Wellness
Body + Mind + Energy + Emotion
When the elements of life are in balance, wellness happens naturally. It is normal to have an affinity towards some but not all of the elements of wellness. Wild Free Organic is here to guide you on your journey towards a balanced healthy lifestyle and provide new paths of exploration.
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Exploring Subtle Energies
Subtle energies just beyond our sensory perception pervade the universe at all scales, and one way of exploring the inner spiritual dimensions of life is to explore and observe the subtle energies. Having a greater perception and some understanding of subtle energies also benefits health and wellness, but more questions may be raised than answered. Learn how to feel subtle energies.
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated June 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
A star goes supernova and obliterates its solar system with a gamma ray burst, momentarily outshining its galaxy. An electron decays an energy level and releases electromagnetic radiation, breaking a DNA bond.
These two examples demonstrate that energy permeates the universe at all scales, and as highly sophisticated lifeforms humans are well suited to experiencing many of the energies of the universe.
Some energies are literally blindingly obvious (looking at you Sun!), while others are more subtle and pass unnoticed to the unobservant.
I was first drawn to the exploration of subtle energies as my research into geophysics and astrophysics began to branch at times into metaphysics. Here was a world of endless possibilities, questions at every turn, and few answers...I was mesmerized! I often found myself pondering metaphysics during my job while performing a seismic survey or while I was using a magnetometer to measure Earth’s magnetic field. I began to question how simple geophysics like sound waves and electric waves in the crust influence an individual:
“How does a 0.2 Hz seismic microtremor generated from ocean waves change how our bodies resonate in an environment compared to 20 Hz microtremors generated from a nearby highway?”
“How do Earth’s electromagnetic fields like the Schumann resonances interact with human biology”
Overtime the more I learned and the more questions I asked the more a cohesive view of energy developed in my mind. Energy is all things, from the stone along the side of the road, to the star 150 kilometers away from Earth, to you.
Naturally at some point in the quest to better understand energy one begins studying the “subtle energies” and the effects of subtle energies:
What causes how you feel during a full moon?
Why does some water feel more alive that other water?
Why do some people, places, and things just make you feel uncomfortable?
What are Subtle Energies?
Our ability to observe and identify subtle energies is thwarted by our limited scientific methods and instrumentation, and for that matter we’re also limited in the study of subtle energies by the limits of our biology. Subtle energies are inherently difficult to study because they will always be at the edge of our resolution, but it’s vitally important that we try our best at all times to better understand subtle energies because the impacts they have can be quite enormous.
For example, during the embryonic stage cellular voltage gradients across cells determine DNA expression and cellular function. Apply the brain’s cellular voltage gradient to a section of the tail of a frog embryo, a mini brain will develop in the tail (1). An electromagnetic field at the cellular scale is a textbook example of a subtle energy, too small to probably feel yet here we observe this subtle energy forever changing the course of that small frog’s life.
While it may be easier for subtle energies to affect our existence at earlier stages of life, the countess subtle energies that surround and permeate each and every one us at all times have a large impact on our body, mind, and spirit. Exploring and better understanding subtle energies and how they impact you is not solely for those who were born with increased sensitivity to subtle energies, but for all people. In many ways human evolution has led us towards the exploration of subtle energies, it’s a birthright that comes along with our big brains and advanced consciousness.
How to Feel Subtle Energies
There are a few methods that I use to better feel subtle energies in myself and of my environment. Everyone is different so they may not work for you, but I encourage you to try these methods and discover for yourself how well they work.
Quiet the Mind: Meditation is one of the best ways to feel subtle energies as its a way to quiet the activity of the body and the mind. Just as you can’t hear a pin drop in a loud room, with a busy internal bioelectrical environment subtle energies can pass and exert their effects undetected. The main route to the detection of subtle energies is through meditation, and the more you practice the more sensitive you become.
Increase Brainwaves: Better feeling subtle energies comes with the territory of greater consciousness. One proven way to increases consciousness is to increase brainwaves frequencies and amplitudes. Listening to binaural beats is one way to entrain brainwaves to the binaural beat frequency. Another way to stimulate brainwaves is with certain herbs like green tea and chamomile, both of which boost 8-12 Hz alpha brainwaves.
Explore with Psychedelics: Once the brain was fully matured around the age of 25 and if mentally stable, responsibly delving into the world of psychedelics with substances like cannabis (THC) and magic mushrooms (psilocybin) is a powerful way to interact and feel subtle energies. Psychedelics interact with subtle energies in ways modern science does not yet understand, and direct experience of the manipulation of reality as we perceive it is one way to better understand the complex nature of our existence.
Connect with the Earth: Spending time in nature, which itself is a mesh of subtle energies, is one way to develop a feeling of the unseen and unheard. Even better is to spend some time grounding while in nature, placing your feet, hands, and/or body in direct contact with the conductive ground surface of our planet. The Earth is a sea of subtle energies, waves of free electrons sweep across the surface of the planet every second. Meditating while grounding is an excellent way to explore certain subtle energies and how they affect your autonomic nervous system and beyond.
And for another example of a subtle energy, think about how reading this article made you feel.
For those who have felt and experienced subtle energies, which is most everyone at some point in life, please share your experiences in the comments below!
References:
Pai VP, Lemire JM, Pare JF, Lin G, Chen Y, Levin M. Endogenous gradients of resting potential instructively pattern embryonic neural tissue via notch signaling and regulation of proliferation. Journal of Neuroscience. 2015;35(10):4366-4385.
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Rewire the Brain with Meditation
Meditation, the act of focusing inwardly and finding calm, is a powerful wellness practice that has dramatically improved the life and well-being of the millions who practice it. Deep meditation is able to create strong continuous gamma wavelengths in the brain, a rare phenomenon which has powerful effects in changing the activation and structure of the brain via neural plasticity.
