool for personal healing, that it helps us find wholeness in our beings and that the ECHN process is can be a powerful tool for global change and healing. 'My
natural attraction thinking allowed me to sense my relationship with
this wild and free Christmas tree. My whole-life thinking was
the
process of putting
the
experience in words and communicating it to you, this study group,
people whom I am learning from. Natural attraction connections are
developing now from my experience with nature and my communication of
the experience with each of you.' "
Additional responses to the Article are available
on the Spiritual Growth webpage.
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