Lessons from Mother Nature

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One needs only to step outside to know intuitively that Mother Nature, in her wisdom, provides us so many of the answers we seek to achieve our highest level of peace, regulation, and health.  Indeed, she brings the best medicine for whatever ails us if we know how to access it. 

Lest you say that, in your part of the world, the environment is not conducive to going outside, most of the time this is not necessarily true. 

You might need to dress more warmly if you live in a cold climate, but this can easily be done and is worth the effort.

Michael out snowshoeing in January 2025

Being outdoors for any length of time you can manage has a positive effect on your overall health.  The more purely natural the setting, for example, a wooded area or lake, the better.  If you are in the city, even stepping outside, looking out a window, or having a beautiful outdoor image on your screensaver will do.  This post will elaborate on some of the many physical and mental health benefits of “vitamin N”.

Sensory

There is a reason mental health professionals and mindfulness teachers encourage clients and students to “come to their senses”.  Using the 5 senses gets us out of our heads and into our bodies.  It is a panacea for the overthinking, ruminating, and worrying that happens in our minds.  By bringing attention to the body, we are slowing the thinking mind to access the wisdom of the body.

When we are in our version of a natural setting, we can use our senses by noticing one thing that we can see, hear, smell, touch, and even taste in some cases. 

A beautiful nature scene that inspires awe and wonder floods the brain with neurochemicals associated with relaxation and regulation. 

The sounds of birdsong, dolphins, whales, or your favorite music carry frequencies that are pleasing and health-producing for human ears. 

Smell is the most primitive sense. It may bring us right back to playing outside in childhood when we smell a certain flower or holidays when the aroma of apple pie is in the air.  Smelling certain essential oils, such as lavender oil, can induce a relaxation response. 

Touching something harmless in nature can soothe or ground us (more on that later).  I sometimes keep a small stone from a local beach in my pocket for this reason.

Our sense of taste is uniquely engineered to what we need as well.  We will quickly reject rotten blueberries that taste like dirt in favor of fresh ones.  During my pregnancy with our son, the smell of my daily coffee suddenly revolted me and diet soda tasted like chemicals.  Instead, I craved pistachios and tomatoes!

Unless your area is besieged by high levels of air pollution, breathing in fresh air is generally much better for your respiratory health than recirculated indoor air. 

Regulation & Restoration

Oscillation & Rhythms

We see countless examples in nature that everything is cyclical.  The cycles may be hourly, daily, monthly, yearly, or longer in duration.

Take, for example, the daily cycles of light and darkness that set our circadian rhythms.  The sunrise comes with shorter wavelengths of blue light that signal our brain to promote alertness for daytime.  We need only to have this light, preferably first thing in the morning, hit our retina through indirect exposure to induce a wake-up.  (In other words, avoid looking directly at the sun!)  Daylight triggers production of the cortisol we need to be awake and functioning during the day. 

In the later afternoon and early evening, the longer wavelengths of yellow, orange, and red light signal that the day is starting to come to a close.  Sitting by a fire was a common ritual for many societies back in the day.  The onset of darkness shuts down cortisol production and triggers melatonin, the hormone that facilitates sleep.  The blue light on our devices interferes with this natural hormonal shift. This is one reason it is ideal to stay off your phone or laptop for at least one hour before your bedtime. Even if you think being on your phone right before bed has no effect on your sleep, it does interfere with your sleep architecture and thus sleep quality..

The springtime switch to daylight saving time, although favored by many, does not support good health.  Mother Nature cannot be fooled.  Our bodies know the difference even when we try to carry on as though 12 noon is really 11AM. Every bodily system has its own clock that is heavily influenced by the master clock involved in our light/dark cycles, so this change is more disruptive than you would think. Read more about this topic in my post Daylight Saving Time & Circadian Rhythm.

