San Juan Island, Washington (MMD Newswire) March 16, 2010: A new Facebook page from Project NatureConnect at the Akamai University Institute of Applied Ecopsychology helps people recognize that Planet Earth, acts like, or is a living organism that scientists call "Gaia." The significance of Gaia is that we are connected to all of nature, and to each other, in the same way that our fingers are connected to our toes. When Earth is a living organism, nature's river of life flows through and connects everything, including us.
The Project NatureConnect social networking Facebook page is designed to remedy that we often feel isolated and that we unreasonably seek "security." This happens because, on average, we spend over 98 percent of our life with our thinking and feeling disconnected from Gaia, the nurturing, restorative powers of nature's flow, in and around us.
The Akamai Institute's director, Dr. Michael Cohen, says "Our Facebook page is dedicated to help all people celebrate and strengthen their renewing, in common connection as part of Organism Earth. The page enables its visitors to enjoy online "natural love-in's" with each other and optionally benefit from living Earth courses and degree programs
Cohen, author of "Educating, Counseling and Healing With Nature," believes that our extreme disconnection from Mother Nature is similar to removing a baby from its mother's breast and replacing it with a nipple attached to a bottle of beer. The child's physical and emotional bonds to its human mother, along with its love of life, become, instead, excessively bonded or addicted to the negative effects of the beer and bottle.
"Our Facebook nature-connection page gives each visitor the opportunity to interlace their psyche with nature's recycling ways and correct destructive thoughts and feelings," says Cohen. "It helps us connect our mind with the health and wellness powers of nature's flow, backyard or back country.
The pioneering mission of Project NatureConnect is to enable individuals to embrace the renewing intelligence of nature's ways, in and around them. The online program's low-cost, UNESCO approved, training courses and degrees empower students to make conscious sensory contact with the life-nurturing energy of the eons. Students learn how to strengthen it in themselves and others while visiting local or remote natural areas.
An Akamai Ecopsychology student wrote: "When I started doing this nature-connecting activity I was extremely stressed out. I felt like I was stepping back to an earlier time when I did not have good coping skills. In this natural area, however, I discovered my inherent sensitivities to natural attractions were alive and well. I could enjoyably sense and feel the breath and loving support of the outdoors. The fresh smell of the air and the dazzling beauty of the colors danced across the sky like they were blushing before they slipped behind the splendor of the snowcapped mountains. I thanked this living area for the experience. I respected it for all the renewing joy it had provided when I needed it."
Visit the Facebook Page
http://www.ecopsych.com/facebook.html
Information and free materials:
http://www.ecopsych.com
Contact Information
Dr. Michael Cohen
Institute of Global Education
Phone: 360-378-6313
Email: nature@interisland.net
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., 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 Ecopsychology 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," "The Web Of Life Imperative"and "Reconnecting With Nature." A video about his lifework may be viewed at imdb.comtitle/tt1357054/
"We cannot win the battle to increase the well-being of the web of life, that includes our life, without strengthening our natural senses, our emotional bonds with nature - for we will not fight to save what we do not love."
- Michael J. Cohen
http://www.ecopsych.com/mjcohen.html
Email: nature@interisland.net
360-378-6313, Pacific Time Zone
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