Natural Happiness Seed 7: Natural Inspiration

The future outlook for all of us is turbulent. We’re going to need a quantum step up in our resilience, and that’s what this blog aims to offer you. I believe the fastest way to do this is by a deeper connection with inspiration, and what we might call higher dimensions. These need to be woven into your engagement with everyday physical and emotional realities, and gardening can show us how to do this.

Some of the approaches in this blog may seem strange or esoteric. It’s up to you to decide what may be useful for you. All the methods described are ones I’ve used for several years or more, but some of them took a good deal of practice or training. If you want to use them, it may need time and patience.

As I look around the garden, I feel uplifted by its abundance, beauty and generosity. So many different plants, each with its own leaf, flower, fruit and so on. Look closely at some flowers or fruits, smell a rose. Is all this just physical, merely the result of evolution? Gardens lead me to believe that there is a bigger creative power at work, which I would call divine: a higher, non-physical dimension. When I need to give this power a name, I call it divine unity, because I believe it exists in every form of life — plants, animals, humans, and in the earth itself.

The literal meaning of inspiration is to take in spirit or breath: in many languages there’s only one word to mean both. When I breathe in the garden, I feel a strong connection to a bigger source, which could be called spirit. This is how I often receive new ideas, solutions to challenges, and a sense of nourishment. One of my main ways to get a spiritual connection and insights with Nature is through attunement.

Much of my learning about inspiration and Nature comes from the Findhorn Foundation, an ecovillage and spiritual community in Scotland. Attunement is their word for a form of meditation where you tune in and align yourself with a source of guidance, including Nature, and with a project or work team. Attuning with devas has been a core part of Findhorn Foundation’s philosophy for over 50 years, and I’ve been using it since I first went there in 1990. Its benefit is deeper dialogue with the intelligence of Nature, and scope to align your needs with those of a garden, or any other project. This method is explained in more detail in the book.

Going higher with inspiration

The final chapter of my book explores a range of ways to do this. Here’s a glimpse of some of them:

• Soul connection: the idea that our soul travels through incarnations, and chooses each for its growth, helps me make sense of life. See my other website: soulresilience.net.
• Invisible guides and helpers: these can include nature spirits, angels, and teachers like Buddha. Being in Nature can help these connections.
• Inspirational self-care: processes and regular practices to engage inspiration in our everyday wellbeing.
• Applied inspiration: the book shares ways that I bring inspiration and spiritual guidance into big decisions, and into handling setbacks.

In Chapter 7 of Natural Happiness, you will find these ideas and others explored in detail, along with references to websites and books to take you further.