| SYNOPSIS:
These field reports describe a funded Mother Earth sensory
science in action. The provide samples an organic psychology tool that
helps us improve health wellness and counseling by enabling our
thinking and feeling to safely tap into the nature's grace, balance and
restorative powers. Participants benefit from and strengthen their
inborn love of nature as they master alternative therapist coaching,
stress release management and holistic spiritual psychology.
PROGRAM
DESCRIPTION:
Educating Counseling and
Healing With Nature
Supportive Degrees, Career
Training Courses and Jobs On Line
Project NatureConnect offers nature-centered
distant learning that enables you to add the benefits of
nature-connecting methods and credentials to your degree program and/or
your skills, interests and hobbies.
We honor your prior
training and life experience by providing grants and equivalent
education credit for it.
You may take accredited or professional CEU coursework
and/or obtain a Nature-Connected Degree or Certificate in most
disciplines or personal interests. A partial subject list is located at
the bottom of this page.
- Improve
your income and satisfaction through independent, interdisciplinary or
integrated study and Ecopsychology.
- Help people connect their
thoughts and feelings with the self-correcting and renewing ways of
nature.
- Increase personal social and environmental well
being.
- Add the sunlight beauty and spirit of the natural
world to your life and community.
Visit our Homepage for complete information
ARTICLE:
FIELD
REPORTS: on line program participants, share their results from a nature-connecting activity.
IN BALANCE WITH EARTH: THE LIFE AND SPIRIT OF
OBTAINING CONSENT FROM A NATURAL AREA TO RELATE TO IT
Frozen Water "Today started off with me complaining
because I only got 2 hours of sleep last night. My attitude
needed to change and I knew it. So, we headed off to the
foothills of Boulder to seek a natural attraction I could visit.
We
drove to a trail to hike along. Walking along in the snow,
Steve stopped to point out a bird in a tree, but I was immediately
drawn to the tree standing all alone in the pasture filled with
cattle. We sat in silence staring at what we were attracted
to and when our attraction faded, we moved on. The bird also
flew off. Before us the foothills rose up in sun-kissed
magnificence of gleaming white snow. The sunny day and blue
skies brought happiness to my soul. I was starting to feel
better.
We drove to another trail as I still was
not feeling the attraction I really longed for in this
activity. Knowing I connect deeply with water, I asked that
we find a rushing river. At the first spot we hiked to on
this trail, I was immediately drawn to the smooth glass of water that
quickly dumped down into cascading rapids. I stared in awe
for a bit, until I lost my attraction because of the highway going
directly over this magnificent spot. I noted that I had not
waited for consent to be given in this natural area and thought it good
to move on from this spot.
We headed down the
other way on the trail and came to more open water...there was a lot of
ice covering the river. I listened with excitement to the
marvelous noise of the water as it lapped against the ice, while Steve
enjoyed a bird across the river. I noted how neat it was to
be in the same spot but each enjoying a different element of
nature. Why are we attracted to certain things at certain
times? It must be our truth!
We
moved along to my favorite part of this hike where I finally remembered
to gain consent before doing this activity. Three mallards, 2
male and a female, were swimming down the river. They stopped
and one tried to get on the ice. I watched her struggle and
began to cheer for her to make it up. After much struggle,
she made it. The other two followed suit. I found
such joy in watching them travel down the river and I thanked them for
their consent to be there. My soul was feeling such
happiness and peace as I spent time there just enjoying being in the
presence of this glorious scene of these wonderful ducks foraging for
food along the rushing water. It WAS much more attractive
because I had gained consent and thanked it. I definitely
felt better about myself because I was more in touch and
supported by the life community.
I liked
this quote from the Web of Life Imperative book “This activity helps us
discover immediate positive outcomes from treating the Earth community
fairly, with respect, as a mother, an equal or as a friend rather than
as something to further abuse or exploit.”
I
discovered that I relearned nature's healing tendencies, that
gaining consent and thanking nature provides a whole different
experience and that sharing an experience in nature can greatly improve
communication. I would feel so sad if these webstring attractions had
been taken away from me because this activity greatly lifted my spirits
and I would have had to return to feeling mopey. This
activity definitely enhanced my sense of self-worth and trustfulness of
nature.
Nature is my true bliss. I needed to
experience and feel that today, and my spirits were definitely lifted."
