Research continues to demonstrate the healing power of nature. People in hospital rooms that have windows overlooking a garden recover faster than those who do not. People who swim with dolphins recover from depression more quickly than people who take antidepressants. Children with ADHD who play outdoors regularly display fewer symptoms than those who do not. These are just a few examples of the many beneficial effects of the healing power of nature. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) helps you to connect to this healing power
Facilitator Notes for Session 11: Nature as Healer
PREPARATION
Read the Session 11 Course Materials, review the exercises listed in the chapter and try them at least once yourself prior to facilitating the group.
Practice presenting the materials in this session alone before facilitating the session so you will have a good idea of how long it will take you, given your own speaking and presentation style, to go over critical materials. Adjust by adding or leaving out materials as needed, but do not cut key concepts or Priority 1 exercises and activities if at all possible.
Note that for the Animal-Assisted Healing exercise, an animal of some sort is needed. If you have the availability, bring an animal of some sort with you for this exercise in today’s session. It might be a friendly dog or cat, a horse, or some other sort of docile and friendly animal who is not afraid of strangers. Be conscious of liability issues should the animal somehow injure one of your students. You might also ask if any students have allergies before introducing the animal to the group.
As an alternative to bringing your own animal you might have students bring their pets. Just be aware that animals who are strangers to each other might have difficulties getting along, so plan accordingly. The best results I’ve ever had in this session is with horses who were accustomed to participating in animal-assisted therapy. Use your own discretion as to what may or may not be possible given your own location and resources.
If it’s simply not possible to have animals present for this session (for example if you have to meet indoors for some reason) then you may have your participants do this portion of the session at home. If this is your plan, make sure they have done this prior to today’s session. Don’t assign it as homework for this session, as later sections in this session build on the exercise.
KEY CONCEPTS
(Key concepts are those concepts that are foundational principles of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy, and must be covered in the session): Animal-Assisted Therapy; animal-assisted healing; nature as healer; chaos; order; Shadow; Persona, and individuation
SECONDARY CONCEPTS
(Secondary concepts are those concepts that are not foundational, but that are important if the facilitator can work them into the session – otherwise students will read about them on their own in the reading assignments): Seasonal mood changes; animal assistants, and biorhythms
INTRODUCTION
As an icebreaker exercise, ask participants to discuss their experiences with nature as healer. Start this activity by asking for volunteers to tell a story in which they received healing from nature. This discussion lays the groundwork for the activities in this session.
SESSION 11 OUTLINE
11.0 Animal as Healer
This section doesn’t require a lot of discussion other than introducing the concept that animals can help us in the healing process. You might ask students to list ways in which their pets have given them emotional and/or physical healing of some sort.
11.1 Animal Assisted Healing
Discuss some of the research demonstrating the healing power of animal assisted therapy if time permits. If you are running short on time, you can skip this section, as the material is contained elsewhere in the workbook.
EXERCISE: Animal Assisted Healing PRIORITY 1
If animals are present for this activity, you will probably have to let your students take turns doing the exercise with the animals available. The exception here would be if every student was able to bring a pet along. Students should take their pulses just prior to interacting with the animal, and they should take their pulses again just after interacting with the animal.
After all participants finish the exercise, ask how many had an increased heart rate, and how many had a decreased heart rate. In most cases, heart rate decreases unless the student was wrestling with the animal, or playing fetch, or some other sort of vigorous physical activity.
11.2 Reflections on Animal Assisted Healing
Start discussion here by asking students to volunteer their experiences with the previous exercise. Next, facilitate a discussion on animal assisted healing by reviewing the bullet points of the studies in this section and asking students to reflect on times they may have experienced any of the things discovered by the studies mentioned.
11.3 Material Possessions and Healing
Facilitate a discussion by asking your students to think of some things that they could not live without. Ask them to imagine themselves stranded on a deserted island. What would be the minimum they would need to survive? The idea behind this exercise is to illustrate just how little we actually need in order to survive. Most material possessions are luxuries, and the more material possessions we bring into our lives, the more potential for stress and anxiety we bring into our lives. This is because we first have to earn the money to buy those possessions, then we have to take care of those possessions once we own them.
EXERCISE: Anxiety from Material Possessions PRIORITY 1
This exercise takes a while because it draws on responses from previous exercises. Have students do it in session today if at all possible so that they will be in the right frame of mind for the exercises that follow. Try not to spend more than fifteen or twenty minutes on this portion so there will be enough time to cover the rest of the materials.
EXERCISE: Material Possessions as Aids to Connection PIORITY 1
When doing this exercise ask your students to be honest about their answers, and not to deny finding numinous connections from material possessions if they do have such connections in their lives. For example, my guitars and flutes are material possessions, but the music they allow me to create has healed me many times over. They are material possessions that I would prefer not to lose.
