Written by Lumi (Changyi Li), Visionary Artist & Healer
Lumi (Changyi Li) is an art healer and intuitive known by her visionary art and embodied spiritual practices on the journey of self-healing and personal growth. She created Illumina Free Soul Art, an online platform to heal and empower the world through authentic and heartfelt expression.
Mother Nature is always our greatest healer whenever we turn to her for support and guidance. Rooted in ancient indigenous traditions worldwide, the practice of connection with nature in rituals and ceremonies has been the core of achieving healing. Our ancestors’ wisdom has been passed on and is ever alive in our bones. These ancient ways can be adapted and weaved into our modern lives to benefit our mental and spiritual well-being. In this article, you will find tips to connect to nature’s healing power lovingly and poetically. Nature’s healing medicine is always here for us as long as we turn and listen deeply with our hearts open.
Nature as a great healer
We all feel it, whether through a jog through the woods or a few minutes sitting in a local park – something within gets released, softened, and opened, something you cannot precisely explain but feel. We experience healing from nature holistically without striving for specific resolutions. This is the unique and profound healing quality that nature embodies.
What would the ancients say? Wisdom from our tribal ancestors
If you go to consult the wise ones in tribes in the old days, they would gently hold your hands and lead you to sit with them by the fire, patiently listen to you speaking, and offer you the right guidance and support. These wise ones were following the ways they learned from Mother Nature.
In many native spiritual beliefs, such as in the Native American earth-based spirituality, natural beings like the sun, the earth, the rocks, and the water are seen as wise grandmothers and grandfathers because of their ancient age and immense healing power. We as human beings came much later than “our grandparents” on this planet, so are seen as the grandchildren. We learn from these wise grandparents to collaborate with our “siblings” like plants and animals, and to thrive together in harmony. Nature is regarded and experienced as a wise, benevolent, empathetic and formidable teacher and great mother.
Reciprocity was always present when our Indigenous ancestors consulted nature for healing and prayed for her guidance and protection – they would give something in return with love and respect, whether physical items or blessings and prayers. Rituals and ceremonies exist because of this genuine connection with nature and the true worship and gratitude from the heart.
Our ancestors experienced that nature is always here to help and to work with us on our journeys. There have been rites of passage like the Vision Quest ceremony held throughout the centuries by the Native Americans, where tribal people set off into the wilderness to fast alone for self-healing and receive higher guidance. It is common for questers to come back with visions and healing medicines that would benefit the tribe. The guidance from nature might not come overtly or directly, nor appear superficially defined as good or bad, but always serves the highest good for one on his journey, depending on what one needs to experience at certain life stages.
The key to connection
The heart is everything – respect, reciprocity, and love, just as our ancestors’ practice if we were to experience healing from nature. You do not need to possess extensive ceremonial or healing knowledge as long as you know the heart is the core of all healing practices. So prepare your heart and approach with grace and tenderness when you are about to set off.
Tips to prepare your heart and get started
Have some moments of solitude
Make sure to have some time totally by yourself. It is about you and your healing, and nature is now your consultant or healer, so allow yourself to be fully present in her wisdom and guidance without much influence from others. There is immense power in staying alone in nature for self-reflection, self-discovery, and self-expression.
Leave enough time
Avoid squeezing a slot in your busy schedule. Allow some time to wander off freely, for both your body and mind. There is so much beauty simply in “leaving space” to yourself.
Allow the healing
Feel free to set some intentions on what you wish to heal or open up to when coming to nature, but hold it lightly. Avoid taking it as a target to meet or a task to complete. See what comes to you, just like attending a therapeutic session with an open mind.
Remember that nature has a wise and benevolent soul. She knows what you need and will hold you safely in her presence.
Communicate with love and awareness
Nature is a living being. She feels us when we experience her healing. Express gratitude as you come and go, and ask for specific guidance or support if needed. It is often that your prayers and questions are answered when you are still in nature.