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Meditation is a mental and sensory practice that improves awareness, focus, and mindfulness. During meditation a technique is applied (and there are many) which trains focus, in the process resetting neural activity and with consistent practice rewires the brain so it’s easier to have a balanced, emotionally calm, and mentally clear state of mind.
Meditation has been practiced for time untold, and its popularity has steadily grown as we’ve learned more about its benefits scientifically. Just like exercising regularly and eating a nutritious diet for best health, meditation is a foundational wellness practice that should be a part of everyone’s lifestyle.
There are many ways to train the brain, and meditation is the safest way to rewire neural structures of the brain, optimize neurotransmitter ratios, and train parasympathetic (rest and digest) pathways. Having a regular meditation practice, even if it’s as short as five minutes a day, will improve all aspects of life, from stress management to exercise to sleep quality.
Meditation has been scientifically shown to change how the brain functions with as little as 7 hours of combined practice. Mediation increase neuroplasticity and the beneficial changes to brain structure and activation patterns caused by meditation are semi-permanent.
The Science of Meditation
When entering into a deep meditative state unencumbered of thoughts and distractions, one might reflect later that the mind felt much less active, but science have shown otherwise. A reduction in distraction and thoughts doesn’t mean a reduction in brain activity, instead brainwave patterns have changed.
What has been shown in the lab is that monks who have meditated for tens of thousands of hours have fundamentally different brain activity than someone who hasn’t put in the work. When connected to an EEG, master meditators demonstrate elevated gamma brainwaves, and when they enter into focused meditation, their gamma wavelengths increase further in amplitude (strength) by 600-800% in seconds (1).
Gamma brainwaves are normally only observed for a split second during periods of immense realization, such as at the end of solving a complex problem, or they can be observed during realistic states of imagination. For example, if imaging all aspects and senses associated with biting into an apple, small gamma waves will be briefly created as a result of this visualization exercise. Gamma brainwaves are very high frequency and the physics of higher frequency brainwaves connects different groups of neurons and regions of the brain together, enabling them to fire simultaneously for maximum cognitive output.
Extremely practiced yogis can sustain these gamma wave patterns in the brain indefinitely, but it takes time to reach such an elevated level on consciousness. Basic desirable changes in brain activity and neuroplasticity are observed even after a short period of meditation. Neuroplasticity is when the brain reorganizes its neural network in response to new experience and information. There are different mechanisms that influence neuroplasticity, such as the growth of new connections to the creation of new neurons. The human brain is not a static organ, it has ability to adapt and change (2). Neuroplasticity is more commonly observed in children, teenagers, and young adults whose brains are still developing, but neuroplasticity can be increased at any age if the right conditions are in place, such as with a meditation practice, learning a new language, or the acquisition of a complex skill.
The prefrontal cortex, hippocampal, and right anterior insula regions of the brain associated with attention, enteroception, and sensory processing are thicker in those who meditate regularly (3, 4). In as short as 7 hours of meditation, brain plasticity occurs and changes in brain activity can be observed. 7 hours of meditation over the course of a month is 15 minutes of meditation everyday, and a 15 minute time commitment which results in increased happiness and reduced stress is an attractive proposition an easy habit to create by anyone.
Wellness Benefits of Meditation
Using meditation as a self-care wellness tool is still a relatively uncommon practice in the United States. Approximately 5-10 million adults practice meditation consistently in the US, and common reasons meditation was part of their wellness practice was for preventative wellness, stress management, and for greater emotion well-being (5).
Besides the immediate calming effects that can felt during and lingering after meditation, meditation has also shown to reduce burnout, improve emotional wellness, and reduce stress over longer periods of time. Meditation has even been shown to lengthen telomeres in young individuals (6). Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that keep them from fraying, and there is a clear trend between lifespan and telomere length (7).
As shown with telomeres, yoga and meditative practices have a measurable effect at the molecular level via gene expression (8), and it is through these mechanisms and certainly more still undiscovered that mindfulness practices reduce risk from inflammation-based diseases (9). Meditation is a powerful intervention tool that reduces anxiety levels. Anxiety often results from suppressed negative emotions, and mindfulness practices improve expressing and releasing negative emotions in a healthy manner. Because of its nullifying effects on stress and anxiety, meditation is an amazing wellness practice for mental health.
One inflammatory disease with strong ties to anxiety is heart disease, and preliminary evidence suggest that meditation can reduce risk and improve health outcomes for those with heart disease (10). Meditation and mindfulness practices go beyond just reducing stress, anxiety, and bodily inflammation, they also increase positive mental traits such as trust, cooperation, and empathy. Meditating widens perspective and increase empathy (11). Meditation increases cooperation and harmony among people, supporting a sort of collective mind (12).
Better understand outward reality by reflecting inwards
The positive effects of meditation are powerful and far reaching. From increased emotional maturity to better physical health, meditation can transform your health and wellness and help you be the best version of yourself with regular practice.
Methods of Meditation
There is an intrinsic difference between sitting in place and having a storm of thoughts cloud your mind, and sitting in peace with a calm mind clear of disturbance. Meditation is simply the practice of bringing awareness to one specific thing. How you approach your meditation practice is important. It should be done with intent and purpose. Find a regular time everyday to meditate, such as during a morning routine. Or perhaps a longer meditation is done weekly, the key is to create a meditation practice that is long lasting and not given up after only a few tries. Below are four different styles of meditation used by beginners and masters alike.
Breathing Meditation
Breathing meditation is probably the simplest form for meditation, and all it involves is paying attention to your breath. Breathing meditation can be done anywhere and for any length of time. Bringing conscious awareness to your breath for even just thirty seconds is highly calming, and for longer periods of time breathing meditation is an easy path into deeper states of consciousness.
