Nature, Ego, Vibes
Read Time: 10 minutes
Food for Thought:
What is the relationship between nature and the ego?
How might nature loosen the ego?
How might nature heal us vibrationally?
When was the last time you were in nature? Where was it and what were you doing? How did it make you feel?
Maybe you were camping in the woods, lying on the beach, fishing on a lake, strolling through a city park, hiking through the mountains, kayaking down a river, or just sitting in your backyard and staring at the sky.
Nature has a healing effect. And not just physical but also psychological and vibrational.
Not everyone loves nature, and I get that. Flying insects, creepy crawly bugs, unruly birds, unpredictable wind, dirt, sweat, allergies, and the lack of ready-made, consumerist amenities can be stressful. Many people prefer cushy couches, cold air conditioning, refrigerated beverages, and easily reachable outlets for their one-hundred-and-ten digital devices that demand constant attention.
I am being a bit flippant, of course. But it’s true. Plenty of people hate nature and I too love me some cush.
But let’s be real—we are in and of nature. Without nature, we don’t exist. If you don’t believe me then go ask the climate crisis. And, even more dramatically, we are nature doing itself.
This highlights why nature can be so healing. Connecting with nature means connecting with parts of ourselves that are often ignored, downplayed, or never even acknowledged.
Physically speaking, nature opens your pores and exfoliates your skin; alters your breathing and increases your oxygen intake; and forces you to use different muscles. This then reduces blood pressure and heart rate and thereby reduces stress hormones.
Psychologically, nature asks nothing of us. It does its thing with or without us. There’s no asshole boss, sleazy salesperson, or algorithmically-driven misinformation about the “Covid hoax.” And, likewise, nature doesn’t care if you’re the asshole, sleazeball, or propagandist. It let’s you do you.
Nature lets you forget yourself as if you don’t matter. But the “you” that doesn’t matter is nothing more than your reified, sedimented, preestablished self. Some people might call it ego. And yes, the ego is important. It’s that part of your being that realizes, “Holy Christ, this world is screwed up! I need to protect my ass. If I don’t, no one will!” That very real psychological need for self-protection then develops into a muscle, usually quite early in life. Over time and through repetition day in and day out, that muscle tightens and toughens. It can become so rigid that it eclipses other parts of your being. At that point, you are all ego and nothing else.
But that’s not entirely true. Muscles are quite dynamic and can be worked and manipulated. It’s like stress knots in your back. Those hard tissue balls are painful and limit your daily movements. But a trained masseuse can stretch and knead those knots until they loosen and let go. It hurts at first. But that’s true for most personal change—physical or otherwise. You pay up front for a future return.
Nature is the masseuse that stretches and kneads your ego-knot. But it’s a passive therapist. Nature sits there and invites your gaze. And if look long enough you’ll begin to see yourself. Your true self. Your self that precedes and exceeds your ego. Your self that emerges from and contributes to all that is. Your Om self.
Now before my nature-hating friends raise their voices, I want to say that, yes, nature can be quite stressful. Even deadly. Natural disasters, shark attacks, tic bites, quick sand, avalanches, black mold, and roach infestations are no fun. Oh, and Covid-19? Yeah, that’s nature, too. But this misses the point. Sitting in the forest doesn’t make us immortal. In fact, it highlights our mortality. You recognize your bareness.
That bareness is psychological. It shifts your mental dial and allows you to see your own psychological composition. That’s why it’s therapeutic.
But that bareness is also vibrational. Loosening the ego increases vibrational awareness. You become more attuned to your own vibe and the vibe of others. And in this case, more attuned to nature’s vibration.
Nature’s vibration is a tuning fork that resets your vibe. It brings you back to your base, your core, your foundation, your Ommmmm.
Your vibe, like your psyche, can become reified and cluttered.
By reified, I mean overly-patterned. You emanate the same vibe over and over, day in and day out. It’s like a dirty room without windows. Stale, stenchy, lifeless. We all do it to some degree. It’s a byproduct of living a patterned life. And human life (and perhaps all life) is patterned. Nothing persists without patterns. But those patterns can become sedimented and nothing new moves in or out.
By cluttered I mean too many internalized vibes. You emanate the family vibe when you’re with family. You emanate friends’ vibes when you’re with friends. You emanate your partner’s vibe when you’re with them. You emanate work vibes when you’re at work. You emanate the friendly deli vibe when you’re picking up a sandwich. Et cetera. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. It demonstrates dexterity and empathy. But these other vibes can become overly internalized and you lose sight of your own vibe, your true vibe, your Om vibe.
This is why connecting with nature is important. It heals your body, clears your head, and soothes your soul. You don’t have to be deep forest survivalist or extreme mountain climber. Sometimes a simple backyard tree or a city rooftop will do the trick. There’s always some nature, somewhere. Go find it and vibe with it. More times than not, you’ll be thankful that you did.