Watch out for any messages that arise and any signs and symbols you feel particularly drawn to, like a feather on the ground, a rare-coloured butterfly, or a unique shape or symbol formed by the clouds. Nature is always here delivering messages to support you on your path, and we need to be aware and open to receiving them.
Ways to connect to the healing power of nature
These techniques have their roots in ceremonies and ancient spiritual traditions. You are also very welcome to come up with your own based on your knowledge and background. Be free and creative, and try out with your mind open. The key to these practices is true experience. It tells you what is the right medicine for you.
Find your place
The places you often like to go, whether your back garden or a wild moor that takes hours to drive, match your energy and have the healing for you. Find the place in nature where you feel secure, grounded, and held. It is your place in nature where you can fully be you. This place can also change through time as you evolve and transform on your life journey, as you are attracted to places that resonate with your present energy status.
You might have several places you feel drawn to for relaxation or seek healing at different moments or life stages.
Return to the earth
Especially during tumultuous times when facing uncertainty and changes, it is helpful for us to connect to the earth to get grounded. Walk slowly on the soil with bare feet, feel the earth with your hands, or sit on the ground and meditate for a while if you find it hard to centre. The earth releases our insecurities and fears and grounds us to our inner roots.
Say your worries to Mother Earth and ask for help. Listen deeply, as the earth will answer. Once, when I was going through tough days, I went up to the hills, put my hands on the earth, and expressed my worries and fears. Then, a gentle and holding voice came to me: "I am here holding you." I felt the earth answering and gently carrying me on her back. Then, I found myself in tears and deep gratitude, finally feeling relieved. I was reminded of the unconditional love from nature, that no matter what happened, I would always be held and loved. This experience was deeply affirming and made me trust and return to the earth whenever I feel ungrounded.
Related: Grounding and Mental Health: How Connecting to the Earth Can Improve Your Mood and Reduce Anxiety
Go up to a mountaintop
In the most original form of vision quest ceremonies, questers set off to fast in specific hilly areas regarded as the “sacred mountains.” These places are seen as sacred lands rising from the earth to reach the wisdom from the sky, for participants to seek higher wisdom and insight for healing and growth. Mountains once were deep beneath the ground and were pushed up by strong energy to rise above the horizon. It requires enormous strength to remain tall and steady after millions of years of tectonic change and weathering. And so mountains are symbols of deep wisdom, sovereignty, and inner strength.
Places with high terrain and open views connect us to a higher perspective – the “mountain top view,” or the bigger picture which the mind tends to forget whenever trapped in limiting beliefs, insecurities, or fears. Mountains can expand our energy field and connect us to the vastness and infinite potential that we inherently possess. They remind you that you can stand tall and sovereign like they can.
Embrace the wind and the magnificent view on the mountaintop, and take some quiet contemplation with these “wise grandfathers”. See if any thoughts, feelings, or messages arise in you, and take notice of them. What are the mountains speaking to you?
Speak to the wind
The wind connects to all directions and carries messages over thousands of miles, forever roaming freely. Talking to the wind is also a way of connecting to unseen guidance and wisdom practiced by our indigenous ancestors during fasting in nature. Blessings and prayers are sent in the wind and passed on, as the wind can reach every corner of the world. This method can be specifically for those who wish to pass on messages to their loved ones.
Listen deeply and gently ask the wind to take away your sorrow, worries, or nostalgia. And send your messages to your loved ones thousands of miles away. And if you listen closely with your heart open, you might hear the wind bringing back with an answer.
Hug a tree
Trees are a nature sibling of ours, symbolizing sovereignty and inner strength. In shamanism, trees are highly revered spiritual beings connecting the realms above and below ground. They represent the transformation from the dark – the world below ground (underworld), to the light – the world in the sky (heaven), and so are living symbols of spiritual growth, ascension, and interconnection between all lives.
Tree-hugging is a common forest bathing technique to release stress and reset mental balance. From a spiritual healing point of view, contact with tree trunks connects us to their “conduit of transformation.” It helps us with both grounding and connection with higher wisdom.
