Poetry in Motion: Lessons from Ecotherapy

by Heather Hill

I have just recently discovered a new Ecotherapy idea which I am calling "poetry in motion":  You select a poem that you love or even a quote or song- anything to focus your mind on something you enjoy or want to know intimately.  My favorite is Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.  Then you break the learning of the poem down so that each day when you walk, you memorize a line or two.  This is best done in nature with limited distractions from cars, people, etc. but if all you have is your own neighborhood, that will work as well.  This process, like using a mantra, will focus your mind, reduce the chance for rumination, and allows you to exercise your memory as well as your body.  

Wild Geese 

by Mary Oliver

 

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

 

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

 

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --

over and over announcing your place in the family of things

 

Additionally, here are two passages from Rilke's beloved Letters to a Young Poet that I regularly share with clients.

 

Be patient with all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers that cannot be given For you would not be able to live them And the point is to live everything Live the questions now And perhaps without knowing it You will live along some day into the answers. Read More [Insert link to:

 

To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. For this reason young people, who are beginners in everything, cannot yet know love: they have to learn it. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered close about their lonely, timid, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning-time is always a long, secluded time, and so loving, for a long while ahead and far on into life, is — solitude, intensified and deepened loneness for him who loves. Love is at first not anything that means merging, giving over, and uniting with another (for what would a union be of something unclarified and unfinished, still subordinate — ?), it is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world for himself for another’s sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things. Only in this sense, as the task of working at themselves (“to hearken and to hammer day and night”), might young people use the love that is given them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them (who must save and gather for a long, long time still), is the ultimate, is perhaps that for which human lives as yet scarcely suffice.”

A year of living with and learning from COVID 19 - by Heather Hill

Do you remember your life a year ago?  What you were doing/planning/dreaming about?  This February, I’m intensely aware that we are approaching the one year anniversary of living with COVID 19.  It’s hard to believe all that has taken place.  2020 and part of 2021 seems like it’s been suspended in time or that time itself has found a wrinkle that we are living.  If someone had told me we would be living this long in various stages of lockdown a year ago, I would have climbed right out of my skin.  Instead, it has been a slow wayward journey of shedding expectations, slowing down, living with uncertainty, cherishing those we love, enjoying nature, getting outdoors, being grateful for what we have, and learning to live with less.  Inspired by a Facebook Post, of all things, I invited the practitioners of the Resiliency Center to reflect on their journey through the year in this newsletter.  Here are the questions for reflection which we invite the reader to reflect on as well: 

 

Questions to consider: 

1. For what are you most grateful as you look back over the year and why? 

2. What did you take for granted this year?   

3. What did this reveal to you about yourself and your presence in the world?   

4. What new hobby or old pastime did you take up or revive during this time? 

5. Was there an unexpected joy that you experienced during this time?  

6. What is the most important thing that the year of Covid 19 has taught you?   

 

We close this newsletter with some of our favorite shows and books that have accompanied us along the way.  Almost every phone call or zoom gathering I have had with friends and family has ended with sharing our favorite stories either in book or digital form.  These stories have made us laugh, inspired us or temporarily transported us away from the angst and stress of living through COVID times.   

 

My Reflections

For what are you most grateful as you look back over the year and why? I’m grateful for my family, friends and health but that is not unusual except that I feel it more palpably and daily.  This year, I’ve also been grateful for my work that allows me to connect with others in a meaningful way and on a deeply human level, to bear witness to the strength and resiliency of the human spirit and to laugh in the midst of struggle and pain.   

 

What did you take for granted this year? This year I learned how much I always take for granted:  opportunities and a sense of safety afforded to me by white privilege, health, food security, choices for education, employment, space- both in my own home and in my neighborhood.   

 

What did this reveal to you about yourself and your presence in the world? This has revealed to me that I have been sleepwalking in some ways.  The struggle and challenges of 2020 have awakened within me an urgency about social, racial, and environmental justice.  This year has revealed to me that my busy-ness can and does rob me of precious energy and clarity needed to devote to working for causes I believe in and spending more time with people I love.  The time to rest, reflect can bring forth a return to the things that truly matter.       

