I sat on a folded blanket in the early morning, before the rest of the house had stirred. My mind was wild, agitated. Why had I come here? Because I knew that somehow these techniques I have been taught – following the breath as it flows through my body; breathing into my heart and core; visualizing my desires – create the foundation for a successful day. A day of beauty, clarity and honesty. A day where I know who I am and where I am going.

I take note of how I am feeling: the condition of my mind, body and emotions. I intuitively sense which technique to apply, trying to maintain ‘effortless effort’. Gradually, I find a balance between concentration and strain. This doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I leave after twenty minutes, unable to relax my mind from its wandering or the body from its discomfort. But today there has arisen – whether through my willpower or as a simple gift from life – a deepening, a stillness, a glorious dropping away of noise and anxiety.

Armed as I am with experience and techniques, I can weave my way through the obstacles present during this session. Sometimes I feel my breath; when I perceive that becoming stressful, I switch to exploring the chakras. I feel my physical body, then my energy body. I move between ways of interacting with the mystery of this moment, calling upon all that I have read, heard, imagined, practiced or received.

We can say that meditation techniques are the thing that we do – feeling the breath, sending forgiveness from the heart, envisioning our highest dreams and so on.  For most people, meditation techniques are useful to strip away all that keeps us from experiencing our natural state of connection to the universe.

In a way, this is one purpose of meditation techniques – to relax back into what we always are, into the stillness which is ever-present at the core of being. 

As anyone who has ever fallen in love or tasted a perfectly ripe fig can attest, there are moments beyond description which can only be known or understood through experience.  We might say that a meditation technique is like finding and eating the ripe fig. The state of meditation is the direct, personal and mysterious inner journey which underlies and interweaves the eating, providing the platform for it to be experienced at all.

The meditation/nature connection

I had been working hard – too hard – and ignoring the growing sense of desperation and confusion present in my life. My priority was to keep the mask from slipping, to stay positive and not let other people down. I started binge-eating or spacing out on Facebook. Anything to avoid actually feeling what was there inside me.

I couldn’t sit and meditate, I couldn’t force myself to do yoga. I was too agitated, too restless, too reluctant to feel my pain. One day I managed to get myself into the car and drive to the lake. I walked around the shore, already feeling better from the clear air and the sound of water lapping gently on the stones.

After a few minutes of walking I heard a stream. Peering over the edge, I could see a bath-size depression in the rocks beneath the flow of water. I removed my clothes and lay down in the ‘bath’. Almost immediately I could feel a release coming – starting from my feet, whatever emotions I had repressed and blocked were being stripped from me.

I started to cry – a deep, primal wail – as the pain could be felt and released. What I was unable to do myself – with all my knowledge and experience – the river was doing for me.

The attitude of separation from and dominion over nature is surely one of the most painful, disempowering aspects of the current human experience. I propose that if there is any ‘goal’ at all in applying a meditation technique, it is simply a return to the original sense of connection with nature – with all of life.

This writing does not seek to convince you of anything, nor to prove scientifically beyond any doubt the value of a meditation practice. The fact that you are here reading these words suggests that you are already aware of your desire for what Charles Eisenstein has called ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible’. I am here only to provide some tools and background for your own self-discovery. Take what is useful, easy and resonant. Let the rest go for another day.

In the western culture and its (declining) values of profit and conquest, there is still a general acknowledgement that nature has unique healing properties. Nobody says, “get on the subway to clear your head” or “you should spend more time in the office for that depression”.

Perhaps some societies labeled ‘primitive’, ‘indigenous’, ‘pagan’ or ‘animistic’ were just never interwoven with a narrative of separation.

Now, in my view, it matters little if you are meditating to increase your productivity, improve your relationships or attain ultimate nirvana. Spending time – relaxed, perhaps alone and silent – in nature is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. As Diana Robinson has written:

“Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen”

May we all use the power of place – be it bedroom or boardroom, rainforest or desert – to serve the highest good of self, community and earth.