I’ve walked in many places, and often found each evokes a unique feeling. From the spiritual presence of the high Sierra, to the infinite possibility of Cape Point — so at some level I’ve know that our bodies and hearts are connected to the natural world (even when we’ve removed our heads to the curious comfort of unfeeling concrete and steel). But today I re-experienced this connection with such vivid power that I felt compelled to share.
I’m in Nida, a fishing village-turned-tourist haven on the Curonian spit in Lithuania. This morning we walked a kilometer across the finger of land, through enchanted forest, and found our way to the Baltic Sea. Descending the dune bluff, the wind was so strong I staggered.
The beach has been scoured, all footprints wiped clean. Pebbles standing in relief like mini bulwarks feathered by lines of sand.
The kids went to work digging a hole to hide from the bluster. Patty and I collected stones to “paint” on the blank canvas of sand. After a hour we had to abandon the beach. As we retreated, Patty and I paused at the top of the dune to photograph our design. We both walked away feeling literally breathless — as if the wind had taken the air from our lungs.
For the next hour, my body felt electrified, buzzing with a kind of emotional current. Not exactly a pleasant power, but a palpable force like all my emotions were blended and whirring together. We went back into the shelter of the forest and had a picnic on the moss. I lay back and felt the thrum gradually fade back into the earth. Watching the tall trees swaying above me, the energy of the wind flowing smoothly. As I lay there “decompressing,” I considered this experience of my “animal self,” a creature part of and affected by its habitat, by the earth and sky. In my day-to-day life, especially in the days I lived in the city, it was easy to pretend to be something apart from the natural world, but today I experienced that it’s not simply a place in which I walk; I affect the world, and it affects me, interwoven to my very core.
Joshua Freedman
Part of the Six Seconds' founding team, Josh is one of the world leading experts on emotions, change, and performance. One of a handful of people with proven experience creating organizational performance through EQ, Freedman leads a world-wide network of EQ change agents. (sd)
