Being in nature can connect you to the wider world and your own inner emotions and mood can be uplifted with the sights, sounds, and experiential way of being that offers a physical movement and social engagement to calm the nervous system.
Our automatic reactions are unconscious and can be rooted in our early childhood experiences, some of which may not be in our conscious memory. This reaction will be instinctual and instant. The emotional part of the brain is stimulated and a deep memory is brought up in our deep memory.
Fight or flight is well known responses to fear and danger which are formed to protect us from immediate danger. Another safety state is the freeze response, which shuts down our processes when they become too threatening or when the flight/fight reaction is not possible. Other ways of protection is the fawn response that helps to protect from harm, such as a mouse playing dead to fend off an attack.
These are all natural ways of protection in unnatural situations.
Once the threat of danger is no longer in the present moment, or when you are triggered in the present from a time in your past, it no longer is a danger.
Regulation helps to maintain a calm state in which you can connect with other people and your prefrontal brain that uses logic and reason.
Ways in which a person can regulate are being in nature, going for a walk in a natural environment, listening to music, laughing with friends, talking with another person, humming, breathing deep and focusing on the present moment.
Walking in nature is connecting with the world, smelling the air, seeing the plants, listening to the birds, feeling the sun and tasting the fresh air.
Grounding yourself with where you are in the present moment will keep you from going back to the past or fearing the future.
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