The Healing Power of Nature
February 7, 2026 - The Goddess Diaries
There is a healing power of Nature. I’ve felt it in my bones since I was little - craving the outdoors, proud to be a “tom-boy” getting dirty in the woods and in the creek, needing to be with horses - and I’ve continued to feel it heal me since I had to start “adulting”. On my trips to Egypt, as much as I enjoyed time in the temples my absolute favorite places to be were out in the desert or along the sea or in the countryside along the Nile….places where you felt alone with room to breathe and expand under the sky. Here at home in Central Indiana, when I drive off of the highway and reach the quiet roads that lead deeper into into the country I can literally feel my body breathe, relax, and let go of tension. My heart swells as if it grows another size bigger and fills with happiness and gratitude. My eyes wander to the soaring hawks above and I want to soar with them, to see the world from way up there. I roll the window down and drive slower to allow the scent of the warm soil and dancing grasses in and Life doesn’t seem so complicated anymore.
Life will always have its complications, but it’s how we choose to handle them that can mean the difference between happiness, even if in small degrees, and being miserable. Connecting with nature can help make things seem a little less miserable and offer clarity when you need it most.
After coming out of the Cave to continue my healing, and receiving a message on the wind recently, Nature and its healing properties seemed to step front and center. My healing continues as I began to remember my own connection with Nature and how much it has helped relieve stress and worry for me in the past … and in the present. I felt compelled to look through some of my past writings and poetry for references to my memories and connection to Nature and found some! I’m so very grateful for the writings and the remembering of this connection!
Another recent reminder was something my granddaughter said when we woke up one morning to fresh unexpected snow. As we looked out the window together, I asked her if she had seen the beautiful snow and she said, “Yes!” Then she put her tiny hand on her heart and said, “It’s so beautiful! It makes my heart feel something!”
She’s only 4 years old, but that made me so happy and even though she didn’t have the words to express her feelings fully, I knew exactly what she meant! If only we could always retain and remember to notice the beauty and healing power of nature around us to find happiness in our heart over something as simple as new snowfall.
Oh, but we can! We can connect with Nature anytime and anywhere for we ARE Nature. Some may say we’re made of stardust, but isn’t that a part of Nature as well? When you look up at the bright blue sky filled with clouds or storms or the night sky painted with stars and constellations it can fill your heart with that “something” my granddaughter felt at just 4 years old.
Ancient Egypt and the NETERU…Nature and YOU
There are many indigenous cultures that see the connection between our Selves and the natural world that surrounds us. There’s “Mother Earth” and “Brother Wolf” and “Father Sky” and spirits in the wind and souls dancing in the Northern Lights. The rivers are manifestations of Divine Beings and the mountains have faces. There’s the saying that “We come from dust and to dust we shall return”. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the natural world around them, aka “Nature”, was embodied with divine beings, aka “Neteru”. In my writing, Listening to the Wind, I shared the concept of the Egyptian God of air, Shu, and how by simply breathing we, too, are walking embodiments of divinity.
When we’re out in the elements it has the ability to awaken something in our souls that we may have forgotten; something that we may have forgotten that we remember and we can feel a longing, an expansion, a desire for seeking that which blows on the wind. That “something” may in fact be that part of us that remembers that we’re a part of everything around us and that everything is connected. Hollywood created the “Avatar” movies that highlighted the connection of Nature to all living things and the destructive “nature” of man (that element of eternal chaos that lives in those who have forgotten completely).
During a podcast interview/chat with my friend Lexy, she asked what my advice was to people and I quickly suggested for people to “go outside” and be in nature. I shared that many parents talk about their children, after being stuck indoors for an extended period of time, just need to “go outside!” Yes, to run off some steam and excess energy, but it’s as if somewhere inside they know that it will ground them and bring them back to their center. There is a Japanese practice called “Forest Bathing”, to bring you back to your “true” Nature by walking through the forest, for well-being and peace of mind and to remind you of the connection you have to all things.
We KNOW we’re Nature….we just need to remember what we’ve forgotten that our bodies and souls remember.
Conclusion
In looking through my old writings and poetry, I found one such writing about walking in the forest that I’ll share with you below.