   

What new hobby or old pastime did you take up or revive during this time? I found Yoga with Adrienne on Youtube!  I have never been a regular practitioner of yoga because I’d much rather run, spin or swim...but Adrienne’s delightful personality and less than one hour classes won me over.  I also reconnected with a textile artist friend who has guided me on a journey called “The Art of Weaving a Life” by Susan Barrett Merrill.  I find weaving to be soothing and meditative...and less frustrating to me than knitting! 

   

Was there an unexpected joy that you experienced during this time? One day we dragged our firepit to the end of the driveway and invited our neighbors, who we used to hold at a respectful distance, to join us.  Thus began an unlikely friendship of two families from different political parties during an election year.  We watch over each other, take care of our neighbors who can’t get to the grocery store or shovel their walks, and coordinate a weekly dinner exchange.  Also the birds coming to our new birdfeeder along with the time to slow down and observe them always gives me joy.  It just never gets old seeing a male bright red cardinal in the winter landscape.     

 

What is the most important thing that the year of Covid 19 has taught you? I have always been a restless soul and felt the constant need to get out or see lots of friends.  I’ve resisted quieter pastimes and the rest that is so restorative.  The year of COVID 19 taught me I could adapt and not just survive, but thrive on simple pleasures like baking bread, having patience, finding connection and loving the people right in your own backyard.  I am integrating more of my values into my space and my family’s life.  I learned that small acts of kindness are the surest route to a sense of connection and belonging. 

 

The Wisdom of Dreams

by Heather Hill, MSS, LCSW

What did you dream last night?  Every night, our dreams offer us a chance to evolve and grow if we pay attention to them.  In fact, they are absolutely essential to our creativity, health and wholeness as individuals and as a society.  The wisdom of the dream lies in the unconscious, the parts of ourselves that we can’t yet see, but on a deep and cellular level, our bodies and hearts know to be true.  What remains unconscious can block or arrest our psychological and spiritual growth or worse be projected into the world with sometimes harsh results.  Winter’s continued call for sleep, rest and reflection is an opportunity to learn from our dreams and to create more wholeness and vitality in our lives.  

My informal knowledge about dream interpretation comes from the work of Jeremy Taylor, a Unitarian Universalist minister, founding member and past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.  He worked for 35 years using dream interpretation as a tool for nonviolent social change in such places as residential group homes for schizophrenics and San Quentin Prison.  His life and body of work leaves behind an inspiring legacy of confronting and addressing such evils as racism, sexism, violence and environmental destruction – through dream interpretation.  Here are his basic assumptions about dreams:  

1. All dreams come in the service of health and wholeness.
2. No dream comes just to tell the dreamer what he or she already knows.
3. Only the dreamer can say with any certainty what meaning his or her dream may hold.
4. The dreamers’Aha of recognition is a function of previously unconscious memory and is the only reliable touchstone of dream work.
5. There is no such thing as a dream with only one meaning.
6. All dreams speak a universal language of metaphor and symbol.
7. All dreams reflect inborn creativity and ability to face and solve life’s problems.
8. All dreams reflect society as a whole as well as the dreamer’s relationship to it.
9. Working with dreams regularly improves relationships with friends, lovers, partners, parents, children and others.
10. Working with dreams in groups builds community, intimacy, and support and begins to impact on society as a whole.

To fully understand our dreams, it’s best to have other people to share them with.  There is no special training or education needed to listen and explore the symbols in your personal mythologies.  The most important thing to know is that the only person who has the authority to determine a dream’s true meaning is the dreamer.  The dreamer’s “Aha” moment of recognition is the only barometer that the dream’s message has been delivered.   Dream groups build community and generate multiple perspectives, but even one person, such as your partner or a psychotherapist, can help. 

Here is an example of how one woman participating in one of Jeremy Taylor’s dream groups, learned of a potential health crisis through her dream.  

A woman dreamt she was at her home and a party was going on in her basement.  She goes down to join them but has a purse with “rotting meat” in it that she is afraid will offend the guests.  She keeps trying to close the purse.

