Photo by Don Pierce
Pleasures can be enhanced in two ways:
Savoring – focusing on congratulations, thankfulness, marveling in the wonder of the moment, and luxuriating.
Mindfulness – the focusing of the mind solely on present events, allowing one to see the present moment anew and make stale moments fresh. Mindfulness can be heightened through meditation.
Gratifications and the resulting exhilarating state of flow build psychological capital that can be used later in life. Those who dwell in pleasure typically have more fun, but those who dwell in gratifications typically achieve more and have later lives that are more successful.
More striving for gratifications and less pursuit of pleasure is a large part of the antidote needed to overcome the epidemic of depression. What is more pleasurable and gratifying than hearing your own name? Your name is intimately linked with your sense of Self. Saying it out loud causes the sound to reach deeply into your psyche. This chanting of your name triggers a lifetime of associations. Try it.
To The Intonation Of One’s Moniker…
HumaNatureConnect Activity
If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:
Start-up Protocol
Read The Text — Use your literary, mind, and reason senses to read your way towards happiness and sustainability, but do not just be an arm-chair traveler. Use your other natural senses as you also spend healthful, fun, and productive time in nature on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.
Attractive Natural Being — With pen and journal in hand, go to a natural area and look around to find a natural being that is attractive to you.
Appreciation and Gratefulness — While admiring your chosen being, appreciate it with your inhalations and give it gratitude with your exhalations.
Consent — Once you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to you continuously for at least ten seconds, think of your continued attraction as your consent to have a connection experience that will lead to your optimal functioning.
The Natural Senses — After gaining consent to enter into a connection experience with the natural being, have available the list of Natural Senses. Mix it up by using at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense, to widen your perception and add variety to your experience.
HumaNatureConnect Activity — After reading the text, finding a natural being, appreciating it, gaining its consent, and scanning the list of natural senses, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced optimal functioning to do the following activity and engage in as many follow-up components as you see fit.
Chanting Your Name
For this activity, use your natural sense of hearing including resonance, vibrations, sonar, and ultrasonic frequencies as you chant your name. When you do, use one note or make up a melody. Chant one note per syllable or release a string of notes for each syllable. Chant with fervor and you will be sending your unique sound into the vastness of the universe. After chanting loudly, chant softly. Then whisper your name. Be playful and humorous. Think of the sound of your voice as a deep bell, calling your Soul into full embodiment.
Follow-up Protocol
Natural Systems Reflection Process
For best results, write down your impressions of this activity in your journal using as many of the following components as you see fit, afterwards, share your interpretations with others.
Journal Components
General Description — writing a general description of how you did the activity and what happened.
Freeform — writing, in freeform, what you found attractive about your natural being.
Three Qualities — writing down three qualities you found most attractive about your natural being.
Three Learnings — writing down three things you learned from this activity.
Self-esteem & Trust — writing down how, if at all, this activity changed your self-esteem or trustfulness of Nature.
Changes To Self — writing down what aspects of your self, if any, were changed by this activity.
Honor Yourself — praising yourself and your commitment to making another stop along the Heartwood Path good for yourself and the world.
I’m A Person Who . . . — writing down three different so-called “G/G Statements” using the following format: “This connection experience tells me that I am a person who_________.”
Feelings If Activity Taken — writing down a sentence about how you would feel if you lost your ability to experience this connection.
Nature Compared To Self — creating a sentence that reads: “I love this (insert words that identify the attractive natural being) because it is (insert words that refer to the qualities you like about the natural being).” Then, creating a parallel sentence that reads: “I love (insert the word “myself”) because I am (insert the same qualities as before).” If only one follow-up component can be done at any one waypoint, do this one. It reveals a lot about the participant quickly. In group settings it is a very good way to get pertinent conversation underway.
Ride The Green Wave — determining whether you understand and agree with all of the Ten Green Wave Validation Statements. In your journal, give yourself a plus sign (+) if you do agree and a minus sign (-) if you do not agree. Do not worry if you do not give yourself a plus sign (+). These notations are merely for your own information. Regardless of your own plus or minus assessments, you are always free to move on; or, if you are attracted to do so, you can always revisit the waypoint, ask for Guidance, and/or redo the activity.
Two-Word Summary — writing down two words that summarize your response to this activity.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage
Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint
“Dreams become a kind of early warning system, telling of the (health) problem long before we are faced with actual symptoms.” (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 190).
Aizenstat’s statement is a good reminder of the need to continue to tend to your dreams daily.
After Dream Tending, move to the next waypoint: “Awesome Goodness.” The next waypoint is a key step towards remarkable jubilation. Be sure not to diminish the elation that can be found at the next waypoint by convincing yourself that you do not have time to do the activity in nature. We slight nature at our own expense. By immersing ourselves in our attractions in nature we light up a specific portions of the brain, specifically the anterior portions of the parahippocampal gyrus, which is rich in opioid receptors. These receptors connect to the dopamine reward system and, therefore, have the ability to trigger feelings of wellness and the motivation needed for helpful behavioral modification (Selhub & Logan, 2014, p. 28).
