Terraphilia: strength training for our hearts and spirits

Lean in to nature

Two-tailed Swallowtail sips nectar from basswood tree blossoms on a hot June afternoon—summer in the North Fork Valley! photo: Susan J Tweit

Hello Friends,

It’s been a hard week for this battered world, with wars and Ebola and famine, plus the continuing assault on American democracy, our communities, and our public lands. And on a personal level, a death in my close friend circle.

As I was thinking about how to offer us all strength, courage, and inspiration to keep walking forward with love, I remembered an essay I wrote called “Leaning in to Terraphilia: strength training for the heart and spirit,” from a year ago. I am reprising that essay below—lightly revised—because it feels even more relevant now.

Next Earthbound Live Conversation coming up!

First though, a reminder: Tune in to the next Earthbound Live conversation, this Sunday, June 14th, at 2 pm MT (1 pm PT, 4 pm ET and so on). I’ll be talking with fluvial geologist, author, and river guide Becca Lawton of Reading Water. We’ll talk terraphilia, how she stays connected to nature everyday, and her forthcoming book, Boatwoman. (The replay video will be available next Thursday in this newsletter.)

Terraphilia: strength training for our hearts and spirits

It feels like we’re living in a hurricane, all howling winds and crashing noise. The churn of constant change ratchets up our stress and anxiety, and makes it difficult to focus and take action, and even to simply live.

Which is why I am leaning in to our species’ innate terraphilia. Practicing our cell-level attachment to a world larger and more lasting than human concerns reminds us to live with love and care, to stay centered, connected and kind.

Practicing terraphilia is a strength-training routine for our hearts and spirits, those muscles essential to living as humans. Especially living in times that are overwhelming and frightening.

Cultivating our inner terraphilia offers connection and hope, inspiration and grounding. It right-sizes our egos, reminding us that humanity is not the center of the universe. Nor are we are all-powerful. Humanity is pretty darned minuscule in the vastness of time and space.

Strong hearts and healthy spirits are essential to taking what Quakers call “right action,” that is, doing things in a way that lasts, that makes a positive difference in this world. Actions that are reciprocal, give back, create community and nurture the bonds of belonging. In short, terraphilic actions.

Trail Lake in Wyoming’s Wind River Range mirrors the peaks, full moon, and a solitary duck in flight. photo: Susan J Tweit

Nature-Time: Our Calm in the Storm

Practicing terraphilia reconnects us to nature, the web of interrelationships that create this living Earth, our home as a species and our sustenance always.

Spending time in nature is like bathing in wellness.

Research shows that as little as 15 minutes spent in a natural surrounding—or even just looking at images of nature—is powerfully restorative.

That kind of nature time:

• lowers our stress levels

• calms our fight or flight responses

• drops our heart rate and blood pressure

• strengthens our compassion circuits

• increases our ability to focus and concentrate

• improves decision making and critical thinking

• heightens our capacity for empathy and self-love

• lessens depression and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

Time in nature gives us back our best selves. To live, love and act.

Bumblebee dives headfirst into penstemon blossom in my front garden, gathering pollen. Photo: Susan J Tweit

Practice: Give Your Devices the Gift of Nature

Here’s a simple way to bring the healing and calming power of nature into your daily life: use images of nature as wallpaper and screen savers on your electronic devices.

So whenever you pick up your phone or pad, wake your computer or glance at your television, the first image you see offers calm in the storm, lowering your stress levels, clearing your mind, and lifting heart and spirit.

Before opening any app, streaming a movie, or scrolling social media, allow yourself to absorb that gift. Look at that image, take several deep breaths, and let nature work its magic.

We need the practice of terraphilia to strengthen our whole selves.

To give us connection and inspiration, joy and hope. To hear the voice of the sacred which speaks within all of us.

To remember how to reciprocate for the gifts of the earth and our communities. To discern right action.

To simply live.

Whenever you despair, step a way from the digital world of distraction and get outside. Time in nature will buoy you and ease the stress of living in this hurricane.

And remember this: Love wins in the end. Not necessarily easily or quickly, but it does win. Love is what lasts.

Thanks for walking with me.

Blessings,

Susan