You ARE Your Environment and Your Environment IS
You
by Paul
Bailey, Author, Researcher, Lecturer, and Modern-day Spiritual
Philosopher
(Adapted from ‘Think of
an Elephant’
)
Environment.
A common enough word, but what does it mean exactly? If you
think of the environment as something outside yourself, try
holding your nose and mouth shut for a moment. Your struggle to
breathe tells you how completely connected you are to your
environment - each breath of life is itself an environmental
connection. We can't 'get in touch' with the environment; the
fact is we can never be completely out of the environment
because nature is not something separate from us; we are within
nature and nature is within us. The edge of you is not the
surface of your skin. Indeed, every atom that makes up your
body has come from the environment and remains suspended in the
environment.
Now that
you understand there is no cut-off point between you and your
environment, the question is how to connect better with the
environment? The answer is meditation – it’s very good for
relaxation and gets our mind and our body in harmony with the
environment. We lower our stress levels and the stress chemicals
in the body are reduced. However meditation can also do
something far more profound; with deeper meditation we go beyond
mere relaxation and can have the experience of being ‘at one’
with the environment. The point to notice is that our mind can
confine us to a limited physical separate entity and individual
experience when in fact the true potential of mind can liberate
us to experience the energetic of all things.
A major
point of stress for all of us is spiritual stress. A lot of this
comes from the fact that the environment we think we get in
touch with through our senses is only a fraction of the total
environment, for example, there is so much to reality that we
miss out on. When we come to see the extent that each of us as
individuals is interconnected to literally everything else in
the greater scheme of things, we come to realise that our big
fear (disempowerment and no real influence) is unfounded. Both
our mental health and our physical health require us to engage
and upgrade our mentality.
Our
strongest connections to the environment are often invisible -
even those of us who are concerned about our health and
understand the importance of our connection to the world around
us are unwitting contributors to the dismantling of nature's web
- that is going on all around us. For example, there are between
4000 and 10000 traditional medicinal species of plant that are
endangered world wide through excessive harvesting. Though the
ancient wisdom of our traditional elders advised us to walk
lightly on the earth, now our gentle foot print is leaving a
giant crater.
If we want
to bring about real change in our life and in the world with the
way things are going; if we want to do this without the risk of
making things worse than they already are, then it is time to
discover the art of using our mind to see into the unseen. It
is only when we have a better view of the whole of the
environment and not just the little bit around us that we cease
to walk blindly ahead. Instead we walk with a new knowing that
empowers us at all levels of our life.
With that
insight we can see not only the things that we are
apart from
but at a deeper level the things we are a part
of,
especially our environment.
It’s
important to note that the environment includes the natural
environment around us as well as the social environment. We
must understand this because there are far reaching
repercussions both personally and globally. For example, global
warming and the influx of climate change refugees. It’s only
when environmental responsibility is recognised as an investment
in the future and not seen as an attack on today's bottom line
will society become sustainable in the long term. The problems
with our environment are so great and are mostly caused by
industry that ecologists and economists must work together to
fix this issue of environmental collapse. Today any economist,
who doesn't account for the environment and the ecology in their
equations, is guilty of professional misconduct.
Climate
change and its affects, the world-wide destruction of the
world's lungs (our forests) and the chemical pollution within
our food are the emergency red line on nature's warning gauge.
It’s dangerous to believe that enthusiasm alone will guarantee
success. We are now on red alert: the actions and attitudes of
every one of us need to be re-integrated with our living
environment now! By re-engaging with the natural environment we
support and protect our own health as well as the inheritance of
future generations.
By linking the apparently unrelated fields of quantum physics,
holistic health, cosmology, theology, neuroscience, evolutionary
theory and consciousness studies,
'Think
of an Elephant'
uncovers the complete set of tools we've got in our mental
toolbox;
it
shows us the path to gaining a healthy, balanced mentality.
For more information on workshops and training, and to
contact Paul Bailey, the author, please visit:
www.thinkofanelephant.com
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