PROGRAM
DESCRIPTION:
Educating
Counselling 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 self-correcting sunlight beauty and
spirit of the natural world to your life and community. In natural
areas, the truth is free and shares nature's wisdom
Visit our Homepage for
complete information
GLOBAL
TEMPERATURE REDUCTION TOOLS
"Our
nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and
hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and
irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure
to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have
been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too
costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence
that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our
planet."
-
Barack Obama
We
suffer our economic recession along with our other disorders because
our long history of greed and irresponsibility have produced
them. These problems have made us aware of our excessiveness
that has resulted in our
unbalanced society and environmentally destructive economic growth.
We must solve todays
problems by co-creating with nature, not by further exploiting it and
increasing global warming. We need to use tools that help us
accomplish this.
The
heart of our problems is that Industrial Society has made it a habit
for our thinking to be excessively material-dependent. The profit
motive has made us feel and act like runaway consumers while ignoring
that
we live as citizens of a planet whose life and resources have delicate
limits.
The greedy, exploit-nature story of
Industrial Society has goaded us to surpass the necessities of life in
equilibrium. This has given the planet a temperature, a
symptom that
tells us its life is sick. We see many additional symptoms that
continue to grow.
We must learn to help Earth reduce its fever. As we do, as part of it,
we remedy our and other disorders.
Our
social and environmental problems have a common underlying
source.
Although we are part of nature and its grace, we are taught to think
out of contact and connection with the way nature works. You
see, its
self-correcting ways produce unpolluted optimums of life, diversity and
cooperation, not our chaos and disorders. Yet, even at this late date,
we
still believe that nature is not intelligent. (For more about this visit Natural
Attraction Ecology)
Even
though our polluted thinking in Industrial Society pollutes nature in
and around us, we continue to learn to to separate our mind and
activities from
the purifying and
restorative ways of natural systems. These
systems
are the fountainhead of authority about what we must do to increase
global well-being, including our own.
When it comes to
living in balance, nature, not Oprah, knows best .
Individuals
who reduce their problems by learning to think like nature works create
a mutually supportive relationship with Earth. They have
found that the
three activities and the reading, below, help their psyche reduce
global
warming while increasing their personal well-being.
The
activities work because they enable us to create moments that let Earth
teach us what we need to know about how it works in and around us. Its powerful ways
then knowledgeably guide us to reduce its fever and our madness.
Read:
Who
Are You, Who Am I, Who are We?
Activity 1.
Nature In And Around Us. Self Meet
Yourself
Activity 2.
Reduce Excessiveness: Gaining Nature's
Consent
Bonus Activity: Being
Naturally Mindful
Responses to the Activities from
the Email and Journals of Anonymous Course Participants
Makes
me want to dance.
It
was nice to go to the river every day. That place is so sacred to me,
especially one certain area. It was here on Day one that I proclaimed,
“I am attracted to the river, the river, the river because it is
life-giving, peaceful, and calming.!!” I am attracted to myself
because I am life-giving, peaceful and calming!!
Wonderful.
I decided to do this activity on additional days.
On Day 2 I liked the wind because it makes me feel alive. I like myself
because I feel alive.
Day 3 - I appreciated the snow because it nourishes our lands. I
appreciate myself because I nourish our lands.
Day 4 - I think this river is worthwhile because it makes me happy. I
am worthwhile because I make others happy.
Day
5 - I think this spot where the river curves is good because I forget
all my worries here. I am good because I can forget all my worries.
Day 6 - This river is right because it makes sense to learn from it. I
am right because I make sense to learn from.
Day
7 - I love the sun shining on water making it sparkle because it makes
me smile and feel good inside. I love myself because I smile and feel
good inside.
Day 8 -
I love the sound of the river because it gives me peace. I love myself
because I am peaceful.
It
is life-affirming to go back and read these over and sense my belonging
and importance to this earth. That is something I learned,
that I
belong and I am important.
There
is value in doing the same thing and going to the same place over and
over if it is life-giving. I learned: It was following my
heart to
go to the river because it is so life-giving to me which only proves to
me that by following by heart and doing things that are life-giving
will I truly find my happiness.
