An excerpt from Josh’s book, Conscious Nature: The Art and Neuroscience of Meditating In Nature
The Neuroscience of Nature Connection
Hidden in its inner recesses, your brain has neural receptors that make note of the places you go. The hippocampus creates memory maps of the routes and paths you take, and special “place cells” make an inner spatial representation of the spots you know well.
The cortex even has dedicated areas that catch and make sense of all the sights, sounds, textures, and other bits of data streaming in from your walks and wanders. These neural pathways get thicker and stronger for those patterns that you pay the most attention to.
If you observe the pine tree that you stroll by each day as you walk to your car, your brain starts to create a “pine tree” neural pathway. If you pause for a moment each day to connect with the tree, that neural web will start to grow and strengthen.
When you take time to study the clusters of pine needles, you notice how they grow in bundles of five needles each. This observation adds to your inner map of the tree. When you touch the bark and get the sticky sap on your hands, this connection adds a tactile layer to your neural map. As you take in a deep breath filled with the piney scent of the needles, your olfactory neurons come online. And if you were to take some pine needles and make tea with them, your taste buds will also register the pine in a whole other way.
Each moment like this is a chance to add to your growing inner map of Nature. Also, these sensory-laden experiences of exploring Nature’s mysteries provide a compelling “in the moment” invitation to practice mindfulness.
These little moments of mindful exploration really add up. Literally, the structure of your brain reflects your current personal connections with the Nature in your neighborhood. Over time, your neural circuitry will reflect the varied and complex patterns of your place.
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Read more in Josh’s book, Conscious Nature: The Art and Neuroscience of Meditating in Nature
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Expand your senses as you relax into Nature’s patterns
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