Being connected to other living things has frequently demonstrated as a key determinant to physical and mental health (Mackerron and Mourato, 2013, Kellert, 1997, Capaldi et al, 2014). Other living things are what appears to us in nature and in other people. If we feel connected, we feel part of something bigger, beyond ourselves (Varela et al, 2016). In other words, we naturally feel as though we are contributing to something through our very existence, that we have a value.
Many different perspectives and approaches have converged on this theory. McGilchrist (2019) discusses between-ness, Thompson (2014) draws attention to how any autopoietic cell connects to its environment and becomes attracted to what is relevant to its survival in a seemingly random milieu. Whitehead argues the connections between everything in existence creates an unlimited amount of novelty and potential within the universe. All these theories identify that everything in the universe “feels” the world around it, and the future is co-created with a degree of autonomy.
Being connected at the embodied human level is to a significant degree about noticing (McGilchrist, 2019). We become passively influenced by a constantly changing world regardless of how we attend to it. Noticing allows us to attend to the objects (including people) in our world, as they disclose themselves to us in different ways. This places us in connection with a changing universe and the potential within it and moves us from the passive into wonder and awe. The universe as it is, contains unlimited experiences which we can never exhaust (McGilchrist, 2019).
Noticing and attending provides us access to the wonder of everyday phenomena such as how the weather effects our mood, how the wind shapes grass and leaves, how clouds interact with the sun to create different light. This level of connection has enormous health benefit such as improvements in mood, health, and cognition (Cpaldi et al, 2014).
The alternative is to be in denial about connectivity. This places us in an emotional vacuum and leads to feelings of loneliness and alienation (Han, 2020). These conditions arise as we place a productive emphasis on the authoring of the self, and authenticity (Ibid, 2020). Primacy of the self can mean a refusal to change or compromise at the risk of being inauthentic. However, an alternative, is that in a universe which is connected by the physical characteristics of the objects within it, we are in a constant flux of co-creation. The self from this perspective is illusory (Varela, 2016), but it brings forth kinship.
Communities move together in kinship. They are societies which are connected by culture and ritual (Han, 2020). The community is a connection of human beings and has a collective connection to the environment. They bring novelty and familiarity. They reflect on the past, consider, and imagine the potential for the future and co-create it. Communities engage in dialogue as opposed to argument and fear of being inauthentic, instead each person is a node in a network which adds something of itself to the future. They work together, discuss, play, celebrate and grieve.
Communities are in decline. Power has become more concentrated instead of being within communities, creating isolated individuals producing their own authentic self. If the self comes into conflict with other selves they divide, unable to dialogue and imagine greater potential for fear of the authenticity being compromised. The divide leaves us alone, and leaves depression and anxiety in the space where there was connection.
In a universe that is connected by its very physical structure, spending time in nature can begin to restore connectivity (Capaldi et al, 2014, McGilchrst, 2019). Nature is not something external to us, it is part of our existence and co creates, producing chemicals which impact positively upon our physical and mental health (Kuo, 2015). Noticing that nature is part of us and enjoying the benefits it wants to give us is a step in restoring community and connectivity. It is step outside of the self into something bigger, a community of universal connectivity.
Reading
MacKerron, G., and Mourato, S. (2013). Happiness is greater in natural environments. Glob. Environ. Change 23, 992–1000.
Kellert, S. R. (1997). Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Development. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Whitehead, N. (1929) Process and Reality. Simon and Schuster.
B.C. Han (2020) The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present. Polity.
Kuo, M (2015) How might contact with nature promote human health? Promising mechanisms and a possible central pathway. Frontiers In Psychology.
F. J. Varela, Thompson, E. Rosch, E (2016) The Embodied Mind Cognitive Science and Human Experience. MIT Press.
McGilchrist, I. (2019) The Master and his Emissary. The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press; Expanded Edition.