I
am a person who gets good feelings in nature when I soak in the
magnificence of the river - its sound, currents, bubbles, ripples,
waterfalls, smoothness, cascading rapids, flow, colors, contrasts. All
give me spectacularly good feelings and make me want to dance.
Follow your heart.
Hi Edith,
I
list all your findings, above, here this way, below, because they have
such an attractive flow in their simplicity and truth! It is
a
very affirming read! :
I am attracted to myself because I am life-giving, peaceful and
calming!!
I like myself because I feel alive.
I appreciate myself because I nourish our lands.
I am worthwhile because I make others happy.
I am good because I can forget all my worries.
I am right because I make sense to learn from.
I love myself because I am peaceful.
I belong and I am important.
By following my heart and doing things that are life-giving will I
truly find my happiness.
I
am a person who gets good feelings in nature when I soak in the
magnificence of the river - its sound, currents, bubbles, ripples,
waterfalls, smoothness, cascading rapids, flow, colors, contrasts. All
give me spectacularly good feelings and make me want to do a dance.
...to
find truth.....the river told me one day.....“Follow your heart,
with everything you do, follow only your heart. Follow your heart like
you follow me.”
Daily strength
I
asked consent to sit with a rose. What came to mind was the
independance that the rose held. The two tone "pink" rose that had yet
to open stood alone. There was no other rose/flower near or far in
sight. It was held by a very long stem...as if it was wanting to be
noticed by stretching itself taller! Noticed for its beauty, solitude,
independance, and strength. I can recall feeling connnected because i
was needing to be reminded of my own strength on that particular day.
It seemed as if it was speaking to me through its stance! I closed my
eyes at one point and felt safe in its presence...I was in the moment!
I opened my eyes and was honored to contnue to view it. I thanked the
beautiful rose for its message.
I love
fresh flowers but the thought of disconnecting it from where it stood
would have brought tears.
A time that I have felt like this is with my daughter....I am a strong
woman but she gives strength daily!
Natural roles
I
find this tree branch attractive because it is a pure essence of the
richness and innocence of life's truth, beauty, and goodness. it is
what Life is, and I need do no more to that testimony but stand and be
it.
My attraction to my cat told me I am likable because I
share with others a sense of timeless joy and playfulness, a
breathtaking sense of openness and intelligent discerning trust, and
because I have the sense to not be inordinately enamored with others,
to even be bored with them and allow them to blend into the landscape
as languidly as I.
I love it when it thunderstorms, such a
sense of the whole atmosphere taking a break from the languidness of
quiet and peace like every muscle was just itching to stretch and then
jump! It made me realize I cannot think of any aspect or
entity
of Nature that does not invoke a sense of love.
I love
myself because I do not need to question my relationship with other
Earth Life, or have the need to question who is in control or who is
superior. I know our natural roles and I honor them by simply being who
and what I am.
Wouldn't
it be nice
I
was attracted to your wonderful description of the "warm
sunlight, delighting at the sight of greenery that has already started
pushing out leaves" I am connecting to your green experience
in
British Columbia and it was so energizing for me. We are all white here
in New Hampshire.
"It talked to me about the return of
energy, about possiblilties, about hopes that grow like plants when
nurtured." The sun, as you described, is our fire
energy
freeing us from negativity, burning away all that binds us; as
it's warming rays pass through each of us
You have
warmed my heart and touched my soul. I was attracted to
your words " My sense of I faded and in that moment I
felt
completely peaceful and full." Oh how true. In
immersing our
"selves" into nature's waters, nature's webstrings, nature's
oxygen, nature's fire, mother earth provides us with a safe
space
to just let go and "be" as intended.
Wouldn't it be nice
if we just approached all other human beings and the planet in this
fashion? The
total acceptance of the soul of each unconditionally because we
felt its attractiveness, wouldn't it be nice?
Always make
me smile
In
nature we're always surprised at nature's
beauty, but most of
us ignore the healing
process nature encourages and
empowers us to participate in.
The moment I looked at the tree,
I felt that there was a tree inside me. That strong,
supportive, never give-up individual doesn't only exsist as a form of
human being, instead, that individual could be found everywhere in our
global life community.
