In our environments, we must create clear places for original and organized thought to develop. Turn off your phone, computer, and television. These are pollutants that distort your thinking. Create quiet. Then look upon a tree or a mountain. Let your thinking clarify, calm, and expand.
Deepak Chopra advised taking 2 hours a day to look at a tree or a mountain. These images cleanse and organize the mind.
I believe that the tree image is healing because our brain follows the same pattern. There is a branch and then a stem, and then a stem or series of stems.
As James Cameron said of the tree in Avatar, a tree is like the brain of a culture. In it is the history and the potential for the future. The roots spread out in the earth as deeply as the the branches reach up into the sky. The branches of a tree are very healing to meditate upon. They provide calm stimulation that transfers to the brain and helps it to function.
If you ever dig up a root, you will see that it has fine hair-like tendrils that interweave with the earth. The roots are much finer and even more complex than the branches in the air. The earth roots gather nutrients from the soil. The leaves gather light from the sun.
A large tree has had abundant nutrients and light. Smaller trees, called bonsai, have been dwarfed by limited exposure to light and soil.
In Japanese culture, tiny bonsai trees sit in a ceramic pot on a table. The older and more complex their branches are, the tinier their leaves, the more highly they are valued. I have seen oak bonsai reported to be hundreds of years old. These enhance meditation. The natural patterns can stimulate the brain.
Simplicity of pattern on a ground creates serenity for meditation. The Zen garden creates such a space to clarify and calm the mind to be focussed and present.
Mountains create unique clarity of mind for adapting to the big picture or to long-term goals. In Korea, rocks that resemble mountains may sit in a carved wooden holder on a table or a desk are highly valued for mediation. Mountains uplift and clarify the mind and are anchored in energy from the deep earth.
Whether we have tiny versions of trees and mountains or direct access to nature, we can cherish the experience of closeness and communion with trees and mountains and natural rhythms as we regularly cleanse our minds of the pollution and interruptions.
The Wellman Method supports leadership development