Find the tree you feel drawn to, and tune in the heart. Gently touch the trunk, let your tree friend know you wish to work with him/her, and ask for his/her support before you start. Then, try to slow down the rushing thoughts in your mind and fully allow yourself to relax on your tree friend. And communicate in your own way. You may stay as long as you wish. And leave whenever you feel ready.
Related: Try Forest Bathing or Tree Hugging
Get close to water
Water, as the source of life, holds strong purification and healing energies. Our Indigenous ancestors have been honouring water in their sacred ceremonies as the giver, holder, and carrier of life throughout the ages. If you feel particularly stagnant in your thoughts, have unresolved emotions, or are finding it difficult to express, get close to water or be in the water to allow its healing to run through you.
Water also symbolizes our unconscious mind – the hidden motives, the personal and collective past, and our higher self or soul self. Large water bodies like big lakes can help soothe emotions and connect us to deeper levels of the unconscious realm. Our busy mind often slows down when sitting by a big lake or river, and we naturally retreat into silent contemplation. The depth of water connects you to your depth. And there is always a deep communication and cleansing process when you are by her side – your unconscious mind gets active, just like deeper currents are running beneath the calm surface. It is likely to experience epiphany moments and intuitive downloads when staying with calm and still water bodies.
Flowing water like creeks, rivers, and incoming waves by the seashore helps release emotions. Listen to the sound of water, and invite her to release what you no longer need. The water washes through you, even if you are not physically in it. And it slowly opens emotional blockages in your system. This once happened to me when I felt stuck with emotions. I went to sit by a large river and gradually felt a strong surge of energy rising through my torso. And soon, my tears “broke the dam” after days of wrestling with the physical discomfort caused by unexpressed emotions. The river kept singing by my side, washing me through and allowing my feelings like a compassionate and empathetic friend.
Related: The Science Behind How Just Being Near Water Can Help Mental health — Even Virtually
Visit wild landscapes and prehistoric sites
Places with ancient geological age and little human presence tend to hold much stronger healing energy in a more raw and pristine form than managed and reformed natural landscapes. You can find these places in big national parks across the globe. Here you experience nature as sublime and formidable and can feel more connected to the primordial energies that formed the Earth, or the source energy of creation. Connection to this energy is deep healing, as it reconnects and reconciles the discrete parts of our being to its innermost wholeness. These wild places are especially for you if you seek deeper healing or stronger spiritual connections with nature.
Remains of prehistoric settlements and ceremonial grounds are often found in these places. Many of them were built on spots where the Earth’s magnetic field is stronger. And they make these wilderness places more sacred and unique. Many shamans and spiritual practitioners nowadays still set off to these places to connect to our ancestors’ wisdom and the Earth’s strong healing energy.
If conditions allow, with sufficient preparation and knowledge of safe precautions, immerse yourself in these ancient landscapes for a day. Bring your expression tools if you are an artist or creative, as wild places can inspire you greatly. You may wish to follow the shamans and bring organic and biodegradable offerings like flowers, crops, feathers, and crystals to honour the sites and perform some simple ceremonies if you feel called to.
Some sites consist of ancient burial grounds. Check whether you are comfortable with these places if you are sensitive to energy. Make sure you are comfortable with the sites you go to. If unsure, then turn to the natural landscapes without previous human activities. activities.
Lumi (Changyi Li), Visionary Artist & Healer
Lumi is a visionary and intuitive with the mission to serve as a healer through art. Her expression springs from her growth and self-healing journey and centers around themes on personal development, self-empowerment, re-connection to ancient wisdom and nature. Lumi shares her heartfelt expression on social media and website. Her art has been showcased in various UK-based exhibitions and magazines. Being passionate about inspiring and connecting to those who walk on similar journeys, Lumi is open to commission and collaboration which aligns to her mission. Her core value: to heal others one needs to commit to ones own growth journey; in the end it is love that heals it all.
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