In this podcast episode, I explore the lessons that Nature teaches us, which remind us to take our time.
As humans, we fight so many of our instincts, but even in this modern society, releasing ourselves to the natural chaos that Nature follows – the laws of Physics and science – connects us more deeply with the experience of human spiritual connection.
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Episode Transcript:
In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking a little bit about nature, and I want to just dive a little bit into the roots of what it means to be part of nature.
Now I talk a lot about nature in my work. I am pagan in my spirituality, so I very much see nature as sacred. And I also feel that nature follows a lot of the laws of science.
When I step out barefoot onto grass, I feel like I’m connecting with something.
When I hear the leaves rustling in the trees, I feel like I’m grounded.
I feel something in my soul.
When I learned about, you know, the laws of physics, thermodynamics, gravity, even just things around life cycles, the water cycle, weather: even in the natural world having its own sense of chaos, there is a sensibility behind it. There are laws that are followed behind this.
So for me, nature is such a great teacher and reminder because we are part of nature.
Humans are a species of animal who have evolved throughout this world of natural things.
And as humans in the modern world, with our media, industrialisation, our technology, we tend to fight so many of our instincts. But even in this modern society, when we release ourselves to the chaos that nature follows, we connect deeper with the experience of humanity.
When I went to university as a late teen, I facilitated a meditation society with a Buddhist teacher who was a member of our local Buddhist center. And he had also come from a scientific background.
And we had a lot of conversations around the common practices in Buddhism, kind of the worldview and ways of living, the dharma that followed the kind of cosmic order and those laws of the universe, just like science.
And nearly two decades later, I still find myself noticing those consistencies between my personal perspective and the lessons I can take from how nature handles things, particularly when it comes to challenges.
So there are three lessons that I feel really good to be reminded of that prove to us that things don’t need to be quite so hard.
Lesson one is that the trees aren’t stressing out.
Nature doesn’t tend to rush. In this modern world, I feel like we do nothing but try to keep up with constantly feeling like we’re behind, feeling like we’re failing. We’re living in a society, at least in the Western world, where we are pushed to do more, feel more, be more.
No matter what we try, there’s always more we can do.
And I feel like nature makes slow progress that works. So trust in timings. Every day, plants need sunlight, water, soil. Every day, humans need food, drink, sleep, movement, to use a toilet.
Trust that things take time. It’s not just normal, it’s everywhere we look.
Birds don’t fledge until their wings have grown out.
Flowers don’t bloom before the sprout breaks through the soil’s surface.
Leaves don’t tend to fall in spring, or at least not from healthy trees.
Our needs make us alive and those needs take time to fulfill.
It is not a waste of time for us to eat, to sleep, to take a few breaths, to balance all the different things that we need to do in a day.
There is something comforting in reconnecting with the natural rhythm of the rest of the living world.
Lesson 2: Change is the point.
Now, as someone on the autistic spectrum with experience of mental health difficulties like anxiety, I really don’t like when things change or when routines are broken. But nothing is ever going to be static in a living world.
If we make something like, I don’t know, a plastic pot, it is unlikely to change, at least if it is left by itself. When we have a living being, whether that’s a plant, whether that’s an animal, whether that’s ourselves, nothing is going to be static.
And so it’s really good to have permission, give yourself permission, remember that there is permission for change.
And I really liked a phrase that I found a little while back that said “Nothing stays the same in this world, including the type of macaroni my children like.”
It’s important to just know that change is life. Things that are living don’t stay still, they don’t not grow, they don’t not have needs.
It’s not like a plastic pot that just exists and stays as it is.
When my daughter makes a mess of the living room that I tidied the night before: Yes, it can be frustrating. Yes, it can feel disorganised, but it tells me that she’s living, that she’s playing, that life is happening in this household, you know? And when we think about change being the point of life, there’s also that reminder that we, as part of nature, are programmed are able to deal with change.
When the storms come, the tree’s roots hold it in place.
The branches will sway in the wind rather than waste energy fighting that wind.
And then the storm passes and the tree remains.
Lesson three actually came about from a tip that I heard about singing, which said “the key to singing well isn’t perfecting your voice, it’s perfecting your breath.”
There are core foundations, underlying surface aspects that build everything.
We don’t need to expect our outcome on day one, and we don’t need to look at an outcome and go, it hasn’t worked, and then throw random attempts to fix it on top.
What is the underlying growth that needs to happen? Where do things need to be tweaked? If someone’s voice is cracking, it’s not just about how well they’re singing or what notes they’re doing. How are they breathing? How are they sitting? How is their posture? Where are they focusing?
All visions of what we have at the outcome begin as ugly birds and tiny seeds. This is how things start.
We need to stop expecting swans of our ugly ducklings on day one.
Most flowers just shoot up with a single green sprout that looks just the same as weeds.
It’s so important to know that we are looking after the core foundations of everything.
And when I think about this from a personal reinvention point of view, this is the roots and the needs.
Am I rooted? Do I know what I want? Do I know why I’m heading where I’m heading? Do I know where I am heading and how to get there? Have I eaten? Have I drunk water? Have I got enough sleep? Am I in the right place to do this? Am I well enough to try doing this next step?
Nature doesn’t hurry. It doesn’t jump steps, it doesn’t rush. It doesn’t think that things should stay the same.
Nature accepts and moves with the flow.
I am not consciously changing my breathing when I speak, when I talk, when I move. My breath happens as nature happens. It’s not something that I can control particularly easily. In fact, when I try to control it, it tends to just stop. I tend to end up holding my breath.
So these little reminders of nature, which are almost reminders of the laws of science, remind us to accept how things are, to allow change to happen.
And when we are looking for a particular outcome, to really consider those foundations: Have we got those clear, underlying natural processes in the right place for us to then take those steps to get to our goal?
I would love to hear if you have any other sort of reminders that you’ve gotten from nature that can help us understand our humanity. And if you want to share those, please pop over to the Patreon or the YouTube link for this podcast episode, which will be in the show notes.
If there’s anything in your life that you feel is changing too fast or that you are not making enough progress on, please take this podcast episode as a reminder to take your time.
To ensure you’ve got those foundational pieces in place before you expect miracles, and to have permission for things to change in their own time.
Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time. Bye.