How does nature communicate with us?
abracad, · Categories: externally authored, spiritualityBy Sara Wiseman
We all know that the animal world communicates with us: we have either experienced this directly in our own lives, or seen it happening with others.
Sometimes, this level of communication is astounding: we have all heard the tale of a school of dolphins saving a person struggling in rough surf; the elephant that cries upon being rescued from chains; the dog who welcomes a family member home.
These are beautiful, heartwarming methods of communication with other mammals: our species, part of our extended family.
Sometimes, the way we communicate with animals is mystic: the wild deer or cougar or eagle who appears seemingly out of nowhere as totem, sent by the Universe to provide a clear and direct sign. Even the reptilian world shows up to give us Universal direction: the snake on the path in a region where there are no snakes.
But does the non-animal, non-reptilian world—by this I mean the sentient plant world—communicate directly with us?
And what about the non-sentient aspects of this earth environment: the natural forces of air, water, fire, earth? Do they communicate directly with us as well?
The answer of course, is yes.
In fact, I would add that all objects, all matter communicates with us, though for purposes of this discussion, I will limit to the natural world, and all the animals, beings, plants, environments and weathers that this includes.
Scientists would refute this.
I say: not everything that is true has been proven yet by scientific process.
Scientists seek to solve hypotheses: by this I mean they seek to solve questions that they have asked. But what happens when we are not even at a place where we can think of the question? When the question is so far outside of our thinking process, that we can’t even begin to think of it?
The questions we are most interest in are as yet unanswered as to “fact†or “fiction.†However, to the person who experiences this level of communication, this lack of proof is of no concern. In fact, it matters not at all.
The proof is in the experience.
Once you have had this experience, of communicating directly with the natural world, you will laugh at the idea that this is somehow a question.
It is so very clearly a reality.
Communicating with the natural world
Do plants communicate with us?
Do trees resonate with our energy?
Do crystals communicate with us?
What about the earth?
Does the wind respond to our emotions?
Does water understand our thoughts?
If the answer to all of these questions and others like it is “yes,† (and the answer is yes!), then how doe we make this happen in our own life?
Can we become as skilled as The Last Airbender, controlling the elements at will?
The answer is yes, and no.
Is it a process that is complicated to those at the beginning of their path of soul inquiry, and simple to those who’ve been doing their work for a while.
It is not about control; it is about communication, resonance and exquisite sensitivity. And it happens by simply becoming really, really conscious; really, really aware.
So of course this is both an astonishingly simple process, if you have been working on your consciousness and doing your spiritual practice and making direct connection to Universe often, if not as much as possible.
Full presence is all that is required, to experience this level of connection to the natural world. That is because this is simply how things are, when we become one of One: when we inhabit our full Divine reality, even for just a few minutes.
In this way, we become able to resonate with all the natural world: everything, anything: even the tree, even the deer, even the wind, ever the water.
We are not separate
It is common to think of nature or the natural world as something separate from us. That we are human, and nature is nature, and these are different, somehow.
But we are the same.
First, we are also animals, living in the natural world.
Second, we are not separate from nature, any more than we are separate from anything in the Universe.
Try this for yourself, by taking a walk out it in the woods. Sit under a tree for an hour and watch the leaves wave in the breeze; or lie your back on the ground and spend time gazing at the sky.
In that hour, you will become intimately involved with nature! You will stop your experience of being sanitized, clean and protected “human†and become “animal†instead. Your skin may become damp from where you are sitting. Your skin may become exposed to wind or sun. You may become the highway for various bugs: ants will crawl over you, gnats will pester you. Bees may buzz about.
Smaller life forms will also find you in your animal state: seeds, burrs, spores, lichens, mosses and molds will become intimately involved with your clothing, your hair, your skin.
Sit under that tree, or lie on your back in the grass for much longer than an hour: for a day, a week, a hundred years like some Rip Van Winkel, and nature will soon invade the organism that you consider “youâ€: first your clothing, your body, your being.
After some period of time, you become so filled with nature that it is hard to know which is which: is the burr in your hair yours or not yours? Is the powdery mold on your ankles yours or not yours? Is the dampness on your skin yours or not yours?
Nature communicates energetically
Yet it is not only our interaction with nature in the physical form that shows us our connection; it is also our interaction with nature in the energetic or vibrational plane.
