Nature’s Healing Power: How Nature Can Cure Negative Emotions

Take a deep breath of fresh spring air, or feel the sun’s warmth on your face, and you will begin to experience nature’s unique ability to make you feel good. But nature’s impact is much more than skin deep.

“Nature is beyond your mind,” says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and Director of Training at Sedona Training Associates. “When we allow ourselves to be fully present in nature -- without naming or labeling -- we are naturally drawn into the beauty of now and out of the tendency to live in the flat world of thought.”

How Nature Heals

Years of scientific research into the healing power of nature have also confirmed that gazing at mountains, walking through a forest, watching a flowing stream, or taking your shoes off to revel in the feeling of grass or sand beneath your feet, can have very real benefits to your health.

Here are some examples of what the research shows:

• Living in an area that gives you access to green spaces, such as trees and grass, may help you live longer, according to a study in the journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

• Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience a significant reduction in their symptoms when they’re able to spend time outdoors, concludes a study in the American journal of Public Health

• Children with access to nature are able to cope better with stress than those without it.

• Hospital patients fare better when they have access to gardens or other green spaces

Jayne Hamlet, a hematology oncology nurse and case manager at the Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego said, "We do anything we can in the garden --- tell stories, to stimulate their imagination, to distract them, it helps to relax them and alleviate their pain without medication."

Numerous studies also show that spending time in nature can:

• Ease stress and mental anxiety
• Help people recover from surgery and illness faste
• Increase mental “flow”

How to Get More “Natural” Benefits in Your Life

Many people are fortunate to live near an ocean, forest preserve, park or other natural area where they can bask in nature to their heart’s content. If you live in an urban area where green space is hard to come by, you may need to get a bit more creative to bring nature into your life. Here are the top tips to consider:

• Get the benefits of nature no matter where you are by using the scientifically prove
Sedona Method . “The Sedona Method produces the same effects as being one with nature in that it helps you let go of what pulls you into thought and suffering,” Dwoskin says. “This allows you to rest as the beauty that is always here now, wherever you may be.”

• Add houseplants to your home and plant a garden outdoors (remember you can garden in containers if you don’t have a plot of land).

• Take a day trip to a natural areann • Go for regular walks (even if you’re in the city, you’ll still get to see the sun and trees, and feel the air)

• Add natural elements to your décor, such as seashells, bamboo flooring, decorative rocks, cut flowers, and other natural materialsnn • Get a birdfeeder. You can attach it to your window or put it in your yard. Soon, you’ll have some nature to watch.nn n