I grew up in and around the Phoenix Metropolitan area, which didn’t seem big at all when I was a kid. It was all I knew and came across so different from the bustling streets of New York City I saw in movies. We felt rather miniscule, actually. However, as I got older I realized just how huge Phoenix truly is (the 6th largest city in the nation)! There were lots of other things about Phoenix I started to notice too. The older I got and the more I saw outside my home I began to notice how I felt being inside a busy metropolitan area. I was constantly on the same rush hour packed roads, walking in the same crowded crosswalks, and sitting in my usual florescent-lit classrooms. I’d come back home to my house and be in, yet again, the same old surroundings. Often in our modern world, we find ourselves in the constant, familiar urban spaces; houses, offices, classrooms, and highways, and this is exactly what was happening for me.
I also started to notice how these settings made me feel; repetitive and stuck. These urban places all offer some kind of regulation, restricting our activity or enforcing societal norms. Without even realizing it, our urban lives put us in a completely different mindset. One where we feel obligated to follow certain standards and fit inside a specific idea of life. I had the same routine I had to follow, which allowed my mind to follow a routine as well. I found myself feeling a need to live my life the way people expected and follow a well-known path already laid out by people before me. It wasn’t always this way. I graduated with degrees in film production and non profit management, so I clearly didn’t feel a need to follow any predictable path at first. However, after awhile of being surrounded by regulations I started to feel perhaps I did to align my life to a more expected route. Urban life had began to restrict my imagination and dreams.
Even when I was living in Phoenix I wasn’t just in the city all the time. I still got out in to nature as often as I could, hiking, biking, or just sitting at the Salt River. I liked scrambling to some viewpoint and watching the sunset or lying in the grass at a park to observe the swaying trees. I knew the outdoors made me feel better, but I didn’t see a connection between the feeling of being stuck and my city life. It wasn’t till I started working outdoors that I really understood what made me love being outside so much. When surrounded by the natural environment every day I felt much more free to be myself, open to creativity, and relaxed. There weren’t as many negative thoughts floating around in my head telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. The idea that I had a certain plan I had to follow for my life seemed to fade away. Rather, I had a sense that I could and would accomplish anything my imagination could dream up. It was great to be in a place where my dreamer side could come out in full swing and talk myself up as much as I wanted to!
When we’re in nature our mindsets begin to shift from the normality of every day city life. We’ve physically opened up to a world outside of what we’re used to when we step into the great outdoors and our minds follow suit. There’s a chance to live and think outside of the usual regulations and ideas. No bright yellow traffic lines telling us to keep in our own lanes. No red flashing hands forbidding us to walk forward. No loud, blaring noises filling our heads nonstop. Instead there’s winding, looping trails, wide open fields, and the soft rustling of leaves. These natural places give us an opportunity to hear ourselves again instead of all the city noises. We get to return back to who we are and in turn our imaginations get to roam, free of any limitations. For me, once I have the chance to think outside of the typical rules of our world, the society we’ve created, I feel the sense that anything is possible. I see a connection between myself and everything surrounding me. I come back home with new ideas and feeling at peace with my life. It’s such a great feeling that I think absolutely everyone should get connected to it!
Now, just because it took me getting out of the city and into the outdoors in my everyday life to connect to this part of myself, doesn’t mean that’s what you have to do! However, I do hope it shows you just how important it is to get yourself in nature however you can. When my friend Janet and I got together to take pictures in her beautiful backyard she told me gardening was her way of bringing nature to herself. It was her own oasis to come home to after being in a busy city environment and her chance to get to connect to the great outdoors. I think this is such a beautiful idea to bring nature to you! You get the opportunity to create the perfect, dream environment for you. One that will completely allow your beliefs of should and shouldn’t to dissolve and make room for all the wonderful, big, out-of-this-world aspirations you have for your life. There might not always be the time to make it out to your favorite hiking trail or spot by the river, but at any moment you can step out into your own yard and just let Mother Nature work her magic on you.
But now I want to hear about your experiences! Do you notice a difference in how you feel and your mindset when you get to be in nature? What are some ways that you bring nature to yourself? What kind of environment would you create for yourself if you had the opportunity? Share with me!