Seasons and Weather

Living in accordance with the seasons is more common in some cultures than it is in the U.S.  In the Nordic Book of Self-Care, Elisabeth Carlsson explains that “The Nordics, perhaps out of necessity, have created some key rituals around the changes of the seasons. They know how to create a home that is supportive to the changes in the weather and light.” 

Residents of the Upper Peninsula town of Marquette, MI are practiced at ebbing and flowing with the climate. There are outdoor events year-round. Families come out for the holiday parade in the snow and bitter cold in December. A blizzard, which can happen anytime between October and April, is a normal event. City officials promptly dispatch staff for a snow-clearing effort as soon as possible. People are prepared to calmly hunker down at home until the roads are cleared and passable. On hot summer days, the mood is high as residents flock to the beaches or various festivals and fairs around town. Inhabitants can be seen outside walking, running, or biking on the city's paved paths in every kind of weather.

In the Northern Hemisphere, Spring brings newness and possibility.  Summer offers longer daylight for enjoying outdoor activities with family and friends.  Autumn with its changing beauty is about allowing what no longer serves us to fall away.  Winter in its starkness encourages us to be still, reflect, rest, and restore.

Weather is cyclical.  Who hasn’t felt the excitement of an impending snowstorm or thunderstorm?  Ot felt soothed by the whooshing sound of the wind?  Or felt relaxed upon feeling sunlight on their skin?

It is possible to see these cycles of yin & yang, stillness & activity, and being & doing exemplified all around us of we pay attention.  Would the prehistoric human or modern day wild animal ever be caught working on a laptop computer after dinner?  No.  This is the time of day to wind down, to connect with those in our circle in front of the “fire”, or do something light and relaxing that brings us peace.   Would summer be a time to sit inside, doing very little?  Again, no.  Winter with its limited daylight would be the better time, in general, to include more stillness.

Electrical: The Nervous System

We know that a natural setting exerts a healing influence upon many bodily systems.  Our physiological systems are mediated by the central nervous system, which could be considered our body’s own electrical system.  The sights, sounds, and smells of the outdoors combined with fresh air and exposure to the plant and animal world conspire to encourage greater health and peace of mind.  Once outside, our modern-day worries, stressors, and complications tend to reduce or even fall away.  When life seems to be moving too fast, we can go outside and observe large trees, some of which have been around for centuries.  This can put our perception of time in perspective. This is the true, fundamental pace of life. 

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao Tzu

In fact, the practice of forest bathing - immersing oneself in a natural forest setting - has been scientifically shown to positively affect health. 

Grounding, or “earthing”, connects our bodies to the rhythms of the earth, conferring an infinite supply of electrons to offset the typical net positive charge we hold from too much technology, stress, and footwear that insulates us from the earth.  All that is required is having bare feet or skin in contact with the natural ground or an indoor grounding mat.  Read more about this in my post Barefoot Benefits.

Water, especially natural ground water, has a healing influence all its own.  Even partial immersion in a natural body of water like a lake or the ocean provides the aforementioned grounding effect. 

Being in any body of water in and of itself has significant health benefits, ranging from stimulating the immune system to encouraging good circulation to decreasing edema or water retention.  It is also a perfect medium for exercise,; offloading the joints and making it possible to do movements one may not be able to do safely on land due to balance and other factors.

All of the above can help shift our physiology from the increasingly prevalent dysregulated and inflammatory states induced by chronic stress to health-producing rest and repair that really should be our default state.

 

Flight/Flight/Freeze/Fawn

Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn states, despite their negative connotation, are actually adaptive, albeit for temporary stressors.  Everyone has heard the example of a mammal (yes, are mammals) being chased by a saber-tooth tiger.  In the face of threat, the animal or human can respond by running away, fighting for their life, or freezing if the first two options have not worked in this situation.  When the threat of harm has passed, it becomes safe to return to the regular, unremarkable business of living.  The problem is that modern-day stresses such as bills, schedules, abusive bosses, politics, and 24-hour news cycles are of an ongoing nature and therefore never abate. 

