The 2020 pandemic forced a lot of us inside and then OUTSIDE. Myself included. In the early days before vaccinations came about, I was forced to stay away from friends, family, and coworkers and was stuck looking for ways to cure my boredom and restlessness inside.
This forced me outside and I was suddenly obsessed with exploring the nature around my house.
I’ve now implemented daily walks in the forest area near my house and it brings me so much joy.
HOWEVER, it has become a little routine. Especially in the winter months. I sometimes struggle to find the same wonderment, connection, and meaning I found in the beginning.
People have different reasons for wanting to experience nature more actively from wanting the health benefits of walking more to wanting to clear your mind, to wanting to feel childlike wonderment again. All are valid 🙂
You don’t actually need a reason to want to feel closer to nature.
Here are some tips for enhancing your connection to nature:
- Touch what you see (**with respect, avoid damaging anything)
We take mostly everything in with our eyes and ears while walking, but you may find it brings a new layer of depth to engage with the environment with your fingers or even toes. Feel the texture of moss, run your toes through mud (if you can clean up easily), grab some snow and let it melt in your hands. The feelings are truly sensational and the possibilities are endless.
- Have a trail snack or try foraging
You’ve got to be extremely careful with this one because many plants and fungi are poisonous. However, if you know with 100% certainty that something is edible, go ahead and have a little nibble 🙂 just make sure you’re leaving enough for the birds and other animals. To take this to a whole new level, there’s the concept of urban foraging or foraging. There’s not enough room to go over this topic here, but consider crabapple milk tea, sumac-ade (lemonade, but with sumac berries), honeysuckle cordial, dandelion fritters! There’s so much you can do with things you can find around you. Here’s a link to my favourite urban forager who has recipes to all of these things, Alexis Nicole. I also really enjoy Foraged by Fern. - Bring some back with you *respectfully, don’t take too much
Instead of buying roses shipped from Colombia (and resulting in heavy carbon emissions for storage and travel), consider making your own wildflower bouquet with native plants. You can also press flowers in books to make beautiful wall art. Sometimes people hammer out the pigments in flowers like pansies that have easily transferrable pigment in their petals. Finally, you can try incorporating it into other art media like sun prints or doing crafts with pine cones. A personal favourite is making a basket out of pine needles (but this requires a lot of time and patience). - Identify what you see (animals and plants)
You can do this with an app or just what you already know. When going for walks becomes a little dry, it could help to “gamify” the process or enrich it by identifying what you see rather than passively walking past it. I got in the habit of identifying plants using the PictureThis app (based on images) and birds using BirdNet (based on the bird call audio) to identify different species and it made otherwise regular walks in the forest a lot more interactive. I learned so much about what is native to my corner of the earth and feel I’m part of that ecosystem. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know dozens of species that I can now recognize on sight or sound. - Gardening/planting seeds
Similar to #1 on this list, you can use your sense of touch and give back to nature at the same time. You may find yourself developing a green thumb throughout the process and you will surely learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t by building your own little ecosystem. Bonus points if you stick to plants indigenous to your area, plants for pollinators, and plants that help endangered species (ex. in my area, we can plant milkweed for the monarch butterflies). If you engage in wild or urban foraging, it’s a nice gesture to give back to the earth by spreading seeds for existing plants or by planting new (indigenous) ones. - Feed the birds
Birds are around during all seasons. Some stick around throughout the winter even in cold conditions. You can put out food for the birds in colder months when it’s harder for them to source their own food in nature. As a bonus, if you set up a feeder near you, you may get many unique visitors around your house to watch. - Listen
Try going for a walk in the woods with no music or headphones at all. Or going out in a torrential downpour (with an umbrella, boots and a rain jacket of course). You may be shocked at how heightened your senses become when you’re not distracted by media and fully disconnected.
I got caught in the rain today on a walk and haven’t felt so alive in ages. The sound was overwhelming and hypnotic. - Pick up trash
It feels good to do a good thing. If you enjoy being in nature, why not give back to it and help clean it up? I find it helps if you carry a plastic bag with you so you’re not stuck holding or pocketing something when you’re miles away from a trash can.
- Enhance with technology
Apps like AllTrails can inspire you to try trails you’ve never been to before. When travelling I enjoy finding new trails to explore and AllTrails helps me get a quick lay of the land. Fitness apps like Strava can also encourage you to get out there more because they’ll remind you of the physical benefits of going outside and may also add a social/competitive element to your outdoor excursions. Check out this full list in a previous post on the best tech to enhance your hiking experience. - Challenge yourself to take a different route or go slightly outside of your comfort level with the difficulty of the terrain.
Trying a path you’ve never been to can give you a sense of childlike wonderment you haven’t felt in a while. I often find that the first time I visit a trail or visit it for the first time in a new season is the most memorable experience I have at that trail. There is truly nothing like that feeling of discovery.
Pro tip: I sometimes just zoom out of Google Maps from where I am to see if there are any green spaces I can walk in near me that I haven’t been to before. I’ve found myself astounded at the treasures that were mere minutes from where I lived. - Lie down and watch the sky
Watch the clouds passing by. You may catch a shooting star. Let your mind’s worries drift away with the passing clouds. Let your eyelashes be kissed by a light snowfall. These moments are so precious and rarely forgotten. - Try drawing or painting what you see
Let yourself be inspired by what you see. Even taking a picture is a great way to express this if you see a particular scene that moves you. Many great artists have been moved and inspired by scenes of nature. Maybe that can be you! - Share the love (show your loved ones what moves you so you can pass on the good)
Not only are you spreading the good, but other people may show you perspectives you’ve never considered. I find my friend will tend to look out for critters, where I’m more interested in plants. I love wandering aimlessly, but other friends feel discomfort walking somewhere without a destination. There’s something poetic in those differences. - Camping
There’s no better way to get a feel for how nature works outside of human civilization than to spend a night outside of it. I find even spending an hour outside is enough to understand patterns that have become irrelevant due to our sheltered way of living. It feels enriching and spiritual to understand the old patterns of the earth.
Once, getting caught in a fierce downpour, I was amazed at the varied patterns the precipitation cycled through before clearing up. Another time while camping, I remarked how the forest was almost deafeningly loud at night with frog sounds compared to the tranquillity during the day. These are things I never would’ve known without those times spent outside and in tune. - Advocate for it/activism
There is no right answer for how to go about this. For someone, it could look like donating money to green causes. For another, it could look like biking or walking to work. You may formally engage in activism for greener policies, or simply share with your friends your thoughts on preserving nature. I will be attending a tree planting event next week with some coworkers and that is a way I’m actively playing a role in preserving what I value. I view writing this blog as a form of activism too. - Write a love letter to nature
Nature has inspired many artists from Monet to Thoreau. How could you ask for a more inspiring muse than that? Consider writing a poem about the way the sun filters through the leaves on a fall afternoon. Or about the twinkling in the snow after a fresh snowfall. Or about the deafening patter of rain on your umbrella or of the songs the trees sing in the windy hour before a storm. The possibilities are endless!
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