Nature The Drug of Choice

In Texas we sit at 600 feet above sea level, the summit where the lake is is about 11,400 feet. I can hike 10 miles in 100-degrees with no slowdown, but up that high, it turned out that I was the slow poke. The caboose. The last one, lagging behind about 100 yards short of breath.

I started to complain to myself about myself. I showed no mercy: “Come on! You can hike faster. They are going to think you are out of shape or worse hung over. “Why is this so hard, I thought I was in better shape. “Okay Val, you need to start hiking more.” (I had already hiked 80 miles in the month of July, which didn’t count waking the dog or other steps in the garden or the lugging of 40 pound bags of manure and building my green house in the middle of the day in 100 degree temperatures.) “I need to be in better shape.” I needed to justify why I needed to stop and catch my breath. No mercy.

What is an inner compass?

The inner compass is a set of basic instincts like those feelings you get in your stomach when you are about to face something unfamiliar. In some ways it is the way our body taps us on the shoulder to let us know how we feel about something. It then could create anxiety so we can have the energy to take action. So, noticing this and taking the appropriate action is an indication that your inner compass is working.

What are some other indications that your inner compass is set?

-hunch (tells you to call someone, to chose a different route)

-cravings for new healthy foods

-solid decision to commitment without being able to truly verbalize why

-knowing what to do to care for someone that is ill or in time of chaos

Books I referenced: Dance of the Moon; Spell of the Sensuous

HYPNOTIC TRIP: HOW TO CONNECT TO SPIRIT IN NATURE

Join me for Day Two of a hypnotic trip in the Wichita Mountains, at Mount Scott which is in the Wildlife Refuge in the state of Oklahoma.

Our first day in the area, we hiked alone in the snow, if you missed that, go back to EP 11, but this day bright and warmer and as temps rose and the snow and ice began to melt. The melting ice and snow was trickling down as we walked up the mountain, it was going down as we were doing up. It was not as profound as some of the babbling brooks running down the mountains in NM and CO, but the sound was mesmerizing.

It was new years day 2022. Because it was a clear, bright and warner day, There were more people out it was a holiday weekend and it was good to see folks in nature, getting exercise in spite of the low temperature, it was warmer, but still in the high 30s.

There’s not a foot trail up mount scott, but you can walk up, bike up or drive up on the paved road, there were no cars today because of the icy patches, so we “walked” up on a asphalt surface (felt like cheating) it was challenging still due to a mighty wind and patches of ice, so not a walk in the park, the elevation is 2464’.

Many of the trees had lost their branches due to the weight of the ice which is a heads up reminder while hiking…those branches could do some damage if they fell on or near you.

Near the peak, I sat down on a very large flat rock to take in the expansive view, the brisk air felt energizing and there was a sense that the melting snow was nourishing the soil and the sound of the snow melting was restorative to me. Maybe because it was a new day and a new year, there was a promising positive energy in the air, resilient yet relaxing.

What does it mean to “stay in your own nature”? To allow nature to guide you? To be a free range human? In this episode, we learn from a blind chicken how to live independently and develop new skills, innovate and thrive…isn’t that what life is?

Dr. Victoria Alexander is the author of Free Range Humans, published by Springer in 2021.  She and her husband live on a 5 acre farm in upstate New York where they grow vegetables, raise sheep and chickens in a semiotic way allowing animals and plants to work with them for the best outcome for all. In the end it is less work on the humans to let the plants and animals assist and quite often come up with a solution to a problem.

Her extensive research in the field of complex systems sciences found that intelligence is not a top down system but distributed throughout the entire system.

People are learning the benefits of free range stock and Dr Alexander believes we need to apply the same idea to humans. Let them learn from mistakes, not be ordered to do something, to be creative again and perform satisfying work.

We also discuss the lack of a natural reward system in the modern world which pushes us to find the rewards in unnatural and less satisfying ways.

The more artificial we and the foods we eat become, the less satisfying life will be. We will be stuck in a loop, like rats in a cage. How do we stop the cycle? By returning to our nature, which is linked to the natural world.

To return to nature, you could, grow a plant, plant a tree in your yard, create a kitchen window herb garden, plant a garden, get a couple of hens, shop at a farmers market and shake the hand of the farmer or rancher, hike outdoors regularly, go outside at night and see the stars. Reconnect with your true nature.

Alexander is also a philosopher of science, author of The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature and Nature.  She is a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center alum, former Public Scholar for the New York Council for the Humanities, and 2020 Fulbright Scholar at the Digital Humanities Lab at ITMO University in St Petersburg, Russia. She is a member of the Third Way of Evolution group and her work in saltational evolutionary theory appears in Fine Lines: Nabokov’s Scientific Art, published by Yale University Press, which has received much praise from major international publications.

