"Including nature and the natural in our lifestyle today is crucial to enjoying the responsible rewards of sustainable and balanced life," says PNC's program director Dr. Michael J. Cohen, author of "Reconnecting With Nature." He shows that most of our critical personal, social and environmental problems result from our lifestyles excessively separating our thoughts and feelings from the natural environment. This destructively disconnects us from the restorative powers of nature's self-correcting flow, in and around us.
In his books and courses, Cohen demonstrates how our excessive disconnection from nature prevents us from acknowledging one of contemporary life's great secrets. To our loss, we seldom learn to respect that we are born with at least 53 natural senses and that they, when connected to nature, enable our psyche to register and benefit from nature's healing ways. This loss is remedied by creating nature-connected moments that help us make sensory contact with Earth. These moments enable us to safely restore and energize our natural senses into our awareness. This gives us the ability to think and feel with nature's balance.
Cohen says, "Our Natural Lifestyle Degree Program helps people deal with our denial that our lifestyles are more designed to conquer or exploit nature than to love and live cooperatively with nature. Our nature-estranged way of life makes us become destructive parts of our living planet, a fact that is reflected by the deteriorating state of the world. We and the planet suffer because we are socialized to ignore the myriad of scientific studies that show the health and wellness benefits of helping nature embrace our psyche."
A field report from Dr. Cohen's students says "Upon touching the stem of the plant and taking a deep breathe, I felt quite re-spirited, and very grateful to be connected to life. It was like returning to a meaningful place, like having my mind introduced to life itself. I tried this both with closed eyes and with eyes open. Both times, when beginning to breathe again, I sensed not just the beauty and delicate form of the flower. I sensed, as well, the life of the hills, trees, plants and flowers all around me and in the distance. Later, when holding a artificial "air freshener" I felt cheated, like an important element was missing. It was the element of life itself, combined with my disgust at the degradation of the earth from all our chemical based, artificial products that try to substitute for nature. I then tried smelling an oil based Eucalyptus. It still it was missing the life energy of the multi-sensory experience with the flower outside.
For Additional Information:
www.ecopsych.com/
360-378-6313 nature@interisland.net
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Program Founder and Director:
Recipient of the 1994 Distinguished World Citizen Award, Ecopsychologist Michael J. Cohen, Ph.D. Michael J. Cohen, Ph.D. is a Program Director of the Institute of Global Education, where he coordinates its Integrated Ecology Department and Project NatureConnect. He also serves on the faculty of Portland State University and Akamai University. Dr. Cohen has founded sensory environmental education outdoor programs independently and for the National Audubon Society and Lesley University (AEI). He conceived the 1985 National Audubon Conference "Is the Earth a Living Organism," and is an award winning author of "Educating Counseling and Healing With Nature." A video about his lifework may be viewed at www.imdb.com/title/tt1357054/
CONTACT:
http://www.ecopsych.com/mjcohen.html
Email: nature@interisland.net
360-378-6313, Pacific Time Zone
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