The Healing Power of Nature - Norwegian Journal of Friluftsliv

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and Australia, the socio-ecological approach to human health. The universe is a process Human bodies are process, part of the larger earth-wide ecosystem as well as the universe. Our bodies, like all objects we see as solids, are more space than matter. This leads some to say that a body is not a structure; it is a process. Furthermore, human bodies, the ecosystem, and the universe are all one process (Chopera, 2001). Most of us would agree that we are part of the ecosystem or, as I learned in school 40 years ago, part of the web of life. No process or being is separate from any other process. With good intent Western medicine has taken a mechanistic mindset and tried to break down life functions in to discrete structures with their own processes. Then finding the process that appears to be broken, fix it. While this has seemingly worked in many cases, now we find that we actually spend more on health care each year, our life expectancy has not risen appreciably for 30 or more years, and younger generations may even have a shorter lifespan than baby boomers. The belief system behind that healthcare model does not understand the magnitude of entanglement or connection that all life and what we see as inanimate objects have. The concept that the universe is a process and humans are part of that process implies, as shaman, medical systems such as Tibetan, Ayurvedic, Native American, and Traditional Chinese say, that we must stay in balance or return to balance with the other processes, including the natural world. Therefore instead of relying on a drug or belief that the allopathic medical system can provide a pill to cure life style related diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, individual responsibility ought to be encouraged to maintain a healthy life, including spending time in natural areas and being in harmony with nature. This can be explained in terms of process and connection to the whole and a need to stay in balance or in harmony. 42
Connection to the whole: Ethic of care Humans are social creatures and need spiritual, emotional, and social connections. Human beings are hardwired to make connections to each other, animals and nature. We are hardwired to learn and we learn through social and emotional channels. Basically, everything is connected. Nature helps people find the goodness within them and allows that goodness to emerge. In this way nature helps people connect to their essence and feel the joy of being and the bliss of simple things. This wholeness or universal connection is reflected in friluftsliv. This sense of connectedness for many people is comforting. Our Western mind teaches us to be separate both from nature and each other. Animals, plants, and rocks may not have the same struggle between wanting and needing to be connected and believing they should be separate. This connectedness that is the essence of nature does not mean that nature is always safe or easy; it means that it just is. Like all plants and animals, humans have to know how to and develop ways to work with nature to ensure survival, perhaps using indigenous consciousness, naturalistic intelligence and TEK. However, at this point western humans have gotten into a competition with nature (and each other). This is a very real game of life in which like monopoly, eventually everyone else may lose. Like monopoly when everyone else looses the game is over. To survive as a species we need to imagine a game of life that never ends. This means that competition to the extent that humans practice it needs to be rethought. This rethinking process can be significantly helped with time in nature. Time in nature can heal erroneous thinking that having material acquisitions will make one happy; that bigger built environments are best; that wilderness is evil and something to be conquered, defeated, and obliterated. Extending the ethic of care to the land includes a sense of this larger community as well as using state of the art low trace traveling and camping techniques in outdoor areas. As pollution and destruction do not know political boundaries, the larger community needs to be global. For example Los Angles has a reputation for high pollution and many people have worked hard to 43
Page 1 and 2: The Healing Power of Nature: The ne
Page 3 and 4: educes crime, stimulates social int
Page 5 and 6: Preaching to the choir is an apt ex
Page 7 and 8: has been over looked and undervalue
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Page 17 and 18: of work clinical. Both economic and
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Page 25 and 26: combined with other measures seems
Page 27 and 28: Friluftsliv That there is a cultura
Page 29 and 30: Indigenous Consciousness Indigenous
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Page 35 and 36: health of the planet earth. It is b
Page 37 and 38: that, finally, if he tries to ignor
Page 39 and 40: intelligence, ecopsycology, and muc
Page 41: (Olson, 1946). For Olsen the primar
Page 45 and 46: colleagues have made great strides
Page 47 and 48: Summary/conclusions Nature is essen
Page 49 and 50: the author is hopeful that as more
Page 51 and 52: 19. Gierlach-Spriggs, N., Kaufman,
Page 53 and 54: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p24
Page 55: Journal of Healthcare Design, Vol.

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