Connecting with Nature

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

To Be Moved

Finally I have meditated

long enough

to realize

stillness is a ruse.

Everything riding this

rotund blue dervish

is in constant motion.

What the honeysuckle-infused breeze

asks of us

is not contemplative passivity,

But an active surrender to the possibility

of being moved.

~ Jamie K. Reaser


PRACTICE

PART ONE (Getting Grounded)

• Dress appropriately to be out-of-doors for at least an hour.
• Bring an adequate supply of water, pen, and journal.
• Go to a place in nature that you will be safe and uninterrupted.  This location might be just outside your home or school or in a remote wilderness setting.
• Choose a specific location and stand there with your head looking forward and your shoulders back and down slightly.
• Place your hands in prayer position at chest height
• Take a quick inward breath through your mouth as you tilt your hands toward your face, so that the finger tips end up pointing to your lower jaw.
• Repeat this in rapid sets of three.  On the first breath set the intent to bring the breath to your belly button area, the second to your heart, and the third to the area between your eye brows.

PART TWO (Becoming Centered)

• Take in a long, deep breath.
• While holding the breath, turn your head to the left, then right, and bring it back to center.
• Release the breath at the center point.
• Repeat in sets of three.  You can, as before, choose to breath into each of the three energy centers.

PART THREE (Opening Your Heart)

• Bring your hands into prayer position at chest height.
• Extend them, hands together, toward the ground and say “Earth”
• Extend them straight out in front of you, still held together, and say “Nature”
• Extend them straight above your head, held together, and say “Sky or Cosmos”
• Separating the hands, lower each to your sides, shoulder height and say “Balance”
• Bring them back to prayer position at chest height and them draw them together to the chest and say “Heart.”
• Repeat in sets of three.

PART FOUR (Inviting in Nature’s Energies)

• Extend your right arm above your head as far as you can reach and wiggle the fingers on your right hand.  See and feel (or at least imagine) the energies from the sun and other aspects of Nature coming into your hand.  You might even cup your hand and imagine a handful of energy   golden   forming there.
• Extend your left arm above your head as far as you can reach.
• Bring your right hand to your left hand, and imagine spreading the energy into your left hand and down your arm.
• Bring both hands together to your heart and let the energy enter your body.
• Bring your hands to the ground and imagine releasing any lingering mental heaviness (e.g., anxiety, doubts, “to do list” distractions) there.
• Repeat in sets of three until you feel the flow and lightness of Nature moving through you.

PART FIVE (Introducing Yourself to Nature)

• Lift up your shirt, exposing your belly button (Note: in some indigenous cultures the belly button is considered the door way to the soul).
• Place your right hand over your belly button and open it forward as if it were a door with the hinges at your wrist.
• Walk around repeating this procedure while “saying hello” to aspects of nature (e.g., trees, the sky, the earth, bird).  You might also want to try this with other people and “man-made” objects.
• Notice how you feel and what images or thoughts come to mind.

Variation:  Lay face down upon the earth with your bellybutton exposed.  Breathe in and out as if through your belly button.  Repeat several times.

If you so choose, journal your observations for each of these practices.  You might also want to draw pictures or write poems or songs (etc.) that reflect your experience.

Credit: These practices are modifications of those taught to Jamie K. Reaser by Peruvian mystic, don Americo Yabar.

This practice was first published in "Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land," edited by Jamie K. Reaser and Susan Chernak McElroy and published by Hiraeth Press (2008; www.hiraethpress.com). (c) Jamie K. Reaser. All rights reserved.

To be Moved was first published in "Sacred Reciprocity: Courting the Beloved in Everyday Life" (2012; www.hiraethpress.com). (c) Jamie K. Reaser. All rights reserved.