The dream group suggested that the “rotting meat in the purse” could be indicative of uterine cancer.  The woman initially dismissed the idea as ridiculous, but she couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that something was wrong, so she went to her doctor who found nothing.  Not satisfied, she pressed for more scans.  Finally, a sonogram showed a thickening of her uterine wall which did in fact turn out to be a rare, extremely aggressive form of uterine cancer.  The woman had surgery and survived.  (Story found on pages 13-15 in Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill by Jeremy Taylor.)

If you cannot find a dream group, here are some useful techniques to encourage dream exploration on your own:

1. Draw the dream.
2. Separate out the emotional narrative from the content of the dream.
3. Re-enter the dream in waking state.  Take a different role in the dream.
4. Embody and act out the dream physically.
5. Find the image or situation in the dream that carries the greatest energy for healing and bring it forth into waking life in some concrete or expressive form.
6. Make a mask of one or more characters in the dream and wear it while “being” that character.
7. Pray and meditate while focused on your dream.
8. Look up images in a dream symbol dictionary.
9. Rewrite the narrative adding the phrase “part of me” to each of the images.
10. Dream more.

The first challenge in dream interpretation is actually remembering your dreams.  Having the intention to dream AND a supportive place to share your dreams can actually increase dream recall.  Science tells us that all of us dream about 4-6 times per night and even animals with “eyelids that close” dream.  For tips on how to remember your dreams, watch this TED talk called Dreaming On Purpose, found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odNc2MshuWI The best time to recall dreams is when you are in the transitional stage of consciousness in between being asleep and half awake.  But that time is short lived, about 3-5 minutes, so grab the dream journal you left by your bed and write furiously.   

February is like that transitional stage of consciousness for the Earth.  Seeds are starting to awaken under the ground and sap is rising in the trees.  Does the Earth dream?  I think it’s possible that the Earth dreams through us.  And maybe, by paying attention to our own dreams, we can awaken from our collective slumber and courageously and creatively act to ensure her survival.

Heather Hill, MSS, LCSW has been a psychotherapist for over 10 years. She specializes in helping anxious and depressed teens and women connect to and live in harmony with their true nature.  Heather is passionate about using mindfulness and Eco-therapeutic approaches to restore balance, reduce isolation, and create a greater sense of wellbeing. She can be reached at Heatherhilltherapy@gmail.com or 215-485-7205.

Finding Your Sense of Place at Home

by Heather Hill, MSS, LCSW

The weather is quickly warming up and soon we will find ourselves outside more, traveling to the beach or the mountains to relax, slow down, and enjoy the beauty of nature. We may experience a sense of awe and wonder when we realize just how connected we are to the universe.  But what happens to that connection when we return home again, when routine takes over like an invasive vine and The Commute, the Target Run and the school or work commitments become the focus of our day?  Do we check out the sunset?  Do we know what the plants and the birds are doing?  Do we have any inkling of the water level in our local streams?  If not, what’s the psychological effect of living like this: an “alien” or a tourist in our own land?

These are the types of questions that Eco-psychologists study in their efforts to create a sustainable, livable world and to foster a more psychologically healthy population.  Their premise is that the attachment and meaning given to a particular place is central to the health of the planet and the person. A “sense of place” here refers to “...a psychological construct that involves attributing a geographical location with meaning, values, and a sense of “connection.” [From: The Power of Connection: Sustainable Lifestyles and Sense of Place.  Ecopsychology Journal Vol 4, No. 4 Jan 31, 2013, found at https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/eco.2012.0079].  It follows then that if more people felt a sense of connection to their natural environment, they would feel motivated to engage in actions for sustainability. I would also add that having a sense of place cultivates curiosity, belonging, connection, and a greater sense of well-being in us.

