I need help duplicating this feeling

Hamju

edit out

Staxeon

Why would this all freak your wife out? Is she a robot, opposed to all things natural?

You might want to try a small garden. I have a potted ficus that I've been growing for 4 years now, just tending it from time to time is calming.

If you have any (safe) public parks around maybe a jog once and a while, or just find a quiet place there to sit and reflect.

desperaterobots

Go to a nice park on a warm sunday afternoon and lay down on the grass?

What's wrong with getting drunk? Get your wife blotto too, share the experience.

Blake T

Tell your wife that you want to go camping by yourself.

Shit, bring her along.

Find a lake.

???

=

One with nature.

vexxed13

Maybe if we compile how we reached these feelings we can figure out what the common link is.

I, for instance, have only felt this once. I was walking across a wide open field looking up at the stars. It makes me a little sad to point out, however, that alcohol was most likely an influence in my version as well. I was feeling happy (wonderful night with friends) before this feeling hit me, and that probably factors in, too.

So I guess so far we can go with: alcohol, friends, late night, and something involving the sky like rain or the moon or stars.

Fallout

To be one with nature you would probably have to leave the city and go out into actual nature. I think that is the sticking point, right there.

Nocturne

Meditation, meditation, and more meditation.

It requires a lot of willpower and effort to achieve those kinds of feelings while sober, compared to the ease with which they come under the influence of drugs/alcohol.

There are tons of free resources online, you could just google or Youtube the word "meditation" and be in business. I don't have suggestions on specific techniques, because truthfully they can all achieve similar effects based on how much you put into it.

Forbe!

Scents are a powerful index. Can you remember a particular odor that may trigger a more vivid recollection of this particular memory/feeling?

ben0207

I love walking home from a night out barefoot.

In fact, walking barefoot at all. Especially snow, or the beach.

Improvolone

One of my classes had us giving massages to each other like, once a month, to help relax. My teacher said that during his grad school some of his massages would leave him bouncing down the street in pure bliss and harmony. Granted, these were intenses massages that basicly seek to move the muscle off the bone.

So yea, intense painful massages.

Sarcastro

Sounds like a zen state. It takes practice, but you can get this at anytime without being under the influence.

Essentially it boils down to not-thinking, the acceptance and awareness of everything around you, while at the same time being there in that place. My but the English language is extremely lame at communicating this processs.

I, being raised in the rainforests of the South Pacific isles, am still completely enamoured with the city. It has a voice and presence just like the jungle. I'll often walk down the street (especially after it rains) and just listen to what it has to say. The urban landscape, with its concrete and glass towers, the bright lights that keep the dark at bay, the far hum of sleepless traffic, and the occasional passing car, provides a distinctive ambience which can be very enjoyable.

There are distant sirens instead of bird calls, there are flagpoles and duracrete public building instead of massive trees and canopies, there are roads cut into the earth instead of wide streams, but it is still a nature reflective of our own nature as people. It is still possible to hear this voice and open ones self up to the experience of just being a part of it.

The key is to just be aware, and put all your focus into percieving instead of thinking, using all of your senses to engage your mind instead of reserving a place for personal thought. The dry wind ruffiling the hairs on your skin, the light pressure changes from alleys and streets, the temperature changes from warm or cold sidewalks to the air at waist and head level. The feeling of movement all around, or the feeling of silence late at night, and one's own place, exactly as you are, right there at that time.

Very enjoyable, these little moments often give me a great sense of relaxation and peace.

Steve Bennett

It sounds like you're talking about "the feeling", from the book "Who Has Seen the Wind". I suppose most non-Canadians haven't read it, but it was required reading for most Canadian students for decades. Its about a boy growing up in the prairies, learning about life & death in a natural environment. "The wind" and "The feeling" is a repeating theme that the boy experiences, which I personally identify with.

I really don't think there is a simple way to recreate or duplicate it. Most people that experience it have to try very hard to get it again. I've found it particularly tough as I grow older. The most important thing I find is environment: temperature, wind speed, probably more subtle things like barometric pressure and humidity even. Even with environment right, YOU have to be right.. proper mindset, emotions, etc.

Trowizilla

The most one with nature I've ever felt is from wandering around campus barefoot in the pouring rain on a spring day. Normally people take so much trouble to avoid getting wet, but if you just accept the wetness, rain feels amazing. I ended up lying in the grass and letting the rain hit my face, playing in the mud with my toes, smelling wet dirt and wet leaves.

Anyway, I don't see why you couldn't do this in a city. Walk around while it's raining. Go to a park and lie down. Being rained on is sort of lonely anyway, and that kind of solitude can feel really, really good.