Day to Day Connections with Nature

Day to Day Harmony with Nature

What’s goes on around us has a great influence on what goes on within us. What does that mean? It means being in harmony with nature also affects our body and mind. Daily Sadhanas are a way of living in harmony with nature which can influence our everyday life for better health.

In Ayurveda, making the most out of nature’s offerings has a great impact on our body and mind. But how can we use what nature has to offer? Aside from eating local seasonal food to boost vitamins and minerals in our body, other simple ways to harmonise with nature could include simple daily practices. 

Research & Emotions

Research in many areas shows us that certain environments can increase or reduce our stress, which will, in turn, have an impact on our bodies. The environments that we see, hear and experience at any moment changes not only our mood, but how our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are working.

The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause us to feel anxious, or sad, or helpless. This elevates the blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension and suppresses your immune system. A pleasing natural environment reverses that.

Regardless of age or culture, humans find nature pleasing. In one study cited in the book Healing Gardens, researchers found that more than two-thirds of people choose a natural setting to retreat to when stressed.   

1.    Gardening

Any type of gardening, whether it is in a home or allotment garden, is an opportunity for physical activity. Gardening is typically seen as moderate intensity exercise equivalent to playing your favorite sports or walking at a speed of 3.5mph, and so carries similar fitness benefits. Many gardeners have a lower body mass index, and a greater percentage of non-gardeners were classified as overweight. Gardening is also linked to better diets. Home and allotment gardens have long been important for domestic food production, but gardening can also encourage people to eat more healthily and act as an educational resource on nutritious food. In Ayurveda, we encourage eating local seasonal food as it's more nutritious and healthier. Imagine if you have a garden of your own, then the nutritious food that you require is just a pick in your Garden.

Gardening also provides essential opportunities for contact with nature, which alone has numerous benefits for our mental health. Spending time outdoors in a natural environment helps us to feel less stressed, reduces the symptoms of depression, and enhances our concentration and attention by allowing us to recover from mental fatigue. 

Even if you haven't got a garden you can walk in a closeby park, on buying some plants for your home and window cill, research done in hospitals, offices, and schools has found that even a simple plant in a room can have a significant impact on stress and anxiety.

2.    Walking in the Park

Going outside and into the natural environment could be exactly what most of us need. From improving physical health to lifting mood, promoting relaxation, improving concentration, hastening to heal and facilitating social connectedness, nature seems to have it all.

This simple activity has been proven by scientist and Ayurveda doctors and Rishis as an activity that can exert a tremendous influence over your health, lowering your risk of Alzheimer’s, protecting your heart, defending against cancer, decreasing your risk of disability, controlling your weight and increasing your life expectancy.

 3.    Connecting to trees

One of the Ayurveda practice is doing yoga or meditation. Doing yoga or meditation session in a quiet place with just trees around you can help ease the mind of any troubles.  Connecting to trees means to focus your thoughts on the sound of the leaves falling, how the wind touches the trees and the sound of the little animals that live in the trees. Those sounds are one of the peaceful soothing sounds that can help us meditate better for a clearer and healthier mind. A more relaxed mind is a sign of a stress-free person who can avoid or prevent any serious sickness. It is also a way to be happy and feels lighter.

Nature helps us cope with pain. Because we are genetically programmed to be connected to all of nature, many of us find that trees, plants, water, and other natural elements calming, comforting and naturally energizing, we are absorbed by natural scenes and distracted from our pain and discomfort.

 4.    Walking by the lakeside, riverside, and seaside

New research has found that sea, rivers, and lakes can have a positive impact on wellbeing.  Most of us recognise the calming effect of a walk by the river, by the lake or along a beach, it's like nature's magic for all of the living. By focusing on how a lake is so calm, to the sound of the rushing water of a river, and the sound of the waves of the sea, one can achieve a peace of mind. Since walking is good for our body, the aura of lake, river, and sea are good for our mind. In Ayurveda, to balance the doshas is to balance our body and mind which is why this activity is perfect for living the Ayurveda way. It has been proven as one of the best prescriptions to cure low moods and ailments.

All year round we can find the perfect time to harmonise with nature. For more effective way and enjoyable way of doing this, tell your friends and family members to join you.  You will also be surprised at how nature can bring you all closer together. Let us also guide others on living the Ayurveda way. Tell them how Ayurveda is changing you for the better good and we can help them too.