We’re going to cut to the chase here – the One Thing you can do to vastly improve your life today is to learn how to reconnect with nature. And thankfully, I spoke to a woman who is highly, highly qualified to teach us exactly how. Things may be a bit woo-woo here, but, reconnecting with nature is scientifically proven to improve your physical and mental health.
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In early October I did an interview with a 54-year-old Aussie woman named Gina Chick and I titled the story ‘Stop What You’re Doing & Listen to the Story of Gina Chick – aka, The Most Inspiring Woman I’ve Ever Spoken TO.’ I stand by that title because it’s been more than six weeks since I spoke to Gina and I have thought of her and our conversation every single day since. When you interview people multiple times a week, and have done for decades – that’s a very, very rare thing.
Gina left such an impression on me because of the incredible story she has to tell – she’s been through the fires of hell, but what she learned can help us all. I definitely recommend you read the story, but otherwise in a nutshell, Gina is extraordinary because she won the first series Alone Australia after beating out 11 other Aussie men and women, living in the middle of the wilderness with basically nothing but her wits and a giant possum cloak that she’d made herself for a staggering 67 days.
She won because of the strength of her mind, not just her body. She was torn open when she lost her one and only daughter to cancer when she was just three years old, after going through a terrifying cancer battle herself. While in the pits of hell, she had something to lean against – something quite surprising: nature. She’d really been leaning into nature her whole life.
When I spoke to Gina, I was moved by her and her words so many times. I live in the Waitakeres and while I spoke to her, I watched the clouds and rain roll through the ranges. Then we started talking about her daughter, Blaze. It was both heartbreaking and beautiful. But the very moment she spoke of her, the rain stopped and a big, vibrant rainbow filled the sky. I found myself getting choked up, telling Gina what I was watching as she told me about her daughter. I could feel her smile through the phone, “There she is!” she sang. “She’s here. There’s the big mama nature talking to us.”
Before she was a reality TV show winner and an author, Gina took women on ‘Wilding’ courses – helping women with whatever obstacles they were trying to overcome in their lives, by helping them to reconnect with nature.
She says that nature is the one thing that shows us who and what we are. Connecting with nature has so many benefits – physically, mentally, and spiritually. Yes, it might all sound a bit woo-woo and maybe you’re rolling your eyes a bit, but the benefits of connecting with nature is actually something that has been scientifically proven time and time again. Surprisingly, even just watching a nature documentary on television can improve our mental health.
But, the vast majority of us have become totally disconnected to nature.
It’s actually very easy to reconnect though, says Gina. Here she tells us exactly what to do to reconnect with nature and live a happier, calmer life.
‘Come with Me. Let’s Reconnect!’
“So, the first step is to go outside. That’s all it is! Go outside! Nature’s right THERE! Because nature’s actually inside us all – we’re built from nature, we’ve grown from the elements of this. All of this planet, we are grown from nature – we can’t be separate from it. Walls just give the illusion of separation.
Now, you don’t need to spend 67 days in brutal wilderness to connect with nature. Everybody’s got a park near them, or maybe you have a beach? We’re just looking for somewhere to go in nature to then turn your phone off, or onto airplane mode, so you’re not getting the notifications coming through.
That’s your first distraction. If you’re a real doom-scroller, give yourself maybe just half an hour where the phone is off – but preferably left behind. Then in that half an hour, when you don’t have the noise of that pulling at you, what I then ask people to do is to find a bit of ground that you feel comfortable in and take off your shoes and just stand in that grass, or sand and really feel where your feet meet the ground.
Maybe you only do it for five minutes, but maybe you do it for 10 minutes and have a little wander.
I always say it’s good to imagine that your feet are shifting the earth. Your feet are that interface with the biggest, most beautiful supportive mama – that mama that is designed to support every bit of life on this planet. And you can just say hi to her with your feet!
Yes, this might feel weird. You might feel like a hippy. Fine! Feel those things! But stay with it.
If you can just let go of those judgements and those stories and think of yourself as basically a stone age creature in a modern body. Our bodies don’t know that we’re in this time! Our bodies think that we’re in a time thousands of years ago! Our bodies know what to do. They know how to connect with the battery of wild nature. So just have a little wander in bare feet!
Another thing that can be amazing is to just sit on the roots of a tree. Make sure it’s somewhere you’re comfortable. Sit down, put your back to the tree and then really feel that this living thing has roots into the ground and branches to the sky. It is a living thing and YOU are a living thing and feel where your back meets that tree. Now you’re connecting! It doesn’t have to be any more esoteric than that. Just like, ‘Hello living thing! Here I am!’
Now you’re connecting. And if you let your eyes go soft, maybe listen to the bird calls. Don’t overthink it just let the information of what is around you, all the sensations, come in. If you can melt into the web of life and realise and recognize that you are no more or less important than any bird or bee or tree or cloud or stone, even if you try this only for a couple of minutes, I can guarantee at the end of that you’re going to feel different.”