Sensory Awareness Meditation
Sensory awareness meditation is the practice of tuning into one or a combination of the five senses.. Typically meditation is with eyes closed, so the senses tuned into are hearing, touch, smell, and potentially taste. Sensory meditation is similar to breathing meditation in that is very easy to do anywhere.
First, close the eyes and focus on any sound present. Simply observe and enlarge your sensory envelop, taking in sounds further away or sounds more quiet that you might have first missed. Any thoughts that arise simply let them pass and without reaction. Keeping a heightened sense of hearing, now pay attention to the body and your contact with the ground. Feel your hands and feel, the temperature of the air, can you feel sunlight or wind? Engage the olfactory system, noticing any smells or tastes. This is all done very naturally and smoothly, without effort over the course of 5+ minutes. If you can hold your awareness over all your senses simultaneously, congratulations, you’ve reached a higher state of consciousness!
Open Monitoring Meditation
With open monitoring meditation, you clear the mind and tune your awareness to what happens afterwards, passively monitoring the content of experience from moment-to-moment. Open monitoring meditation is very powerful because it can be used as a diagnostic tool to recognize the unique nature of your cognitive and emotional patterns. You might be surprised by the thoughts that manifest tempting you to react or dismiss them. With open monitoring meditation suspend all judgement, treat yourself with unconditional love, remain unattached, and filter out all non-harmonious energy and thoughts simply through awareness.
Focused Attention Meditation
When meditating, you can also focus your attention on a chosen object in a sustained fashion. Focused attention meditation is very powerful because it can be used in many different ways. It can be used to improve your emotional well-being very quickly, for example you could focus on the mantra “I am happy, I am healthy, I am whole” and with time those neural connections are grooved, the subconscious mind is filled with positive thoughts, and health plus happiness manifests.
If attention is given to areas such as empathy, compassion, or joy, those areas of the brain are activated and new neural grooves are formed, improving your ability to experience all of these things. Focused attention meditation is a powerful method for manifestation.
Develop third eye gaze
When meditating, best practice is to focus on the spot between your eyebrows known as the “third eye”. This is the location of anja chakra, and behind that location rests the pineal gland. The pineal gland is a small endocrine gland located near the center of the brain, and it produces melatonin and other chemicals such as DMT*.
To train focus on the third eye, you can imagine a small flame flickering in that space, and any thoughts, emotions, ideas, and feelings you experience can be fed and consumed by the flame. Don’t interact with distractions, maintain mental tranquility and focus exclusively on the flame in the void. You can also imagine this as a ball of light (sometimes known as a tinge), a jewel, something simple to hold in your minds eye for as long as wanted.
*By age 17, the pineal gland in 40% of Americans is calcified (13), impairing gland function and melatonin production (14). Melatonin production is one of the master regulators of the circadian rhythm. The pineal gland is responsible for many of the observed beneficial effects of meditation.
Binaural Beats Aid in Meditation
A useful meditation tool are binaural beats. Binaural beats are a type of auditory stimulation that expose each ear to a different frequency of sound. After propagating through the structures of the ears these two slightly out of phase sounds are digitalized into electromagnetic waves that combine into a lower frequency brainwave. The frequency of the brainwave that is entrained by binaural beats is the difference between the two frequencies played. For example the right ear is exposed to a 110 Hz sound wave and the left ear a 100 Hz sound wave. The brainwaves that are amplified in the brain after 5+ minutes of listening will be 10 Hz in frequency (110 - 100).
For more information read through my Binaural Beats Complete Guide where there are also free resources available. A starting recommendation would be to meditate using a 7.83 Hz Schumann Resonance binaural beat using the video below.
Begin a Meditation Practice
Meditation is a powerful wellness and therapeutic technique that can transform your life in more ways than one. A meditation practice of 15 minutes everyday quickly adds up to noticeable improvements in mood and verifiable changes to the brain. Reduce stress and anxiety while simultaneously improving outlook on life with a regular meditation practice.
To slip into a meditative state easier, drinking a cup of green tea can help. Green tea contains an amino acid known as L-theanine which increases alpha brainwave activity, alpha brainwaves being observed when in a calm focused state of mind. Cannabis can also be used to enter into deep states of meditation, as can psilocybin found in magic mushrooms. Another way to make meditation easier is to practice after hard physical exercise or yoga as the body is tired and the mind will be more complacent and less distracted.
I hope you give meditation a shot, after thirty days of daily meditation practice you’ll be amazed by how you feel and the clarity of mind your regularly experience.
References:
Lutz A, Brefczynski-lewis J, Johnstone T, Davidson RJ. Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise. PLoS ONE. 2008;3(3):e1897.
Davidson RJ, Lutz A. Buddha's Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation. IEEE Signal Process Mag. 2008;25(1):176-174.
Lazar SW, Kerr CE, Wasserman RH, et al. Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport. 2005;16(17):1893-7.
Luders E, Toga AW, Lepore N, Gaser C. The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter. Neuroimage. 2009;45(3):672-8.
Burke, A., Lam, C.N., Stussman, B. et al. Prevalence and patterns of use of mantra, mindfulness and spiritual meditation among adults in the United States. BMC Complement Altern Med 17, 316 (2017).
Thimmapuram J, Pargament R, Sibliss K, Grim R, Risques R, Toorens E. Effect of heartfulness meditation on burnout, emotional wellness, and telomere length in health care professionals. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2017;7(1):21-27.
Heidinger BJ, Blount JD, Boner W, Griffiths K, Metcalfe NB, Monaghan P. Telomere length in early life predicts lifespan. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2012;109(5):1743-8.
Saatcioglu F. Regulation of gene expression by yoga, meditation and related practices: a review of recent studies. Asian J Psychiatr. 2013;6(1):74-7.
