If you're stressed out, depressed, fatigued, or anxious, the cure might be right outside your door. Dutch researchers recently found that people who live near a park or wooded area experience less depression and anxiety than their urban counterparts. A new study from the UK found that walking in the country reduced depression in 71% of participants. And many studies have shown that sunlight can ease depression — especially SAD, or seasonal affective disorder, in winter. Now that the warm weather is upon us, it's a great time to tap into the regenerative power of your environment. Doing so can have instant and profound effects on your mood, transforming negative emotions such as fear, depression, anger, and anxiety into a peaceful, happy state of mind. Try these techniques.
The Sun
Here comes the sun — get lit up. The power of metaphor in nature has been recorded since people could write. Here's how you can use it. Set your alarm in time to get outside when it's still dark. As the sun is rising, concentrate on the dawning light. The sun's rays transform the darkness of night into the brilliance of day. As your senses experience the warmth and light, it naturally brightens your mood.
Get Soleful with the Earth
Get "soleful" love — feel the earth beneath your feet. Take a walk outside — someplace where you feel peaceful. Put one foot in front of the other slowly, and try to quiet your internal chatter. With each step, visualize the earth's love coming into your body through your feet and dissolving any problems you have. When you allow the pure, raw power of the earth into your body this way, it has an immediate calming effect.
Earth and Sky
Become the center between earth and sky. This is an ancient Huichol Indian technique that helps you feel less scattered and stressed out, and achieve a balanced emotional state. Sit or lie on the ground outside. Visualize the light of the sun entering the top of your head, filling your heart and body, and then going down into the earth. Feel the earth beneath you, and draw the love of the earth up into your heart and body, and then send it up to the sun. Feel your connection to all life.
Embrace Peace Darkness
Let darkness embrace you, and embrace the darkness. At night, find a place in nature where you're not surrounded by things manmade and the only light is the stars. Get enveloped in the welcome darkness, listen to the sounds of nature, and connect to your world. Doing this simple technique even once a week helps you calm down after a busy, hectic day. We tend to come inside at night, but darkness offers a rich setting in which we can experience profound peace.
Big Picture
See yourself in the context of the really, really big picture. To bring fear or worry into perspective, focus on a positive event in nature that will continue whether you face your fear or not. Recall the colors of the last sunrise you saw, or think of the present season and its inevitable progression into the next one. You'll see that such enormous events continue — whether you and your troubles are there or not. Gaining this perspective often helps minimize the intensity of such negative emotions.
Fight Negativity
Fight negativity with fire. Transform negative emotions such as fear, anger, and jealousy by sitting before a fire outside or a candle inside and looking at the flame. Imagine your heart opening like a flower and see yourself breathing in the fire's light. Do this for about 5 minutes. This technique also gives immediate relief to the part of your body that's holding the emotion (for instance, a knot in your stomach, a stiff neck, or a tight throat).
Shaman-healer Brant Secunda and legendary world champion Ironman Mark Allen are known for blending ancient shamanic wisdom with the latest scientific findings on nutrition, fitness, mood, and stress, and will be teaching a weekend seminar in Boulder's majestic Chautauqua Park, Their new book is Fit Soul, Fit Body: 9 Keys to Healthier, Happier You (BenBella Books). More information is at www.fitsoul-fitbody.com.
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