How deepening your connection to nature can deepen connection with yourself
This month we launch another new elective – Meditation for connecting with nature. This multi-faceted addition to our already comprehensive elective choices can be studied within our Certificate courses or as a standalone short course. Read on to find out more…
Disconnection: A harmful product of our times
Over the last two centuries, humans, especially those belonging to Western societies, have been diverging from once deep connections with the natural world. This divergence has led to disconnection from nature, resulting in the predominant culture of human exceptionalism, fuelled by capitalism, and leading to environmental destruction and the rise in stress-related illnesses from living and working predominantly in cities.
Of such disconnection, British environmentalist and sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, says this, “We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.” To this, I say, “I couldn’t have said that better myself!”
The power of connection
Establishing, rekindling or evolving a connection with nature, with your great Mother Earth, offers you boundless opportunities to experience her wonderous magic, such as through witnessing the process of metamorphosis, having your breath taken away as you stand to look up into the crown of towering Eucalypt, being deeply and powerfully held by solid ground when grief feels too hard to bear, being offered a mirror into your own self, your inner nature, experiencing her real, raw and unconditional love as she provides, takes away and nurtures without exception.
The cultivation of a strong relationship with Mother Earth has a ripple effect too. In deepening your connection with her and to yourself, you will deepen your connection to others and to your place. A warning here though: side effects of this may include a lean towards environmental activism and making more Earth-friendly choices (people tend to want to protect what they love), and evangelical gushing to people about how amazing rain drops hanging on spiderwebs are (people also tend to want to share with everyone what they love)!
Meditation for connecting with nature
This elective calls you into deep presence and reverence to your place on Earth, and here you will learn to acknowledge and know yourself as part of nature, interconnected with all other beings and with a role to play in the intricate web of life.
Drawing on several concepts and philosophies including sacred ecology, biophilia, animism, secular mindfulness, Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) and reciprocity, you will learn:
- How to acknowledge and cultivate your relationship with nature.
- First Peoples wisdom, Western knowledge, and the concept of ‘sacred ecology’.
- The interweaving of nature in religion and spirituality over the centuries.
- Disconnection and the return to nature connection.
- Natures seasons, cycles, rhythms and phases.
- Nature as your greatest teacher, and how to integrate nature into your practice and offerings.
- Staying safe when leading groups in outdoor settings.
If you are ready to awaken and open to the transformative and healing power of the natural world, then consider taking the Meditation for connecting with nature elective. By the end, you will not only feel connected and empowered within yourself and with your place, but also to guide others to find this connection and empowerment as the potential for this is alive within every single person.
The Meditation for Connecting with Nature elective is open to ACMM students and the public! Come along to our launch party here and find out all about this elective: https://calendly.com/acmm/natureelectivelaunch OR you can purchase the elective today (Non ACMM students) https://form.jotform.com/212007778380052 or ACMM students https://form.jotform.com/211870709018051