RESOURCES:

Today’s HYPNOTIC trip happens at The Wichita Mountains near Lawton, Oklahoma where it snowed the night before. Now, I wasn’t expecting the snow and so I was not thinking right that morning when I saw it. Because it would interfere with my plans to hike.

Maybe you can relate:

I was on a mission. We drove from Dallas to Lawton to get footage for a video I was producing and the snow was going to ruin it. I am tellin’ ya…I can thrown off.

I was trying to roll with it but in the back of my mind the snow was really throwing off what MY PRECONCEIVED idea about what this hypnotic trip was about. And what is funny was the show was about Positive Thinking. Ha! Talk about being caught off guard. There’s a lesson in this, stay with me.

You are here to bring joy into someone’s life, to improve our natural world, to create jobs, to develop a new product, to write an inspirational book, to teach, or to preach. You have gifts, connect to them, our world needs everyone fully present and actively participating in creating joy, fulfillment, purpose, and satisfaction in our lives.

Be intentional in your desire to know your purpose and allow it ideas to naturally be revealed to you.

To connect to your purpose, or way of living a more purposeful feeling life, is to spend time in nature every day or at least each week. When outside focus on the intention you desire and ask the question, “If I knew why I was here on this earth, it would be to ________.” The answer will come to.

A reading of On The Nature of Things by Lucretius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alkCQIy-yXE

There is a CD volume read by Hugh Ross which is much more pleasant to listen to...he has a great English accent. ;)

The title of this novel by Amy Smiley is a hint at the hidden world of the subconscious mind. Psychotherapist, writer, and former Professor of French Literature Amy Smiley talked with host Valerie Grimes about her novel Hiking Underground and the authors love affair with the natural world.

I wasn’t expecting to feel the way I did reading Amy’s description of the natural world. Usually I prefer experiencing nature in real time and in the real world. I was swept away by the wonders of the child character (Adam) and his mother Emma’s relationship with the natural world and each other. The book was like having a love affair with nature. Valerie Grimes

SHOW RESOURCES:

This episode is about hearing the True Voice over the voice of the Shadow Self.

Your True Voice is a combination of your natural instincts + confidence + creativity + fun - what a powerful combination.  Finding Your True Voice Can…is REAL self empowerment. By speaking from your true voice you are able to stand up for yourself, stand firm in  your ideas and state your opinions or suggestions without fear or anxiety. 

Your true voice is your “unaffected voice” the voice of your soul or you absolute best self.  This is as opposed to the voice of your shadow or adapted self that most people are speaking through (without their even knowing it).

What does that voice tell you to do or not to do?

If you are plagued with consistent negative messages it is time to get out of your head and into your heart.  There is a short meditation at the end of this show 

This trips starts with a question, a rather personal one….

How does God (or source, the great one, or the universe) speak to you?  Is it  through prayer, through others, through nature, or other ways?  My experience has been mostly in nature as I had to step away for the Religious God and step out into nature.

From that experience I know that when we take our questions or our troubles out in nature, the natural world has a way of sparking an idea or unveiling an insight.  Is this universal communication? The subconscious mind?  God?  If it helps, does the source really matter?

All that matters is that we start on the trail with an intention to relieve a heavy heart or a scrambled brain and end the hike with a feeling of lightness and clarity or inspiration. 

As a hypnotist I recognized that phenomenon is similar to what occurs in the subconscious mind during a hypnosis session.  That is because hypnosis and hiking create similar states of mind called trance. More about that later.

Simply Put: Anxiety is anxiety 

This episode actually began in my hiking notebook from a solo 2014 Appalachian Trail hike (spoiler alert, I did not do the whole thing).  I started at the north end…but not the final end end.  Rather I  jumped on in Kent, CT on August 11. My goal was 3 nights or approx 30 miles.

My sister dropped me off at 10 am.  The first leg has uphill, welcome to the AT!  It took me 7.5 hours to go 8 miles.  Not bad considering the elevations and the weight of my pack.  I set up camp that night at  “10 mile river camp”, still in Kent, it is funny how you can walk all day and be in the same city but 8 hours of driving you could be 3 states away in the east.

I did a check:  

Mentally OK

Physically Good

Emotionally Flat

Why am I not thrilled and excited?  I was nervous about sleeping alone with bears.

