Climate and Collapse Anxiety, Connection to Nature is Key to Helping

The primarily purpose of this blog post is to promote good mental health through contact with nature and teach people self reliance especially for people experiencing climate Anxiety and climate related depression.

I don't care what people believe in, however I think some people's approach to nature connection and therapy is deeply flawed. I am concerned that Dr Gail Bradbrook is taken in by Shamanic practitioners attending to climate grief and depression when there are psychiatric and psychological studies that indicate that prolonged contact with nature is good for our mental health. Its not just for charging our batteries.

But the Shamanic Practitioners aren't offering nature therapy using medically proven techniques and peer reviewed data. Instead they are using New Age Pic'n'mix psychobabble. They are likely to do more damage, than help.

Meaningful activity in nature is a psychiatrically proven non- medication intervention to ease Generalised Anxiety, one of the commonest modern mental health conditions. Beware of what people who claim magical powers or spiritual connection to nature. The science does not agree with what they are saying.

Nature does not act on the nervous system, it acts on the brain. The limbic system is where nature acts on the brain mediated by brain chemistry. Thie limbic system is part of the brain. There are Shamanic Practitioners teaching nature connection online talking about how nature acts on the nervous system. This is fundamentally wrong. Also it's not possible to "teach" nature connection. Because Humans are already hard-wired into nature. As soon as we enter natural environments our brain responds to nature. The limbic system which governs the fight flight response among other response to external stimuli is stimulated by nature. It produces serotonin in nature. The learning process in nature also acts on the brain, as we discover new skills as we are taught new skills, the brain releases dopamine. The combination of the 2 hormones while  we are in nature sharpen our senses, improves concentration and awareness.

It's what is taught in nature and how it is taught that matters. Survival skills taugh in a pro-social environment using plants are the turn on. Contact with and processing plants builds a deep connection with plants. We learn to nderstand their language, their properties and they become our allies. 

Plants are far more than food. They can keep us warm, give us rope, give us shelter, give us tinder before we even consider them for food. Then of course there are plants as medicine. But processing plants for fibre, warmth and shelter bring us into deep connection with nature. Nature is what many Shamanic Practitioners call the web of life. I think they choose this because nature is too raw. Connecting to nature takes real work, "connecting to the web of life"? We can grandiosely claim to be nodes on the web like we individually influence the vibrations on the web. People will say anything to sound like they are connected to nature. But what does connection to nature mean? For New-Age Self-Styled Shaman its power. Visualisations and guided  meditations are used for self realisation 

For neo- hunter- gatherers connection to nature is connection to the greater life that could sustain us.

"Connecting to the web of life immersed in the web" makes no sense. It is intentionally confusing. We are not nodes on the web, we are merely momentary of vibrations on different parts of the Web. I prefer to use the term "nature connection" because then it’s easier to explain what is happening to us when we have a direct relationship with nature. You don't need ceremony or ceremonial paraphernalia to connect to nature, the human brain is already hard-wired for nature.

But it doesn't mean we are going backwards, it means we are learning skills that feed us the brain chemicals that relieve anxiety and depression  and build resilience and skills that give us confidence and self reliance.

There is currently a lot of Gate- Keeping of spirituality around nature connection. Primarily there seems to be 2 main approaches. The clinically proven method and the spiritual practice method found in Core Shamanism, by Michael Harner. 

Manda Scott, author of Boudica and Core Shamanism Practitioner like so many other self-styled Pic'n'mix Shaman. Claims we need to "connect to the web of life" but then says sit under a tree and ask it what it wants. While this might be her personal truth. Its not how nature connection works.

Ultimately I need to go with the science, because good mental health doesn't need the mind bending nonsense that these online-nature-gurus can offer us. Dr Gail Bradbrook might be taken in by them, but we don't need to be.