$500 contest
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Natural Systems Thinking Process continued:
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"It is difficult to get people to understand something when their salary (or other rewards) depends upon them not understanding it."
- Upton SinclairOur troubles remain because our society rewards us for fighting an undeclared war on nature. Our thinking gets paid, and otherwise rewarded, to conquer ecosystems and webstrings for profit and approval. Conscious multisensory contact with nature's lifeweb is not practiced so our thinking loses contact with the truths that it needs to recover from the absence of these truths. That is why, in our nature estranged society, you learn the Natural Systems Thinking Process by doing its reconnecting activities (6).
"One touch of Natue makes the whole world kin"
-William ShakespeareThe activities enable us to plug our 53 natural senses directly into their attractions in nature and energize. This recharge nurtures the web's supportive string signals further into our consciousness, thinking and being. As we learn to feel and trust our senses, we increase our sensibility, balance and wellness. We feel better and our outlooks and relationships improve (7). Anybody who has had a good experience in nature has momentarily enjoyed this phenomenon.
"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right name"
-ConfuciousThrough the Natural Systems Thinking Process each our natural senses is identified by their right name, "Webstring" [Create a better name and win $500 (1) ] Definition: "A seamless sensory attraction string of the global web of life community within and around us." Webstrings feelingly help us bring nature into our awareness and thinking at will. To call the webstrings anything else, as we are trained to do, (senses, feelings, God, instincts, needs, drives, spirit, desires, blessings, beliefs, subjective, bias, angels, etc.,) often disconnects our thinking from the web of life. That disconnection is the psychological heart of our insurmountable personal and global problems.
Making space in our lives to do activities that reconnect us with nature has proven to produce responsible relationships (7, 10). Once you learn how to do a reconnecting activity you own it and can teach it. Today, globally, the internet empowers people to enjoy webstring connected consciousness through distance learning activities, courses and communication (3) .
"The laws of the universe are not indifferent, but are forever on the side of the most sensitive."
- Henry David ThoreauEarth and its people are at risk because our excessive stress fuels greed, illness and disorders. Conscious webstring attraction connections reduce our destructive stress. They bring us to our senses. Along with empirical studies, thousands of email journal entries, such as the following, validate the process (see some others below):
"This morning I was battling the remnants of some depression I had been feeling about my family and life "stuff". I was doing the sensory attraction activity, looking around enjoying the day, the breeze, the sun, the beautiful trees and the sounds of singing birds. In a flash of good feeling, I realized that these feelings are what is so good about living on earth at this time. It was enough, if for no other reason, to be here, to experience the beauty of this planet. This was a major breakthrough for me, because I battle the reason for being here quite a bit in my recovery work. This happened before noon, and it is now 6 pm, and I still feel great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to share this because I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (10)
We learn only 15% of what we read but 90% of what we teach. If you want to personally and globally come into balance, teach what you have read here. Thoughtful, shared sensory reconnecting activities produce conscious connections with Earth that help us build balanced relationships. The sensory webstring of reason demands that we engage in the activities. (3, 5).
"I know what I read here holds benefits for me and makes perfect sense. I also know my history, I'll not become involved in it until I'm forced to. What has so stupidly addicted me to my apathy and its discontents? (11)"
ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF SENSORY RECONNECTING THROUGH THE NATURAL SYSTEMS THINKING PROCESS (10):
RE: Materialism and environmental deterioration:
Participant A: "As I continued this special forest activity, I found myself attracted to the various songs of the birds and then gradually to the various stones and nuts and shells in the path. I would stop in the path, pick up the stone, admire its beauty and then feel clearly called to return it to its appropriate place. So often other times I have felt I needed to put it in my pocket and carry it home. Now, through the activity, I had a real sense of appreciating each rock, each shell, each leaf in its place for the time I was there. I felt suddenly freed from the need to possess something. I had a growing sense of letting things be and to just be still and glory in the fullness of the moment. As I allowed myself to connect, appreciate, thank and move on with so much of what surrounded me, I felt a letting go into being present. In this transformation, I began to feel I was part of the scene more, not my other self that needed to possess. I learned that I do not need to possess something to have the joy of it."Participant B: Your earlier questioning of the work place sounds so familiar but we have our cultural story that needs to maintain in our society. I find daily that I am changing things and getting back to more basic life choices. I think each little one counts. These changes feel so good. I find that I want less material things these days.