Buric I, Farias M, Jong J, Mee C, Brazil IA. What Is the Molecular Signature of Mind-Body Interventions? A Systematic Review of Gene Expression Changes Induced by Meditation and Related Practices. Front Immunol. 2017;8:670.
Tacón, Anna M. PhD; McComb, Jacalyn PhD; Caldera, Yvonne PhD; Randolph, Patrick PhD Mindfulness Meditation, Anxiety Reduction, and Heart Disease: A Pilot Study, Family & Community Health: January 2003 - Volume 26 - Issue 1 - p 25-33
Erratum: Borderud SP, Li Y, Burkhalter JE, Sheffer CE and Ostroff JS. Electronic cigarette use among patients with cancer: Characteristics of electronic cigarette users and their smoking cessation outcomes. Cancer. doi: 10.1002/ cncr.28811. Cancer. 2015;121(5):800.
Giovanni Di Bartolomeo, Stefano Papa and Saverio Bellomo. Yoga beyond wellness: Meditation, trust and cooperation. Department of Communication, Working Paper No 95, 2012.
Zimmerman RA, Bilaniuk LT. Age-related incidence of pineal calcification detected by computed tomography. Radiology. 1982;142(3):659-62.
Tan DX, Xu B, Zhou X, Reiter RJ. Pineal Calcification, Melatonin Production, Aging, Associated Health Consequences and Rejuvenation of the Pineal Gland. Molecules. 2018;23(2)
The Emotion of Awe
There are many different emotions that can be experienced, happiness, sadness, anger, but an emotion often overlooked is the feeling of awe. Experiencing awe, most often through spending time in nature, has wide-ranging and comprehensive physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness benefits. Experiencing a greater reality creates a sense of awe and elevates your level of consciousness.
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
There are many emotions that one can experience, happiness, joy, sadness, anger, fear, but one emotion people don’t often think about is awe. Being in a state of awe is an emotion, and it has been shown to have serious health benefits to spend time being overwhelmed in awe. The connection between awe and the improvement in well-being is easy to experience too.
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Africa
When something vastly larger than the self and not immediately understood becomes the center of attention, then a sense of awe is created. Human cultural activities such as music, art, or collective ceremonies can create a sense of awe. Nature can also create a sense of awe. For time immemorial, natural wonders like Yosemite, Victoria Falls, and Mt. Everest have struck people with awe and these wonders have created entire cultures based around them.
Changing your perception to be conscious of nature, therefore being aware of something much greater in scale than the self, has been shown to improve well-being, life satisfaction, mood, reduce hypertension, reduce anxiety, reduce depression and so much more. We’ll get into as many of the benefits as possible below.
Experiencing Awe
Experiencing awe is truly a remarkable phenomenon. First, consciousness is required. To simplify, there are two states of mind. One state of mind is behavior driven; without awareness and control you follow preprogrammed actions. The other state of mind is conscious; you are aware of all your senses and then freely choose your direction of action. Without elevating consciousness, you cannot experience a sense of awe, as you’ll be stuck in a state of behavior-driven actions.
Modern indoor day-to-day life reduces consciousness and creates behavior patterns. Constant advertising, propaganda, and emotional triggers bombard you, forcing you in a state of anxiety, fear, and stress. The environment you spend the most of your time in determines in large part your level of consciousness. To fix the problem and to elevate your consciousness, change your environment and put yourself into a reality that is much bigger than your current existence.
Astronauts are the most familiar with this effect. Dubbed the overview effect, when astronauts first glimpse the planet Earth floating in space, they become overawed by the fragility and unity of life on our blue planet. A sense of understanding the "big picture" overwhelms their consciousness.
Experience a sense of awe right. Learn of the overview effect, and how astronauts experience a profound change in their level of consciousness when seeing the planet from an outside perspective.
If you watched the video, you can reflect back that your sense of time expanded, you felt humbled, and during all this, your stresses and responsibilities which pull at your thoughts constantly were placed on hold as you reveled in the presence of magnificence. Experiencing the emotion of awe has profound and wide-reaching health benefits, and it’s free to do and only requires a conscious effort to experience.
Spend time in nature and you’ll begin to realize the truth that we are all continually interconnected with the earth and other lifeforms via two-way electromagnetic, chemical, and mechanical interactions (1). Electromagnetic grounding is a great example of this. Everything we experience via our five senses is created from external stimuli, and it is our senses and experiences that form the basis for our identity. Hold your breath for 3 minutes and very quickly you’ll realize that without the life-giving oxygen provided by the tree, you’ll die (2). Likewise, without the carbon dioxide that we produce, the tree cannot live.
Every organism and object on this planet is continually interacting with each other. By shifting the narrative of well-being away from the individual and instead expanding it to include the larger realm of the world, a more dynamic wellness relationship between self and world can be developed.
How can you be well if the environment you eat your food from is sprayed with toxins? How can you be healthy if the air we breathe is poisoned with gases, smog, and particulates? This concepts might appear obvious, but when in a state of reduced consciousness, they no longer become priority issues, and therefore nothing is changed.
Wellness Benefits of Awe
Experiencing a sense of awe will increase mindfulness of your surroundings, and this redirection of attention and energy from outward to inward can cause significant improvements in emotional well-being (3).
Spending more time in nature, naturally being at a higher level of consciousness and in a state of awe, has the following wellness improvements:
Improved:
Mental, physical, social, and spiritual well-being
Breathing
Confidence
Cardiovascular health
Personal growth
Nutrition
Awareness
Fitness
Reduced:
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
Fear
Loneliness
Pain
Distress
Hypertension
Blood pressure
Rewild Yourself
Here is your challenge, whether you are healthy or not, spend the next thirty days spending time in nature, 15 minutes minimum each day. The health and emotional benefits of 30 day rewilding programs have been studied, and the results are striking (9). Activities that you can do to accomplish this goal include going for a nature walk, gardening, embarking upon a hike, meditating by a vista, practicing yoga at a nearby park, or looking up at the stars. Even changing your indoor environment by being near a window to include outdoor vistas can improve your connection to nature and calm your mind.
