Natural elements, time spent in connection with nature, views of nature, and natural lighting can have a powerful effect on the healing process. Nature is a source of solace, renewal, and insights. Interacting with nature can be as simple as gardening on a small patio with potted plants, tending to a bird feeder, taking walks along the ocean, or exploring the “wide open spaces” of a nature preserve or national park. Anywhere individuals can be inspired by natural elements, “recharge their batteries,” get their hands dirty in a garden, or engage in partnership with the elements, the beauty and power of nature fills them with awe, gratitude, peace, and a sense of well-being.
In wild, natural places, people also often experience the sacred. This is why many native cultures and global healing traditions (such as Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurvedic medicine) are intimately connected with natural elements and natural experiences. Being in wild nature engenders a sense of mystery and awe about the world, a sense of wonder about the earth or a particular wild place, a sense of connectedness or oneness with the natural world, a profound feeling of transcendence and belief in something greater than one’s self, and a simple appreciation for the sheer beauty in nature. Feelings of hope, peace, empowerment, physical and emotional well-being, and joy are sparked (Shaw, 2003). Abrahamson (2014) states that nature can cause us to feel a vast and unexpected experience, make us feel small and humbled when compared with the larger world or universe, and forces us to revise our mental model of what is possible in the world. Awe is a fleeting and rare experience that can change the course of life in profound and permanent ways. Often, nature and natural encounters are the cause of awesome experiences.
Yet the sad reality is that most people actually spend very little time in nature. Many individuals suffer from “nature deficit disorder,” a term coined by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder. According to Louv (2005), many children he interviewed spent little time outdoors and would rather play indoors “because that is where all the electrical outlets are” (p. 10). He expressed concern that our society teaches young people to avoid direct experiences with nature, and this broken bond with the natural world causes mental, physical, and spiritual distress and related health problems. Indeed, the average American child spends more time indoors than his or her parents did. On average, American children spend about 4 to 7 minutes a day outdoors and an average of 7 hours a day in front of electronic media and in excess of 32 hours a week in front of a television (TV). By the time most children have finished kindergarten, they have watched more than 5,000 hours of TV—enough time to earn a college degree. Recess was once a part of every child’s school day but that is not the case anymore (National Wildlife Federation, n.d.). While we often see ourselves as separate from nature, human beings are a part of the wildness of nature.
The feeling of separateness from nature is a relatively recent phenomenon. For most of history, human beings were intimately connected with their surroundings, and their very lives depended on knowledge about what plants to eat, when to sow crops, what plants could be used to heal, and the cycles and seasons of nature and the beings that inhabited the earth.