Reconnecting With Nature: Finding Wellness Through Restoring Your Bond With the Earth

Rating:
Summary: "doing" something about it!!!
Review: "Reconnecting With Nature" is a work of genius. It is the only ecological psychology treatise that I have found that proposes activities "to do" beyond ideas to think. Every chapter suggests specific exercises that intelligently inform the reader of how to take action so that the theory can be proven, or not, by the individual. Finally, a knowledgeable, knowing voice that goes beyond philosophizing by introducing the reader to a "yoga" that communicates non-verbally with nature. The bottom line is that "Reconnecting With Nature" empowers the individual to become the specialist/expert via experience, thereby, breaking the typical, habitual cycle of seeking ultimate authority in the academic and scientific communities. Great gratitude to Mike Cohen!!!

Rating:
Summary: "doing" something about it!!!
Review: "Reconnecting With Nature" is a work of genius. It is the only ecological psychology treatise that I have found that proposes activities "to do" beyond ideas to think. Every chapter suggests specific exercises that intelligently inform the reader of how to take action so that the theory can be proven, or not, by the individual. Finally, a knowledgeable, knowing voice that goes beyond philosophizing by introducing the reader to a "yoga" that communicates non-verbally with nature. The bottom line is that "Reconnecting With Nature" empowers the individual to become the specialist/expert via experience, thereby, breaking the typical, habitual cycle of seeking ultimate authority in the academic and scientific communities. Great gratitude to Mike Cohen!!!

Rating:
Summary: Produces the most important results since Earth Day 1970
Review: Earth and its people are at risk. Most of our personal and global problems don't readily improve because we are emotionally bonded to the destructive way of thinking that produces them. Our dilemmas are psychological addictions. They must be treated as such if they are to change.

The Natural Systems Thinking Process in Reconnecting With Nature provides a psychological key to personal and environmental wellness. It helps us make conscious sensory contacts with nature that replace our destructive subconscious bonds with responsible ways of relating.

Doing the book's activities produced the following repeatable, teachable, discoveries with respect to living in balance and peace with people and the environment. If you use the book correctly, you can produce similar results. Think about what Earth and our personal relationships would be if many people learned to do these activities.

Sustainability: "As I continued the forest activity, I found myself attracted to the various songs of the birds and then gradually to the various stones and nuts and shells in the path. I would stop in the path, pick up the stone, admire its beauty and then feel clearly called to return it to its appropriate place. So often other times I have felt I needed to put it in my pocket and carry it home. Now, through the activity, I had a real sense of appreciating each rock, each shell, each leaf in its place for the time I was there. I felt suddenly freed from the need to possess something. I had a growing sense of letting things be and to just be still and glory in the fullness of the moment. As I allowed myself to connect, appreciate, thank and move on with so much of what surrounded me, I felt a letting go into being present. In this transformation, I began to feel I was part of the scene more, not my other self that needed to possess. I learned that I do not need to possess something to have the joy of it."

Peace: "I was never taught to ask permission to relate to people or the environment, I just did it, we all do. However, this activity required my senses to learn how to ask an attractive tree covered area for its consent for me to walk through it. The area continued to feel attractive, but something changed. It was the first time in my life that I totally felt safe. It felt like Earth's energies were in charge of my life, not me. It gave me a wonderful feeling of having more power to be myself. I felt in balance with nature and the people here because I could feel their energies consenting to support me. I never experienced nature that way before. It was like a strict law protected not only my life, but all of life. I felt very secure and nurtured as I walked under those trees. I learned that when I seek permission from the environment I gain energy and I belong. "

A reaction: "The experiences expressed in the above paragraphs may even be some of the most important since Earth Day 4 1/2 billion years ago. They are at least important for anyone in our possession-addicted, destructive culture to contemplate. It is significant that the nature-connect activities help us make such breakthroughs." Dr. Mark Brody, Psychologist

Participant Reactions: "Through the study I found myself feeling profoundly grateful when I identified my strong attraction to my wife as part of the web of life. It broadened that feeling. I experienced the sun more warmly, the grass under my feet more gently. My respect for nature in general was enhanced. It made my heart open to my surroundings and to care for them. To survive, our environment, and people, too, need and deserve this kind of recognition".

Rating:
Summary: To survive, we deserve everything this book has to offer
Review: If I have anything to do with it (and I might) I predict that a Nobel Prize will go out to the founders of ECOPSYCHOLOGY.

I don't know of anyone else in the field ecopsychology that has pushed it to the front of scientific debate and made it so accessable to everyone in our culture.

Mike Cohen is on his way to a Nobel prize in the next decade, and I know that is not his motivation, but it should be your motivation to read his books to understand why he deserves it .

Kevin Bethel MD CM BFA

Rating:
Summary: Additional reviews and summaries available for RWN
Review: The book may be used in conjunction with an online distant learning course that promotes environmentally sound self- improvement and social justice

Rating:
Summary: The most important contribution to psychology
Review: We are not human beings trying to have a natural experience, we are natural beings trying to have a human experience.

I am begining to see the clinical applications of ecopsychology and I am very exited. I can't waite until Universities and schools start making RWN and ecopsychology a part of their curriculum.