Ask your students to share some material possessions that they find spiritual connections with. After they’ve identified a few, ask them how much stress and anxiety they’ve experienced purchasing those items and paying for their upkeep and maintenance If your students are like the majority of mine, then material possessions from which they get a sense of spiritual connection probably don’t cause them much distress. This is probably because if the connection is spiritual, we don’t mind the upkeep.
11.4 Connecting and Healing
In this section, briefly discuss the health benefits of developing spiritual connections. For the purposes of this workshop series, the definition of “spiritual” is “connected to something larger than self.” Even people who have no concept of a higher power or of the divine can reap the healing benefits of connecting. For example, many types of Buddhism don’t require belief in any sort of gods or higher power, yet most Buddhists feel a powerful sense of connection to the earth and all the life that surrounds them.
I personally like the idea of mysticism, and I often introduce the concept here. A mystic is someone who recognizes that if there is such a thing as a God or Gods, then such a thing is, by definition, beyond human understanding. Therefore when we claim to know anything about God(s), we are no longer talking about God(s). At that point we are talking about our own ideas being projected onto the unknowable.
A mystic, on the other hand, would recognize that belief in God(s) is not a necessary or useful concept when developing a spiritual connection to life, the universe, and everything. We can experience the numinous without having to believe in any sort of deity. As author and humorist Douglas Adams said, “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies living at the bottom of it?”
The more we are able to experience such a sense of spiritual connection, the more we open ourselves to the healing power of nature.
When presenting this idea, try to avoid the temptation of letting the discussion turn into a theological debate on the nature of God(s). The concept of the divine is up to the individual. The bottom line is, “Does this idea help me to connect with nature in spiritual and healing ways?”
11.5 Chaos and Order
Facilitate a discussion on linking chaos with the Shadow side of our personalities and on linking order with the Persona. When you had your students do the Faces and Masks exercise, they created a representation of their True Selves in mask form. The word “persona” literally means “mask.” Individuation is the process by which we come to live more fully in our True Selves by balancing the forces of chaos and order in our own lives. The more we live in True Self, the more we become unique individuals, completing the process of individuation.
What does this have to do with nature?
There are always seasons in nature. All of the seasons are necessary. Without the decay and death of autumn and winter, the new growth of spring and summer could not take place. Likewise, human beings experience seasons of growth and seasons of decay. It is unrealistic to expect never to have a winter in our lives, because that is part of being a human being. Just as both chaos and order are necessary for nature to thrive and prosper, so are the Shadow and the Persona necessary to complete the process of individuation so that we may become our True Selves.
Ask students to discuss what this means to them, and how they might integrate their Shadow sides into their being without trying to suppress or deny the darker aspects of their nature.
11.6 Healing Rhythms
Read over the instructions for filling out the Biorhythm Journal Chart and make sure you understand the purpose of the chart and how to fill it out. Explain the process to your students. The critical concept of the Biorhythm Journal Chart is that for many people, moods and feelings are dependent on the time of day, the seasons, and the weather to some extent. This chart will help to pinpoint these sometimes subtle changes.
EXERCISE: Biorhythm Journal Chart PRIORITY 2
To illustrate the use of the chart, you may have your students complete one entry for today just to make sure they understand how to use the chart. They can then complete the rest of the chart over the coming week. For best results they should plot out their biorhythms for at least a year so they may record their moods in all seasons.
11.7 True Self and Healing
Ask for volunteers to discuss answers to these questions:
- “What would need to be healed within myself in order for me to live fully in True Self?”
- “How can nature and the natural world help me to find this healing?”
Due to the deeply personal nature of these questions, don’t force students to answer if they don’t volunteer. Be aware that this can sometimes be a very emotional segment of the session, and be gentle and patient with participants who answer, offering comfort and nurture where necessary.
HOMEWORK
Have students read the Session 12 materials prior to the next session; have them complete any exercises from Session 11 that weren’t covered in the session itself; ask them to bring any questions about the materials or the exercises to the next session. Since the next session will be the last session of the program, you may wish to plan some sort of closing ritual or ceremony. This could include having a pot luck dinner or an awards ceremony, or just a meet-and-greet with light refreshments. If you’re planning to do this and you need your students to participate in the planning, discuss this at the end of the session today.
DISCUSSION PERIOD
At the one-hour mark, invite group participants to stay for the discussion period. Point out that the thirty-minute post-session discussion period is optional. Note who stays for the discussion, and who leaves. Work at the next session to more actively engage those who leave.
