3 Inspiring Ways to Connect with Your Authentic Self Through Nature

How many times have you heard someone give the advice, “just be you”? On the surface, this sounds simple: don’t play games by faking a personality trait that isn’t yours, and say what you mean. But when we ask what it means to “be ourselves” at a more thoughtful, deeper level, this can be one of the biggest challenges of our lives because truly being yourself requires you to know what you want in life at an authentic level, and often it requires removing blocks and distractions that are preventing us from enlightening.

People go through a variety of methods and use multiple resources to try to change behaviors so they can touch the face of their authentic essence and live a life that serves their intentions. Some work with a life coach, others meditate, and some join spiritual groups of like-minded people all striving to awaken in a world full of media-driven distractions. Then there are some people who identify elevated feelings of peace through various activities. I have a friend who is a life coach, and she goes dancing regularly because it fills her with joy and allows her to tap into herself through the art of bodily movement, while another friend creates pottery, with 100% soul. As for me, and a large number of people, I find peace and solace through nature, and if you block out society’s white noise, you can find ways to glimpse your authentic self, gain self-compassion, and better understand your intentions through the mystique and beauty of our natural world.

British Romanticism Did It

The idea of finding yourself through nature and experiencing spiritual awakening through the landscape, sea, and the sky is far from a new concept. From the mid 18th century to the early 19th century, British Romanticism gave birth to an ideology that saw “god” in nature. This was an era that reacted against the Enlightenment period that gripped a large portion of European philosophy and politics that honored rational thought, reason and logic whereas poets and philosophers of the Enlightenment values emotion, individuality, passion , and a flight from technological advancements. During this time poets like John Keats, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley all used nature (with their own variances) to identify “the self”, a higher power, and spiritual awakening. Their poetry lives on in part to remind mankind not to lose their way through social distractions and political noise--to look to nature as a way to scale the monotonous drumline of society’s toxic clatter, and find one’s self, touch a higher power, and thrive within the light of one’s self.

1- Observational Natural Hobbies

If there is a particular element in nature that you favor or have a more intimate connection with, you may find peace and traces of yourself through examining, photographing, sorting and documenting its many species or types. People who participate in observational hobbies often pursue:

A- Bird watching
B- Botany (studying flowers)C- Geology (collecting and studying rocks and minerals)
D- Fish identification (through scuba diving)

Have you ever watched a bird fly against the wind with the desired velocity so he is hovering, or witnessed how birds observe their own surroundings? Have you observed how many of their natural tendencies are subtle to the untrained eye, and look into your own subtleties to ask if they fit your life's purpose? Or has the bold orange, protruding petals, and flame-like design of the bird of paradise flower reminded you of your inner fire--that passion you know if there that you are trying to rekindle? By combining a hobby that involves careful thought with natural components, we invite ourselves to identify with our own authenticity through the beautiful give of nature.

2. Self-Transformation Vacation in Nature

Taking a two week vacation to Italy so you can indulge in art, cuisine, and fashion is great, but when is the last time you took a vacation that is designed to help you evolve? There is some all inclusive life advancement centers such as the Rythmia resort in Costa Rica designed not only to offer luxury accommodations and amenities to nature lovers but to also help each guest evolve and find new ways of awakening. Located by the sea in the lush jungles, the resort if far removed from commercial distractions, and offers a pick-and-choose array of options that place guests within Mother Nature, so they may have a spiritual awakening. Guest at this resort have the option to:

A- Participate in outdoor guided meditations
B- Outdoor yoga classes
C- Engage in ancient plant medicine rituals
D- Work with a life coach
E- Detox with natural therapies such as the Dead Sea Cleanse and volcanic mud baths
F- Eat farm-to-table all natural local foods
G- Surf and ride horses

All of these activities place guests directly in nature and present ways to enhance physical and spiritual health.

3. Sports that Rely on Nature’s Temperament

Let’s face it, most sports are played outdoors. But when playing baseball or shooting hoops on the blacktop, you aren’t really engaged in nature, though it is all around you. When participating in a sport that works directly with nature’s elements, you can find a spiritual connection and discover a new chord within yourself. For example, surfing and spirituality go hand-in-hand. Conservationist and religion scholar Bron Taylor is an expert in earth-spirituality studies and calls surfing an “aquatic nature religion ” citing “soul surfers” who take a spiritual approach to how they engage and interact with waves. Depending on a variety of natural conditions, the formation, size, speed and break of a wave can differ, and many surfers identify their own temperamental layers and even discover new ones within their core through riding the waves. As a former surfer myself, I clearly identify with this, and as someone who participates in downhill skiing every winter, I get the same sense spiritual nourishment and identify threads of myself through the sound my skis make in the snow depending on its condition, the way I carve my mark on a hill by making figure-eight shapes with a buddy, and the way my body bends into the hillside as I make a turn. When skiing, there is a time to slow with caution, take aggressive sweeps, defy gravity, or give way to changing conditions by slowing, and “feeling” your way back to base; much like the trials of life we all face.