Instinctively optimistic
"In a basic way, it is against nature's purposes to contemplate a dire future, for all of nature operates on the premise that the future is assured. Nature is everywhere filled with promise -- not only the promise of mere survival, but the promise of beauty and fulfillment. …That keen sense of promise is innate within each portion of the body. It triggers the genes and chromosomes into their proper activity, and it promotes feelings of optimism, exuberance, and strength."
The Way Toward Health, (Seth) Jane Roberts
Each year tiny Rufous Hummingbirds migrate from breeding grounds as far away as Alaska to their winter homes in Mexico, a long and daunting journey for any creature, especially for one so small. Hummingbirds do not travel in flocks, so those born in the north must make their southbound trip alone, directed only by that innate optimism we call instinct.
Each year a large portion of the Monarch butterfly population in North America heads south to over-winter in Mexico. The butterflies that arrive there are not the ones who started the journey, hundreds of miles away, but are several generations removed. None of these fragile symbols of ephemeral beauty has ever made this trip before, yet the optimism of instinct guides them by the hundreds of thousands to shelter in groves of evergreen trees, new to each individual, but familiar to their species.
Science has taught us to diminish these miracles of optimism by seeing them as mindless, genetically programmed urges, the result of natural selection. According to science, there is no meaning here, only chaos intersecting with chance, allowing the lucky survivors to breed and pass on their superior genes. But such theories do not explain how instinct manages to imbue these creatures with the outsized optimism that sustains them on their journeys.
Scientific assumptions also encourage us to set ourselves apart from nature, alternately exalting humankind as the "paragon of animals" or excoriating it as nature's bane. Convinced of our superiority as beasts that reason, we relegate the role of instinct in our lives mainly to infancy, regarding it as a stopgap that keeps us functional until intellect can come up with better ideas.
To the intellect, few ideas seem less likely to succeed than setting a butterfly to run one hazardous leg of a journey that will not benefit it directly. To the intellect, few plans seem more recklessly ill advised than a miniature bird's commitment to a journey that will take it to the very limits of endurance with no guarantee of success. Yet, our lives, too, are sustained and guided by the same kind of faith that fuels these acts of optimism.
Contemplating nature is one of the surest ways to reconnect with the health-giving optimism that is the inheritance and sustenance of every cell of your body. But in order to rekindle this faith you must set aside the habit of viewing the natural world through the pessimistic filters of our times. Notice instead the simple miracle of nature endlessly renewing itself. In every kind of environment creatures of all sorts, including human ones, survive -- and thrive -- in a mind-boggling range of conditions with no technical marvels to protect them, no "superior" human science to tell them it can't be done.
Consider the resilient optimism of life thriving in unlikely places -- the plant flourishing in the crack in the pavement, the falcon diving through a canyon of skyscrapers to snare a pigeon, the spider fattening in the austere ecosystem of the living room. Reflect on the underlying intelligence that sustains every kind of animal and plant life by fitting it with perfect precision to its niche in the environment. Revel in the exuberant optimism that reveals itself each year as winter turns to spring. This same optimism sustains you, too.
Practice
No matter how you spend you days, your health will benefit if you take breaks outdoors and contemplate nature however it presents itself in your environment. Set aside your workday concerns and make your breaks mini-retreats, refreshing yourself by breathing the outside air, bathing in the light, and enjoying the weather. Remember, humans are animals, too. Admire them -- and yourself -- as part of the natural environment.
If you spend a large part of the day deskbound, keep nature nearby in the form of a nature engagement calendar. Both the Sierra Club and Audubon engagement calendars provide a weekly photograph of the natural world to soothe, inspire, and transport you to the majesty, beauty, and imperfect perfection of nature. I have both of them: one for my desk and one on the counter in the bathroom to inspire me as I prepare for the day.
Relax by taking a mental stroll in evocative natural scenes photographed by Luke Powell in Afghanistan, Iran, Ladakh, Ceylon, Palestine, Egypt and other locales:
http://cweb.middlebury.edu/cr/powell/index.htmLearn about the migration of Monarch butterflies in the book Four
Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly,
by Sue Halpern