Finding opportunities to sweat more often, disciplining myself to reduce inputs, and traveling light has grown into a great appreciation for the outdoors.
I'm not much of a woodsman and as much as I love the show "Alone", I know I wouldn't last a week as a contestant. But I have learned that the natural world is a beautiful place and we should cherish it.
For me, Acting Natural means logging some miles on a trail where the path is uneven and the colors are always slightly different.
But it doesn't necessarily matter what you do outside as long as you spend time there.
A study on shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) showed “that forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments.”.
Acting natural also reminds me it's ok to feel the fear, anxiety, and awkwardness.
The 'act' is not about being someone we are not. It means to step into the role life is asking YOU to step into.
Often times the opportunity to lead arrives when nothing is as we would have planned it. How we respond depends and is determined by our natural acts.
How then, do we act naturally?
Christian mystic Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov says this:
"It is time you understand that true spirituality means that you yourself become the living expression of the divine teaching you follow."
The wilderness experts on "Alone" are living demonstrations of everything they believe and know about the natural world.
But we don't have to be dropped off in remote Alaska for our philosophy to be tested.
The question then becomes…
What is the divine teaching you follow?
What way is natural for you?
