Foundational Principles Of Connecting To Inner Or Outer Nature

It seems like so many workshops or forums, be it about leadership or innovation or stakeholder engagement or sustainability or anything else, all end up with some version of the same conclusion – “what we really need to do is to connect better to ourselves, others and/or nature.” Which I am very supportive of, but often it ends there, as if coming to that collective realisation is enough. Either that or the next great theory of how to do it is offered, which may well have a lot to offer but the essence of what is involved in doing that connecting can get lost. 

The participants on the most recent Quest were all experienced in spiritual practice in some form. I think perhaps this was the first time this has happened on one of my Quests (the process is accessible to beginners as well, so there is usually a mix). Of the many points of reflection that occurs during such a process, one point was about appreciation for the Way of Nature framework, the lineage in which I run the Quest, and how it helps bring in everyone’s past experience and practices and include them in a holistic framework that helps to fill in the gaps and make sense of prior learning in a broader, nature-focussed lens. 

I do like going down rabbit holes of detail and nuance to do with particular principles or practices, but their words reminded me again of the elegance of Way of Nature’s framework as a whole. So I thought I should do a post about it, rather than trying to isolate out a specific aspect this time. 

There are 12 principles in Way of Nature’s framework (actually there’s 13, but the cheeky 13th says remember to let go of the need for mental constructs, including these principles and just enjoy life ;). John P. Milton, my teacher and Way of Nature founder, developed them over the course of decades of both sitting with profound spiritual teachers across many traditions and of course through extensive lived experience applying them in nature. He looked for the commonality across the different traditions, understanding that where they were all saying the same thing was where the universal wisdom would lie. He was distilling first principles for connection with inner, outer and True nature. 

The sense of elegance and wisdom that comes across when you sit with the framework comes from the fact that it represents “the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” As Oliver Wendall Holmes said, “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.”

The primary 4 principles that are easily actionable are:

1. Presence
2. Relaxation
3. Cultivating Energy
4. Opening the Heart

To learn more about the principles in John’s words, visit https://www.wayofnature.com/ 

Presence – Remain in Now

This principle is all about orienting your awareness to the present moment. This is probably the most obvious principle when it comes to connection. If you are distracted, thinking about the past or worrying about the future, you cannot connect to anything in the present with any real depth. 

You can work with this principle through awareness training, both in terms of training your mind to maintain focus on the chosen object of attention, and also in terms of developing different kinds of focus, not just looking at one thing in isolation but also being able to take in a ‘wide angle’ or whole-field awareness. 

Presence has layers to it, it is not just a matter of are you distracted or are you not. It is intimately connected to the opening and refining of the senses so that you can feel into each moment with more and more subtlety.  This applies equally to connecting with inner nature as with outer nature. You develop inner connection through perceiving more and more through the opening of the inner senses of interoception (information that is coming from the body to the mind). Inner connection (and self awareness) also develops through learning to experience the present moment through mindful observation of thoughts and emotions. 

Relaxation

The all-too-often overlooked partner to presence is relaxation. The yin to the yang. Rather than bringing yourself to the present moment you are allowing the present moment to come to you. 

I also think of this principle as receptivity. 

Without relaxation we cannot be present, as any form of tension results in distraction and difficulty maintain attention. We also know that a relaxed nervous system results in opening the fields of the senses (relaxation is associated with wide-angle vision, for example) so that we take in more of the present moment. 

These two principles also combine in the understanding of neurological conditions for connection. Our nervous systems need to be in a ‘wakefully relaxed’ state to feel safe and connect with others. When we develop skill with presence and relaxation we have the self-regulation abilities to get our nervous systems into this green zone, also called the Window of Tolerance, coined by psychiatry professor Dan Siegel, more and more at will. 

Cultivating Energy

Cultivating your energy body. If everything is energy, connection has to at least partly be about removing the blockages and increasing the flow of energy within yourself and the exchange of energy with the world around you. In fact, the Taoist version of enlightenment is to become a ‘fully integrated human’, pointing to the direct role of cultivating our energy body to flow freely in connection with the world around us in reaching the highest human potential. 

This principle can imply energy-specific practices like Qi Gong, which we do in the Way of Nature system, as well as things like yoga, breath work and bodywork, or even just immersing yourself in nature and letting the integrated energy of a healthy ecosystem attune your energy body. 

