Resilience: Connecting with Nature in a Time of Crisis

by Melanie Choukas-Bradley

Nature is one of the best medicines for difficult times. An intimate awareness of the natural world, even within the city, can calm anxieties and help create healthy perspectives. This book will inspire and guide you as you deal with the current crisis, or any personal or worldly distress. Melanie Choukas-Bradley is a naturalist and certified forest therapy guide who leads nature and forest bathing walks for many organizations in Washington, D.C. and the American West. Learn from her the Japanese art of "forest bathing": how to tune in to the beauty and wonder around you with all your senses, even if your current sphere is a tree outside the window or a wild backyard. Discover how you can become a backyard naturalist, learning about the trees, wildflowers, birds and animals near your home. Nature immersion during stressful times can bring comfort and joy as well as opportunities for personal growth, expanded vision and transformation. The "Resilience Series" is the result of an intensive, collaborative effort of our authors in response to the 2020 coronavirus epidemic. Each volume offers expert advice for developing the practical, emotional and spiritual skills that you can master to become more resilient in a time of crisis.

Genres: Nature

96 pages, Paperback

Published May 15, 2020

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the 10 short, quickly assembled "Resilience" series titles published towards the very beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic.
I hope Chouklas-Bradley is doing OK, she was not looking forward to going through this into Winter!
Great for the family, and for those with access to some outdoors.
The foraging chapter is "interesting", as she tells us what to look for - and then tells us we should not eat it unless we know what we are doing. And reminds us that most of us DON'T know what we are doing! The chapter on gardening is inspiring, if not very hands-on useful.
Suggestions for activities seem to be mostly concentrated on her home location of DC.
I enjoyed the first chapter the most, where she talks about reconnecting with Nature, and the "forest bathing" movement. That is something we can all use, no matter where we live.
I browsed over the chapter on things to do with children, since we have none. But I may pass this along to my niece/nephew, who have 3 daughters under the age of 10.
2 = It Was OK. And it was. But for me a little too East Coast centric to be truly useful.

[Kath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book full of encouragement and advice to take the first step, or the thousandth, to connecting with nature. The author writes so nicely that reading the book is actually the first step as one relaxes into her beautiful prose. Thank you for this timely narrative!

[Autumn (Triquetra Reviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I'm always so thankful to have these opportunities!

This book is short and sweet in its content. The author provides simple steps to get back into nature, to connect and to build relationships with the land and natural spaces around you. I really appreciated the three steps to forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku - it really is as simple as unplugging, connecting, and then reintegrating into the everyday with the thread of awareness around you.

The third chapter on becoming a backyard naturalist was a big wake up call for me - I have spaces to explore outdoors, and yet I often ignore them for the screen and the next item on the to do list (the next book to read - hah!)
If only I took some of these moments outdoors I'd be able to observe, and intertwine nature with the mindfulness and meditation practices that I often feel I'm neglecting. It was a great chapter of reminders of what mindfulness and meditative practices can actually look like.

For those with children chapter 4 will be helpful for you - Family Time in Nature. I skimmed this chapter as I don't have need for these tips.

The chapter on foraging was a teeny lackluster for me - it's more of a very brief overview instead of an in depth guide. For those who are looking for more solid information you'll have to pick up a different guidebook that fully encompasses safety and identification of plants that can be foraged in your area.

Overall, I think this is a hopeful little guide of things that can help us fall back to the healing powers of nature that is around us while we are still in the middle of a global pandemic, even if many of us wish we weren't and are trying to pretend it doesn't exist anymore.

For nature enthusiasts and Pagans alike, I give 4 Triquetras to this one!

[Carlos Valdes-Dapena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had it with the isolation and restrictions caused by this pandemic. This book provided a ray of hope. It reminded me that the simple wonders of nature can be a balm, that just a walk in the woods across the road from me can offer comfort, discovery, even food. Melanie Choukas-Bradley provides a host of ways to not just enjoy nature but to return to it, to enter into and foster connection with it. I look forward to the rain stopping so that I can go identify my "wild home." I look forward to finding a spot amidst the trees to practice a little yoga. I don't think I'll be trying my hand at foraging; as the author and the experts she cites point out, it's not something you do unless you know your stuff. Nor am I a gardener, another way she suggests we can connect with the earth and plants. I will, however, find a way to meditate in the woods, to "forest bathe" immersing myself in the fresh air and scent of leaves and plants. I need some comfort now, a break and a sense of hope. This book gave me that.

[John Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a conversation among good friends about the deep medicine of nature. Melanie’s prose is warm, intimate, friendly. I picture myself hiking, wide-eyed and alert, on one of her nature walks, hearing whispered directions, “Look there!” “Stop, listen.” “Do you know what that is?” A joyful nature muse, she takes us “Forrest Bathing” to wash away the grit and grime of politics, work stress, and worry. With practical instructions, we discover a “wild home” in our own back yard, open it with Mindfulness, and befriend it as she befriends us. Melanie invites us back into the world we left in “growing up” and shows us that the magic is still there. Well beyond my pay grade, she is also an encyclopedia of edible plants and nature preserves - the wilderness as nature’s banquet. And especially delightful, Melanie introduces us to so many other voices until we’ve found a whole community of nature lovers, experts, mystics, teachers, and friends. I love this book. It cleanses my soul.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful account of the simple joys of nature and how quiet observation and immersion — whether walking deep in the woods or watching pigeons from a high rise apartment window — can bring comfort and joy during the pandemic and other times of crisis. On every page, the author’s extensive experience as an educator, forest bathing guide, poetic nature writer, and lifelong nature lover, bring to life the simple and profound joys of connecting with nature. Specific chapters highlight the importance of finding a natural home, wherever your setting; immersion in nature as mindfulness practice; tips on becoming a backyard naturalist; engaging children in nature immersion; gardening and foraging; and a compilation of insights and stories from other naturalists, writers, and artists who wrote to the author during the pandemic. Five stars.

[Tim Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me find a deeper way to connect with nature in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. I already know how important it is to get out in nature to keep my sense of balance, and de-stress myself. But this book takes you way beyond that. The author gives you ideas and inspiration to really notice what you see and hear outdoors - to really let nature inside you to work its healing magic. Though the many voices of nature lovers e author records, we also get a sense that nature calls us back to this larger sense of life - life which goes on unperturbed even in the midst of an all-too-human crisis. I would write more, but I gotta go take a walk outdoors...

[Gleb Tsipursky · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the pandemic, I've spent so much more time gardening and generally in nature. Reading this book helped me deepen my connection with nature and gain more out of my time in this setting. If you want to tap into the full potential of nature as a medicine for your mind, in difficult or easy times, read this book!

[Patty Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely, simple little book--a perfect companion for my month-long getaway from the city into nature in coastal Maine and Acadia National Park. But I look forward to applying the advice when I'm back home (in the author's hometown). I love the concept of this series, developed very quickly last spring and I may pursue a few of the other titles.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the midst of all the disruption caused by the pandemic, this book helped me find new daily rhythms. I am so grateful to have access to nearby Rock Creek Park, but I also see my own backyard—my ‘wild home’—with new appreciation and all my senses. Thank you for this timely ode to the nature right in front of us.

[Michelle Auerbach]

Melanie Choukas Bradley is my favorite nature writer and this book is a wonderful addition to my bookshelf. She writes eloquently about the nature we can access right now during the Covid pandemic. And her words and ideas are soothing in this time and her natural take on resilience is a view that I needed to hear. Read this book if you love nature and want more of it in your life right now. You will be glad you did.