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Abstract This article describes individual and collective experiences of engaging and connecting with nature using a mindful perception approach, the MAPIN Strategy. It represents a qualitative review of the worksheets completed by participants during a number of MAPIN nature connection sessions. This article presents the range of cognitive, affective, and spiritual responses for constituent activities that constitute a MAPIN session, some of the insights and reflections by participants, and participant's reflections about their experiences of connection. The essence of the overall collective experience of connection was described as an immersive, relational, and loving one of being bonded and nurtured by nature, or some aspect of a natural area, characterized by a variety of positive cognitive, affective, and spiritual states of mind that led to increased awareness, perspective, and an expanded sense of self and being-in-the-world. The article ends with a suggestion of why the MAPIN Strategy may be an effective tool for evoking and/or heightening experiences of connection with nature.
While many of the issues associated with the global environmental crisis are facilitated and worsened by globalized economic, financial, and social systems, at a more fundamental level they arise out of the dominant Western consciousness that lacks empathic connection and identification with nonhuman nature. Research suggests that an individual's sense of connectedness with nature significantly influences environmental concern and behavior. Ecological consciousness is a form of consciousness that is characterized by a psycho-spiritual connectedness with nature; however, a structured approach to its development has not been clearly articulated from a lived-experience perspective. This article explores the heightened state of ecological consciousness from a phenomenological, self-study perspective. A structured mindfulness-based perception exercise was developed to deepen nature connectedness and to evoke heightened ecological consciousness within a variety of natural settings. Thematic analysis of exercise worksheets found that heightened states consisted of psycho-spiritual experiences of connectedness facilitating spiritual meaning, ecological awareness, and therapeutic outcomes. Experiences of heightened states were characterized by 16 thematic categories and a spectrum of consciousness states. The evocation of heightened ecological consciousness has implications for not just the practices of environmental educators and psychotherapists, but also for individuals seeking greater connectedness and a nature-based way of coping with a variety of negative psychological states.
While many of the issues associated with the global environmental crisis are facilitated and worsened by globalized economic, financial, and social systems, at a more fundamental level they arise out of the dominant Western consciousness that lacks empathic connection and identification with nonhuman nature. Research suggests that an individual's sense of connectedness with nature significantly influences environmental concern and behavior. Ecological consciousness is a form of consciousness that is characterized by a psycho-spiritual connectedness with nature; however, a structured approach to its development has not been clearly articulated from a lived-experience perspective. This article explores the heightened state of ecological consciousness from a phenomenological, self-study perspective. A structured mindfulness-based perception exercise was developed to deepen nature connectedness and to evoke heightened ecological consciousness within a variety of natural settings. Thematic analysis of exercise worksheets found that heightened states consisted of psycho-spiritual experiences of connectedness facilitating spiritual meaning, ecological awareness, and therapeutic outcomes. Experiences of heightened states were characterized by 16 thematic categories and a spectrum of consciousness states. The evocation of heightened ecological consciousness has implications for not just the practices of environmental educators and psychotherapists, but also for individuals seeking greater connectedness and a nature-based way of coping with a variety of negative psychological states.