Mimic Nature

New Adventure

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Mimic Nature

In a few days I embark on a new journey, one that will define whether I have the commitment and determination to finish what I am starting. I love to try new things, see new places, or venture in areas I know nothing about.

I have days where I want to venture out and try something new but I hesitate because I can hear voices in my head telling me that I’m not good enough or that people don’t care about what I have to say.

I may not be great at it but I love to write, writing has been a powerful outlet for me over the years and it has also been a great learning tool. Writing everything down to evaluate later on is a great way to help see the patterns that can infiltrate our minds, patterns that can ruin us or propel us forward into new areas of expression and fulfillment.

In a few days I start camp nanowrimo, it is an online camp designed to help new writers achieve their goals of creating new masterpieces while having a bunch of people there to cheer you on, my new book is going to be called Balancing Nature. I want to focus on how we can work with nature instead of manipulating it, and how we can change our relationship with plants, animals, and even the dirt.

This journey will begin and end with hope, not hope for money or status or even recognition, but hope that I can finish what I start, hope that this adventure will bring me closer to being fulfilled, and hope that I can overcome the thoughts that drag me down.

Posted in challenges and adventures | Tagged 500 words a day, adventure, writing challenge | 2 Comments

Health and Aromatherapy

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Mimic Nature

My mom and I are getting into oils and aromatherapy so here is what I bought today, it is an essential oils diffuser. I never really thought much about our sense of smell until I used this for the first time and noticed a huge difference in my mood, this experience has made me take a deeper look at my senses.

We are given our 5 senses for a reason and many see that as a way to avoid danger but have we given much thought to how it affects us spiritually? The sound of birds chirping, the smell of flowers on a spring day, the feel of a soft blanket or the touch of a loved one, and the taste of your favorite food, all of this is sensory perception and helps to enhance our experience here on earth.

I have realized that when I meditate, using my diffuser enhances this time as the smell of the lilac or jasmine oil that I put in the water helps to calm me even more, even the color changing LED light helps.

Instead of just sitting quietly and trying to force myself to be calm maybe I should use my 5 senses to help calm me naturally with items that already do? For me personally, these include the sound of rain, the feel of a soft blanket, pillow, or even an animal, and the smell of flowers or grass, all of these are naturally calming and help boost my mood.

No wonder nature is a natural antidepressant, it already contains all of what I mentioned above plus the taste of real fruit and vegetables. I have seen posts about how the soil contains antidepressant qualities within it but I believe it goes deeper than just the soil, I believe it is the whole experience that is taken in with our 5 senses that is the true cure for depression. It is the feel of the soil, the smell of the air, the warmth of the sun, the beauty that surrounds us, all of this is what naturally cures depression and makes us feel better.

Posted in simplicity | Tagged aromatherapy, inner well-being, meditation, natural antidepressant | Leave a comment

Getting Started

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Mimic Nature

To be honest I procrastinated in buying my seeds but I have purchased some, I found some nice perennial flower mixes that I plan on planting. One thing I have found is that perennials are much easier to deal with as they come back each year and you don’t have to worry about replanting.

One thing I never knew was that perennials roots, since their root systems never die, can grow very deep into the soil, grabbing certain minerals and nutrients and drawing them to the top for other plants. It’s amazing to see how nature helps each other to flourish and thrive.

My biggest reason for wanting to plant perennial wildflower mixes is that I haven’t noticed the amount of bees that were here when we moved in so I want to attract more bees to my property. At some point I will buy a container for bees so that way they can build their own hive here, plants will not thrive without bees, everything is connected.

This year I also decided to plant as much stuff as I can, even if it’s just a seed mix that I can easily spread and forget about. I really want to get rid of a lot of this grass around our home, it doesn’t serve a purpose and I am wasting the potential contained within my soil.

Lesson number 2 of permaculture is plant, it doesn’t matter what, like I heard on a movie one time, “see a need, fill a need”. If you see that your area lacks something like bees, then you should plant something around your property to attract them back. I bought a rhubarb plant even though I don’t like rhubarb, my reasoning for that is that I wanted to have a nice diversity of plants around. I don’t want to plant only things I like, I want to plant other varieties as well since they may be the key to pest resistance or the key to unlocking the nutrients needed for another plant near it.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged change, gardening, permaculture, planting, successful gardening | 3 Comments

A Look Outside My Window

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Yesterday turned out to be such a beautiful day! The temp was up around 65 and the breeze was light and warm.

The warm temps have stirred a fire within, can’t wait to start planting!

What a beautiful sunset to end the day.

