Our Weekly Tip: Take Refuge in Nature’s Tender Touch

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Our Tip of the Week: Spending time in direct physical contact with the elements offers a chance to slow down our troubled minds to the pace of a flower’s unfolding, to offer up our hearts to a gust of wind and pour our grief into the infinite capacity of the Earth’s waters. When an experience seems too big to contain in your physical or emotional body, the power and beauty of nature offers a safe container to be yourself, when being yourself is “too much” for others. Here are some simple techniques to enter into a therapeutic dialogue with the world around us and within us. These actions hold us up when we can’t carry our grief alone anymore.

How-to Suggestion: Give yourself permission, just for the duration of these practices, to empty your mind and observe the physical sensations in your body. Allow whatever emotions arise to come through you – if you want to sob, then sob until you don’t want to anymore. The completion of emotional responses releases endorphins (feel-good hormones) in your brain and heart, and are necessary to help you move forward while looking back. These practices can be done alone, or with one or two trusted companions.

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Leaf Meditation: Find a tree or shrub with flat, smooth, fresh leaves, like a birch, poplar or aspen. Press the leaves against your face, noticing the temperature and texture. The face has many acupressure points that, when gently stimulated, “wake up” the entire body, helping to dissolve the sluggishness that often accompanies bereavement.

Small rock meditation: Find a smooth natural rock or a favorite crystal. It should be too big to swallow but small enough to place on your tongue and close your lips comfortably. Notice how your whole face wants to relax. Close your eyes and go inward, allowing any tension you notice to dissolve.

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Large Rock Meditation: Find a boulder or large rock formation. Lean against it, then lie on it face up or down, and enjoy a passive full-body stretch. Breath deeply against the surface from your belly, feeling your body rise and fall against this solid and reliable friend.

Sand Meditation: Any sand will do. Bury as much of your body under the sand as possible – just your hands are good to start. Cover yourself with just enough sand to feel the weight on your skin. Come to a stillness and breathe naturally for as long as you like.