-
Journal of an Anonymous Webstring Participant
Nature
Love "I
went to my favorite bush outside our
house that smiles with little red berries. Ever since this
wonderful bush came to my awareness, I am noticing that every window of
the house I look out of there is a smiling red berry
bush. I never noticed it before. Surprise
surprise.
As I asked for
consent from the bush to visit it, I felt a warm tingling sensation
rise up my spine and I knew that the bush was welcoming me back with
open arms. As I came closer, I noticed that some of its
branches were stuck under ice patches on the ledge. I
immediately started to look for a tool to break the ice to set the
branches free. All I could find was a chapstick in my coat
pocket and I began to break the ice by hitting the patches with the
chapstick. Within few minutes the branches were free and
swaying. I felt like swaying with them. I felt so
happy and content as the connection was beautiful. The bush
that I like is beautiful, compassionate, wise and I like it
because she feels like an energetic connection that is far
reaching.
As I sit typing this out, the
bush is looking inside from the window and I keep looking outside at
her for her consent to verify what I am typing. What I see is
her energy field, it is vast and she is connecting with me through her
energy even indoors (through the window) and I hear a hissing sound
that is the sound of her energy vibrating. No, I am not
crazy, I am more aware for the first time. I have experienced
the sound separately, the sight separately and now it is wonderful to
experience it all together. She is the only green vibrant
color outside as it is grey and all the background trees are bare as
though partaking in the energy exchange with this beautiful smiling red
berry bush. By asking consent, I too consciously exchange
energy with my community of trees and bushes and the beautiful land we
are situated upon.
I apply
this experience to my nature and say “I like myself because I am
beautiful, compassionate and wise”
Yes,
yes, yes!!! I validate that the changed sentence describes
all aspects of me. I feel wonderful in this light and yes it
feels right. I have been noticing small shifts and did not
realize how big the shift was going to be. I am actually
loving myself more and more, my energy feels different, more expansive
and connected. Before I would go in and out of this
experience and now I sustain it or perhaps it sustains me.
As
for connecting with that part of nature with another human
being: I connected with my daughter Nancy who is now 20 (I
can‚t believe it) and there are times when our ideas clash.
Instead of arguing with her, this time, I connected with her inner
nature and the experience was wonderful. There was a sense of
deep connection and she sat close to me and I held her for 15
minutes. This was wonderful as she has a busy schedule and is
hardly around, furthermore that day she called from her boyfriends
place and gabbed for 25 minutes and we laughed like the good old
days. Perhaps it is time to accept that my baby is a flower
in full bloom and is shining with her own ideas and energy.
This
chapter was wonderful from reading to experiencing. I
discovered that if there is no connection there is no life and that my
nature shines through nature, nothing else of the world can make it
shine, not even fame. I am vibrant because I am
nature. With such depth and great connection, life would be
impossible if I lost my ability to sense nature. That
non-ability is mechanical living and this is real.
My
sense of self-worth had an explosion. I can't describe it any
other way.
I am more active, I am taking frequent breaks from
writing and working. I am stepping out and working out
more. I am even eating healthy (now that is a
shift) I am singing, skipping and dancing more.
I
have had this vision of helping women in distress and I think I am
gaining momentum to put a plan together.
I
could keep going, however, I think I have said enough about this
activity that we share, friends, thank you for listening."
Much love,
Marge
PS.
I don't know why but I have tears of joy rolling down my eyes and my
heart feels full
Hi Marge,
I don't care about
the why, but I am caring with my own tears.
Lilly
-
Journal of an Anonymous Webstring Participant Frozen Water "As I first read our assignment I was a
little apprehensive towards a few things. I felt that comparing it to
if a man walked into another mans space, right past him and started
eating from his refrigerator wasn't a good comparison to enjoyring
natures natural attraction without asking permssion for it. For, as put
into words, the property humans "own" is a 5 leg way of thinking where
as nature is 4 way, and we are part of it. I decided I'd give the
assignment a try anyways trying to be as open minded to interpretation
as possible. Dave said that he initially felt the same way,
and that's why he was so blown away with the power of this activity.
I
was instantly attracted to the lake we live by and walked it's
ledge. The lake has frozen over thick enough for the ice
fishers to set
up their shantis. Snow layers the ice about a foot tall. It is nights,
so no one is out at the moment. Right now, the lake looks completely
pure, clean and uncorrupted. The snow on the lake glows
casting the only light. The sky beside is very dark. The best way to
describe it with words is I gave off the energy that I wanted to
connect with it. I sensed that it, that moment, place and vision,
returned the sentiment. I gave it my love, thankful will, loving
kindness and happyness to name a few things. I then departed.