A disconnection to the land may be a uniquely American problem.  As Americans, most of us came here as immigrants.  Because of that we may have an evolutionary proclivity to restlessness.  We are always on the move, searching for greener pastures and hoping a change of location will promise a better life.  Over caffeinated, hyper busy and digitally connected 24/7, we move through our daily life at an unnatural pace.  The downside of this movement, borne of our pioneering spirit and freedom to roam is an underlying feeling of displacement, alienation and a lack of identity.  Wendell Berry says we don’t know who we are unless we know where we are. So, who exactly are we?  How do we connect to an adopted land?

Know the Plants

One way to counteract alienation is to reclaim the space where we live or as Robin Wall Kimmerer says, in Braiding Sweetgrass, to become “naturalized” citizens of the land.  Kimmerer would agree with the poet Gary Snyder, who teaches that spirit of place is accessed only through knowledge gained by direct experience in a specific locale.  "Know the plants" is his mantra. Once you become curious and start to know the names of the plants and trees around you, it’s like a faucet has turned on.  More questions come and you begin to be curious about all the things you may have previously ignored and taken for granted.  The plants become like familiar friends or trusted allies.  This is the beginning of belonging and connection.

Write a Poem or a Love Letter

Wallace Stegner in his great essay entitled “Sense of Place” states, “that no place is a place until it has had a poet.”  

[Insert link to: http://www.pugetsound.edu/files/resources/7040_Stegner,%20Wallace%20%20Sense%20of%20Place.pdf  ]  Who is our poet?  Edgar Allen Poe wrote about the Wissahickon, sure, but who is the modern day poet laureate of the entire region?  Beth Kephart who writes Flow, a prose poem history of the Schuylkill River may be a contender.  You can read an excerpt here. [Insert link to: https://hiddencityphila.org/2014/06/how-can-you-know-what-it-means-to-be-here/

Many people have written love letters to their favorite places in the Wissahickon.  It was inspiring to read this article about how many people went to the Red Covered Bridge to feel their “fullest and best versions of themselves”:  https://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/helen_ubinas/wissahickon-helen-ubinas-thomas-mill-red-covered-bridge-love-letters-20180905.html?fbclid=IwAR3oFN3c6l_pU7ej0pfJVNfgIdVkA6PdjjAAPiXoaKB2gH1bHecPI6w7EZg  Go to your favorite place in your local park and try to write it a love letter.  You may feel a deeper attachment to it after you’ve expressed how you feel. 

Don’t Get Discouraged by Urbanism

Even in this major East Coast city, we can still feel a sense of place that doesn’t involve cheesesteaks and Rocky.  We who live in the Greater Philadelphia area are lucky to have an active urban garden scene, two major rivers, Fairmount Park, the Wissahickon, Pennypack, Morris and Awbury Arboretums and Bartram’s Gardens.  We may not be able to walk barefoot through the parks, but we can walk like “each step is a greeting to Mother Earth”.  With respect and reverence and love.  Slow down, observe the little things that are all too easy to overlook.  Our personal wellbeing and our planetary survival just might depend on it.  What’s happening right now outside your window?

Ways to Connect with Local Nature:

• How Can We Connect with Nature in our Cities [Insert link to: https://permaculturenews.org/2017/02/20/can-connect-nature-cities/
• Download the Inaturalist app to start identifying what lives right in your own backyard.
• Join Wild Foodies Meetup or check out: http://www.wildfoodies.org/
• Come on the Resiliency Nature Walk, the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 9 AM.

• Join Friends of the Wissahickon or the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association or Like them on Facebook.  They post a lot about the local wildlife and plants.
• Start an in-home naturalist training course through the Wilderness Awareness School: (I loved this program.  Please reach out if you want to learn more about my experience) https://www.wildernessawareness.org/adult-programs/kamana

• Enroll in a Master Naturalist Program http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/programs/foradults/naturalist.php

Heather Hill, MSS, LCSW has been a psychotherapist for over 10 years. She specializes in helping anxious and depressed teens and women connect to and live in harmony with their true nature.  Heather is passionate about using mindfulness and Eco-therapeutic approaches to restore balance, reduce isolation, and create a greater sense of wellbeing. She can be reached at Heatherhilltherapy@gmail.com  or 215-485-7205.

