Nature as Medicine

As the weather has cooled slightly this week, I have been reminded of one of the greatest gifts available to us — nature herself.

On Monday evening I sat and watched the sunset over Dunstable Downs, and something about that simple act felt deeply healing. There is a quality to being in nature that is hard to put into words — it is medicine for the soul in the most literal sense.

Then on Tuesday, something unexpected and magical happened. Once a month I run an in-person meditation session in Olney, the town I grew up in. This week the room we use was occupied, so rather than disturb the session already in progress, I made a spontaneous decision — we would head outside and let Mother Nature be our meditation space instead.

What I didn’t realise until we set off was that it coincided perfectly with the New Moon in Cancer, which carries a very particular invitation — the willingness to trust what is unfolding before you have all the answers.  About 40 minutes in  the sun dropped and the wind picked up suddenly, strongly, sweeping through and clearing everything in its path — and it became immediately clear we needed to pack up and head inside.

A micro lesson in inner listening and trusting. The kind of lesson that only nature can deliver — quietly, swiftly and without apology. I felt it deeply, especially as someone who is actively learning to trust the unknown more.

And yet as I sat there leading that class in the open air, I could feel the healing power of nature moving through all of us. And I found myself getting genuinely excited — because in two days I will be on site for a festival build, spending long days outside before the thousands of people arrive. One of the quiet gifts of that experience is getting to feel the beauty and magic of a place while it is still unhurried and wild.

As I settled into that excitement, I was reminded of something tender — how much younger me needed nature. How the fields and the sky and the trees were my refuge long before I had any language for what they gave me.

Nature has always known what we need. Long before therapy, before meditation apps, before any of our modern tools for healing — there was the earth beneath our feet, the sky above our heads, and the quiet wisdom of the natural world.

Science is now catching up with what our ancestors always knew. Research into what the Japanese call Shinrin-yoku — forest bathing — shows that spending time in nature measurably lowers cortisol, reduces blood pressure, boosts the immune system and lifts mood. Studies show that even 20 minutes in a natural environment is enough to significantly reduce stress hormones. We are not separate from nature — we are nature. And when we return to her, something in us remembers.

Nature connects us to the Divine, to ourselves, and to something so much larger than our daily worries and to-do lists. She puts things in perspective without saying a word. She heals without asking anything in return. She is, as I have come to feel more and more deeply, the Goddess made manifest — abundant, generous, endlessly creative, and always, always speaking to those willing to listen.

If we are ready to listen, nature will teach us everything we need to know.