{"id":296,"date":"2016-08-01T04:30:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T04:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newwaveonline.com.au\/maverickminds\/?p=296"},"modified":"2016-08-01T04:30:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T04:30:49","slug":"a-natural-way-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/stories\/a-natural-way-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"A natural way to be"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An article about creativity and nature caught my imagination. It focuses on the importance of connecting and spending time with nature, which provides a \u201cpowerful antidote to the constant distraction of our digital lives\u201d. In her article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/2062221\/new-science-creative-brain-nature?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=tweet\" target=\"_blank\">The New Science of the Creative Brain<\/a> on Nature author, Carolyn Gregoire, refers to the research of neuroscientist and avid back packer David Strayer. <a href=\"http:\/\/ngm.nationalgeographic.com\/2016\/01\/call-to-wild-text\" target=\"_blank\">Strayer\u2019s research<\/a> reveals that nature time enhances higher-order thinking, restores attention, and boosts creativity. Some of the reason for this is that it \u2018gives our prefrontal cortex a rest from all the busy-ness and distractions from technology\u2019 and by giving our prefrontal cortex a mini break there are a number of things that seem to happen.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Restoration. A break away from the busy world is restorative. It allows us to rest and repair and return with better focus and attention. There is a concept around this called Attention Restoration Theory that asserts the cognitive benefits of spending time in nature. Even looking at images of nature can help with mental fatigue.<\/li>\n<li>It allows your imagination and creativity to flourish. When we find a way to let our prefrontal cortex quieten down (meditation\/mindfulness practice is helpful) our imagination network is stimulated. The network tends to get activated when we engage in \u2018mellow\u2019 activities like walking, showering etc. That\u2019s part of the reason why we get flashes of insight and aha moments during these times.<\/li>\n<li>Expansive\u00a0thinking, being in a state of awe, is a powerful emotion that plays an important role in creativity and psychological well-being.\u00a0 This state of outward thinking can help us gain new perspectives and move us away from habitual thinking.<\/li>\n<li>Soft\u00a0fascination \u2013 a state of calm \u2013 that meditative feeling. Soft fascination frees our minds to wander, and seems to be one of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing. Soft fascination occurs when we\u2019re listening to leaves rustling or watching the ocean flow in and out. It\u2019s when our attention is very gently focused on the sensory stimuli around us. This is in contrast to hard sounds that push the brain into \u201chard fascination\u201d where we become focused on the stimuli that\u2019s bombarding your senses. Think of the constant pings and other sounds of technology that gain our immediate attention (one way to monitor and control this is to turn off sound notifications).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> I believe we know intuitively that nature nurtures us. The work of Ecopscyhologists tell us <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theecologist.org\/News\/news_analysis\/1920068\/science_proves_what_we_all_know_nature_is_good_for_your_health.html\" target=\"_blank\">stories<\/a> about ourselves and our relationship with nature. Researchers and authors like Rachel and Steven Kaplan shed light on the our experiences with nature in their book The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. Researchers and authors like Rachel and Steven Kaplan shed light on the our experiences with nature in their book <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books\/about\/The_experience_of_nature.html?id=7l80AAAAIAAJ&#038;redir_esc=y&#038;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\">The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m privileged to live near a state forest where I can go for regular walks. I\u2019m also an avid swimmer and find early morning or evening swims hugely restorative. Not only because of the swim itself, the natural setting provides a calming back drop. At night I gaze at the stars and allow myself to be in awe of the night sky and wonder what it would be like to be out in space, looking back to earth. The imagination is certainly being activated during this time.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>I have experienced \u2018soft fascination\u2019 with one particular moment etched into my memory. An early morning swim provided a moment of beauty and clarity.  As I was leaving the pool I could hear a tinkling sound I\u2019d not heard before. At first I couldn\u2019t figure it out. I know I stood in \u2018soft fascination\u2019 observing the situation completely intrigued by this delightful new sound. And then all was revealed. I happened to be passing under a Jacaranda tree and the tinkling sounds happened to be the Jacaranda flowers falling onto the wooden deck. I was mesmerised and in awe of this remarkable sound. So much so I was inspired to do a watercolour image as a visual response to capture a truly special moment.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>We all need time out and away from the \u2018busyness\u2019 of things. There is time for focused laser like attention and action, and there is much needed time to be open and spacious, a place to allow our imagination and creativity to flourish.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>We are fortunate that it doesn\u2019t have to be one or the other. The art of being human is to be aware and discerning so as to choose what is needed when, and to be enriched by both ways of being.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s probably time to go for a walk.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>How about you?<\/p>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article about creativity and nature caught my imagination. It focuses on the importance of connecting and spending time with nature, which provides a \u201cpowerful antidote to the constant distraction of our digital lives\u201d. In her article The New Science of the Creative Brain on Nature author, Carolyn Gregoire, refers to the research of neuroscientist [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maverickminds.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}