If you have even sat outside quietly and meditated for a period of time, you will begin to notice that your own vibration changes the longer you are in that space. You become calmer. Your mind clears. You become spiritually aware.
You experience consciousness.
You may even move into a state of bliss.
These are all things that just happen, when you are simply “being†in the natural world.
By “being,†I mean doing nothing. Not hiking to a destination, not doing a sport, not having any other kind of goal. It is fine to do these things, but for reaching consciousness easily, it is best to simply relax and attend, open to whatever happens.
But something else very interesting can happen if you become accustomed enough to the vibration of the natural world around you:
Nature will begin to respond to your thought vibrations.
This is subtle, most of the time; but sometimes it can be very strong.
If you have had this experience once, you will probably desire to repeat this experience. It is all about opening up very fully, and simply connecting and allowing.
For example, if you are thinking of a particular charged or active memory, and you are very focused on this, you may suddenly notice that the wind picks up, or the light darkens, or the rustling in the leaves intensifies.
This will be enough to make you take notice: to think “what was that†or “that’s something.â€
If you are working on some particularly important inner work, you may notice this at an even more noticeable level: you may notice a particular thing happening in the natural world that absolutely ties into what you are thinking about.
For example, say you were thinking about how to lighten your frantic, stressful, overscheduled life, and you might suddenly notice a snail crawling slowly across the path, moving in the exact time it needs, without concern for rush or haste.
Or perhaps you are thinking about a family relationship that has been conflicted, and you may suddenly find your attention drawn to how the branches in a stand of trees are entangled; they cross and curve over each other. You realize these trees have grown together as a family does; they have entwined and wrapped and cannot be separated. They grow on their own, but they also grow together. In noticing this, you may have a new understanding about your conflicted family relationship.
Or perhaps at that moment, there’s more: the wind picks up and the tree begins to rustle in a way that sends you into a light trance of full presence, in which you receive the message and the knowing to release this conflict; this knowing is communicated to you fully, not in words or symbols, but in the experiencing of the rustling leaves.
A two way communication with nature
What is the most surprising about the way we are One with nature, is not only in the messages of the natural world, but the way nature communicates to us physically and vibrationally: so there is actually a two-way communication happening.
This is especially apparent when the energy collective is stronger: such as when two or more people are outside together, holding a higher vibration state. This might happen at outdoor ceremonies or celebrations, in meditation, intimacy, deep connection, deep relaxation and play.
At times where several people are gathered and joined in high vibration, nature seems to be able to sense us better; to sense or vibration in a more clear way…and to communicate back to us.
I’ll often walk with my husband to the small creek on the edge of our property, simply be there by the trickling water and the trees. Often—too often to even keep track of—when we are very relaxed and our own vibration is very high, we will notice the leaves suddenly rustling in a new and fervent way, a shaking of the leaves in a way that seems like waving, or like laughter.
Other times, if we are in deep discussion, the wind will pick up out of nowhere, the wind will suddenly make itself known, showing that there is another vibrational presence with us.
Resonance takes time
I have been living in nature for 14 years now. When I first moved to the woods, I could not see the squirrel on a tree limb, it’s body still and camouflaged. I could not tell one bird’s call from another. I could not see the constant activity on the ground: a moving carpet of vibration and hum, scattering with every step forward, like an earth wave moving under my feet.
It has taken 14 years for me to get my nature eyes, my nature sense this clear. And this is after a lifetime of finding joy in the natural world.
But now, with those sense built in as a part of me, it is clear: nature is no dumb force, separate from us. Nature is communicating with us, in ways both subtle and direct, small and unmistakable.
We only must choose to see and to sense.
Our human awareness is just a small part of what is happening here in the Universe. When you begin to explore the ways in which nature is communication to you: animals, plants, elements, both subtle and profound, you begin to experience great comfort and peace in this life.
It takes some time to attain your own “nature senseâ€. It can be difficult to achieve it in this increasingly urban and disconnected life. The more time you can spend in the natural world… not doing, but being, with exquisite awareness to every little thing… the more you can open this particular window of connection.
Sara Wiseman is a visionary spiritual teacher and the award-winning author of Messages from the Divine: Wisdom for the Seeker’s Soul. Find out more about the book and FREE Seeker’s Guide at www.sarawiseman.com
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Filed in: externally authored, spirituality
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