I was encouraged by the leaves,
not matter how tiny as powerless as others thought
you
are, believing yourself and trusting the potential
power
inside you is the best support to help survive
in some
hard-to-imagine situation.
I love my confidence and
courage, my potential abilities to solve the problems when
meet
difficulties because I'm not as weak as others think, like the
leaves in the wind and snow.
I'd like to learn from the kids,
their direct way of keeping in touch with nature is the best way to
improve personal well-being.
From the rainbow, I had a sudden feeling that I could
see the most beautiful heart and soul from others and from
myself.
It did happen, not occasionally, which cheered me up
so
much. Hearing a voice from my deep inside speaking loudly, "Of
course, I'm a watergirl."
I love the rainbow because it's
like the rainbow inside me, it becomes the bridge that bind
the
kids and me together, we can see and understand each other
over
this bridge.
The grass is a mirror I could see through to check
myself. I hoped, and I believed I was like the grass,
which
is very flexiable, hardowrking and never gives up. Though
felt burden, the grass was still very optimistic. The
process
it went back to normal is the process of
self-challenge and
self-acheivement. Thus challenging could also be the way to
support me to work harder. Thanks, my grass friend.
It
seems this is the truth of all Nature if it is only subjected to
natural stresses and contacts, its natural impetus to regenerate and to
recycle and to restore. And things in nature don't attend
school.
Isn't it amazing that their abilities to feel, sense
and think support them to survive, especially if we
human
beings treasure their lives
For
me, the squirrel was not something for fun or entertain, he's a friend
of mine, like lots of my other friends, we respect and like each
other's being. For the squirrel, I could feel that he didn't think I
was the "Giant" and fear of getting hurt. Though he still kept some
distance, I think that's his way of showing friendship and remind me of
the best distance to keep our friendship.
Sometimes we
think it's impossible to change anyone or
anything not
because how bad that is, but because we've already have an
image
fixed in our mind, thus we actually pay no effort
to experience what the real truth is.
Never think that
animals couldn't speak or think. They are as smart as we human beings
in many ways. Actually, they are more talented in the process of
self-improving. When they show their friendship to us, we can
do
more than just keep them as a pet.
My natural experience
shows me I'm a person who gets good feelings when I felt the kids and I
were so close. I could even heard the heartbeat at the time we watched
the rainbow. And then I saw the rainbow in the kids, I was sure they
saw that in me, too. It's our privity, always makes me smile.
Balancing
the great mind
I
sensed a different tone in you this time, Marcy! It was much more
emotionally revealing, convention challenging, and at the same time,
simple and still. Without physically moving through your environment,
you observed a world of information, and accurately translated to us,
how you saw life around you and what it contributed to you. I was
especially attracted to the statements "I experienced a sense of warmth
without heat. There was energy coming towards me, surrounding
me,
supporting me." Isn't that amazing?! Can't believe I just started
tuning into this phenomena...
If you were apprehensive about
stories in your personal life or the implications of this
assignment/exercise, it worked for your (our) advantage. I heard your
voice in this one... I felt a lot of what you were feeling... and I
sensed that you needed to change. transform. exfoliate? To that end,
you arrived in a simple, albeit cold, place so that all of the ideas
and connections would be more evident and would let your mind be more
at peace, allowing your soul, the heart of your being, to be your
compass. I don't know if that makes sense, but I know how powerful the
mind can be, especially someone as wise and talented as you, so I
imagine the "contraction, heaviness, low and dense energy" to be a
considerable burden you often carry. It is both what makes you
uncommonly strong and successful, but also vulnerable to
self-destruction. Balancing the great mind with the great spirit.
That's a complicated dance.
I liked how you phrased "we can also
see the stories for what they are and dissolve them, helping to access
our essential naturalness." Perfect. Yes!
"My thoughts and
mood affect my perceptions. Luckily nature is so inherently beautiful
that, even in difficult times, exposure to nature can shift the
internal dreary mood. " I can't resist but to acknowledge your overall
mood and feeling exhibited by these remarks.
*
* *
Act
now.
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Organic Psychology by doing it.
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360-378-6313 <nature@interisland.net>
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strengthen your professional interests, or your hobbies or pastimes, by
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