Support4Change Blog

February 5, 2009
By Renee Payan Wong, Webmaster, Support4Change.com

Arlene will be on hiatus from the Support4Change Blog, while working on the Better Tomorrows Program. In the meantime, I will provide you with what I think of as Arlene’s “Greatest Hits.”

A technique for pondering life’s mysteries, working through conundrums, solving problems and deepening spirituality

NOTE 1: This article introduces you to a walk in the woods that uses photographs to help you get in touch with the power of nature — even if you’ve run out of vacation time, your in-basket is over-flowing, and you can’t drive out to a wilderness area. I recommend you read this material first, but if you look at the self-directed slide show, you can always close that window and return here at any time.

NOTE 2: Except for the royalty-free yellow tear-drop shaped flower, all the photos were taken by Art Fabian or by me. To view more photos by this fine photographer (who happens to be my brother, but my praise has nothing to do with that fact), see Photos by Art Fabian Appearing on Support4Change If you see a photo on the walk that you don’t see on his gallery of photos, please write me for permission to use any of the other photos. You can also see information about him on Photos by Fabian.

Our Intrinsic Relationship With Nature

The admonition to “stop and smell the roses” is more than a simple phrase. It is a reminder that we are connected to nature and need to experience that connection from time to time. Yet the request is increasingly ignored. We dash from place to place in our cars and are too rushed to even come to a full stop at the stop sign. We simply slow down so we can speed up again.

Unfortunately, we often don’t realize our need for peace and quiet contemplation (and for sweet-smelling roses) until after our bodies have gotten our attention through illness and our minds have reacted to pressure with emotional distress. In working for many years with cancer patients, I have learned that many of them actually are glad they have been given a diagnosis that has finally caused them to slow down and take one day at a time, even though they may need to also spend those days actively fighting for recovery.

Fortunately, reconnecting with nature allows us to use the qualities of nature to heal the alienation we often experience from their bodies, our minds, and our fellow men. However, we do not need the luxury of living or vacationing in the wilderness to know there is gentle strength in the foothills, power in the crashing of waves upon the beach, renewal in the buds on the dogwood, and harmony in the lilies floating on a pond deep in the woods. We can feel these qualities as we remember the numerous scenes we have experienced in real life.

For example, my husband and I have frequently driven up the central valley of California on our way to camp or backpack in The Sierra. Looking at the mountains rising majestically out of the desert, I was strengthened and challenged merely by looking at the mountains — even before we turned off the highway and reached the trailhead. Yet a glance at a similar scene on a calendar elicits the same response, that is, if I choose to stop and pay attention to what I am seeing.

Now, many years later, I have drawn on my experience in the wilderness of places like the Sierra to create The Nature Connection, an online program using pictures of nature to help you get in touch with the quiet and peace which is intrinsic in experiencing the natural world.

The Use of Nature in Imagery Techniques

It is interesting that the technique of imagery is increasingly used with patients suffering from a wide variety of illnesses. And I believe it is not a coincidence that the most effective imagery often contains many elements of nature — quiet meadows, a trail up the mountain, a still lake, a deep cave, etc.

This is probably because our response to scenes of nature is basically right brained and preliterate, bypassing layers of logic and taking us back to a time when human beings were instinctively connected with nature. Consequently, despite the layers of culture and sophistication which have caused humans to grow awesomely distant from nature, all scenes of nature, from stark and desolate deserts to delicate and cultivated gardens, have the potential of reminding us of mankind’s early bond with nature, allowing the psyche to tap into and respond to the qualities which each scene elicits. There are no “inadequate” nature scenes. Each has potential in its own way.

Sid Jordan, Ph.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina, has conducted studies which seem to imply that images of nature have a positive effect on the mind. Working with both demented and non-demented elderly patients, his studies have indicated that the EEG of those who chose nature scenes for imagery showed increase in normal alpha waves.

Another important reason photos of nature can be helpful when used consciously is because they can help you change negative beliefs with a method called “thought stopping.” This is based on the idea that no two thoughts can be held at the same time. Therefore, it is possible to diminish the image of a negative thought (in other words, the image your mind uses to repeat, over and over, an idea you want to get ride of) by substituting a different or positive one. It is particularly helpful to make the substitution one of a tranquil scene of nature or an image which contains within it a quality which you wish to experience in your life.

I believe a photograph can put us in touch with nature because we may have forgotten what we experience on scouting trips and vacations many years ago. Also, a picture can provide new details, concepts and vistas we never noticed or had the opportunity to experience.

A Technique for Drawing Upon the Qualities of Nature

Whether in the most remote depths of the wilderness or in more cultivated gardens close to home, the qualities found in nature seem to be grouped into several general categories. For example, there is (1) peace, beauty, quiet, patience, and restfulness; (2) strength, power, challenge, and energy; (3) renewal, continuity, and creation, (4) non-judgment and acceptance, (5) judgment and competition, (6) variety and non-conformity; (7) repetition and imitation; and (8) simplicity, lightness, and freedom.

The specific metaphors and qualities which are experienced when an individual looks at a picture of nature depend upon that person and his or her experiences. For example, a new leaf on a birch tree deep in a wooded glen may cause one person to experience peace and simplicity, while another may see challenge and the power of renewal. A scene of snow in the high country may be viewed as invigorating by one person, because be has skied in such places, while another might view that same scene as offering the potential of new life with the awakening of spring after the snow melts.

