Natural Mindfulness
Most of the great spiritual leaders of history drew lessons from observing nature. Lessons about not being anxious, generosity, and compassion are compared to the workings of the world around us.
In the modern world, we are at risk of being cut off from these lessons because we can cut ourselves off from nature. We protect ourselves from cold and hot. We have abundant food choices that do not depend on local growing cycles. We speed from one location to another.
What do we miss by insulating ourselves from the earth's rhythms?
Anxiety plagues Western societies. We have ample examples of narcissism run amok. People seem to have more but be less satisfied with their lives.
Mindfulness of the natural world seems to offer the opportunity to break through our mindless pursuit for a trivial goal and put us in touch with something that is larger and more powerful than any single individual. Perhaps the spiritual leaders of the past were trying to draw our attention to an important way to learn lessons of wisdom. John Weaver, Psy.D.
