{"id":1337,"date":"2020-07-12T13:43:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T19:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/?p=1337"},"modified":"2020-07-12T13:43:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T19:43:42","slug":"the-healing-power-of-nature-at-hotel-la-semilla-playa-del-carmen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/en\/2020\/07\/12\/the-healing-power-of-nature-at-hotel-la-semilla-playa-del-carmen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Healing Power of Nature at Hotel La Semilla, Playa del Carmen"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is early morning; you have woken up sooner than expected. You quickly brew a cup of coffee and retire to a quiet place. What do you hear? Do you notice how different the world seems before the day begins?<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve spent time at Hotel La Semilla, you\u2019d know that we have a humble garden terrace filled with palm trees, vegetation and happy little black birds that take baths in our fountain. In the morning, before guests have woken and rumbled down the stairs for breakfast, our terrace is the most peaceful place on earth. It is a place where nature envelops you\u2014a place where you can spend thirty minutes watching the clouds and feel as if only a second had passed. In this terrace, I feel calmer; I am at peace. My body is relaxed and my breath is steady and deep. Any stress or anxiety looming around my mind is quelled. This is how nature makes me feel in this place.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Our relationship with nature is a powerful and important force, yet it is often something we dismiss. We take for granted the rising sun and the chirping birds, the flowing tide and the whispering wind. The earth gives us gifts everyday and these gifts affect us greatly, not only emotionally but physically as well\u2014even if we don\u2019t notice.<\/p>\n

The healing power of nature is very dynamic. It can affect us in many ways. There have been studies that show how fresh air and an ocean breeze can lower blood pressure or how patients recovering from surgery recuperate twice as fast when given a room with a view. \u00a0All this we know. We understand that our bodies feel better outside. We know that human beings are meant to be in the wild. \u00a0That we evolved in nature for millions of years before developing agriculture only 10,000 years ago. \u00a0So why do we let days pass without connecting with nature? Connecting with the earth is connecting with our inner selves, after all.<\/p>\n

There are so many distractions and excuses not to take time to appreciate nature, but if you are interested in making in an effort to reconnect, Dr Tim Brieske, a core member of the Chopra Center medical staff, has some beautiful suggestions he shares in an article called, \u201cHealing Through Nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

He writes:<\/p>\n

Suggestion 1:<\/strong>\u00a0Establish a meditation practice. Quieting the mind, intellect, and ego in a state of restful awareness allows you to enter the realm of soul, beyond thought and form. As your practice matures, your level of consciousness will expand and you\u2019ll have an experiential knowledge that you\u2019re an inseparable part of the universe. You will start to become more aware of the opportunities and lessons the universe is presenting. In addition,\u00a0you become more open to healing \u2013 in whatever forms that may take.<\/p>\n

Suggestion 2:\u00a0<\/strong>Each day, consciously awaken.\u00a0 Consciously practice opening your eyes, and other senses, as my colleague Libby says when ending meditation at the Chopra Center, \u201cas if for the first time.\u201d\u00a0 Pretend you are from another part of the universe and everything you are sensing is new. As you practice being a silent witness, do you observe things, both internally and externally, that you haven\u2019t noticed before?<\/p>\n

Suggestion 3:<\/strong>\u00a0Spend some time in a natural environment, preferably outdoors.\u00a0 If you\u2019re unable to go outside, find a position of comfort, close your eyes, and consciously visualize walking in a natural setting.
\nHow much detail can you bring to the experience?\u00a0 Can you visualize yourself healing or healed?\u00a0 How slowly can you take in your surroundings to most fully appreciate everything in your environment?\u00a0\u00a0 You may want to try a walking meditation, moving as mindfully as possible, with no thought of a destination or goal . . . just walking and paying attention to the world within and the world without.<\/p>\n

Suggestion 4:\u00a0<\/strong>Whether you\u2019re outside or visualizing, become aware of each sense while bringing attention to each of the five elements.\u00a0 For example, you might use your sense of sight to visualize the night sky, searching for stars, planets, and satellites.\u00a0 You could then find yourself watching how the wind moves clouds, branches, and leaves.\u00a0 Watching water move downstream, gently caressing the cobbles lining its bed, may be soothing.<\/p>\n

One of my personal favorites is observing sunlight through a prism as the light is resolved into its component wavelengths and the intense beauty of the visible spectrum is revealed.\u00a0 Looking at the earth and its formations through new eyes that appreciate its dynamic nature may be both expansive and grounding.<\/p>\n

Spend time contemplating each sense in a similar fashion, treating your ears, nose, mouth, and skin to a wide variety of the sensory delights that nature so abundantly provides.<\/p>\n

Suggestion 5:<\/strong>\u00a0Write about the emotions, feelings, and ideas that come to mind as a result of this exercise.\u00a0 At the Chopra Center we have found journaling to be very useful in the art and process of healing.\u00a0 It gives each of us the opportunity to clarify our thoughts, feelings, and experiences.<\/p>\n

Suggestion 6:\u00a0<\/strong>Witness the healing effects of this practice on yourself, community, and planet.\u00a0 Ayurveda teaches us that we are made up of three bodies.\u00a0 The physical body is composed of the environment, our personal body, and life energy.\u00a0 The subtle body is composed of mind, intellect, and ego.\u00a0 The causal body is composed of the personal, collective, and universal soul.\u00a0 Because all aspects of our being are actively interacting with all other aspects of the universe, practices promoting healing extend beyond us, to others in our environment.\u00a0 In this way our actions are like a ripple effect in that the wave of healing energy propagates and others may benefit.<\/p>\n

Suggestion 7:\u00a0<\/strong>Celebrate!\u00a0 Express gratitude for this extraordinary, remarkable privilege of existence.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

In the end, it\u2019s all about peace. In order to discover the healing benefits of nature, we must first pay attention. These days we move too fast and function at a level that does not allow us to appreciate the little things. Today would like to challenge you to take a moment to remind your body of it\u2019s humanity and go stop and smell the roses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is early morning; you have woken up sooner than expected. You quickly brew a cup of coffee and retire to a quiet place. What do you hear? Do you notice how different the world seems before the day begins? If you\u2019ve spent time at Hotel La Semilla, you\u2019d know that we have a humble […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categoria-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1339,"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions\/1339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotellasemilla.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}