The job is stressful, the kids are screaming like banshees, dinner is boiling over on the stove, and the cat peed on the couch again. Life can sometimes be like that... so many things are not going as we'd like, and in the process, we get dragged down into a maelstrom of negative thinking and feeling that sucks the joy out of life. When difficult situations and interactions happen, we can get negative and energetically "heavy" in response to life not behaving itself. Of course, it's not what happens to us, but what we do with it that counts. So how can we do something different that can help us to change the channel?

We have an incredible resource in nature. All the craziness of the mind and heart, the heaviness and confusion are all products of the human condition. We get all wound up, and a healing solution is right outside the door or a short walk, drive or bus ride  away to the nearest park.

The natural world doesn't obsess. It's not in cahoots with an ego. It's not plotting and planning. A tree is not thinking about what's got to be done next. It just IS. Most of us can't help being a bit mental, particularly in today's fast paced world. It's so helpful to step outside of the agitation and remember what's really, real, true... at the essence of it all. Nature can help us remember how to be a human BEING instead of a human DOING.

Being in nature can help us to recalibrate our souls, to gain healing, rest, and rejuvenation. Just by getting out and away, we can achieve a bit of a reset, but there are ways we can get more out of the experience depending the mindset from which we approach the experience. Here are some tried and true techniques that can help you to get the most benefit from the experience:

Be Here Now - When you are out in nature, STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT'S STIRRING YOU UP! Give it a break for a little while. Instead focus on being fully present with where you are. Really drink in the experience. Take in the beauty, the mystery, the little surprises and joys. Know that you can pick all those details back up when you head back in if you need to. Right now, this is your time the rejuvenation of your body mind and soul.

Breathe Deeply- Breath not only re-oxygenates your system, breath also re-energizes you with life force energy. The air around you is filled with energy. In nature, there is more life force energy available. The closed environments of homes, workplaces, schools and other institutions can become dead energy environments that can decrease your vital force. The moving living energy of wind, water, of life aligned with living fills the natural world with negative ions which are known to increase a person's health and well being.

Be Permeable - A lot of thinking, worrying upset and stressing out can make a person's energetic field very dense. This denseness can make it difficult to shift one's state and come to a place of "lightness" even if that's what is consciously desired. When we get present, breath deeply and just "be" in nature, we can vibrationally entrain ourselves to a more permeable energetic state, which brings greater health and happiness to the whole being. As you are walking or sitting, imagine you are being more permeable... as if the air, the sunshine the very essence of nature can pass right through you. Become one with the natural world. By harmonizing with the natural world, we can harmonize with that which is sane, sacred and wholly whole.

Sylvia Brallier
http://SylviaBrallier.com