Posted in A Look Outside My Window | Tagged fire within, planting, sunset | 1 Comment

Dogs and Energy

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Cesar and His Pack

I was looking for something to watch on Netflix the other day and I found a certain person I used to love watching on Animal Planet, his name is Cesar Milan. For years Cesar studied the way wolves act and how the pack handled certain situations, with all of this knowledge he developed a way to train dogs. I implemented his techniques with my older dog and it worked great, my younger dog will take more patience and more of an energy shift to get him to follow.

I was watching his new show called Cesar 911 and it brought back all the techniques that I had forgotten over the years and it really surprised me that I understand his way of doing things so much better now that I see life as energy instead of just physical bodies.

The reason his techniques work is because Cesar deals with energy, more importantly the human energy that is being sent out and received by the dog. He has proven to me over and over that how the human feels, whether they are anxious, nervous, fearful, whatever the emotion a person has is picked up by the dog and it reacts accordingly. If you feel fearful the dog will try to take over and protect you, if you are chaotic and worry all the time the dog will not see you as a fit “leader” and will begin to run the home. Success and failure as a leader has to do with the energy flow between all involved.

The more you watch the shows the more you will begin to understand that Cesar is not training the dogs he is training humans to be more calm and confident and this energy shift will tell the dog that you are worthy to be leader.

What needs to be understood here is that energy flow and hierarchy is how nature works. Followers and leaders are just positions, it does not mean that one group is less and the other more, unfortunately humans are the only beings that see a difference and add emotion to them, because of what we see and experience from other humans we think that the followers are being picked on or they are somehow less special than the leader. In nature it is understood that without leaders there would be no followers but without followers there would be no leader so they work together harmoniously. Animals focus on survival not on who is more liked by others or who’s fur is prettier.

In my house my husband and I co-run our “pack”, we discuss situations with each other but ultimately my husband has the final say. This doesn’t mean that I am less in any way, feeling the woman is less is just human emotion and misunderstandings of how things work. It’s hard to see positions correctly when you associate “greater” and “lesser” to them because in reality, greater and lesser are figments of our imagination, they are taught to us by society but they don’t really exist. This greater and lesser concept can seep into all areas of your life and unfortunately this is how many wars are started and how many people die.

A true leader is not picked by his looks or how much money he has, a true leader is picked by the calm confident energy they radiate. Think about the people you admire in life, what qualities do they possess that you like about them? Do they express love, compassion, or a concern for others? Are they confident in who they are and what they are doing? Are they calm or is their energy chaotic, reacting to each situation?

Posted in animals, spiritual | Tagged Cesar Milan, dog obedience, dog packs, flow of energy | 3 Comments

How Important is Rest?

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Rest

Another vital step to anything you undertake is rest. Rest is defined as a period of inactivity, relaxation, or sleep in order to become refreshed.

The National Sleep Foundation did studies and showed that 40 million Americans suffer from some kind of sleep disorder, even 69% of kids have some sort of sleep disorder a few times a week. Some sleep loss is natural in life and it only becomes a real problem when it is a chronic condition, but what happens to our bodies when we don’t get the proper amounts of sleep?

Some of the obvious consequences are car accidents, impaired ability to learn, crankiness, and poor judgement, but it also runs our bodies down and effects every aspect since not getting enough sleep creates stress in the body.

Just as sleep is important to our bodies I believe rest is just as important to nature. Our world moves from day to night, from awake to asleep, everything rests in some form or another.

My family even allows our land to rest every 7 years which allows our perennials and the ground to rest from constant pulling and digging from us. I have only seen benefits from this practice and when I apply permaculture to it as well, I believe that our land will blossom and thrive even more.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged permaculture, rest, rest and nature | 2 Comments

Quiet and Beautiful

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Mimic Nature

gently falling snow

Tonight I went outside and stood in the gently falling snow. How beautiful and peaceful that moment was. It reminded me of the snow globes that many buy of wintry scenes and when you shake it the snow swirls and then gently begins to fall. I could stand there all night if life wasn’t calling me back to what needs to be done. Goodbye gentle snow, I will be back to see you in the morning.

Posted in A Look Outside My Window | Tagged beauty, gently falling snow, peace, serenity | 2 Comments

3 Steps That Help Me to Listen

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Why does it seem like many can’t stand the quiet? Is there something we are trying to drown out with all the noise and distractions that permeate our days? Why are we more prone to talk rather than listen?

I was searching on the internet and many have said that there are records of earlier civilizations that had the ability to hear animals and nature. I sat and wondered how someone could do this, is the answer complicated and beyond our understanding or is the answer as simple as listening?

One of my big lessons lately has been on the fine art of listening and I have to admit that I’m not very good at it. I know I should listen more but words come pouring out of my mouth before I realize what is happening. When I have reactive responses like this I need to rewire my brain and teach it to slow down and think before it speaks.

One day I was meditating on listening and a post showed up that said this,

Listening is the highest form of respect you can give another person.

