Personal Perspective: Nature may not have the power to erase childhood trauma, but it can offer a dose of comfort and nurturing to counteract its effects.
Growing up in a chaotic, dysfunctional family, I understood at a young age that inside my house wasn’t safe. So whenever possible, I gravitated toward the outdoors and the experiences it offered: Sitting in my front yard with my face turned toward the sun. The sensation of my bare toes in damp grass. The wind gently brushing my hair. I spent hours exploring the woods behind my suburban house. I filled my pockets with smooth granite rocks and crisp autumn leaves and squeezed them for comfort.
I remember climbing giant magnolia trees, the scrapes on my knees like souvenirs that I cherished for days afterward. I remember the faith I put in those branches, how good it felt when they held me. I loved the weightlessness of my body underwater at a lake, the smell of a rainstorm, the soothing rhythm of drops hitting the windows and roof. Over the years, the world outside became another version of home, a refuge, a source of nurturing.
Before I had the language or understanding for it, I built my own wellness regimen around wild places. Outside, birds soar. Flowers bloom. Rivers. Mountains slice open the horizon. Waves crash against the beach and return to the sea. The natural world is constantly moving, changing, reinventing itself. Maybe, I thought, I could grow and change and reinvent my life too.The idea that nature has the capacity to heal us is not new. Hippocrates, the father of medicine in the fourth century B.C.
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