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Connecting with the Natural World

by Ladytoad

An exercise in FEELING

Lie down in the grass.

Close your eyes and try to feel the rhythms of the earth.

Without sight, you must rely on your other senses.

Empty your mind of mundane thoughts and concentrate only on feeling and hearing.

Put your ear to the ground.

Can you hear the movement of insects busy at their work?

If you listen very carefully, the pulsations of the living earth will become very apparent.

Allow them into your body.

Relax.

Let them become one with your heartbeat until your body no longer feels discrete and separate from the earth.

Remain in this exercise for at least 15 minutes.

This exercise may feel difficult on your first attempts. We have become accustomed to walking on manmade substances, our feet soled and shielded from the earth. We have forgotten the connectedness that out ancestors knew well. Even at your first attempt, however, you will feel something.

Ancestral memory is strong within you if you allow yourself to remember. Oneness with the earth is part of our genetic evolutionary consciousness. It needs only to be aroused. When you are ready to rejoin the everyday world, go to a journal. Write down what you felt and heard. Try to think of all the words you know that will bring your experience to life.

You may find yourself describing feelings as colors, scents, tastes. Your body knows how your senses connect. Allow your unconscious to describe for you. Let the words flow. Trust what is in you - not just what your logical, school-trained brain tells you. The next time you do this exercise and journal a response, read back. See how different your new attempt was from your first. This exercise is not something you will do once. It must be repeated over and over until you really feel the connection again. You will benefit in a lower stress level, a deeper meditation level, a grander understanding of yourself and your place in the scheme of things.

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