Energy
Healing with the Help of Nature
by Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD
Author of Change Your Story, Change Your Life
G.P. Putnam
October 6th, 2015/ 9780399176074
Non-Fiction /Literary Biography / British
Authors
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People of different wisdom traditions
have recognized that natural spaces can affect
their own energy in particular ways. Are you sensitive
enough to recognize the subtle changes in energy
as you walk from one area to another, such as
across a meadow or along a beach? Are you able
to identify spots that have healing powers? If
not, you can develop this ability by spending
more time in nature.
Sensitivity
to nature’s healing energy can help you
in your quest to achieve well-being. Research
shows that time in nature lowers boosts immunity,
decreases blood pressure and calms activity in
areas the brain associated with stress. Our bodies
and spirits seem to thrive on time near bodies
of water, under vast skies, and near trees, grass,
and brush. Nature is, after all, our home.
Nature
can bring us back into our bodies and reconnect
us with ourselves. We evolved to be outdoors,
sharing the planet with plants, insects, and other
creatures, with our feet on the earth and our
eyes scanning the distance as well as seeing what
is right in front of us.
When
you feel you are overstimulated by all that is
happening in your environment and in your mind,
take yourself to a forest, a lake, a desert, or
somewhere else in nature, and you will probably
find it doesn’t take very long to begin
to feel a shift in your awareness and mood. Your
intuition will start to awaken. Listen to it and
let it draw you to those natural spaces where
you can engage energy that will balance and refresh
you.
A
shaman can tell you where among the rocks you
can go to soak in energy that will replenish you
when you are feeling drained and lethargic, or
where you can go to more easily release the energies
that are weighing you down with worry or grief.
Such natural areas can be found all over the earth.
You can be your own shaman and find them yourself,
allowing nature to guide to where you can experience
what you need.
A
friend of mine who is a shaman in Peru invited
me to explore and walk around the land behind
his home. “Go where you need to be,”
he told me. “Let the earth heal you.”
Alone, I set out to wander around his land and
walked until I suddenly felt compelled to lie
down on the grass under a tree. I lay there until
I felt replenished and then arose to see him approaching
me with a smile. “That spot,” he explained,“is
a balancing spot. Many who have come to visit
me have been drawn to that very place.”
You
may find that simply being in your back yard,
near a public garden, or in a particular spot
in a meadow where you feel drawn to sit for a
while helps you to reconnect to the balancing,
healing energies of nature. Explore natural areas,
away from the distractions of everyday modern
life and away from the energy fields of electronic
equipment that might interfere with your ability
to tune into nature’s energies.
If
you are called to change your plans for the day
and go to a nature preserve, it could be because
your unconscious mind may know what your conscious
mind is denying: that you are in need of connecting
to nature’s healing powers. When you return
to your routine activities, you may find that
you have greater focus, energy and clarity than
if you had simply willed yourself to stick with
your agenda.
Once
you are by the roots of a particular tree, or
seated in a grassy spot on the riverbank, or in
any other natural place that calls to you, listen
to your instincts about how you might work with
nature. Sit and focus on the experience of the
earth underneath you, the wind and sky surrounding
you, the sun warming your skin, and the smells
of forest, river, meadow or sea entering your
nostrils. Allow your senses to fully awaken as
you adjust to the music of the space. Focus on
the sensations you are experiencing. In this way,
you open yourself up to the subtle energies that
can infuse you, heal you or wash out of you what
is no longer needed. Let nature do what it needs
to do to the energy that enlivens your body and
causes your cells to reproduce and do the work
of keeping you alive.
As
you stand, sit, or lie in this space, you might
like to pray, “Cleanse me, heal me, teach
me,” and ask, “What can I do for you?”
You might further ask, “What do I need?”
The answer may come to you as a word or an image,
a sensation, or a sense of knowing what your body
and energy field crave and what you need to do.
Before ending this experience, you might also
ask, “What else do I need to know?”
You can even have a conversation with the information
that comes to you. Ask it to clarify its messages
for you.
Before
you leave this space, create an intention to follow
through with action based on what you learned
from connecting to nature. You might take a symbolic
action, such as planting a seed in the earth,
releasing a leaf into the current of a creek,
or skipping a stone into the water, to represent
your intention to make a change. Speak whatever
words come to you. Perhaps you will realize that
this action you’re taking represents bringing
something into your life and your story, and getting
rid of something, too. Release what is no longer
serving you as you open your heart, mind and energy
field to what you need. Feel your desire and commitment
to make changes rise within you. Soak in the earth’s
replenishing energy.
Do
you sense a need to return to nature and let it
heal you? What could you do today to get back
to the earth, to observe the movements of fire,
to touch water, or to experience your relationship
with the wind?
Carl
Greer, PhD, PsyD is a practicing
clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst, and shamanic
practitioner. His shamanic work is drawn from
a mix of North American and South American indigenous
traditions and is influenced by Jungian analytic
psychology. He has worked or trained with shamans
on five continents and trained at Dr. Alberto
Villoldo’s Healing the Light Body School,
where he has taught. Carl Greer is involved in
various businesses and charities, teaches at the
Jung Institute in Chicago, is on the staff of
the Lorene Replogle Counseling Center, and holds
workshops on shamanic topics. He is the author
of Change Your Story, Change Your Life:
Using Shamanic and Jungian Tools to Achieve Personal
Transformation by Carl Greer © 2014, Findhorn
Press. Now available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com
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