As you probably know by now, I’ve been struggling with clinical depression and anxiety for years. Strangely my depression was at its worst not during the years of suffering from Anorexia Nervosa but shortly after I healed myself from this eating disorder. At first, it was extremely confusing because it just didn’t have any sense to me. After many years of starving myself, I finally started to gain weight what was my conscious choice because I wanted to cure myself. I wanted to break free from this incredibly strange and toxic relationship with my eating disorder. When we first met “She” (I used to call my disease as it was a person) promised me a better life. We made a deal. In exchange for not asking many questions, she gave me the illusion of being in control of my life. Yes, that was an unwritten agreement and in any such case, I was lied to…

Mind, body and spirit balance.

After many years of constant struggle with my eating disorder, I finally made a decision; I chose my life. I chose to defeat her, my best frenemy. I remember when for the very first time after having a meal I didn’t feel guilty or embarrassed. You cannot even imagine how proud of myself I was. This feeling didn’t last long though because shortly after I started to feel empty again. But this time it was a completely different feeling of emptiness. I felt that I was missing something important. I missed her, my best frenemy. How strange is that? These feelings of lack, fear and loneliness made my depression even worse. I started to spend every day in bed. There was a time when I spent 2 months straight at home without even going in the garden not to mention about a longer trip, for example to the grocery shop… That was also the time when my best friend from high school came home from Erasmus exchange programme and decided to do everything she could to save me from myself. She booked me in the therapy with a naturopathic doctor. At first, I was extremely skeptic because by then I knew completely nothing about natural medicine. For the first time, I’ve met a medical practitioner that was determined to heal the root of my health problems, not only “cure” the symptoms. That was also the time when I found out about the importance of mind, body and spirit balance.

Anyway, this person told me about the healing through connection with nature and literally gave me a prescription (among many others) for nature! That just blew my mind! Can you imagine receiving a prescription for nature?! Sounds insane, right? However, I decided to give it a try. So I figured, what the hell, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I came back home grab a blanket and I went out in the garden. I sat on the grass, closed my eyes and listen to birds singing. For the first time, I tasted the sweet smell of the wind. I was sitting on the grass surrounded by blooming flowers and fragrant trees and suddenly I became aware of my healing. My healing process finally began. I don’t know about you guys but I was very much surprised by how differently we experience smells and fragrances with eyes closed. It’s incredible how the sense of smell can heighten if we close eyes and relax in the sun.

Try this exercise in your garden or in the park in your neighborhood. Trust me, you will be extremely surprised. We connect with the universe through our senses. And through a connection with nature, we can explore ourselves, develop intuition and find the right answers to essential questions for life. We are one with nature. The energy of the universe flows through our minds, bodies, and spirits. And the mystery of our existence runs through our veins.

Prescription for nature

It is incredible how the importance of contact with nature is underestimated today. For some reason, a lot of people choose to ignore the healing force of our natural environment. Of course, I am not telling that the lack of connection with nature is the cause of every single disease because I personally do not believe this. But what really I mean is that as creatures of nature and we need to create or recreate a relationship with Mother Earth. We need to walk barefoot in the grass or sand because it is what grounds us. We should let ourselves sit in the sun and listen to the wind in order to relax and detach ourselves a bit from industrial civilization. We shouldn’t always hide from the sun because it’s the major source of Vitamin D which itself is responsible for many important body functions (bone, teeth, heart, lunges health - to name a few). On the other hand, deficiency of Vitamin D can cause many different diseases such as Dementia, Cancer, Heart diseases and which surprised me the most chronic deficiency of Vitamin D is linked to Depression and even Schizophrenia! It only confirms that contact with nature is essential for our physical and mental health. I don’t want to say that I  healed myself completely from depression because it is a tricky disease that just does not go easily. But with antidepressants, therapy, mindfulness, meditations, many different breathing techniques and constant contact with nature everybody can beat this disease.

I want to end this post by telling you again what I believe it’s incredibly important:

Restore your contact with nature, if at any point you disconnected yourself from because it is essential to your wellbeing. If you are septic just like I was – don’t wait just TRY! You won’t regret it!

Take care and go outside!

xx KAte

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