I
found that once I tried the activity allowing myself freedom to
interpretation, I really enjoyed the assignment. It is something that I
like to do, become as connected and in the moment with the universe as
possible. It is always a good reminder to make conscious and
intentional trips to natural areas to find specific places and moments,
connect with them and share the love between us.
This
experience as a whole taught me that I need more often to make
deliberate journeys in connecting with a particular moment, it is good
to leave things open to interpretation and we all have different
instinctive visions and we can be shown someone else's visions.
I
concluded that it is reasonable and helpful to seek permission, gain
consent and give thanks in appreciation for the enjoyable feelings and
senses we receive from visiting and building responsible relationships
with places and people." -
Journal of an Anonymous Webstring Participant
Bio-Logic
"I know my inherent sensitivities to natural
attractions are alive and
well because I could enjoyably sense and feel the play between the
young crows making a racket and my dog racing toward them even though
they were high on the soccer net. They played along and flew away as if
in great danger.
It is a rather new idea to view our attractions as
permission and invitations given by nature. We talk about Earth alive
but this perception states that in each particular attraction, the
being or community is actually greeting the particular person who has
the attraction to it. I need to live with this a bit.
The activity called "In Balance with Earth". This activity
helps us discover immediate positive outcomes from treating the Earth
community fairly, with respect, as a mother, an equal or as a friend
rather than as something to further abuse or exploit. This can than be
applied to all beings including ourselves.
1. Notice how you feel now and then go to somewhere natural
you like and _notice_ a strong attraction to something natural.
Yes, I see this is the first ability we must learn to recognize and
honor. Somehow even though I feel attracted, I feel I ignore its
importance even on days when I am taking time for nature. (My nature
connected story tells me, "If you attended to all you're attractions,
you'd be standing still. You're making too much of this.) I want to
answer "it is a big deal, our wisest love is calling. I need to
practice this step, the first skill in respecting Earth.
2. Thank the natural attraction for being there for you and
the rewarding feeling you are experiencing.
Yikes, skill
number 2: thank you. When I greet my attraction is it with the
enthusiasm that I feel and express upon a visit from a good friend.
Still, what I notice is that I do not consciously spontaneously ask
permission or thank it for the feeling.
3. Decide that you are going to obtain its consent or
permission to visit with it.
4. Ask this thing to give its consent for you to be with it.
After several failed attempts I was determined to do this with the
celery, parsley and mint I wanted to plant in a new herb garden in a
barren sun spot of our front yard.
I sat down quiet for
several seconds.
5. I noticed the mint especially was drooping and I felt
their permission and urgency to get going.
Though it was near dark, I was focused to revive everyone in
the soil. It was amazing how one planting flowed to the next. It seemed
the former plants easily gave way to the newcomers and designs arose
naturally. I even rescued and add the chives that were suffering under
a tree bench in the back. It seemed the whole area was rejoicing at the
new community. But it was the smells--the healthy, healing fresh smells
of thyme and sage, sweet grass and all these new members that made me
feel this small footage of Earth was again happy. I had a grateful
heart.
6. Again, I did not thank them consciously until my tools
were away when I remembered. I want to get this nonverbal sensing into
my verbal world so I will have more wholeness and integrity. I think in
life I also leave a lot of gratitude to people on a nonverbal level.
7. I did notice, a subtle difference after my "sit". Gently
the relationship became real, like our hearts met or as Nick said "we
found each other..and moved...in what felt like companionship." I
think, Mike, it is "reasonable and helpful" to greet, gain permission
and thank. I want to increase this habit.
I like the idea that the "the natural world uses
"bio-logic." That's a good example of reinventing a word that fit our
times and the corrective attitude we need. The minute one says
biologic, the mind refers to nature. I believe in this old-wisdom
stored in our cells, this multi sensory ability to heed each moment's
natural conditions and attractions. I believe it is a invaluable gift
bestowed us from our ancestors with trust. I thank Mike Cohen's
Webstring Learning Model for so clearly guiding us to "the
reasonableness of discovering, validating and respecting our natural
sensory brain and its attraction connections to nature's wisdom, to
part of creation's higher power." -
Journal of an Anonymous Webstring Participant
Bill thought it was
ridiculous for his Organic Psychology course to suggest that he obtain
webstring consent from a tree to visit it, before he actually visited
it. He believed that visiting a natural area was our God-given right.
