Mental Health and The Earth, A Love Story

I wanted silence so I drove to the desert. I’ve never been to the desert before but it seemed like the place to go to escape the noise.
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Indeed it was. It was so quiet, so simple, so vast, so open, so hot.
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I stepped out of the truck into the scorching desert sun. I was engulfed and eager to explore the land of gold colors. My excitement exploded, running straight to the sand dunes.
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It only took a minute for me to realize how ridiculously stupid it was to assume I could run in the blazing, hostile heat, through the thick sand (🥵).
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The desert isn’t a place to rush, it’s a place to slow down. Ha! The irony. Slowing down was the reason I forced myself off social media and the reason I chose to visit to the desert.
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So, I slowed down. My thoughts began to slow down more too. The emptiness, emptied my mind. I’d gone minutes without speaking a word, without being attached to thoughts.
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My soul was quiet.
This felt good.
Ah.
This is what I wanted.
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Nature has a magic to it. The minute you connect to it, everything you think matters doesn’t seem to matter as much. It has the power to swallow your worries and you—without even trying—surrender to the present.
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Beautiful, isn’t it?
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Nature heals you in indescribable ways, in ways we can sometimes not put words to, in ways nothing else can. We’re creatures of this land and to rob ourselves from the experience of connecting to it perpetuates unnecessary suffering.
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I urge you to get outside, to bask under the sun, to let the earth ground you, to bring you back to yourself.