The Healing Powers of Nature

There’s been a lot that people have been yearning for lately

Human Connection has become the premium luxury of our lives, but it’s stringently limited. As we fear putting ourselves and others at risk and so we stray further away from each other. Zoom, Teams and Facetime seemed like a substitute, but given how many people are taking a digital detox, these digital alternatives have become a distraction, or sometimes even added to the problem.

With a new year merging into more of the same, how do we stay happy, keep our resilience and enjoy life in such circumstances? We can revive ourselves, and restore our optimism and confidence, by connecting with the natural world. The magic of the wilderness with its soothing and healing effect on the soul is undoubtedly a proven cure.

At Satopia we’ve always known the transcendent power of nature – where our hosted experiences are designed to create a sense of wonder, to empower and to heal. Initially we never expected that our curated experiences would become the medicine the whole world needs and the antidote for a post lockdown healing.

What everybody needs today

In the words of the song, “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love…”, but our normal systems of expressing love, affection, respect, even kinship, have been torn apart by the pandemic. Fortunately there are other ways to express our emotions and find a way to know the value and beauty of our place in the world.

Image credit: Yuheng Chen

“I’m losing the precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.” wrote John Muir, in one of his many poems and essays about the wilderness in Alaska. Muir was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, and environmental philosopher who understood deeply the role of nature in healing and strengthening the soul, which parallels the experience of many of us who have been in lockdown for months on end.

Muir was injured in an industrial accident, losing the sight of one eye and having a parasympathetic reaction that caused temporary blindness in the other. Depressed and isolated, he felt cut off from life. When he was able to return outdoors he found healing by touching, hearing and smelling the world around him, as well as being restored to vision by the calm and tranquillity of his surroundings.

We’ve all experienced that kind of shock in the pandemic. Loss of employment, loss of income, loss of health, fear for ourselves and loved ones, disruption of normal life, removal of hobbies and activities that gave life meaning. The list could seem endless and daunting. But the restoration of equilibrium delivered by open spaces, wild landscapes and the tiny details of the natural world is astounding and well documented.

Feeling a fresh breeze on our face, smelling the scent of the ocean or the forest, the fingertip exploration of a newly emerged flower bud can change us and ground us in the moment. Not just by altering our perspective, although that’s invaluable, but by restoring our systems at the cellular level, as John Muir found when exposure to the natural world gradually restored the sight to his unharmed eye.

The power of nature can be grand and sweeping or small and intricate. It is found most easily in the world’s wildest places, such as jungles, mountains, oceans and deserts.

At Satopia, we have always known the transcendent powers of nature, this is why we have designed our hosted experiences to offer healing and regeneration, new perspectives and fulfilling experiences that can reinvigorate us all, while creating deeper connections between people through shared experiences.

For this year we have designed some incredible Hosted Experiences from the Scottish Highlands to the lakes of Patagonia and Iberá wetlands in Argentina to offer much needed rejuvenation and enjoyment, surrounded by the magical landscapes of nature’s wonders with a true opportunity to reconnect with the wild.

Find out more about our Hosted Experiences here.