When loosing touch with reality and your environment, pay attention to your senses. Notice the vibrant colors of the trees. Smell the fresh air, hear the sounds of the forest creatures. Feel the crunch of the leaves underfoot.
Seasonable variability can affect your results, but no matter the time of year, you should experience the profound wellness changes discussed above. If you want to connect with a community at the same time you embark upon your rewilding journey, connect with nature-focused community groups near you. Use platforms like Meetup to connect with others and the outdoors.
The best way to ensure you are privy to the consciousness expanding and wellness benefits of experiencing awe daily is to incorporate sending time in nature as part of your morning routine.
References:
Stevens P. Embedment in the environment: a new paradigm for well-being?. Perspect Public Health. 2010;130(6):265-9.
Sadhguru. Breath Bond. Sadhguru
Sturm VE, Datta S, Roy ARK, et al. Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults. Emotion. 2020;
Shanahan DF, Astell-burt T, Barber EA, et al. Nature-Based Interventions for Improving Health and Wellbeing: The Purpose, the People and the Outcomes. Sports (Basel). 2019;7(6)
White, M.P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J. et al. Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Sci Rep 9, 7730 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3
Yuen HK, Jenkins GR. Factors associated with changes in subjective well-being immediately after urban park visit. Int J Environ Health Res. 2020;30(2):134-145.
Barton J, Pretty J. What is the best dose of nature and green exercise for improving mental health? A multi-study analysis. Environ Sci Technol. 2010;44(10):3947-55.
Hunter MR, Gillespie BW, Chen SY. Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers. Front Psychol. 2019;10:722.
Richardson M, Cormack A, Mcrobert L, Underhill R. 30 Days Wild: Development and Evaluation of a Large-Scale Nature Engagement Campaign to Improve Well-Being. PLoS ONE. 2016;11(2):e0149777.
Five Mindfulness Practices
Mindfulness is the first step to becoming fully present in the moment, aware and accepting of all your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. Eliminating resistance to all of the elements that create your experience of life can bring about about a sense of inner peace and improve your overall well-being.
Article by Jason Brown - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Follow along and consider this your first mindfulness exercise.
Take a deep breath, breathe out, and relax. Quiet your mind; feel your senses.
Mindfulness meditation has been proven to provide enormous psychological benefits for both individuals as well as the larger communities who participate in it. Through mindfulness, you can learn to become fully present with the moment and accept all of your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. Eliminating resistance to all of the elements that create your experience of life can bring about a sense of inner peace and improve your overall well-being.
While this may sound like a very worthwhile goal, it can be tough figuring out how to start on this journey of developing mindfulness. If you are seeking to start practicing mindfullness, or even just breathe new life into your existing practice, here are the five steps needed to help you create a meaningful routine:
Set your Intention
Once you’ve decided that you want to practice mindfulness in your day to day, it’s important to define why you’re doing it and what you hope to get out of it. This will help give you an objective to focus on as well as provide you with some motivation to stick with it. This doesn’t have to be anything overly complex and for some, it might just be to learn to live in the moment a little bit more. For others, maybe life has been overwhelming lately and you really need help finding your inner peace. Whatever the reason, setting an intention for your practice of mindfulness will help you get the most out of it by defining a goal you can work towards.
Mindfulness has become somewhat of a buzz word and a sort of “trendy” thing to try out, but this does not necessarily have to degrade the actual value it can provide in your life. By creating an intention that is meaningful to you, you can develop an authentic and powerful practice that has the potential to be a transformative force in your life.
Create realistic expectations
Many people equate mindfulness to the idea of spiritual enlightenment or reaching some sort of Buddha-like state. While mindfulness may be the first step on the path towards enlightenment for some people, it does not necessarily have to represent embarking on a grandiose, spiritual journey of that scale for all. There are benefits to practicing mindfulness in any stage of the game.
That being said, it’s not realistic to expect that 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation a week will turn you into a sage overnight.
However, it may in fact help you find a little more equilibrium in your life. You may have also heard of stories of monks reaching nirvana by sitting and meditating under a tree for some period of time. It might be true that a number of individuals experienced something like this, but these stories can easily be misinterpreted to view mindfulness or meditation as nothing more than a tool to help achieve some specific state of being. Mindfulness is not a means to an end, but rather it is a practice that provides you with value for as long as you are engaged with it. It’s not some pill you swallow or thing you try once that changes your perception of the world forever, but rather mindfulness is like a muscle that you develop through regular use and exercise.
Be Consistent & Disciplined
If you want to turn your intention into a reality, it’s going to take some consistent effort. It’s important to commit yourself to a regular mindfulness routine that will help you to internalize your practice. For some people, this might mean making time at the beginning or end of every day to sit and meditate. For others, it might mean spending 20-30 minutes a day reading some enriching material. It could even be a routine of sitting quietly with no distractions to enjoy a peaceful breakfast before starting your day. Whatever you choose to commit yourself to, the important piece is that you stay consistent with it. Like with most objectives, discipline matters. As previously mentioned, mindfulness can only add value to your life for as long as you continue to practice it, so it’s essential that you create a routine that you can stick with over time.