It was physically challenging, lots of ups and downs, large rocks and several streams, got to collect water from one of them, that was exciting.   I bathed in the stream at the new camp.  The river provided a constant sound of rushing water. It was lovely. Dusk was here.  Bears? I wondered.  I wonder if there is anyone at the nearby shelter? I wondered this until it was dark and I was in my bag in my tent…the thought of a bear wouldn’t leave me.  GO!  I grabbed my gear, along with the assembled tent and nearly ran (in the dark) and found 3 thru hikers camped there at the AT shelter.  I had to go back to “10 mile camp” in the morning to get my food that was suspended in a tree.  Listen to the rest of the story....

We are coming off the trail for today’s episode to talk about Wild Children.

The cool kind. With long hair and bare feet and a calm demeanor.  The ones allowed to pee outside.  Ha!

What does the term Wild Child conjure up in your mind?

When my 4 year old grandson heard me say that I was wild, he looked worried and told me it would mean that I would have to wear my shirt like this: he demonstrated by pulling one arm out of his t-shirt for a ripped  and tattered look. Then he took his hands and mussed his hair and made a desperate facial expression.  To reassure him, I explained my idea of wild.   

Wild?  Or natural? Primitive?  In our history, domesticated humans eliminated or tried to change primitive, indigenous cultures because they couldn’t believe they “lived like that.”  Or whatever the reason, maybe they just wanted access to their forests and farm lands, or water.

At the end of this show I will guide you through imagery that will take you on a trip back to childhood so you can reconnect to that wild child and be free, but with the wisdom of the adult that you are.

Your True Self Is Outside (but really inside).

In this episode the hypnotic hiker, Valerie Grimes shares the importance of staying to the natural world for so many reasons, but mainly to Find Yourself.

What is your ratio of concrete vs. soil? Does you day include stepping onto tile, concert and carpet, sitting in a metal vehicle that travels on a concrete highway to a concrete building with sidewalks and more carpet or tile to walk on?  

Then there is the artificial light. We humans aren’t made to sustain that much artificial-ness. And we wonder why there is so much anxiety and behavior problems.  We are like caged animals. 

If you are feeling anxious or angry, it's time to get outside, welcome to Episode 5.

RESOURCES

Part of a Series, Be Sure to Go Back to EP 1 to catch up if this is your first time to listen.  

This episode takes place in the iconic Grand Canyon at Kaibab Trail on the South Rim and examines what is happening in the brain when you are in nature and how that response is the same neurological occurrence that allows us to change the emotion about a past event. 

Temps are in the 110s with little shade. Why am I hiking in the desert in the middle of the summer?  Because I haven’t done that before and I love the element of surprise and am fascinated at how my brain adjusts to new surroundings.  I find in that state I am much more alert and therefore prepared, whereas going to a place I have been before I am not as tuned in.  My brain is on autopilot. Welcome to Episode 4...

EPISODE RESOURCE

ALTER YOUR REALITY NOW WITH HYPNOSIS- THE REAL SERIES

What reality are you living in?

Do you want to escape?

What is your favorite way to escape?

Is that way serving you best?  Is it loving and natural, or a shadow self tendency to turn to an unhealthy and unloving self destructive behavior? Escaping is not a lasting option. Welcome to the 3rd episode of Hypnotic Trip.

FREE HYPNOSIS SESSIONS

Wake up to your true nature, your purpose, your voice. It is time to step out of the shadows of your shadow self. This episode explores how you can tune into the shadow aspect of yourself when you are hiking and over time change the conversation.

So, have you taken a shadow selfie?

Those are the images that are best at the beginning or end of the day when the sun is lower on the horizon and casts a long shadow of your physical body onto the ground.  These are whimsical shadow images of our selves that create a state of wonder.

And are in contrast to the darker shadow selves that some of us have experienced.  This episode is about the dark, shadow self and what it means to live from that and how it is created.  But relax, it really is just a mere shadow of who we really are.

Good morning…. it’s time to WAKE UP.  

Valerie explains how hypnosis and hiking are similar and how you can get into a state of hypnosis while hiking and make powerful transformations.

When I started hiking it was for exercise. Now it is for my soul. Kind of like how the shower is for the body whereas a soak in the tub is for your soul.

Nature is where you can reset your compass and find a new direction, your true direction;

it is where you can release the past and stand on new ground. It is where you can gain insights, and find a solution to a problem. It is a place where you can JUST BE-which is also nature’s philosophy, you can be inspired, feel empowered and really start to like yourself a lot. Probably even love yourself.

Did you know Hypnosis is a lot like hiking?  Listen to this show episode 1 to find out.