The challenges you are facing at the time you see a photograph of nature will influence what you get from it. For example, if you have cancer and are going through chemotherapy, your energy is often drained. Then the scene of a switchback going steadily up the mountain can remind you that all journeys consist of steadily taking one step at a time. Similarly, a lily floating gently on a pond deep in the woods can speak eloquently of the simple joys in accepting one scene, one flower, one treatment at a time..

If you’ve read the Support4Change.com articles in the Essential Qualities of the Human Spirit section, you will know that I place a great deal of emphasis on expressing spiritual qualities in one’s daily life. Drawing upon the qualities inherent in nature is a delightful way to be reminded of, and draw upon, these qualities. Here is one way you can use Nature Connection programs to open your heart to serenity and peace.

1. If you haven’t yet taken the online walk through the woods (or if you want to go again), as you watch the different scenes, find a picture which best expresses peace, tranquility, quiet, and serenity and look carefully at that picture, studying the details as well as you can.
2. As you relax into the scene, let these qualities enter the very center of your being.
3. Close your eyes and see the image you have just been viewing. Notice any response you feel in your body or in your emotions. Allow yourself to again experience the peace and calmness in the picture.
4. Open your eyes and look at the picture again, studying the details carefully. Once more, notice any response you feel in your body or in your emotions. And again, as you relax into the scene, let tranquility and peace flow deep into your being.
5. Repeat the process several times until you clearly have the scene imprinted on your mind and the feelings of peace and serenity will be available to you whenever you remember the photo again.

Placing Ourselves Within a Scene

In 1984 I had an experience which taught me, in a very dramatic way, that pictures of nature can have a profound healing effect on a troubled soul.

Our oldest son, who was then twenty-two, was forced to move out of our house because of his use of drugs and alcohol and his unwillingness to accept help. Even though he was poorly prepared to face the trials ahead of him, we knew that letting him go was the most loving action we could take. As his mother, I had struggled for years to solve the problem and had finally been able to get past the guilt such parents almost always feel. Nevertheless, I was filled with pain and grief and, unable to sleep, went into my husband’s study hoping to find some measure of comfort.

On the wall of the study is a Sierra Club poster of a gentle stream high in the mountains. I was looking at it as I asked God to grant me the peace I so desperately wanted. Very shortly I heard myself speaking out loud in a gentle, soothing voice and saying that I was seated on a stone next to the creek in the picture. Lying at my side was an imaginary rope which I had just let go of. It was of infinite length and the other end of it was still being held by my son, who had started down the mountain and was out of view. The voice said that the rope represented the way in which we each had tried to manipulate the other — my letting go of it indicated I was willing to trust my son to find his own path, just as I was finding mine. The voice gently continued and spoke of my husband’s action in the picture as well. I soon experienced a level of peace which I could not have imagined possible earlier that day.

What happened in that room? Was it really God speaking through me or did my inner wisdom express itself in a metaphor I could understand? The answer is irrelevant. What is important is the fact that I could clearly sense myself being in the picture. Oh, I knew I wasn’t actually transported into a picture on the wall. But I felt as though I were there in that scene. And I experienced the same quiet acceptance of things simply being what they are that I had often felt when sitting next to a stream high above timberline. The experience in my house likewise filled my heart with peace and strength.

Thanksgiving came two months later and we chose not to invite our son for dinner. His absence created a bole in the fabric of our family and reminded me of the pain I had felt earlier. Yet I would need to accept the situation if I were to get through the day and be a pleasant hostess to the rest of the company. So I walked into the study and looked at the picture of the stream. Immediately I felt soothed and comforted. I was reminded of my experience with that picture the day he left and knew it was important for me to release my son for his own journey. The stillness of the picture came in to still my heart.

So if you have already gone through the walk in the woods photos, my recommendation is that you do it once more. This time think about a problem with which you are struggling. It may be a relationship that’s in trouble, a boss who doesn’t explain what he wants but demands you do it anyway, an unpaid bill and no money left in the account, or any of a thousand and one challenges that life throws in your path.

With that situation in the back of your mind, begin viewing the pictures. Take your time, pausing at each scene and allowing the feelings evoked by the photo to soak into your body and soul. Without struggling to find an answer, simply notice when you are done whether there is a shift in your perspective of the problem with which you began the walk.

And remember that you can take the walk as many times as you’d like. Also, you might even want to imagine there is a special friend or wise person who has come alone with you and from time to time gives you a piece of information you need, some insight you didn’t realize you had.

Grounding Your Experience

Frequently we experience an insight, have a shift in awareness, or state our intention to make a change in some habit, but we don’t have the will or experience to follow through and make that change a reality. The grounding of the experience you have when taking the online walk in the woods is very important. Otherwise, the whole exercise may be no more than an interesting, new adventure — which isn’t bad, but it doesn’t give you the depth you might otherwise experience.

Fortunately, there are many ways you can continue experiencing your relationship with nature after you are finished. For example, you can find objects such as sea shells, wood, rocks, seeds, and plants to use as reminders of what you have experienced. (See Using Symbols for Transformation at Support4Change.com.)

Another way you can ground the experience is to pause at certain times during the day (such as right before you eat, right after you eat, when you wash your hands, etc.). Then deliberately remember the image of the scene and re-experience the feelings you had when you did the exercise.

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