Nature, has never betrayed the heart of one that loved her. Such, is the manner in which we ought to approach the hearts of those around us. As well as every living creation. Not because we have to but because Love, without being corny, conquers everything.
Sunday afternoon, I took a walk deep in to the woods. Climbing up mountains and jumping down the hills. Occasionally feeling the comfort of moss under my feet while enjoying the chirps of birds.
With every step, I couldn’t help but think of the goodness of the Lord. How He majestically created all these beautiful things and granted them to us freely for our enjoyment.
The birds, some tiny and some large, were elegantly chirping and flying close by and I wanted to hold them and perhaps whisper “keep flying higher birdie” but what bird in its majesty would allow you to play with its feathers?
There were brooks of waters, small rivers, beautiful ferns, mushrooms and within me the little girl was coming out. Every time I’m in nature, I feel thankful, inspired, motivated and connected to God.
In the city it’s just noise, mostly disconnected humans with the lights on within but nobody home. Too much consumption. Noise and commotion which the older I get my spirit continues to resist.
When I step in nature, the contrast between peace and chaos becomes very evident. I love nature and nature loves me! I belong to nature and nature belongs to me. Nature gives me oxygen and I give it carbon dioxide. We have a beautiful exchange that will never be altered as the Lord wills.
How unfortunate it is that people do not treat the environment as good as they should in most parts of the planet?
Mental Health Benefits of Spending Time In Nature
Nature fills you with a heart of gratitude.
When your heart is thankful, even for the simplest things, automatically your attitude elevates. When your attitude elevates your moods follow. You become happy and when you’re happy it becomes a happy day, then a week, a month and just like that almost a year.
Also, God loves a thankful person and hates mumblers. If you’re stuck in the city all the time, occupied with perishable bads (I don’t get why they call them perishable “goods”), you will not really get to realize God’s wonder working ways.
You just see the latest this and the latest that. “STUFF” and “FLUFF” that just takes out from you including your own soul. Contrary to when you’re in nature, a place full of majesty and soulful wonders.
Nature will calm your soul
I love this scripture that says “be still and know that I am God”. God likes to deal with humans that are not too busy. I also came to realize that He loves a quiet spirit. When you’re all over the place and available to everyone and everything, it is impossible to have a close communion with God. Lack of fellowship with God means living a life that is unfulfilling. He is the only one that has all the answers and you’re better off yielding towards Him who will light up the path of your life.
The best place, that being said, to hear your inner voice and even develop your spirit of discernment, is to be in a place of silence and stillness. Nature will teach you exactly that. Sometimes I just look at how rooted and still a tree can be on a windy day and I internally mimic it. Long story short, a week cannot pass by without me being around nature. I find peace and tranquility there and I love it. The older I get the more I value peace and quiet.
Nature will inspire you
One day I was walking in one of my favorite spots and I decided to check on an apple tree. Usually, each autumn it bares really beautiful apples but this time when I checked it, it was fruitless. Something inside of me made me stand there in observation for a very long time. What sparked my interest was that everything seemed well with the tree, the leaves were green and the branches looked healthy but no fruit.
Obviously, as still as you know trees to be and as certain as I am that I have severally harvested apples from that tree, not all seasons are for fruit bearing. This season the tree was at rest. I then started imagining how a human being would handle the same situation. If you’re used to having your way each season and then one season you don’t? Like the tree, when no fruit is budding in season, allow it to happen and wait for the next season with patience and in stillness.
That tree stands still, with its green leaves and I said to it, this season you didn’t bare apples for me but next season you will. I walked away inspired that lack of fruitfulness doesn’t mean you’re a bad tree, it might just as well mean that rest is important in some seasons. Spend time in nature and you will find useful nuggets for your spirit.
Nature will make you fit
You must have heard that it is good to have 10,000 steps a day at the very least. When you take a walk in nature, you have a good blood flow in your body all the way up to your brain.
It decongests you as well because when you’re constantly in confinement whether it’s in your car, office or home, you’re really not getting a good amount of oxygen.
Opening the windows, will not do as well as being out in the open will. So, if you want to cut down some weight, stay fit and have a good flow of oxygen in your body, go to nature and let her give you a good dose of clean air to take in and be new again. Ensure too that daily you take at least 10000 steps or even more for general good health.
Nature will heal you.
In every season, I have learned that nature always has something to offer that is beneficial to our health. In the spring it is the dandelion and chamomile. Two easily underlooked weeds that are extremely healthy in the maintenance of liver, brain and kidney functions.
In fact I remember once I had breakouts on my forehead and they wouldn’t go no matter what I tried. So I decided to pray about it and I asked Jesus, what should I do? A few minutes after praying, I got an idea to take a walk AGAIN in nature and that day at one spot, I saw so many dandelion plants growing. I had no idea what they were before so I decided to check with an application what sort of plant it was. I told you I love plants ?
When I checked and saw how healthy it was and beneficial to all sorts of skin issues, I harvested a few, went home and juiced them. A week in after consuming them, my problem disappeared and Jesus, as always, answered my prayer. I ate them too as salad and I wanted to make dandelion salve but I got busy. You also know the bounty of chamomile we get in the spring?
Around autumn, there will be a lot of rose hips, the fruit with the highest vitamin C levels, it will be the best time to harvest dandelion root because they have matured and have grown deep in to the soil. This can be harvested, dried and used for tea which will heal you. It is also a season of heaps of all sorts of mushrooms some healthy some poisonous. For the healthy mushrooms you know how loaded they are with vitamin D and great antioxidants?