Learning to Let Go of Anxiety and be Fully Present to your Life

by Heather Hill, MSS, LCSW

In my therapy practice and through personal observation, I’ve noticed that anxiety seems to be on the rise.  Anxiety can be a normal response to stress.  It’s a feeling of nervousness or unease, about an imminent event or a situation with an uncertain outcome.  It’s the alarm system in our brains that tells us danger is approaching and prepares us to fight, flee, or freeze.  However, anxiety can turn on us when our alarm system is sensitive or faulty, setting off emergency sirens all the time.  When our alarm system isn’t working properly, excess anxiety creeps in and interferes with our ability to be present, enjoy ourselves, and take risks to achieve meaningful goals.  Our lives become smaller and smaller and we feel worse about ourselves.  Anxiety can be persistent, like a weed; and if it’s not tended to, it can choke out the healthy life around it.  Fortunately, anxiety can be kept in check if you learn, and more importantly practice, the art of letting go.

Why Anxiety is on the Rise

Adults and teenagers are suffering from anxiety more now than in the past.  The American Psychiatric Association found that Americans are more anxious than they were a year ago on five measures: health, finances, safety, relationships and politics.  While it’s hard to draw any definitive conclusions about why this is so, many researchers suspect that the political climate, 24/7 news cycle, environmental degradation, and social media create a vicious cycle of fear and powerlessness. This article shares more: https://www.psychiatry.org/newsroom/news-releases/americans-say-they-are-more-anxious-than-a-year-ago-baby-boomers-report-greatest-increase-in-anxiety

Teenagers are also suffering from greater anxiety and depression. Researchers like Jean Twenge who wrote the book IGen point to a shocking increase in teen mental health problems with the advent of the Iphone. This article shares more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/magazine/why-are-more-american-teenagers-than-ever-suffering-from-severe-anxiety.html]

Strategies for Letting Go of Anxiety:

1. Connect to Nature

Many people feel less anxiety after spending time in nature.  Outside in a natural setting, our senses can be more engaged and we are less distracted by our minds.  In addition, we are most likely exercising when outside.  A Stanford study found that walking for 90 minutes in nature vs walking in an urban setting had an effect on the prefrontal cortex in the brain that is responsible for rumination. Read more about the study here:  https://news.stanford.edu/2015/06/30/hiking-mental-health-063015/ 

You don’t have to be close to a forest or a beach to reap the healing properties of nature.  A picture or a view of nature has been shown to relieve stress and anxiety. “Nature, whether you’re in the woods far away from it all, in a city park, or simply walking down a tree-lined street, has the power to make people feel new again. Studies have shown that a simple walk in nature can reduce anxiety, keep your spirits high, and even improve memory. Even just looking at photographs of greenery for less than a minute can give you a mood boost. Spending time in nature reduces stress and helps people feel energetic and more alive, according to scientists at the University of Rochester (Brown and Ryan, 2003). A recent study used mobile EEG devices to monitor participants’ emotions during a walk in nature. Researchers also found that people were more likely to experience meditative-like brain waves and exhibit less frustration if they were walking in a green space, compared to a bustling shopping street or a busy business area (Aspinall et al., 2013).”  Read more at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6085576/

On the Restorative Nature Walk held here at The Resiliency Center every Monday, you can practice many of the suggestions listed here to identify, accept, and let go of your anxiety.  During the walk, we don’t try to achieve a certain amount of steps; but walk mindfully and slowly, stopping when a butterfly or bird delights us.  We strive to be present to ourselves, each other and the natural world and by the end of the hour, we all feel slightly less anxious.   

2. Return to the Body

According to Deepak Chopra (Read More at http://www.oprah.com/spirit/deepak-chopra-breaking-the-cycle-of-anxiety ), anxiety gets stuck when it stays in the mind.  If we recognize the energy we are devoting to thinking and overthinking, and tune in to the way our bodies are feeling, we can return to a natural state of calm.  Chopra advises that if we break down anxiety into each bodily sensation, we address one sensation at a time and gradually calm the entire body.  For example, if anxiety makes your breathing shallow, concentrate on taking slow deep breaths.  In addition to this practice, exercising, gentle stretching or yoga will help regulate our nervous system and help restore balance. Elsewhere in this newsletter, Karen Steinbrecher offers a Qigong practice for connecting with the body to release anxiety. 

