Table of Contents
A Philosophy of Wise Words
If one truly loves nature one finds beauty everywhere.
Vincent Van Gogh
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein
Psychology and the Beauty of Nature
To look into nature is to be one with understanding beauty in its most simplistic yet deepest level. As William Shakespeare said, “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” When I reflect upon the tenets of science and marvel at the wonders and detrimental shadows it has cast, I wonder, in what direction will we find ourselves if we can no longer sit in the beautiful reflections the environment tasks us to behold and work upon as an element of personal and collective growth potential?
The Genesis of Consciousness
The story of our human capacity to have dominion over the environment is as old as the knowledge base of stories itself. Is this egocentric? Possibly. However, knowledge in this fashion stems from the unique perspective that human consciousness has to adapt and realize its nature in unison with the environment and its capacity to solve ever-increasing complex problems to work the environment itself.
In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the story of Genesis gives us insight into humanity’s plight as we developed the capacity to subdue and work the environment.
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
(Genesis 1:28)
Yet, dominion over the environment occurred before humanity’s fall, when God forced us from paradise to work the environment’s hidden dangers to find the fruits needed to survive. While the fall happens later in the story, we can rationally draw inferences about how consciousness evolved from an ecologically adaptive organism to our modern-day ability to use thought as a basis to thrive rather than solely survive.
Now, in the fall of humanity, as the story Genesis tells us, we have root seeds of consciousness. We can subdue the environment, but to what end does that lead? Is it for the more significant cause of our survival or a lesser cause of having a vision without ecological, moral, or ethical grounding? While consumerism creates the vision of that latter, I cannot help but see the foundations of the former built within the riddle.
Even if it is not to be, the nature of being is a question of internal and external circumstances. Beauty exists in the cognitive makeup of the mind that assigns value to the presence experienced. Yet, to experience actual presence, we must also expose ourselves to externally valid environmental factors to create the internal meaning our consciousness craves to experience. The beauty of the environment surrounds us, yet it is up to us to develop the patience and the sensory perception needed to experience its grandeur.
What does an Ecological Sound Psychology Inform Us?
As Spring has sprung, I cannot help but be in reverie of nature. Having recently watched the movie Noah with my family, I reflect upon what our most ancient ancestors must have thought and endured as they first experienced the beauty of an environment so primitively and dangerously left untouched.
Those ancestors were storytellers. Yet, they told those stories as a means for survival, for they knew that when it came to dealing with the external forces of the environment, human beings have only one true strength in relationship to the much more skillful hunters and carnivores that surrounded them: we as a species do not have claws, fangs, or extreme speed, sensory perception or other elements common to species that hunt food. Instead, we have opposable thumbs and developed the uncanny gift of the mind to solve complex problems, which allows us to form increasingly complex systems to adapt to our external world.
Yet, recently, I have noticed problems in humanity’s capacity to dream and its significance in what appears to be a collective atrophy of the psyche. I cannot help but wonder if this atrophy occurs because of the relatively sterile safety from environmental forces necessary to create physical and psychological growth.
You see, a muscle needs work to strengthen itself. If it lays dormant, it atrophies. I cannot help but think of what happens to a mind when it has no problems to solve and becomes complacent about experiencing the environment through that sterile lens of safety versus actually feeling the exuberant emotions possible in the lived experience only the environment can offer. While the former represents, let’s say, the need to watch a reality-based television series, the latter creates the reality of a life lived. What form is better? While up to the eye of the beholder, how much life do we give away in service to watch and admire others?
Are we better off behind the safety of our devices, or are we better off experiencing the reality of nature itself? I believe the data and the science are catching up with themselves, as we see a prevalence of depression and anxiety increasing in the wake of a post-Covid electronic world that has not curbed the loneliness so prevalently felt since the world locked itself down in response to an unknown yet deadly environmental event. While sad in nature, not all is lost.
Looking at the picture above, I cannot help but dream of seeing its presence. It may be a picture of New Mexico and the mountains of Sippapou. That place brings me back memories of a simpler time, yet one I needed to experience to be in this present in this electronically administered moment, right here, and right now.
Seeing that picture reminded me of something beautiful, which, in turn, may create the means that the psyche needs to recreate it in reality. I remember offering a glowing turquoise gift to the Rio Grande as I paid homage to the beauty surrounding me. Yet, I experienced a psychological grounding that stays with me today.
As I reflect upon the quotes and the beauty of the above picture to recall this ecological encounter, I feel somehow grounded between both worlds and feel the need to return to nature’s beauty. Having learned that the psyche speaks to us in mysterious ways, I have learned to listen to its voice. I understand it to be a calling, but when it does call, how many people actually listen?
When was the last time you got your hands dirty? When was the last time you photographed the beauty of the environment around you? When did you last walk barefoot or roll down a grassy hill? When was the last time you smelt a flower or walked in the fields of a dew-rich garden at sunrise? In doing this, you force yourself to find the beauty outside, which, in turn, may awaken a little beauty within.
While this may be a direct affront to the increasingly fake and AI-generated world behind a screen, it is not meant solely as an offense to that tool itself. Humanity adapts to its environment. But we have to get back to its root nature to learn how to create ecologically and psychologically sound and sustainable growth for both the individual and the collective itself.
Our personal growth occurs in a symbiotic relationship with the environment. When we learn to use our consciousness to create individual and collective meaning, I cannot think of any unsolvable problem. Yes, it will take patience, good intent, and a commitment to be morally grounded in hard work to create the means by which any vision can find fruition. But in the end, wouldn’t these skills benefit us as individuals and the collective nature of our species? What possibilities would exist in a middle ground where humanity and the environment co-exist in a new-found paradise of symbiotic possibility and not the all-or-nothing perspective so commonly disguised as the progress without vision perspective offered in our time?
I hope you enjoyed this little exploration into the depths of building consciousness from a psychological and ecological lens. May blessings find you on your journey to envision, chart a course, and advance confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Shop Unique Aromatherapy Candles
It is our choice to believe in the beauty of dreams unfolding. When we direct our mind’s eye to belief, faith guides us in the direction necessary to realize our Self as it unfolds into its most optimal being.
Are you being your best possible Self? Dr. Thomas Maples explores our personal and collective journey to realize our ultimate potential through the lens of psychology, personal development, and the myths that drive our journey forward.