Create Accountability
When starting any new habit, it’s important to create a system of accountability in order to keep yourself on track. This is particularly true with something like mindfulness where the effects can initially be very subtle or hard to measure. Therefore, creating a system that will push you to stick it out during the initial phases of developing the habit will help you reach the benefits that long-term commitment can bring to your life. One way you could do this is by setting a goal to practice mindfulness meditation for 10 minutes a day and then keep track of how many days in a row you’re able to stay with it. See if you can keep the streak going for one week, then two weeks, and then a month. Next thing you know, it will have become integrated into your normal, daily routine. Another way you can approach accountability is to find a friend who is willing to take this mindfulness journey with you. Check in with one another on at least a weekly basis to see how each of you has been able to follow through with your practice. Not only can this keep you accountable, it is also motivating to connect with someone embarking on the same journey as yourself.
“Eliminating resistance to all of the elements that create your experience of life can bring about a sense of inner peace and improve your overall well-being”
Incorporate Mindfulness into your Daily Life
Practicing mindfulness can be as easy as simply living in the moment and being mindful of your breath
For practicing mindfulness to have significant effect for you, it's important not to fall into the trap of viewing your practice as separate from the rest of your daily life. There are many ways to mindfully meditate, and while you may have certain times of the day or certain activities you commit yourself to for developing mindfulness, the idea is that you will progressively start to become more mindful throughout your overall life.
It’s easy to view meditation as isolated from everything else you do during the day, but imagine what it would be like if you approached all experiences with the same openness and deliberateness that you bring to your meditation. You might slowly start to realize that being more mindful has helped take the edge off of some of the situations, responsibilities, or tasks that normally cause you stress, all unconsciously. Try imagining the 10 or so minutes you set aside each day for deliberate mindfulness as the “recharging” moments that carry you through the stressful parts of your day.
Practice makes Perfect
Mindfulness is intended to bring lightness, relaxation, and peace to your life. It’s not entirely necessary to view these 5 steps as firm rules for your practice These five suggestions can kickstart your practice to turn an idea into a sustainable routine. There is definitely a science to the power of mindfulness meditation, but there is also an art of how to incorporate it into your life and get the most out of it. Above all else, take the liberty to be creative and experiment with finding a routine that can help bring more peace and joy to your life.
Yoga will transform your life
Yoga is not just a fitness modality but a journey of self discovery. There are eight limbs to yoga, and if stay open-minded and curious, there is a lot to discover, both about the universe and yourself. Learn how yoga will transform your life in ways unexpected beyond convention.
Article by Jason Brown - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
We all recognize that in order to condition our bodies and improve our fitness, we need to take up some sort of physical exercise. However, it is often missed that the same concept applies to our mind, and that in order to condition our thoughts, emotions, and internal experiences, we need to take up some form of inner exercise.
When I first heard of yoga, my initial impression was that it just involved middle-aged moms doing aerobics on a mat in an unnecessarily hot room. Luckily, my open-mindedness and curiosity prevailed, and I eventually discovered the many different dimensions of yoga.
On the surface, yoga may seem like an alternative version of exercising for people who prefer to stay out of the weight room, but upon closer examination, you might find that there’s more going on under the hood. While yoga certainly does provide a number of physical benefits including flexibility, core strength, and posture, keep reading to learn how yoga can transform your life beyond the physical benefits.
Practice Mindfulness with Yoga
It is so easy to get distracted by the hundreds of stimuli that fight for our attention every single minute of the day. Whether it’s our thoughts or the physical things around us, these distractions can make it seem like your default state of mind is to bounce around from one thought to the next. It really takes a deliberate effort to be present with the moment and aware of what is right in front of us.
Most who first start practicing yoga will find themselves impatiently thinking of other things, such as wondering how much time is left until the end of the class. The more you practice, the more you learn to let go and not worry about the time, instead focusing on the movements. The reward is much greater. With the uniquely challenging activities found in yoga, to master and perfect the poses you will eventually be required to completely clear your mind. Once you start to practice losing yourself in the flow you will start to notice that you legitimately feel different when I walking out of each class.
With my personal yoga practice, I eventually realized that the potential to lose myself in the moment existed with every activity that I encountered in my day. This skill can be learned by anyone. Use yoga as a way to practice mindfulness and apply that to your daily routine in a way that resets and reorients your perspective.
Relieve Stress with Yoga
His holiness the Dalai Lama
A mantra you might learn in your yoga practice is “let go of the things that no longer serve you.”
We hold onto so much weight, from our past experiences to little day to day stresses, and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that reliving or over-analyzing our grievances serves very little purpose.
Of course it's possible to learn from reflecting on our mistakes, but reflecting on a mistake 50 times does not teach you any lessons that can't be learned from reflecting on it once.
Yoga practice strengthens and develops the mind so it’s no longer a battle to calm your thoughts, allowing clarity of mind to develop. Just like a storm at sea, when the storm abates you can now see to the horizon.
“Let go of the things that no longer serve you”
By thinking, reciting, or chanting this phrase in or outside of your yoga or meditation practice, you can learn to actively let go of thoughts and outdated beliefs that add no value to your life. Release yourself from the bounds of your Not-Self. Once these steps are taken and mental solitude is established, be amazed by how much less stressed you are day to day.
Learn Patience with Yoga
Ever been waiting in line and looked around to see that literally every other person in line has their head down looking at their phone? In truth, this probably occurs to you everyday! Generally speaking, most people lack the patience or ability to wait for something without distracting themselves with their phones. Yoga has the ability to teach patience, both with your mind and body. From the moment we wake up until the second we go to sleep, we are faced with thousands of opportunities to escape our own thoughts through technology, socializing, entertainment, or some form of consumption. Use the opportunity yoga provides to develop a new relationship with your thoughts so you can be both productive as well as mindful during the little down times of the day. You might find that those moments to yourself are sometimes the most enjoyable parts of your day.
