Connecting with Nature Makes You Happier

Nature is wise. It has provided us with the mechanisms, instincts, and impulses we need to survive and be happy. At  the end of the day, this is all we really want. Everything we do, we do for satisfaction and survival.

We work to survive, but also to seek happiness in some way. We find partners so that the human race, and more specifically our own genes, can live on, and also to make life more pleasant and enjoy the company of a special person who can contribute to our lives and vice versa.

Is the world an artificial place?

Of course. But it’s not that it just is that way; it’s that we’ve created an artificial world with artificial lives that have developed in response to demands that we’ve invented. The truth is that everything could be much simpler than it is now if we only let ourselves be influenced by nature, if we left the world the way it was created.

When we say that the world is an artificial place, we mean that the majority of our time is spent acting against nature. We work too many hours, and we rush from one thing to another with a great deal of anxiety, as though we were fighting wild animals every day. We suffer from jealousy and emotional dependency, and we treat death as if we were immortal.

This is not natural, and it causes us to suffer. We suffer because we think that we have to lay down in defeat, that we should never die, that the world is a dangerous place, that we have too many obligations, etc.

If you believe in all this, you will act accordingly, with all the stress and negative emotions that go with it. If you look at nature, specifically animals, you’ll notice that they’re not like us. They don’t suffer from stress ulcers or run through the jungle as if their lives were escaping. If they run, it’s either to have fun or to hunt, but not because of irrational beliefs.

Connect with nature

Connecting with nature means setting aside the belief that you’re so important, so divine, and realizing once and for all that you’re human, belonging, just like the animals, to this world that we understand so little, but that has a natural established order that just is the way it is, whether we like it or not.

You have to embrace your own biology, listen to your body, abandon your self-imposed obligations, and start to enjoy nature and the things you’re passionate about. In the end, this is the only life you’re going to live, and if you waste it on demands and obligations, what you’ll get is the opposite of wellness.

If you reflect on it a little, you’ll realize that when you’re having a bad time, it’s because your thoughts are too negative, self-critical, and demanding. These thoughts arise from irrational beliefs that society and culture have invented and that you believe to be true. Thoughts like “work makes people better,” “if he loved me, he wouldn’t look at other women,” and “I have less value because I’m fat.”

These thoughts certainly do not reflect reality the way it is, since having a job doesn’t make you any more dignified or valuable than any other human, nor should you expect your partner to stop appreciating other people’s beauty, nor should one’s physical appearance dictate the kind of person they are.

Do you think more natural societies, like the indigenous people of the Amazon, think this way? Of course not. For them, everything is easier. They’re content to eat and drink each day, and they only need to work for an hour or two a day. They dedicate the rest of their time to enjoying life, art, and family.

Start now

To learn how to live a more natural life, and therefore, be a calmer and happier person, you have to start doing things that allow you to connect with nature.

• Make regular trips to the mountains, the beach, or anywhere that’s far away from the city and your daily routine. Observe the wonderful and complex world we live in, and get excited about its biology and rhythm. You can enjoy the trees, animals, the stars, or the rain, and really contemplate and become one with them. You’re lucky to have the opportunity to get to know all of this, so don’t ever waste all that beauty!

• Think more realistically. Distance yourself from social prejudices, from all the false ideas that have been instilled in you by modern society, and try to adjust your mind to what really is and always has been: death is not unfair, it’s beneficial; negative emotions are natural and they’re often on your side, sex is not a sin, and we don’t own anything except ourselves.
• Change your behavior. Stop running around everywhere, stop being so intolerant of everything that happens, stop demanding and punishing others when things don’t go your way. Start to go with the flow of life so that it can flow with you.