However, because he wanted to overcome his problem with depression, he
did a sensory nature-connecting webstring activity that helped people
gain permission from a natural thing to connect with it.
(http://www.ecopsych.com/amental.html). Doing the activity
provided Bill with an unexpected peak experience sensation that filled
his psyche. As part of the activity, by thinking and expressing to the
tree that he would honor and be kind to it and that he would not harm
it, his attraction to the tree continued. He became aware that he was
obtaining the tree's consent to visit it, otherwise it would not have
remained attractive to him and something else might instead have become
more attractive.
Bill's natural webstring attractions to the
tree's color, shape and grandeur intensified and lasted for an extended
period. He delighted in the strength of this feeling and began to sense
that in many ways the tree first felt like, and then actually became, a
close friend, like a supportive family member. His fearful
“nature is dangerous and dirty” belief along with his feeling that
“I'll look foolish if I do this” transformed, for the moment, into the
exhilaration that was triggered by a safe and mutually supportive
natural webstring way of knowing the tree. In this moment he felt
happy, not depressed.
Bill recognized that through this
activity alone he could seek permission to build supportive
relationships with nature in himself, in others or in natural areas at
any time. Using Organic Psychology gave him the ability to
activate natural webstring attraction sensitivity powers that helped
all natural things, including him, build community. He saw how
seeking consensual contact with nature was reasonable and enjoyable,
that his attraction to a tree had “composted” part of his old “nature
is bad” story into a mutually supportive way of enjoying the natural
world as his extended family. This felt exciting and worthwhile.
It increased his self-esteem because he became conscious that he knew
how to connect with nature and that its renewing webstring energies
helped him recycle “feeling down” into “feeling more alive, less
depressed.” Bill told his online support group, “This experience
was a delight of surprises. I felt that I touched the tip of an
iceberg of new intelligence. What I love about me is that when I
gain a new awareness like this, I can no longer act as if I'm ignorant,
that do not know. My curiosity and desire for a fuller experience
of the web of life fuels me forward. These activities have done
more for me in the last four months than the past 14 years of my
personal searching and I thank each of you so much for being part of my
world in this program!”
-
Journal of an Anonymous Webstring Participant
2.
“It is now snowing and very cold. To do this activity I asked
permission to enter the sacred natural space of my backyard. It
was much quieter today, no birds chirping. I was immediately
attracted to the gently falling snow and how peaceful it is. My
hurt webstrings took joy in this because for so long in my life I could
not find peace. I thought of myself as unworthy of being loved, a
very imperfect being. That often played out in my relationships
with others, especially men, because I never felt good enough for my
father. As I have learned to love myself and accept my natural
self, I could see myself as one made perfect in nature, and love that
person. I can truly see myself!
Through the
consent activity, I entered my backyard with its permission. I
was immediately attracted to a leaf on the tree. It seemed to be
in the shape of a heart. I looked closer, well maybe not, but
backing away it was a heart to me. Labeled? I can label that leaf
because I've learned what the shape of a heart looks like, yet in
actuality a heart isn't even shaped like that. This activity was
powerful for me because as I read the rationale for doing the activity
I wasn't even feeling any connection, and so I hoped by going outside
something might happen. I saw the heart-shaped leaf, but still
felt no connection. It was interesting that as the connection
developed everything, above, slowly unraveled for me, and I know now
why I was attracted to that leaf. That is the reward provided by
webstring connections that is the overlooked secret of nature.
I
find that at my very core, I want to live in the heart of nature.
For so long I've lived not where I truly felt I belong, but instead
where I thought it best to meet people. I guess I was afraid to
be alone, but now I am afraid to live so disconnected to nature, to
live so far from my destiny.
My natural self, the girl I love is
the girl who takes joy in every aspect of the natural world, the one
who lets her spirit be free and interconnected with the universe.
What
has stuck with me the most so far throughout this course is to ask
permission and gain consent, then give thanks. Doing these things
make you feel like you are equal to everything that lives with you here
on earth. When I call each sense a “connection” or “natural
attraction” this makes me feel like we (the leaf and I, the mountain
and I, ect... are equal) we need each other to survive.
-
Journal of an Anonymous Webstring Participant
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