Develop Discipline with Yoga
Motivation and inspiration cannot solely be relied on to produce results in life. While it is certainly helpful to have ambition and drive, the main trait that you can rely on to make progress and achieve your goals is discipline. Inspiration and motivation are emotions. Emotions come and go, they are flux states that are dictated in large part by environmental factors.
Discipline on the other hand is a routine habit that you develop to work towards your vision no matter what mood, emotion, or feeling you’re currently experiencing. With discipline, you learn to experience emotion differently, let them wash over you and you recognize them, but stay distant and in control unless you decide to engage. Being emotional isn’t a problem, it is what makes us human, but emotions can also change your focus and disrupt your mindfulness.
If you have problems fostering discipline in your life, make a positive step forward by committing to something long term. Yoga is a great avenue for this, and over time you will learn that cultivated discipline throughout all aspects of your life can work miracles and enable you to achieve more than you ever thought before.
If you have trouble with discipline, start with your health. Wellness is a foundational element required to enjoy a blissful existence, and developing discipline by taking care of yourself and exercising your mind is a great place to start. Yoga is the scientific practice developed to cultivate this very thing.
Enhance Focus with Yoga
Multitasking is something that has come to be celebrated as a strength and a sought after skill. What a lot of people fail to realize is that, as cool and useful as multitasking seems on the surface, the potential for productivity is far higher when we focus and concentrate our efforts on one task at a time, entering into a flow state.
Being in the flow is a mental state when everything seems to come intuitively and naturally, no matter how difficult the objective. The best athletes are celebrated for their ability to enter into flow states at those critical buzzer-beater moments.
The human brain is incapable of competently accomplishing two tasks simultaneously, and in order to be fully present and engaged in a conversation, we have to mindedly focus our efforts on the people we’re interacting with.
Learning how to focus will greatly benefit your life across the board, from work to social interactions. Without practice though it isn’t easy focusing on one thing. Being hyper focused can actually be very challenging if you don’t practice the skill, especially if you consider all the distractions of modern life.
Yoga is excellent for teaching focus as it challenges you to focus your attention on a single exercise, or breathing style, mantra, or awareness at a time. Yoga elevates your consciousness to new bounds, and the exercises in yoga often push you outside of your comfort zone to the point that you really have no choice but to cut the noise if you want to execute the pose properly.
Ready? Take Your First Shavasana
Taking one yoga class is not going to immediately thrust you into spiritual enlightenment, but if you develop a deliberate and intentional practice, you will discover serious life benefits from yoga over time. You might even look back to that first class as the genesis moment that helped you create a new lifestyle, a new mindset, and…a new you.
A healthy mind has the potential to bring a little more calmness to your life and can do wonders for your relationships with other people. If you’re thinking about trying out a yoga class, most studios offer a 1 or 2-week free trial so you can get a sense first hand of what a yoga is like. There are so many different types of yoga so it can also be difficult to choose where to begin. For most beginners, a restorative flow is best.
Most practices include both physical and mental elements, but if you really want to hone in on the inner work and mindfulness part of yoga, I recommend seeking out a Kundalini Yoga class in your area as a good place to get started.
Five Wellness Habits to Follow
Life moves fast, and when responsibilities and stress begin to pile up, bad habits can form which make the situation worse. While it takes time to create the wellness lifestyle you desire, you can speed up the process and reduce your stress in the process by following these five simple wellness habits.
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Depending on your current lifestyle, life can move fast, with responsibilities and stress pilling up. When this happens, unhealthy habits are created and used as coping mechanisms which only serve to make things worse. Once habits are formed, it can be hard to get out of those unhealthy routines. Humans are creatures of habit - and that isn't necessarily a bad thing! If mindfulness throughout the creation of a new habit, we can let our unconscious actions better serve our health and wellness.
To make sure that the changes you want to make become healthy habits that don’t cut into your free time or morph into an added stress, start with the basics. The goal is to make life less stressful, and to aid you in the journey here are five easy-to-follow habits to speed your growth into a healthier you!
Drink More Water
Everyone knows the importance of drinking water for optimal health, but 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration causes fatigue, lead to heat exhaustion, or even cause death in extreme cases. When you keep your body in a state of chronic dehydration, all the major systems of the body are stressed to critical levels. If you were hoping to find a magic wellness potion that will change your life forever, water is the closest thing you've got! Below is a small slice of how water intake impacts your health:
Drinking enough water improves mood, aids concentration, and promotes a clarity of mind.
The detoxification system of the body, led by the kidneys and liver, uses water to filter and flush out toxins through sweat, urine, and feces.
Water is absolutely vital for skin health, and remember the skin is the largest organ of the body!
Water aids in digestion, improving and stabilizing intestinal motility.
Adequate water intake can balance blood pressure to healthy levels by lowering or raising it.
“Water is the foundation of all life as we know it”
If you’ve never made a habit to drink pure water consistently and in adequate volume, then you’ve been missing out of a whole new level of health and wellness. To remedy that, make it a habit to drink water at certain times of day. For instance, have 16 - 32 oz of filtered water everyday right when you wake up. Pairing water intake to events like waking up, finishing work, or before a meal is a good way to ensure you drink the recommended 1 gallon (4 liters) of water per day. There are many ways to make sure you're staying hydrated throughout the day, brainstorm what works for your current lifestyle, so even if you're busy, you’re well hydrated and your fluid intake isn’t a stress factor.
Incorporate Movement into your Life
If you don't have time everyday to exercise or go for a long walk, that doesn't mean you can't move! By squeezing in some movement in-between your regular activities, you can improve your energy levels while laying the foundation for a more structured exercise routine.
If you already work, small bouts of movement done consistently throughout your day will accelerate your fitness goals.
Burn some calories, make small health improvements, and all without a trip to the gym. That’s a win-win and a textbook example of a healthy habit.