RE: Peace and Support
"I was never taught to ask permission to relate to people or the environment. I just take that for granted, as we all do. However, this activity required my senses to learn how to ask an attractive tree covered area for its consent for me to walk through it. The area continued to feel attractive, but something changed. It was the first time in my life that I totally felt safe. It felt like Earth's energies were in charge of my life, not me. It gave me a wonderful feeling of having more power to be myself. I felt in balance with nature and the people here because I could distinctly feel their energies consenting to support me. I never experienced nature and people that way before. It was like a powerful law protected not only my life, but all of life. I felt very secure and nurtured as I walked under those trees. I learned that when I seek permission from the environment and people I gain energy and unity, I belong."
RE: Chemical Dependencies
"I want to share with the group that I feel different from when I started this course. I have always struggled with chemical addictions, and these last few weeks, I find I hardly have cravings at all anymore. At times I do, but then I can go into nature, right outside my backdoor, and feel a connection that is real. I have been through therapy as well as currently working a twelve step program, and I feel these nature activities have really helped me, more than I have words for. This is definitely an attraction, I cannot label it, I do not have words for it, yet I know in my heart something has changed."
RE: Global intelligence
"My how my mind does chatter with words that can mislead me. When I make contact with nature and think with nature's intelligence, it guides me with a wisdom that helps me keep in balance. The contact is non-verbal because nature does not communicate with words. As I worked through the Introductory Course, I began to use the Reconnecting With Nature book's methodology to quiet my mind. As I went through the activities I began to sense a subtle, but perceptible, shift in my ability to attain a non-verbal awareness. Then one day, as I was doing one of the activities that asks us to "jam" the verbal mind with a word ("unity" in my case) I suddenly connected, WHAM, there it was - non-verbal awareness. No naming, no concepts, just being. What a relief! It didn't last long but it did change my life. Since then I have extended my abilities to just be. Now my "mind chatter" is only a murmur when I ask it to be. This has opened up experiences so far beyond anything I even dreamed of a few years ago."
RE: Healing and Wellness
"The activity helped me become aware of my attraction to the crescent moon as it hung over two hills near my home. Soon, its mellow glow, framed by peaks and trees, embraced me in a wordless, ancient primordial scene. Timeless power, peace and unity swept me up. I just wanted to stay in that state of awe, I felt in balance with all of reality. I was simply "BEING." No tension, no pressing goal, just truly belonging to the global community. This natural energy captured my stress laden pulse and seduced it to the rhythms of Earth. The sleeping disorder I have battled all my adult life dissolved in this power. For the first time in decades, I gently fell asleep after dark and arose shortly after dawn. I celebrated the breakthrough and I thanked nature. I thanked the activity, too, for it lets me reconnect whenever I choose."
Can you come up with a better name(s) to capture and convey the true nature of the strings? If so, obtain an application form and enter our $500.00 prize "Name that Webstring" contest described below (1)
The best way to experience webstring connections and their benefits along with other natural systems thinking process activities is to enroll in the short, online, Orientation Course
This course is also available on-site through the Snug Harbor Nature Sensitivity Training Center on San Juan Island, WA
DOES THIS MAKE SENSE TO YOU? When you call each of your senses and feelings an attraction strand* or webstring love* you help your life and all of life improve. Remember:
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right name.
- ConfuciusQuestion: Does your habit of calling your sensuous experiences "senses" and "feelings" deny you the privilege of enjoying and teaching the wisdom of knowing them as sensory attraction strings of the web of life?
*CONTEST: Can you come up with a better name than "webstring" to capture and convey the true nature of the strings? If so, let us know and win $500.00.
Select Here for contest information and an application.
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(2) For a list of references for this article please write the author
About the Author:
Applied Ecopsychologist Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D. founded and coordinates Project NatureConnect and the Natural Systems Thinking Process. They are continuing education workshops, distance learning courses and degree programs of Greenwich University, Portland state University and the Institute of Global Education. Dr. Cohen chairs the Department of Applied Ecopsychology/Integrated Ecology on San Juan Island, Washington. For 33 years, he has founded and directed degree granting environmental outdoor education programs for the Trailside Country School, Lesley College, and the National Audubon Society. His 8 books and 56 articles include the award winning Connecting With Nature: Creating Moments that let Earth Teach which is included in his 1997 self-guiding book Reconnecting With Nature and Well Mind, Well Earth: 97 Environmentally Sensitive Activities for Stress Management, Spirit and Self-esteem. Dr. Cohen is the recipient of the Distinguished World Citizen Award.
Project NatureConnect
Institute of Global Education
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Contact: M.J..Cohen