Welcome and Introduction: an Overview

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order."

- John Burroughs

The posts on this Blog recount good backyard, garden or back-country nature experiences. They come from a wide range of individuals who share them here to help increase personal, social and environmental well being.

Anybody can post their good experiences in nature on this blog.  Some of the postings come from student emails to their classmates in Project NatureConnect's Educating, Counseling and Healing with Nature online training courses and degree program.

VIEWING INSTRUCTIONS: To find, research or quote posts found on this blog, simply enter a topic or keyword of interest in the Google search engine displayed on these pages. (Check to be sure the search engine is selecting "naturconnect blogs.com, not www).

Many hundreds of additional good nature experience quotes for similar use are available through the search engine at Project NatureConnect and especially PNC's
Organic Psychology Reports page. Both serve to validate the beneficial effects of sensory contact with nature.

POSTING INSTRUCTIONS: To help increase well-being, we invite you to post here, in the "COMMENTS" section below, or in any "COMMENTS" elsewhere, in less than 600 words, a good/attractive experience you have had with nature. 

Visitors will be able to find your contribution and benefit from it by locating its words and thoughts through the Google search engine, no matter where you post them as a comment.  Your contribution here will help visitors here value nature as a beneficial resource for well being that deserves our thanks, respect and preservation efforts.

NOTE: "COMMENTS" are only for good nature-experience postings, not for discussion or commentary. Isn't there a good nature-connected experience that you can post as a comment?

Introduction

The journal quote that appears below is unadulterated evidence for your consideration and benefit. It comes directly from a person who experienced, first-hand, the events they describe.             

The quote:

"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 soon 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. My stress and depression had transformed into an all-encompassing love. I learned that when I seek consent from the environment and people I gain energy and unity, I belong."                           

As the deteriorating state of the natural world demonstrates, the above quote goes against our socialized bias to discredit, exploit or conquer nature.  To our loss, we seldom learn to acknowledge and value nature's grace, balance and restorative powers around and in us.

The quote shows how thoughtfully making conscious sensory contact with a natural attraction helped the writer reduce his or her stress and depression. 

The remaining posts on this blog consist of similar entries from young and old in all walks of life. They help us recognize that we benefit from the renewing ways of nature. For example, a short walk in the park often helps us obtain relief from our stress filled lives but most of us usually take for granted this ability of nature to nurture us so we don't learn how to further tap into it or how to support and strengthen it.  

To our loss, most of nature's beneficial gifts are usually missing in our excessively            nature-separated lives. The posts on this blog encourage us to see the value of learning how to think and feel with, rather than against, nature.

For a history and deeper understanding of this blog page visit Webstring Natural Attractions and its links.

This blog is open to the public. We invite you to add your good experiences in nature to it so others may enjoy and learn from them.

Owls and Howls,             

Mike Cohen

Dr. Cohen can be contacted at 360-378-6313, email http://www.ecopsych.com/mjcohen.html 
            

P.S. Please note that you can take accredited nature-connecting online courses that can lead to a nature-connected hobby, career or degree in most fields of interest.