It’s a topsy-turvy world out there, and one heck of a bumpy timeline we’re living through as a collective. If your thoughts have been spinning out or your emotions have felt a bit…uncontrollable lately? You are definitely not alone, and you are absolutely not crazy. 

(We’re all feeling it!)

That’s exactly why we’re offering tips to help you get grounded, find stability, access serenity, and stand in your power, no matter what’s taking place in this crazy timeline.

This is the second installment in our series on How to Stay Grounded. So if you missed Part 1, grab it here after you read this!

 

Today, we’re zooming in on the soothing, stabilizing and replenishing effects of bringing nature into your everyday life.

 

Because, let’s face it, in our fast-paced, social-media-driven, loud, flashy, constantly-beeping digital world, it’s hard to escape to the Great Outdoors every time you feel a little off.

So here are some small ways to find your footing and regain stability by inviting nature right into your everyday space.

Go Analog, Get Tactile

While technology keeps us connected, informed, and helps us to better navigate everything from our finances to the literal roadways, it sure has its down sides, too. 

According to experts, our phones and laptops are major causes of mental health decline, and excessive use of tech can contribute to:

• poor sleep due to blue light exposure; 

• reduced attention span and focus, due to constant interruptions from notifications; 

• heightened anxiety;

• and feelings of social isolation due to spending all our time online and ‘missing out’ rather than cultivating friendships IRL.

 

Scientists have a name for this. It’s called technostress. It’s increasing around the world, and it’s a big reason a lot of us are feeling more unstable than ever.

 

To take back your power and stand strong when life tosses you off-kilter, make an effort to ditch your phone and go analog instead. 

Take some time, each day, to step away from your screen, remove your earbuds,  go outside, breathe in some fresh air, move the body around, touch grass, lift your chin to the sunshine, and remember there’s more, right under your feet, than all the noise that’s crowding the airwaves. 

Bonus points if you take off your shoes and dig your toes into the soil while you pause to appreciate the birds, the bees, the clouds and the trees.

Direct contact with terra firma can immediately regulate stress hormones, boost your mood, and bring you right back in touch with stable, reliable, loving Mother Earth.

 

Play in the Soil

 

There’s nothing more gratifying – or stabilizing – than planting a few seeds in soil, tending them as they sprout, nurturing them as they bloom, and watching them grow to their full potential.

Whether you start small with a potted basil plant on the windowsill, try planting a few lilies or hostas in the front yard, go for a hanging philodendron on the porch, or erect a fully decked-out vegetable patch in a raised bed, doesn’t matter. 

Engaging with plantlife can instantly axe anxiety and neutralize cortisol spikes. 

Even dead-heading last year’s echinacea flowers, trimming old leaves, or yanking weeds out of the ground to make room for this Spring’s new growth will feel profoundly fortifying, help you get mindful, let you release pent-up pressure, and connect you directly to Gaia’s magic. 

 

Forest Bathe

 

Engage in a little forest bathing to help you get anchored to the Earth. And don’t worry – this practice isn’t nearly as naked as it sounds. 

Forest bathing comes from the Japanese art of ‘shinrin yoku.’ And it simply means being conscious and intentional about fully immersing ourselves, including all of our senses, in nature. 

This is an easy way to honor the natural environment and connect with its magic. No stripping required!

All you gotta do is find some trees and get present. Stand barefoot in a creek. Run your hands over a mossy boulder. Walk barefoot along a dirt path. Draw in the fresh scent of pine needles as they bake in the sunshine. Delight in the playful sounds of birdsong. Lie down in the grass, letting your skin make contact with the very heartbeat of our extraordinary planet. 

As you touch trees, leaves, rocks or dirt, keep fingertips fully engaged. Close your eyes and notice what sensations your hands or feet pick upon, that a busy, racing mind would normally fail to notice. 

Engage your sense of smell, your hearing, your sight and yes – even your sense of taste – as you soak in natural surroundings. (Just don’t eat any mushrooms without consulting your local mycologist first!).

Whatever you do in Earth’s natural playground, try to do so intentionally, resisting boredom and impatience, without reaching for your phone!  It’s not easy – we’re so conditioned to occupy our hands and our minds every minute of every day. 

But that’s part of the problem, and it’s why so many of us are growing more and more anxious. 

Tapping back into what’s real, what’s present beneath and before us, noticing what’s stunningly beautiful, colorful, awe-inspiring and bountiful right now is what helps us to regain our sense of stability in an instant.

 

If you aren’t lucky enough to live right next door to a forest – because very few of us actually do – then simply step outside and venture to your nearest patch of green space, no matter how small or urban it is, so you can replicate its soothing effects.

Take some time to softly gaze at the wind in the trees, and marvel at how the leaves dance. 

Sniff the air and notice whether the scent of freshly-cut grass, wild mint or newly-bloomed lilacs drift toward you. 

Snap off a leaf of fresh-grown arugula – which grows easily even in cold temps.

 

Stand in the rain – slicker-free! – and let it soak through your clothes as you say a little prayer of thanks to Mother Earth for offering sacred hydration. 

Pause to watch a pair of squirrels chase one another; enjoy the clouds as they float by; or follow the trail of a hardworking ant as it goes about its errands.

There are so many fascinating bits of nature all around us – we just have to offer it our attention and it immediately reciprocates the vibration of love and support back at us.

If your day-to-day is dominated by the concrete jungle and a single blade of grass is nowhere to be found, then find a colorful magazine or a coffee table book filled with pictures from your local library to get you inspired by Gaia’s beauty, and then?

Rely on your greatest superpower of all: your wild imagination!

Never underestimate the human mind’s ability to visualize, daydream, and fantasize. And know that using this tool that we once wielded every single day as children is a practice that can literally alter our reality and raise our electromagnetic vibration so that we feel better than we ever thought we could.

I like to close my eyes and imagine myself, for example, standing on a rocky cliff atop a sandy beach at sunset, looking down upon some playful porpoises as they jump out of the surf and disappear under crystal blue waters again. Sometimes a pelican cruises by. 

Other times I envision myself picnicking in a pastoral meadow complete with redwing blackbirds balanced atop tall reeds, an azure-blue sky, and colorful wildflowers as far as the eye can see.

Feel free to use any of these visualizations for your own imaginary forest bathing practice.

And enjoy the feeling of stability you get – even just for a few moments. Because tapping into nature lowers the production of stress hormones, reduces anxiety, improves blood flow, and regulates our overloaded nervous systems.

 

Praise be to Mother Nature! 

 

Join me again next time for Part 3 in this five-part series on how to find your inner anchor to stay grounded in this turbulent timeline!