May you remember your Divine Nature and enjoy the journey.
~ Auset
Skydiving Naked with a Monkey on my Back
~~ 3/27/17
I walked in the woods today, a kaleidoscope of colors. To track through the muddy trails I wore my hiking boots, my orange and grey yoga pants, and my blue rain jacket that was doubling as a windbreaker. I looked up into the branches of the bare trees above me listening to the calls of birds that I recognized but could not identify so I imagined them to be cardinals, robins, finches, grackles and woodpeckers. I wondered when the hummingbirds would return.
I wonder about the possibility of getting lost in the forest and not being able to find my way back to my car. But I have to trust my instincts and stay by the water, that vast reflecting pool which mirrors my emotions, full of depth with the stillness and the richness of Life lying just below the surface. I wonder that perhaps walking through the forest in this way, not knowing exactly where this trail will end up, is comforting because it is my life….finding myself along the trail with multiple paths, knowing that no path is wrong. It's just that each path offers a different experience. Which one do I want?
I am this forest and I am these trails. I see trees that have been downed from wind and age, their stumps rising up like gravestones to mark their final resting place in this quiet sacred space. I imagine the possibility of dreaming and skydiving naked with a monkey on my back. I want to be free, naked and open and vulnerable. Totally exposed without shame. I want to be brave enough to share all of me and jump into my life with courage. But right now a part of my past and pieces of my future that are not yet defined, cling to my back like a crazed monkey. And still, I am ready to jump. All in. Completely naked. Freefalling, full of trust. Free.
I am this forest and this trail, the bark on the trees and the scent of spring waking up from winter. The leaves from the trees in autumn lie scattered across the ground through the woods and have become mashed into the mud of the trail like reminders of the past. They just lie there quietly in the forest the way the past dies but within its death there is vibrancy, beauty and fertilizer for new growth into our own personal spring.
I breathe in and I am one with this forest of trails and the possibility each one holds. I am one with the nature of things, the way I breathe in the air that the trees breathe out, the way our breath intertwines inside my heart and lungs and courses through my veins. The trail through these trees becomes littered with exposed roots and there is moss growing on their northern sides. I feel littered with exposed roots and in my inability to make decisions; I, too, am covered in moss on my northern side. It is as if the roots reveal the truth of my own roots exposed. There is a poetic beauty in being able to see these secret portions of naked trees, these long stretched-out fingers that go so deep into the soil to pull up everything the tree needs. Soon the trail slopes sharply downward and the exposed roots offer stability in the slick mud as I make my way down. They whisper their secrets of how to stand where the going is slippery and how to dig deep for that is what we must do to find our strength.
I am this forest. I am one with these trees, breathing in and breathing out, naked with their roots exposed, standing stoically with others who pretend not to see
Digging deep I find my strength to be exposed, vulnerable, free, and courageous enough to jump, naked with a monkey on my back.
P.S. In my ever-living search for healing through words and poetry, I came across an absolutely exquisite poem by Mary Oliver titled, “Such Singing in the Wild Branches” that I’ll also share here, as a testament to our endless and timeless connection to Nature through all Time.
Such Singing in the Wild Branches
It was spring
and finally I heard him
among the first leaves –
then I saw him clutching the limb
in an island of shade
with his red-brown feathers
all trim and neat for the new year.
First, I stood still
and thought of nothing.
Then I began to listen.
Then I was filled with gladness –
and that’s when it happened,
when I seemed to float,
to be, myself, a wing or a tree –
and I began to understand
what the bird was saying,
and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a pure white moment
while gravity sprinkled upward
like rain, rising,
and in fact
it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing –
it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed
not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,
and also the trees around them,
as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds
in the perfectly blue sky – all, all of them
were singing.
And, of course, yes, so it seemed,
so was I.
Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn’t last
for more than a few moments.
It’s one of those magical places wise people
like to talk about.
One of the things they say about it, that is true,
is that, once you’ve been there,
you’re there forever.
Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring, is it morning?
Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then – open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.
by Mary Oliver
I’d love to hear about your special connection to nature or if you’ve just started your journey, how it’s going!