Rochester, NY (MMD Newswire) November 30, 2009 - "Could the solution to most personal challenges and planetary woes have a common underlying cause--humanity's excessive disconnection from Nature?" asks Dr. Theresa Sweeney, Dean of Ecopsychology Degrees at Project NatureConnect. "Yes," she says, in her new Art and Therapy book Owl Winks and Forest Songs: Finding wellness in nature's wisdom. "And finding solutions can begin with a simple walk in the park"
"Though people are part of Nature, we suffer many discomforts and problems that aren't seen in the rest of the natural world.," Dr. Sweeney says. "Many of us look around at Nature's world and wonder why things seem to work so beautifully in it, but not so in our daily lives. The trouble is that we spend so much time indoors, we've disconnected ourselves from Nature's love, wisdom and balance."
Owl Winks and Forest Songs offers a simple remedy. With child-friendly text, fun exercises, and wonderful drawings, Dr. Sweeney presents a dialoguing with nature process that people of all ages, and in all walks of life, can use to let Nature teach. She re-introduces us to over 48 senses that we, as part of Nature, inherited from the natural world at birth, but learned to ignore.
After illustrating how our dependency on abstract word-based thinking underlies our troubles and showing the importance of including these forgotten senses in our thought-processing, Dr. Sweeney invites readers to practice the art of thinking like Nature on 16 of her realistic wildlife drawings. Because though, there can be no substitute for the real thing, she then encourages readers outside to use their nature language while in tangible contact with Nature.
"Few books of such apparent simplicity can cause you to think so deeply," says M.A. Educator, Allison Ewoldt. "What Columbus did for the flat earth theory, Dr. Sweeney does to the myth that humans have only 5 senses. This book makes you question many things about the way we live, the way we interact with Nature, and most of all, how much time we waste on things that don't matter. Learning to think like nature works has rejuvenated my life. Dr. Sweeney makes a valuable contribution to the well-being of ourselves and the earth...for we do not save what we do not love, and we do not love what we do not know."
Dr. Theresa Sweeney lives in Penfield, NY, and Boynton Beach, FL. She holds a B.S. In Computer Science, and an M.S. And Ph.D. In Applied Ecopsychology from Akamai University, Hilo, Hawaii. Her artwork is exhibited in galleries and personal collections around the country. She has 30 paintings in the permanent collection of the Jack Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Dr. Sweeney gives workshops using art and nature for self-discovery and wellness, and she is a Dean of Applied Ecopsychology at Akamai University. Her work can be seen at www.callofthewilddesigns.com
Dr. Sweeney may be contacted for more information and/or to order a copy of the book
www.ecopsych.com/artbook.html
Phone: (585) 377-5471
Email: keleka@frontiernet.net
About Project NatureConnect:
The pioneering mission of Project NatureConnect is to increase personal, social and environmental well-being. It accomplishes this by helping individuals genuinely connect their thinking and feeling with the sensory intelligence of nature's restorative flow, in and around them. The online program's low-cost, UNESCO approved, training courses and degrees at Akamai University enable students to make conscious sensory contact with the nurturing life-wisdom of the eons that they discover within themselves and in natural areas, backyard or back country. Contact: www.ecopsych.com
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