To start incorporating more movement into your everyday life, choose exercises you can do quickly and without any equipment. Connect those simple exercises to activities you do often, and eventually that daily task acts as a movement trigger, becoming a habit.
Movement Habits to Follow
Before or after you use the restroom, do 15 squats.
If you're reading a long email or article, hold your arms up high above your head as you're reading and stretch a bit. Don’t be surprised by how quickly your shoulders start to work!
If you watch TV, use the natural breaks to exercise! If you're watching cable, perform sit-ups during the commercial breaks. If you're watching a streaming service like Netflix, do a 1-minute plank or push-ups a couple short of failure in-between episodes.
While heating up food, do some stretching! Quad and hamstring stretches are particularly accessible and can be done anywhere.
Perform a wall sit while brushing your teeth! The guideline for oral health is to brush your teeth for 2 minutes; work your way towards holding the wall sit for the entire duration.
If you're walking up stairs, do 15 calf raises from a step when you get to the top of the flight. The step lets you get a full range of motion, and really gets the calves burning. Practice your balance on the bottom step.
For a more structured exercise routine calisthenics is highly recommended as zero equipment is required, and calisthenics can be performed by all ages. Calisthenics is easy to scale to the individual; if you don’t know how to start, follow a simple calisthenics routine.
Plan Your Meals
Meal-prepping is a game changer, not only for your finances, but also for your diet and time management.
If you have a hectic schedule, once or twice a week, plan out your lunch and dinners for that period of time. Knowing exactly what to shop for while you're at the grocery store keeps your trips short and effective, and keeps you from wasting money on impulse food purchases, which might be more unhealthy or go unused. Cooking ahead of time and having a prepared lunch means you'll consistently be eating healthier, nor will you misuse money or time ordering out. Planning ahead on what to eat for dinner saves you time, money, and increases your schedule flexibility. If a time crunch arises, a healthy meal has been prepared and is ready to go.
For some, meal prepping is the end destination. Personally I like cooking my meals fresh everyday, but meal prepping was certainly a very valuable step on the way towards fully intuitive healthy eating. make sure when meal prepping that you store your food in glass containers to avoid exposing yourself to endocrine disruptors like phthalates, BPA/BPS/BPF.
Eat More Vegetables
As you're preparing your meals, make it a habit to include a serving or two of vegetables with every container. You've already made the decision to eat healthier, and eating more vegetables is universally recognized as one of the best ways to accomplish that goal. 7-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day should be your target, and it's easy to accomplish that since if meals are pre-made and ready to go. As an added benefit, changing the vegetable side dish to a meal helps keep every lunch and dinner interesting, so you can prepare your carbs and protein in bulk and then add fresh vegetables with every meal. To prepare veggies fresh really quickly and healthily, use an air fryer. Lightly cooking broccoli, cauliflower, or squash in an airfryer only takes 5-10 minutes and doesn’t require the use of any oils.
Pack Healthy Snacks
It's okay to get hungry between meals, and if energy levels hit a slump, having a healthy snack on hand can support your health and wellness goals by keeping you aware from tempting junk food. Fruits like an orange or apple contain satiating fiber, or a granola mix with nuts and seeds can help improve your fat metabolism.
Practice Mindfulness
Taking a few moments for yourself every day, breathing, and practicing mindfulness is a great way to reduce stress, prevent burnout, and lead to a healthier happier life.
When and how you want to use your time is up to you, but make a habit of spending some me time to yourself at least once a day. Spending time in nature and grounding is of the best things you can do everyday for your mental health, and can reduce feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and depression.
In the morning, this "Me time" could be taking a few extra moments after waking up to stretch, do your daily hygiene, and prepare a delicious breakfast. At work, it could mean pausing from an assignment to step outside and take ten deep breaths of fresh air. Later in the evening a walk of any length clears and calms the mind while also incorporating more movement into your daily routine.
All these recommendations seem like common sense, but when caught in the rat race it takes a conscientious effort to make time for yourself and make wellness a priority in your life. Once mindfulness habits are set, you’ll be amazed by how much less stress you have in your life, how much calmer you are, and how much more focused and productive you’ve become!
Sleep a Full Eight Hours
When responsibilities pile up and there is so much to do, it's convenient to think that getting a couple hours less sleep per night will be OKAY. well, It isn't. The eight hours of rest you should be getting every night is the time when the mind and body heal and restore.
““Our bodies used long periods of sleep to restore and rejuvenate, to repair tissues, grow muscle, prune synapses, and synthesize hormones.””
Sleep is when the brain takes the information from the previous day, parses it, and turns it into long term memories. It may seem like staying up to finish work is the better option, but 9 times out of 10 you're better off getting a good night's rest and coming back to finish your work in the morning. Quality sleep is crucial to productivity and overall happiness.
If you have trouble establishing a set bedtime, set an alarm an hour before your desired bedtime and begin your bedtime routine. Turn down the lights, place your phone on the charger, brush your teeth, and do all the things you want to do in order to wake up the next morning bright and alert. Be conscientious of your circadian rhythm and let the cycle of the sun guide your morning, afternoon, and evening activities. Plan your bedtime slightly earlier than the eight hours of sleep you need, that way in case it takes a while to fall asleep, you still get eight quality hours of sleep per night.
Improving your sleep is one of the best things you can do for your health and wellness, and it’s really quite easy with the creation of some habits and a little discipline.
Five Habits to Healthy
There you have it, five wellness strategies to help you live a happier, healthier, and more appreciative life. Be patient during the process and start by adding one new habit at a time, and as one becomes a permanent habit, add another in. There is no first place winner as it relates to your wellness journey, everyone’s life if unique and takes a different path. The best way to see long term success is with small consistent steps forward which result in accelerating forward progress.