5 Lessons I Learned from Nature

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“In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir

The moment I step into the cool, dampness of the woods I remember who I am. I wake up and come alive with the sounds of the birds chirping and the wind moving through the trees. Nature will teach you things if you are willing to listen. It reminds me of what Dumbledore says to Harry Potter, “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who deserve it.” If you replace “at Hogwarts” with “in Nature” I think we might really be on to something.

I have been so lucky to be able to spend time in nature in various parts of the world and it has taught me many things. But these are my 5 biggest lessons, ones that I think we all need a reminder of now and again.

1. Patience

In our every day lives, especially in North America, everyone is always in a hurry and patience is thin. No one can stand waiting in line or sitting in traffic, everyone needs to be first and even if it only gets them one minute closer to their destination it somehow appeases them.
We seem to have lost our ability to have patience, to let things happen as they may, to relinquish control. Nature doesn’t ask you to have patience, it’s a requirement. One example of this was during my recent visit to the Azores.

We had hiked down to this beautiful beach on a bright sunny day, a place I could have stayed forever. Until the storm rolled through. The Azores has some of the most unpredictable weather and if you wait around for the storm to pass or for the perfect day you will never get out. Azoreans have come to just accept it and kind of just roll with it.

It takes patience to wait out the storm. So, as we sat admiring this beautiful beach, it started to rain. Hard. With rain coats at the ready we huddled onto an exposed rock, with no shelter in site, desperately trying to keep out backpacks dry. The rain pelted us for a good 15 minutes and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. It didn’t make sense to go try to find shelter, because there really was none. It was completely out of our hands.

Once the storm had passed, the sun came out once again and within a half hours’ time we were once again dry, and it was as though nothing had ever happened. Sometimes you have no control over a situation and it really doesn’t behoove you to get upset or frantic over it. Your anger or your aggression is not going to change your circumstances, sometimes you just need to have the patience to let life unfold as it will.

2. Strength (Inner and Outer)

As a woman, sometimes I am still treated as the “weaker sex.” My first big hiking adventure was climbing Mount Katahdin. I had never hiked a mountain before, little lone a 5,267 foot one. But it sounded like a great way to experience nature at it’s best.

So many people told me that I wouldn’t be able to do it. That it would be too hard, and I was unprepared. In some ways they were right. I did not work out regularly, like I do now, I was not an experienced hiker at the time, and I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. But their naysaying made me want to prove them wrong even more.

Right at the beginning of the hike I thought I wasn’t going to make it. My heart was pounding out of my chest, my legs were weak, and I could hardly breath. My mind was panicking, screaming at me to stop and just give up. But I discovered a strength within myself that wouldn’t let me back down, that was my own personal champion. I summited that mountain and since then have done some other pretty significant hikes.
I realized that I am stronger, both on the outside and the inside, than I ever gave myself credit for. It opened up so many new possibilities and started my deep love affair with nature and with hiking. The more I hiked, the stronger I became, and it rubbed off in other aspects of my life. If I could climb a mountain, I could do anything, truly.

In the end it helped me push through all those people who told me I wasn’t good enough, strong enough, smart enough to do the things I wanted to do. It also made me a force to be reckoned with in the gym. The police officers I work out with saw me as fearless and willing to try any workout, no matter how brutal.

Now I have plans to tackle the basecamp of Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro and several thru hikes. Nature gave me that.

3. Humility

As a society we have become defined by the things we have, the latest car, the biggest house, the best job. But when you step into the woods and start your journey on foot none of that is going to help you. You realize as you hike along that all you really need are the things you can carry on your back.

Wildlife encounters can also be a very humbling experience. When it’s just you and a bear or a big cat you realize that none of those things you have, that high powered job, will help you. It brings you strength and humbles you to know that you can survive with much less, that all those things are really just a burden on a free life.

What do I mean by that? Can you just get up and decide to go for a 1,000+ mile hike when you have a big house to take care of, fancy cars to protect, and credit card bills from all the stuff you bought? It’s burdening. And some people feel good about that and that’s OK, but there is nothing more freeing than knowing you can survive only with the things you can carry on your back for months at a time.

It teaches you that you are more than your things, it’s a very humbling experience.

4. Listen

We don’t listen to one another anymore. But when you are surrounded by silence, nature forces you to listen. To listen to the wind in the trees, the crack of a branch indicating the approach of an animal (big or small), the coming storm. You learn to listen in order to stay safe.

When you become attune to the forest it gives you clues, hints, about your surroundings. You just have to listen. Emerging from the forest you retain that skill to have patience and listen to others to better understand their needs and the needs or your surroundings.

5. Peace

This is probably one of the most important lessons you can learn. My mind is constantly running, between the things I have to do at work, at home, where I need to be, it just never stops. We are all busy, but is that business useful? Is spending hours checking email or doing any number of monotonous tasks really useful? Or is it all just our way of creating the illusion of being extremely busy?

Does being busier than the next person mean you are more successful, more important, or is it just creating a lot of stress and anxiety? Spending time in nature is a well-known method of finding peace in your life. It has been well documented that spending time in nature can help people with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues.

But you have to allow it. Surrounded by nature the silence closes in. It gives you the time and space to just breathe, to just be, to remember who you are and what you had hoped for in your life. It forces you to slow down and let the silence do its work. It’s a very powerful feeling. You emerge feeling rejuvenated and have a distinct sense of peace. The more you give yourself the chance to let nature do its work the better everything else becomes.

What lessons has nature taught you? For more inspiration check out this post from tentree, a company that plants ten trees for every clothing item you purchase.