Why does chronic stress impact our health so negatively?  When we are in survival mode over time, the body deprioritizes what it deems to be non-essential functions.  In a crisis, functions such as digesting food, fighting a virus, sleeping soundly, learning new information, or reproducing are sacrificed as most of the body’s energy resources are directed to what feels like an emergency that goes on and on.

The following are examples that illustrate appropriate functioning of the nervous system, when lightning-quick reflexes can save us from harm or even death:

Mama bear in nature.  Beware if her cubs are around as she will not hesitate to fight if she senses any potential threat to them.

Mama bear in the human.  My son is presently 19 years old and functioning as an adult.  Nevertheless, when I am driving and have to suddenly stop, my right arm automatically, without thinking, extends into the passenger side space to save him from harm.  I know logically that he is an adult and not in the car with me, but my primitive brain is wired for his survival, nonetheless.

Mama bear in a crisis.  This is the mother who can suddenly lift an exceedingly heavy object off her child in order to save the child.  The spike in adrenaline and shift into fight or flight mode enables her to perform a superhuman feat in service of her child’s very life.

Run for Your Life  A potential assault victim who is walking down a dark street outruns her assailant, making it to the safety of a well-lit store with people mulling around.

Freeze!  Walking toward your dark apartment one evening, you suddenly become immobilized, mistaking your coat rack as an intruder. When your conscious mind catches up, you exhale, realizing there is no danger. Had there been an actual intruder, the freeze response may have prevented you from being noticed, therefore saving your life.

Fawn People-pleasing behavior is learned and utilized by an employee to "survive" an abusive boss. He learns to anticipate the needs of his supervisor, behaving in ways he believes might head off the abuse. Recognizing that this would never change, he eventually lands a different job.

Another example involving a vehicle.  One morning in 2019, as I drive the 45 minutes to work in a rural area of Virginia before dawn, a deer jumps out in front of me.  Before I am consciously aware of this, somehow I have checked the rear view mirror as well as the next lane over for other cars.  With no other drivers around, I have slammed on the brakes and driven slightly left of center, saving me from a full-blown accident.  My car has sustained damage but I am perfectly fine, if a little shaken up.  My nervous system engineered these responses in milliseconds, whereas if I had waited to consciously think through the situation, I may have been badly hurt.

Shake It Off

In nature, once the crisis passes, the animal often physically shakes, dispensing the kinetic energy generated by the short-term stressor.  This completes the stress cycle.  Then the animal proceeds to return to grazing or everyday life.  Animals in the wild are always in the present moment, not creating stories and ruminating on the past or the future as people tend to.

We can complete our own stress cycles in the following ways and more:

-       Engage in physical activity: go for a run or do some housework.

-       Allow yourself to physically shake.

-       Debrief with a trusted, supportive listener.

-       Write in a journal.

Thank goodness our nervous system takes over in situations like the above, just as it does in normal physiological functioning.  Can you imagine if we had to think about beating our heart, circulating our blood, digesting our food, or fighting off illness?  Our brain and nervous systems have our back!

Nutrition & Digestion

There are many diets out there – vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, FODMAP, South Beach, ketogenic, primal, etc.  This can be very confusing to those of us who are just trying to do the right thing.  The truth is that every person is different and has unique nutritional needs.  Some people need a higher percentage of protein and/or fats, while others thrive on a greater proportion of their diet from carbohydrates.  You must experiment with different ways of eating to figure out what makes you feel and function at your best. 

Regardless of your individual needs, a sensible recommendation for most people would be a diet that contains as many foods in their whole, unprocessed state as possible, in appropriate portions.  In the wild, animals eat whole foods, whether they are carnivorous or herbivores.