This principle may seem a bit esoteric. ‘Energy’ is a very non-specific term.  I think it helps to consider that if everything is energy just in different forms and frequencies, then what we refer to as energy when talking about our energy body, or Qi, or life-force etc is perhaps referring to the frequency and form  of energy just outside of perception of what we think of as our usual physical senses from a Western perspective. And/or perhaps cultivating the ability to sense ‘energy’ is really just developing awareness of the dynamic flows that are occurring all the time as a complex of biophysical processes. 

When you develop this awareness of ‘energy’ you develop another aspect of connection, however the connection in terms of the free flow of energy exchange is happening all the time whether you are aware of it or not.

Opening the Heart

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller

Even in the West, the heart is frequently spoken about in common parlance as being very important to connection and love. We don’t very often get into why that is and I suppose it is often assumed as more a figure of speech, since the role of the physical heart is to pump blood around the body, right?

The heart has long been associated with emotions and is often considered the centre of love and compassion. It is commonly believed that the heart is connected to our emotional experiences, including feelings of connection, empathy, and affection. When we feel emotionally connected to ourselves or others, we often describe it as a warm or open-hearted sensation. 

You can take this principle metaphorically if you like, however it is meant in a more literal way. The heart has a very direct role in connection, both to self and to other beings. 

The heart is crucial in communication from the body to the mind, sending more information to the brain than vice verse. Sensing the heart is very important for self-awareness and decision-making. For example,  one study published in the esteemed journal, Nature, found that the ability to tune into one’s own heartbeat predicted success on a London trading floor.

The heart also has a huge electromagnetic field, roughly 5000 times stronger than the brain, extending out in a torus around the body with a little more than a metre radius. Electromagnetic energy varies according to emotional state and so we are broadcasting all the time to those around us. This plays a role in our connection with others and I have also heard nature teachers state that is also crucial in communication and connection with nature; we connect and communication through this subtle field as opposed to words. 

Recent scientific research has shown that physiological synchronisation can occur between individuals during social interactions. This synchronisation involves the coordination of various bodily functions, including heart rate and respiration. When people feel a strong emotional or social connection, their physiological rhythms can become synchronised, fostering a sense of harmony and closeness. 

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” Joseph Campbell

Interestingly, this synchronisation also occurred for me through connection with nature on my first Quest. Three or four days in I had a palpable heart opening experience where I felt some kind of energetic blockage blast off my heart (when your senses really open like they can on a Quest, it is amazing what you can feel – I had never felt anything like it in terms of tangible energy movement until that moment). Afterwards I was hearing a kind of music arising from the land and I thought, ‘hmm I bet this is the rhythm of a human heartbeat.’ So I put my fingers on my pulse and sure enough, it was the rhythm of a human heartbeat, but not just any heartbeat, it was perfectly in time with my heartbeat. 

This principle encourages cultivation of heart-centred qualities like love, joy and compassion which all have an inherent feeling of connectedness to them. These feelings also produce coherence in the rhythms of the heart which positively impact the brain and enable further emotional regulation and staying in the nervous system ‘green zone’ for connection. The principle also is about removal of energetic blockages, like I experienced on that first Quest, and shifting patterns of thought and behaviour which prevent us from relating well with others. 

The value of this framework

These principles are beguiling simple and this what I love about them. As you go back to each principle they reveal another layer of depth. I briefly summarised the role each principle plays in connection above,  however there is much more to it and each principle in itself is a pathway to full realisation/liberation; the ultimate level of connection, Source awareness. Yet these principles are very accessible to beginners. 

This framework of principles is valuable to Questers because it enables the Quest experience to just be the start of the journey. If one chooses to, you can take these principles forward in your personal practice and use them to make sense of future experiences and the messy pile of information about all things ‘spiritual’ available out there.

Another cool thing about the principles is that they apply equally to both inner and outer nature (inner nature being our internal experience). I use the principles on every program I run, whether it is the deep-dive Nature Quests or in training for organisations which focus on developing practical human capacities applicable to the workplace, even if it is just for my own thinking. 

So I invite you to contemplate these principles and perhaps do a stocktake of practices that you currently use, considering where those practices might fit into these principles, noticing where there might be biases or gaps (a typical one is privileging presence over relaxation, or omitting the body-based components in each). Adding a missing principle can be transformational to your sense of inner and outer connection. 

Or, just go and sit in nature with an attitude of curiosity and openness, and all these principles will unfold naturally