Six profound positive shifts occur when we spend prolonged periods of time in nature; we receive a refreshed perspective, calming and grounding, more gratitude and joy, heightened sensory awareness, the ability to process trauma and emotional hardships and most importantly, we re-connect to our authentic self. There is just so much magic that happens when we have sleepovers in nature.
Forest Bathing or Forest Therapy are magical, and any time spent in nature is time well spent and not to be undervalued. However, here we explore taking more time to soak in the experience at a slower pace and savour the nuances. If camping feels a little out of one’s comfort zone, guided groups or the many offerings of parks programs might add some security. While camping we step out of our life as we know it and we are afforded the opportunity to observe nature by day and night and the gentle transitions between the two. We are held by the earth as we sleep on the ground, touched by wonder as we go about daily chores, preparing meals, savoring food and staying safe and secure. Nature offers us deep nurturing and renewal as we come to know ourselves, hear the wisdom teachings and fulfill our higher purpose.
Refreshed Perspective
At the start of a camping experience I like to take some time to sit quietly and pull together in my mind two or three current challenges I am facing in my life. In this short sit I don’t try to resolve how to respond to them. I simply gather them in my minds eye where I visualize tying them up with a string of self-compassion, love, non-judgement and patience. I then silently commit to not worry about them for the duration of the time out in nature. At the end of my journey, as I consciously make a soft landing back into life, inevitably there has been a shift in perspective and these challenges seem to have many more options for resolution. I see this benefit as a direct correlation to having spent extended time in nature.
Grounding, Earthing and Calming
There are plenty of opportunities for grounding and savouring the experience of laying on the earth when we camp. Napping under a tree, directly on the ground or on a sleeping pad is delightfully refreshing and an indulgence we don’t often allow ourselves. Afternoon naps can be a lovely daily ritual when living outdoors as we have fewer demands on our time. As one who practices and teaches Restorative Yoga I love to take advantage of nature’s props, like a wise old tree for legs up or a fallen log or huge rock for supported child’s pose. Cautions taken in Restorative Yoga for health contraindications would apply here as they do in a yoga studio. Come nightfall, cocooned in our sleeping bags and sheltered by our tent, we are blessed with many hours of connecting with the earth as she holds us and nurtures us. There is magic in listening to the night sounds but we need to consciously keep our imagination in check. A little rodent rustling outside ours tent can sound ominous and terrifying. When this happens I like to remind myself that I practice maintaining a clean camp and there is nothing to worry about and I invite deep breaths. Sleeping in nature allows our internal clock to reset and function as it was intended. In the morning we are often wakened by birds announcing the arrival of a new day. I am always torn by whether to leap out and take in break of dawn or lay back and listen to the unfolding.
More Gratitude and Joy
Minimalism is a reality when we camp as we simply don’t have all the “stuff” that can actually burden us at home. In this uncluttered environment, void of technology, we are more grateful for the things we have and we realize we can manage with so much less. I usually return home with a renewed sense of gratitude for our conveniences. So much joy comes from the small things, as if gifted from nature gods that understand our every need. The perfect cooking stone to level the feet of our lightweight stove, the fallen log that seems to hold you in a secure embrace as you rest your tired body and forest that seems to magically envelope and protect our tent. With deep gratitude for fresh rainwater that flows generously along our ingenious homemade tarp water capture system we feel pride in our own little inventions. It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and this can provide endless fun while going about our chores of daily living in nature.
Coming to Know Ourselves Through Heightened Sensory Awareness
When we are camping, our primal instincts naturally kick in and all of our senses are heightened. We can invite ourselves to soften and relax into savouring while still being sensible to any risks or dangers in our environment. I like the following invitation to explore the symphony of sensations. We begin by finding a comfortable seat where the body is fully supported and drawing in some breaths, taking in our environment as all a whole, before isolating each sense one by one. We then start to focus on using just one of our five main senses at a time. Our eyes, ears, nose, mouth and sense of touch—working through one-by-one noticing what we notice. After slowly exploring through the five main senses we shift our focus to our intuitive sense. Just sitting quietly, perhaps with eyes closed, without judgement noticing what comes up, what messages arrive. Sometimes we are surprised by the wisdom. I believe this sense is heightened and more open in nature. I like to do this in camp over and over throughout the day, perhaps during meal preparation or washing up the dishes, or bathing. This widening and narrowing of our lens is truly remarkable and reveals so many parallels to our life. I like to use this same concept when I look back on a period of time in nature, the subtleties in the moment and the over-arching lessons upon reflection. For me one of the joys in nature is how my sense of chronoception, how I perceived time, gets quite skewed. Nature stimulates all of our senses, these pathways through which we explore the environment and learn about ourselves at the same.
Nature Places as Our Teacher and Therapist
I have spent many decades camping in road side campgrounds and some of the wildest and remotest places on our planet and both have been my teachers and my therapists. I have processed all kinds of challenges, traumas and grief in these places. This is not to make light of coping with emotional turmoil or to suggest a replacement for appropriate medical support, however I do believe extended periods of time wrapped in nature’s healing blanket brings about ease and softness. Mother Earth seems to be able to absorb that which no longer serves us and gently take it from us, leaving us renewed, refreshed and healed.
Re-connect to Our Authentic Self
When asked why I go out there with all the inherent risks of inclement weather, wild animals and natural disasters, my response is “to live, to be my authentic self and to connect with all that is”. Camping is a gateway to allow us to be in nature for an extended period of time so we can savour the experience of coming home to ourselves. Without the noise of our lives these quiet places open a channel to hear ourselves think, to receive the lessons and messages of our own higher wisdom. Nature acts as our teacher, amplifying the volume and clarity of messages presented in ways we can understand and interpret if we open ourselves to be its student. If you have never experienced the magic of sleepovers in nature, I encourage you to give it a try. My life is so much richer given the lessons nature has taught me.
When I was studying to become a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and was introduced to the way of the guide and the concept of liminality, I instantly felt that I had found a community that understood what I have struggled to explain. It was as if I met other people that spoke my language, but we didn’t really speak. Camping in nature for extended periods of time is just like that. The experience is a slow reveal wordless channel to connect our bodies back to our true nature. In a perfect world we need both and one isn’t better than the other. Perhaps sleepovers in nature are best described as Forest Therapy on steroids. Time in nature always calls us back and welcomes us with open arms.
Robert Service, a British-Canadian poet and writer (1874-1958), was often referred to as the “Bard of the Yukon”. These lines from Robert Service’s poem “The Spell of the Yukon” sum it up for me how the land calls us to come home.
There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will.
Photos by Beth Montgomery.