The Japanese say that every plant is medicinal we just have to be informed and I agree. I have learned to eat in season and through prayer and keen interest, I have made generational discoveries that will significantly kick small diseases such as common colds at bay. Elderberry especially… oh my!! I can’t wait to make an elderberry tincture some day soon. Nature is just a bounty of nutraceuticals, fresh air and so much more. So, put on your shoes and go out there!!
Nature will give you scriptural perspective
Mathew 6: 26-34 says, look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
With a scripture such as this, in moments when you feel anxious, just take a walk to nature and see the birds freely flying from one tree to another with either a worm for some lunch or a few blades of grass for their nest in their beaks and say to yourself, if He has the eye on the sparrow then He definitely has His eyes on me. Every time you speak the word, the spiritual and physical realm shifts and your anxiety like vapour will lift away.
In another scripture, Jeremiah 8:7 we see “even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the Lord”.
Here, just go especially during autumn and observe around. You will see exactly what the scripture means and it will keep you grounded. Ask yourself if birds with no sense of intellect are aware of the times and take the steps necessary to be safe, what about us who have intellect? Cant we be as prepared as the birds in all seasons?
These are just examples to show you how nature can amplify the scripture in your heart. So, maybe with a friend, sibling, spouse, cousin, aunty… it all depends on you. Do a picnic in nature and carry out a bible study. Nourish your soul and let nature help you out with understanding. The more you understand the word and spend time with it, the closer you will be to Jesus Christ who is the Prince of Peace. With Jesus, your heart or mind will never be troubled because He is with you always.
Nature will make you happy.
When you take walks outside, your body releases endorphins in the brain. This will in return boost your mood while reducing stress and anxiety. Next time you are angry about something or overwhelmed, just put on your sneakers. Politely excuse yourself and take a walk. It is beneficial to your soul when you pursue peace rather than brawl and react to everything.
As someone with zero tolerance to negativity, there are times when I have felt like giving a piece of my mind but one day I wondered, how many times in my life time will I have to give a piece of my mind and what difference does it make? Since then, you will have to work very very hard to hear from me and if you do… you must be very special.
Most of the time I don’t react. You will just not hear from me. Then I take a walk and get over it. So if you want to be happy without compromising your peace of mind, nature is the best place to be. Go take out the steam and come back home whistling to a song you don’t even know. That is me!!
Nature will make you creative
I cannot explain why and how but when I have an idea and I am struggling to put it on paper, I take my flask of tea, journal and pen then I go to nature and sit quietly. There, I take my journal and pen out, remove my shoes and feel the grass and dirt on my feet (not that it does anything to this), pour a cup of tea and drink quietly.
By the time I’m leaving that place, oh my goodness!! I even fear sometimes that maybe its mania because not only do I gain clarity but I get even more ideas and feel so inspired. I don’t want to lie to you here, I don’t know why it happens that way. One thing I know for sure, you will be creative when you spend time in nature.
Nature will improve your sleep quality
I’ve never spent my time in nature and failed to have a goodnight rest. This is also something I cannot explain. Usually I come back home happy, at peace, inspired, thankful and I guess one thing leads to another? I sleep way better when I have been out frolicking in nature. Do some research on this and let me know when you find unique explanations. I’d love to hear why. Otherwise if you want a goodnight rest, put on your sneakers and go out for 2hrs walking.
One thing I like to do from time to time by the way is prayer walking. You walk telling Jesus what’s on your mind. Over the years I have come to learn that God answers all of our prayers. Sometimes not immediately because the waiting period might need to teach you something but eventually He does.
He is so faithful and so kind and when you walk with Him and tell Him how you feel about your neighbourhood and intercede for others, you will see the change you anticipate. How do you know maybe that’s why you’re in that location? To stand for others quietly? Try it. The peace of your neighbourhood is very important for your wellbeing. Pray for others and your neighbourhood. Do it walking and address the problems you spot in prayer.
Nature will improve your immune system
With all the reasons I have provided, obviously your immune system is going to improve. This will in turn improve your overall health. If you’re thankful, at peace, inspired, take deep breaths of clean air, minding your business and living quietly without being involved in many destructive affairs with things and “problematic” people… how on earth are you going to be unwell?
Two times a human being gets unwell is if he is involved in soul damaging affairs or if God plans to be glorified in the problem. Not that you must be sick for God to be glorified but the devil sometimes sneaks up there when the angels are having a meeting and tries to imply that you are faithful perhaps because you’re in perfect health. Then he claims that if your health is taken from you, you will stop being faithful and because God is sure of your heart, he gives him permission to go and be disappointed by your resilience and later God restores your health. Thats how he gets glorified in the problem. You get?
Otherwise if you take conscious decisions to do the right thing, pray, pursue peace and avoid negativity, it is very rare that you will be sick. If you do, it is a test and you will overcome for greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
Conclusion
Never be too busy to find time to do nothing. Doing nothing, unknown to most, is doing everything. Look at it like this. In the middle of an ocean with a sinking ship, you have one person fighting the waters to breathe in oxygen and we have another in stillness floating above the water, flowing with the waves. What do you think makes one float and survives while the other drowns shortly after?
Amidst all the chaos of life, do this, do that, come here, go there, choose to take the road least travelled. The road of stillness and quietness. Best found in nature and absolutely life changing for your soul.
If you must know, the road that is occupied with many people and you can quote me on this, is headed to the wrong direction. The road with the least people on it, heads to the right direction but not many people stay on it for long. How will it be so in a generation where solitude and silence is underestimated if not demeaned? You have to post on instagram and facebook that you’re the brightest star even if you’re probably a mist in the air no?
If you have the will inside of you, draw towards the stillness, peace and silence. I promise you, you will thank me later. The best starting point is being around nature. You will be your highest self if you cultivate this as a habit.