This made me stop and really think about what is going on when we listen, what are we really conveying to the other person when we are listening to them? Are we telling them they matter enough to give them time to talk? Are we telling them that their thoughts, even though they may not line up with what we believe, are important enough for us to listen too? How do you feel when people listen to you?

This week I will do 3 small things to help me learn to listen better.

Slow down. When I clean my house today, I will take it slower and do a good job at what I do accomplish rather than running on overdrive and skimming over everything. When we go fast we are already thinking about what to do next, we are not aware of the present moment.
Sit and listen. I will take a few minutes to sit and listen to all that is going on around me. This is challenging as we tend to sit and think about what needs to be done next instead of just being in the moment.
Sit and listen. Yes this is so important that it gets 2 spots. Today I will take five minutes to really listen to my kids/husband/friend. This is challenging as well, we tend to think about what we are going to say rather than giving the person our undivided attention.

Whenever I go to make changes I do not make a huge list as this will overwhelm me making me feel defeated. The point is to make changes, not to bog ourselves down by living by a list. You can make up your own list that tailors to your own unique weak spots and before you know it listening will become a habit and not something you have to work at.

Posted in Life lessons | Tagged helping others feel imporant, listening, listening to nature, what matters most | 1 Comment

Meaning and Purpose in Your Life

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Mimic Nature

When I finished reading Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl I realized that having a meaning and purpose in my life is really important. The times that I was really depressed and down were the times that I felt my life had no meaning or purpose that made my life worth living.

At first I was upset because I could not see a big meaning in my life, something that would make a huge difference in my life and those around me but as I grow older I realize that life is not made up of big moments but the culmination of smaller moments that give it meaning and flare.

As I change and grow I see the small things that really add up in my life, for example I remind myself to work out, I remind myself to make time for quiet meditation, I do certain cleaning jobs each day so it’s doesn’t all pile up on one day. I have learned to program into my phone certain things that make a huge difference in my life and it alerts me at the time that is optimal for getting the task accomplished.

Keeping things clean for my family makes me happy, doing good things for my body makes me happy, and taking the time to do things in a more natural way makes me happy. All of these little things add up bringing joy and purpose to my life.

Along with all of these little things I do each day for myself and my family, I will also begin a list in the spring with projects I can do outside in nature. I feel another one of my purposes is to grow my food more naturally, to allow nature to flourish as well as reaping the benefits of fresh fruit and veggies which is why I was drawn to permaculture.

Permaculture does not use chemicals or disturb the soil like conventional farming and gardening does, it tries to mimic what nature would naturally do so that way humans and nature can flourish and thrive together instead of one manipulating another.

I am not the type of person that likes to live their life by lists but this way of doing things is helping me at the moment and some day when this type of living becomes habit, I will not need my lists anymore.

Everyone’s life has meaning and purpose many people just need to remove their expectations and be able to see clearly. Our thoughts tend to deceive us into thinking that this purpose is less or more than another based on how much money they make when in fact they are both very important. Many people would see the CEO of a company to be a higher purpose than that of the janitor but in reality this difference is only in your own mind as having a clean place to work is a high priority to many people.

As Victor Frankl says in his book, “you can’t force someone to laugh, you must tell him a joke to get him to laugh”, our life’s meaning and purpose does not just come to us especially when we are not sure what it is, it will become evident when we start making small changes in our daily routine.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged living by lists, making lists to accomplish what you want, meaning and purpose in life, successful gardening | Leave a comment

Maipulation and It’s Negative Influence

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Mimic Nature

Have you ever wondered why certain gardening techniques don’t work? Have you ever wondered why the relationship between humans and animals has changed so drastically over the decades? What if the reason these things are happening is because we allow the drive for power to control us and we begin to manipulate them and treat them as property?

I believe we as humans need to be careful because we have developed an idea that animals, plants, and the planet are less than we are, that they are things for us to manipulate and control and through this we have lost all respect for them as well. God created man to take care of nature. Many different cultures believe that the Universe created humans to help take care of nature, to benefit from it but never to manipulate it and control it.

What if those ancient civilizations that many thought worshiped trees and nature didn’t really worship the tree itself but they worshiped the Life Force within them? What would happen if we looked at a tree and instead of seeing just a piece of wood we actually saw the Life Force contained within it? Would we tear them down for no reason? Would we abuse and mistreat the Creator within?

How about an animal? Can you see the Life Force within it or do you see a dumb animal that needs manipulation? What if we all treated animals with as much respect as we would the Creator of the Universe? I believe that the relationship between man and beast would not be where it is today, so many animals suffer because of our indifference towards them.

When you go to start a garden or any other project in nature try not to manipulate it, instead try to respect it and see the Life Force within.