3. Surrender the Ego

We may feel like we have to shoulder the burden of our fears alone because we don’t want to appear “weak”.  Or, as a defense against uncertainty, we paradoxically try to control more, not let less.  Acting counter to that instinct, by admitting your human limitations and practicing humility could yield greater connection to self and others.  Sometimes telling one other supportive and trusted person how we feel can be the most powerful step in reducing the negative impact of our fears.      

4. Start Meditating

When anxiety threatens to overwhelm your capacity to cope, it is a great time to begin a meditation practice.  One unique way to start meditating that incorporates nature is to find a “Sit Spot”, or a place you are drawn to in nature that you visit regularly for your meditation practice.  Find more information about it in this article: http://inmynature.life/ideal-sit-spot/

5. Turn off the Phone

Social media and technology magnify worry by making us feel like we are missing out on news, social events or the latest trends.  We blur the boundaries of work and home life when we have access to emails right in our pockets.  We have a minute to check social media and we find ourselves suddenly feeling angry about something not “liked” or a tweet.  Try an experiment and turn off the social media for one month. 

6. Add in Gratitude  

In the tunnel vision of anxiety, we are probably not aware of gratitude.  At any time, no matter what is going on, one can always find something to be grateful for, especially by looking around in the natural world.  Start a Gratitude Journal, to capture moments or observations in your day that you’re thankful for. Sometimes, this practice helps us develop the mental flexibility to change channels or expand awareness and therefore dilute the anxious thoughts.

Heather Hill, MSS, LCSW has been a psychotherapist for over 10 years. She specializes in helping teenage girls and women who struggle with anxiety and depression. Heather is passionate about using nature and ecotherapuetic approaches to overcome mental health challenges . She can be reached at Heatherhilltherapy@gmail.com  or 215-485-7205.

Natural Transitions

by Heather Hill, MSS, LCSW

When I was pregnant with my first child, I took a day long wilderness therapy workshop in the the Wissahickon Valley Park.  There, I was invited to do some solo time and sat on a high rocky outcrop of Wissahickon Schist looking down at the creek below.  I was eager to capture this time of waiting and knew I was anxious about navigating this huge transition in my life.  My attention was drawn to a yellow leaf being carried by the current over rocks and little waterfalls.  When the leaf got stuck for a minute or two on some debris, it didn’t resist or bobble in a fit of frustration.  It was soon taken over by the current and went on its way.  When I shared this experience with others in my group, I was told that the leaf was a metaphor for childbirth and parenting.  What I needed to transition into my new role as a mother was to surrender to the process of life and let go of my former role to take on a new one.  The image of the leaf comes back to me often to remind me to trust life, to be part of its flow, or at least not to become frustrated when I get stuck in the debris.  

Two important processes happened that day to allow me access to the wisdom embodied in the natural world:  the observation and the sharing with a group.  My observation wasn’t connected to my inner world until it was received and heard by the group.  I’ve carried that image with me over time.  Although I’ve returned to nature many times seeking wisdom and comfort, no image has stood out for me as prominently as that little yellow leaf. 

I invite you to discover new meaning and wisdom for your own transitions as well as to build connections with the natural world and a community of fellow seekers. Register for one or all four of my Ecotherapy workshop, held from 9 am to 12 pm:  

Natural Connections: Exploring Wellness and Wholeness Throughout the Seasons

Spring Equinox 3/24

Summer Solstice 6/23

Fall Equinox 9/22

Winter Solstice 12/22

Heather Hill is a Licensed Clinical Social Workers providing counseling to pre-teens, teens, and adults. She uses a humanistic and wholistic framework and incorporates ecotherapy with traditional evidence-based practices. To learn more and to register for one of her programs, contact her at 215-485-7205 or heatherhilltherapy@gmail.com.