6 Simple Ways to Stay Connected to Nature’s Cycles

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I practice soft and slow living. I feel the best when I live a quiet life. To me, living a quiet life includes prioritising what is right in front of me. Not rushing to the next thing.  A quiet life is about being very intentional with what I do with my time, but also what I don’t do. Nature is our constant reminder to slow down and to live an intentional, quiet life.

Why We Need Connection to Nature (More than Ever)

In our modern world with tech and AI, we can get swept into a bubble of “hustling”. Many tech companies are promising that AI can help you to streamline and simplify your life so many people are spending more time turning to devices for using AI in their day-to-day life. There is also an all-time-high amount of time every day spent scrolling on social media apps. The combination of these two mean people are spending more time than ever on devices. A fall out from this is that we are disconnecting from nature.

Many humans don’t even need to step outside often. Most of their life is run inside. There is a lot of noise and there is a lot of change in the world with AI. For that reason, we need to anchor in nature more than ever. The connection to nature is fading. We need to intentionally make room for our connection to nature. Connection to nature, to me for the most part is time outside. Time observing the seasons, noticing what is changing in the world around you.

You’ll be happy to know, or those of you my website is suited to, that I do not use AI to write my blog posts or my social captions. It does not align with my slow living practice. I want to flow and share from my own personal lived experience, and not the words of a machine, which to date are scraping from other people anyway. I don’t know the source.

Part of a slow living lifestyle is to notice what is happening in nature and the seasons.

Nature is a wonderful teacher.

Simple Ways to Connect to Nature

1: Watch the sun and track where the sun rises and sets

Each morning I enjoy watching the sunrise. As I’m in Australia, in the peak of summer, the sun rises the furthest south it will all year. As we get to autumn, it is directly in front of my home and around this tree. By winter it is the further north it will be all year. The opposite is true for those in northern hemisphere countries.

In the warmer months, the sunrise is harder to see due to a beautiful large tree. I love the sunrise in the cooler months because it feels like it’s directly in front of my morning sunrise watching spot.

By watching the location of the sunrise and sunset over the year, you will appreciate the seasons of nature.

2: Go for a walk without headphones

Going for a walk without headphones, and ideally without your device allows you to notice nature. You can listen to the wind in the trees and the birds chirping.

This is a simple way to connect to the world around you and not connect to a device.

3: Step outside at night

Stepping outside at night is such a forgotten moment! Stand in your yard or outside with not lights on and gaze in awe at the sky. Start to notice what stars you can see. Pay attention to the moon’s phase.

For a long time in human history, we gazed at the moon and stars. There was no artificial light to flood the night. Rekindle a love for the night sky by stepping outside for a few moments into the darkness.

What you do at night matters. Read my slow living evening routine for more details.

4: Grow vegetables and flowers

Growing your own flowers and vegetables is a great way to stay connected to nature’s cycles. 

5: Eat seasonal produce

After my first season of growing cherry tomatoes, I noticed that the harvest finished late summer, and the plant stopped producing by the start of autumn. That taught me that I am not eating seasonally if I am buying cherry tomatoes at that time of year where I live. I learned that by buying cherry tomatoes at the shop that were imported, I am not eating seasonally. This is a disconnection from nature.

6: Read a book outside

Take your shoes off, put on a hat if it is very sunny and step outside to read a book.

A great book to read on nature is Balanced and Barefoot. This is a wonderful book to read as a parent if you have children or grandchildren! 

In Closing

Thank you for stopping by my cosy cottage! I hope you continue on your path to slow down and connect to nature’s cycles. If you have kids, you may like to read my post on slow living with kids.

Please leave a comment below if you enjoyed this post. I’m grateful that you are here, slowing down with me.

You might like to stick around and read more slow living posts from me.

Rachael x

About the Author

Hello, I’m Rachael. Welcome to my cottage! Here you’ll find slow, seasonal living. Learn more about me.

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