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SECTION THREE Identifying four-leg experiences and their value ..........Can you afford to ignore these seldom recognized, but well-documented by research, phenomena?
..........If you have ever had a good experience in Nature, you know far more about the Natural Systems Thinking Process (NSTP) than you might realize. We identify some 4-leg experiences, below, because our 5-leg thinking is usually conditioned to overlook their value. NSTP helps you validate and explain these phenomena because otherwise, too often, we take nature's messages and benefits for granted. For example:
Have you ever:
Have you ever:
Have you ever:
..........The experience(s) with
nature described above, or others you may have had, demonstrate
that nature has its own 4-leg healing energies and perfection
that attractively register in us because we are part of nature.
You did not need special training or books to enjoy or learn
from these experiences. ..........Ongoing research (Appendix
D)
shows that neither nature nor people(s) whose thinking is consciously
connected to it, produce the destructive stress, violence and
corruption too often found in contemporary society. People in
contact with nature recover faster from illness and enjoy many
additional benefits. It also shows that our addictive 5-leg thinking
has been trained to downplay the value of our natural system
experiences. It often calls them escapes, fuzzy thinking or recreation
instead of re-creation. ..........The Natural Systems
Thinking Process in this book empowers you with a teachable tool
that safely increases, strengthens and improves these experiences
and their benefits. It works ..........Although we may give Nature lip service, we routinely relate to it as our slave or prisoner. We normally manage, exploit or kill Nature for profit even while knowing that we are part of it and it is our life support system. We have subdued within us the ability to actively recognize that as part of Nature, we share its natural systems. We learn to take far too lightly that what we do to nature we also do to ourselves. ..........Our cultural prejudice
against Nature often prevents us from validating and celebrating
our Nature-connected experiences. We fail to recognize them as
"in tune" moments; moments when Nature fully touches
itself in us,
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awareness so
that we feel better and more alive ..........Too often, we learn to overlook how nature-connected moments make sense, feel attractive and have healing qualities. We seldom acknowledge that because the rewards from these moments are more sensible and powerful than the rewards from our destructive, irrational, psychological additions, the energies in these moments can help us to transform our destructive attachments into constructive relationships. ........ If you could bottle the effects of good moments in nature you could sell the product for a fortune. ..........The Natural Systems Thinking Process helps you recognize that this 5-leg bottling idea is foolish. With respect to nature, nobody has yet to find a substitute for the real thing and its eons of experience. To bottle it would be to disconnect it from the integrity of its wholeness and that is its secret to success. You would lose the very essence of what you thought you were bottling. That's what pills, media and technologies are trying to do now. They are often part of our problem; not the solution. ..........People who learn and practice the NSTP science of reconnecting their thinking with nature improve their personal, professional and environmental wellness. We invite you to engage in this process through this book and the course it contains. ..........The best way to learn this process is dothe activities and then discuss them in community. For many of us, the most available community is on-line with us at Project Nature Connect. Enjoy the many new opportunities that present themselves as you do the activities. ..........WARNING! With respect to self-improvement it is practically useless to read this book and not do the activities. Recognize that your socialized tendency is to know and understand NSTP with 5-leg thinking and resist doing the activities. Not doing them may get you a 5-leg "A" for a course that you actually flunk if your goal is to improve relationships beyond the superficial. ..........One important thing to note about NSTP is that it works well because it is a complete process. If your 5-leg thinking tells you to ignore or shortcut part of the process because you already "know" it, your 5-leg thinking is probably misleading you. You may know how to drive a car, but if you don't get in the car and drive it to where you want to go, you won't get there. ..........Although this book
teaches you The Natural Systems Thinking Process, it cannot alone
help you to reconnect your 4-leg natural thinking with your 5-leg
socialized thinking and ..........Over the past 12 years, sharing via email and telephone has proven very effective. You can make arrangements to engage in the sharing experience by email through our web site at www.ecopsych.com. ..........Sharing is built into the on-line Orientation Course that this book represents, as well as all our other on-line courses. On-line, NSTP become customized to address and reconnect the reader's personal disconnections. ..........Sadly, many of us contain
a natural part of our psyche that suffers from Natural Attraction
Desensitization Syndrome (NADS). That part of us has become frightened,
hurt and angry because contemporary society and its disconnected
5-leg thinking has painfully put it in a jail for crimes it never
committed. There it suffers the discontents of guilt, shame,
depression, greed, isolation, stress, dependencies, aggression,
insensitivity, and the many other NADS disorders that plague
us and society. That part of us has good reason to mistrust organized
education, psychology and science. It is even afraid that the
process that has created nature-connected learning and activities
will harm it, even while it also knows that a long walk in the
park is usually refreshing. .........Each NSTP activity
demonstrates to the NADS part of us that nature's healing ways
and supportive community are much more powerful than 5-leg NADS
disconnection and its discomfort. ..........It is well worth keeping in mind that some things this book touches upon may at first feel uncomfortable. This is because the book sometimes addresses inaccuracies in 5-leg thinking. Remember, it is the 5-leg part of you that is literate, doing the reading and so that part of you becomes confronted. Similar to validating a dog's tail as not being one of its legs, you may help yourself restore your equilibrium by doing the activities and obtaining worthwhile 4-leg information through them.
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well
because experience is the best teacher.
, revived, after having
contact with a naural area.
verbalization.
An important part of this process is sharing with another person
what happened when you connected with nature through an activity.
You then learn from that person what they liked or found worthwhile
in what you shared. Vice versa, that person sharing with you
their results from doing the activity, and your response to them,
is equally important. This sharing provides even greater benefits
and learning if you are sharing with a small group of diverse
people. In addition, if one of these people has already had some
experience with NSTP, a deeper level of sharing can be achieved.
When done correctly, such sharing enables us to 9-leg connect
with natural systems in each other, even though we've never met.
We learn to know, trust and love each other through the natural
attractions that are us, each other and nature.
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