Wellbeing

Benediction for the animals

Animals, referred to by John Muir as our horizontal brothers, have long been recognized as essential to our development and well-being.    Throughout history they have played a major role in human thought and culture.   They inhabit our myths, fables, proverbs, and stories.   There is a profound, inescapable need for animals among all peoples, for while animals have inhabited a world without people, we have never lived without the companionship, example, and practical help of animals.

Today, because of the wide-spread pollution of air and water, the rapid expansion of cities, and the destruction of wilderness habitat, we are seeing an imminent and irreversible loss of untamed animal life.   We can only guess at the future effect on our children of living in a world in which elephants exist only in zoos, the great whales no longer fill the seas with their song, and the remaining forests are silent.

The fact that so many of us are increasingly isolated from the presence of animals may contribute to the growing despair we feel.   Direct encounter with animals, meeting them eye to eye on their own ground, evokes a sudden wonder and respect.   Their vivid life brings us alive to the source that creates and sustains all beings.   Without such encounters we risk losing that part of ourselves which most deeply resonates with nature - the heart of compassion.

In safety and in bliss

May all creatures be of a blissful heart.

If our greatest loss with the animals has been to lose touch with the reality of their existence, our second loss has been to banish them from our minds.   We assume they have nothing to teach us about the predicaments of our existence.   We no longer know how to listen to the wisdom of the various four-legged, six-legged, finned and winged creatures that share our life on this Earth.   We forget they are ancestors as well as kindred.   Long before we existed they worked out the round of life in thousands of variations, as though anticipating the experiments of human cultures.

In the following selection of Earth Prayers, our powers of empathy and compassion are called upon.   We are asked to awaken to the plight of our animal relatives, to let their beauty and power come alive for us once more.   We are members of a human family and society, but the presence of animal “others” enlarges our perception of the self beyond the city and opens us inward to that ground of being where live the lizard and monkey, the fish and the bear.

These are our relations.   These are, like us, offspring of the great mystery, and necessary parts of a balanced and living whole.

~

Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends the animals, especially for animals who are suffering; for any that are hunted or lost,  or deserted or frightened or hungry;  for all that must be put to death.   We entreat for them all thy mercy and pity and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words.   Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the merciful.

(Albert Schweitzer)

[From Earth Prayers from around the world edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon.]

A NATURAL HEALTH SERVICE

A recent MORI poll commissioned by Natural England found that 94% of the population thought it a good idea to refer people for outdoor exercise rather than medication.   The FDA (the pharmaceutical regulator in the US) has been handed evidence that antidepressants may be no better than a placebo in the treatment of mild to moderate depression.   And Britain’s Chief Medical Officer has stated that being active has the same antidepressant effect as taking tablets.

Could this be the moment when we realise that the reason that one in six adults and one in five children have a mental disorder isn’t due to a lack of antidepressants, but more because we have drifted away from how we were designed to live?

Mental health is a rising problem and costs the UK economy 75 billion Pounds a year due to loss of earnings and health care.   The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2020 depression will be the second biggest cause of ill health worldwide.

We are designed to be on the move much of the time and this helps keep our blood pressure down, generate good cholesterol, allow more oxygen to the heart and muscles and keep our joints healthy and free of pain. Just a thirty minute bout of exercise will boost our immune system for the whole day, helping to keep away infections and mop up any stray cancer cells.

However, 70% of us don’t achieve this.   Yet lack of activity has the same effect on heart disease as smoking twenty cigarettes a day. It increases the risk of diabetes, colon and breast cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis and, of course, the obesity that will affect 60% by 2040.

So, why not install a treadmill in your garage or join a gym and keep fit that way?  We were never designed for treadmills, and although the gym can help some people, for many it simply isn’t suitable.   We were once firmly connected with the natural environment.   Just watch children playing outdoors on logs and in streams and you can see that they are not doing it to promote their health but because they love it. The eminent Harvard zoologist E.O. Wilson termed this link ‘biophilia’ - an innate affinity for Nature.

Linking health with Nature goes back a long way.   Monasteries once had healing gardens, and a thousand years ago St. Bernard was enthusiastic about his: “The sick man sits upon the green lawn …” he wrote.   “He is secure, hidden, shaded from the heat of the day.   For the comfort of his pain all kinds of grass are fragrant in his nostrils.   The lovely green of herb and tree nourishes his eyes… the choir of painted birds caresses his ears…the Earth breathes with fruitfulness.”

The natural environment has a powerful effect on us, encouraging us to become more active and be less stressed. In fact the changes in brain waves can be measured, showing an increase in alpha waves, which indicates more calm.   Children become less hyperactive, can concentrate better and play more creatively and independently with greater co-ordination and balance.   They develop a lifelong ability to connect to Nature, but only if they are allowed to play freely in streams and woods before the age of twelve.   After this age, research has shown, the effect rapidly diminishes.

As we get older the ability to concentrate and cope with stress is enhanced by regular contact with Nature.   Research in Tokyo and Holland shows that people are more likely to walk or cycle to work if the streets are lined with trees and other greenery, and they live longer and feel better.   

Source:  Resurgence, Jan/Feb 2010. No. 258.  The article was written by Dr. William Bird who is the Strategic Health Advisor to Natural England.   www.naturalengland.org.uk.    A longer version of this article appeared in the National Trust magazine.

See Links - Body & Mind Factory - Qi Gong, as another healthy outdoor activity.