The standard American diet contains too much sugar, salt, white processed flour, and trans fats, and too little actual vitamin or mineral content and fiber.  We also unfairly demonize certain foods that go in and out of favor, such as butter, eggs, coffee, fat, or carbohydrates.  Level of processing, portion size, and any added condiments/flavorings we add are what often deems a particular food as healthful or unhealthful.  Our bodies function best when we resource them regularly with high quality foods in a recognizable form. 

Completion of the Food Cycle as it Relates to Our Planet

No discussion of lessons about nutrition from nature would be complete without addressing composting and regenerative farming.  Much of our soil these days is depleted of nutrients, thusly referred to as “dirt” rather than “soil”.  Farming without allowing the soil to regenerate is a recipe for this ever-lowering nutritional content.  How do we replenish the soil used to farm nutrition-packed produce that we can buy locally instead of eating produce from some other state or country?

The answer is composting.  Simply put, this is the practice of using food waste, including animal bones; biodegradable paper products such as paper towels, coffee filters, and tissues; and organic material such as yard waste to process into the soil.  Using a specific process, these items are mixed and churned together and allowed to heat to upwards of 150 degrees in the center of the heap. Only in the presence of oxygen do these items ultimately biodegrade into a fertile soil amendment, which is then added to the soil used to grow nutritious food. 

With consistent clean composting, any size community of growers can generate and access all the nutritious soil they need to grow food. Read more about the benefits of composting here.

So much food waste in the U.S. is thrown away, often sealed in plastic bags to be dumped in a landfill.  Buried compostable waste, especially waste sealed in plastic bags, will never biodegrade.  Instead, it adds to the already precariously high level of methane in our atmosphere and contaminates our water supply.  You guessed it – landfills have a massive negative impact on climate change! 

We have not inherited the Earth from our ancestors; we have borrowed it from our children. - Chief Seattle 1854

If you care about the earth, your children, and grandchildren, please consider composting if you do not already do so.  You may be able to do this yourself.  Save time and effort by using a local composting service.  If we make efforts to recycle and compost, we should have much less waste going into the trash bin.

If you live in the greater Marquette, MI area, contact Partridge Creek Compost to learn more about the process and how you can make a difference with the compostable materials you are already generating at your home or workplace.  Know that you are doing something critically important for your local community, the environment, and the very future of the human race.

Mother Nature shows us what happens when we abuse, neglect, or exploit her through overdevelopment of land, pollution, and non-biodegradable garbage.  Her revolt and intolerance shows up in the form of barren soil, extinction of species, and climate change. 

We reap what we sow.  There is a better way. Treat her as you would a beloved family member or friend. Earth Month is April and Earth Day is April 22. Celebrate this by showing your care and stewardship at this or any time!

Social

It has been said that “A lonely monkey is a dead monkey.”  This morbid-sounding statement underscores the fact that we are social animals. Historically, being ostracized from one's social circle constituted a threat to survival. We need each other and thrive in community (yes, even the introverts among us).  Without a social circle of family and/or friends, our rates of depression and anxiety as well as physical illness is much higher.  Loneliness carries as much health risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day!

Our Pets

Closer to home are our furry friends who also teach us so much about health and balance.  The important activities of life for them include eating, playing, giving and receiving affection, grooming, and resting/sleeping.  They usually stretch upon rising from a nap before going on with their waking day.  Contrast this with a human being rudely awakened out of a dead sleep by an alarm clock, heart pounding and body coursing with stress hormones, only to be catapulted right into the activities of the day. 

Our pets often like to be with their “pack”.  Never mind that our dog may think we are all dogs and our cat may think we are all cats! When raised with love and limits, they are masters of being and very good at staying in the present moment.

Our pets, Rusty and Finn

What is Your Wild?

Certainly this only brushes the surface of the countless lessons to be learned when we observe or immerse ourselves in nature.  With benefits ranging from lower blood pressure to improved immune function and sleep to brain chemistry conducive to good mental health and more, “vitamin N” is free, accessible, and comes with no side effects.  How will you take your vitamin N today??

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