Ecopsychological Spirit

The Brisbane River is undergoing tremendous changes along its banks. According to criticism from Associate Professor Peter Skinner of The University of Queensland, the state government has been ''suckered into' allowing developers ... to treat the Brisbane River as if it were a 'vacant lot'' (Robinson, 2008).

What I'm reminded of here are the lyrics of the poignant Joni Mitchell song, revived recently by Counting Crows, Big Yellow Taxi:

'Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.'

These types of changes to the urban river environment not only alter ecosystem flows, reduce tree canopy, and destroy bird, insect and animal havens, they also create an inner disturbance which the practical and academic field of ecopsychology seeks to assist. Irrevocable changes to the natural environment, especially to places where we may have grown up, can cause psychological trauma, grief and deep deep concern (Bohm, 2003; Windle, 1995).

In recognition of the personal, emotional and even spiritual impacts of environmental devastation, and in contrast, to promote the role of nature in human health and wellbeing, the Australian Psychological Association has developed a position statement, Psychology and the Natural Environment.

Authored by Joseph Reser and others, the document recommends that in light of 'the urgency and magnitude of the environmental issues and problems' ... intervention by 'psychologists requires much greater attention, visibility, strategic cross-disciplinary collaborations, and concerted effort.'

There are a range of practical eco-psychological approaches towards combatting the depressing impacts of environmental despair as well as enhancing human health and wellbeing. The pioneer ecopsychologist Sarah Conn makes a strong connection between personal psychological issues and broader ecosocial concerns. She works with individuals to enhance mental health and wellbeing together with an awareness and action program towards sustainability (of earth and self). This involves an immersion in the natural world.

In David Suzuki's wondrous television program The Sacred Balance, Sarah Conn takes Suzuki into the forest and explains to him the process of connecting simultaneously with forest with self with forest. Conn says: 'The key to motivating environmentally sound behavior, from an ecopsychological standpoint, is to enhance the human experience of connection with the non-human world - creating opportunities for experiencing an expanded sense of identity.'

To unearth this expanded sense of identity, or eco-identity, linked within The Sacred Balance website is a practical exercise called Soul Tracking. First there's a very short questionnaire about place which then leads to some suggestions about how to connect with one's place in order to develop or deepen a relationship with that place.

Initially there is an awakening of the senses, the sounds, sights, smells of the area mixed with deep purposeful breathing. Authors of Soul Tracking, Walter Christie and Cynthia Krum, say that their process is simple. It 'involves paying attention and noticing where you are drawn. It is like following an animal's tracks in mud or snow.' What you follow is what they call a 'fascination', something in nature that you feel drawn to.

'A fascination may be a place of resonance, a feeling of familiarity. There may also be a sense of mystery, a feeling of importance of this encounter. ... Once you are drawn to an image of fascination, observe it carefully. ... While tracking, you may use questions such as: how does what I have been drawn to relate to something going on inside of me? How does my experience relate to a specific theme or issue in my life?'

Following a fascination, or in process-oriented earth-based psychology, following a flirt, and contemplating its significance lacks the notion of reciprocity which an integral dimension of ecopsychological theory and practice. What emerges in this interconnected process of reciprocity is what Sarah Conn terms 'ecological consciousness', which occurs through 'an approach to phenomena [which] is about opening to their manifestation and resonating with them, opening to the intuitive awareness that we share consciousness with plants, animals, and even rocks.'

Conn was speaking at the 2007 Psychology-Ecology-Sustainability conference where she asked the insightful question: 'As we head towards breakdown, what possibilities are emerging for breakthrough? How can each of us open to those possibilities and find our part in the breakthrough?' Part of her answer can be found in the practice of ecopsychology whose task ' is restore the experience of interconnectedness and interdependence among psychological, cultural and ecological systems.'

During her talk, Conn cited the experience of the deep ecology and Buddhist Pullitzer Prize winning poet Gary Snyder whose nature encounter with an Oak tree had a profound effect:

'After years of walking right past it on my way to chores in the meadow, I actually paid attention to a certain gnarly canyon live oak one day. Or maybe it was ready to show itself to me. I felt its oldness, suchness, inwardness, oakness, as if it were my own. Such intimacy makes you totally at home in life and in yourself.'

Opening to another, whether Tree, River, Flower or Bird, can affect us signficantly. Conn says that in the process we slow down, become silent and are more open to and aware of local surroundings. As a result there can be unexpected consequences. One of Conn's students remarked that: 'Presented with unseen complexity, a need for empathy, and the feeling of a greater energy at work, I felt a connection to the grass that encouraged me to give back.' Another commented: 'Being with the water allowed me to hear about movement, change, and constancy.'

The Brisbane River offers opportunities for soul tracking, an inner journey that can effect change in ourselves, and subsequently, in the environment.

Becoming aware of the intricacies of the river's aqua-system, the movement of the tides, the seasonal changes of water flow, the changing colours of plant and water, the sights and sounds of different creatures, and becoming attuned to the constancy of its flow, mesh together in a sense of curiosity and intent where responsiveness to nature leads to responsibility for nature.

Slow down, notice, feel the fascination, connect, reflect, give back. Conn comments that what emerges through an eco-connection with places in nature is an 'ecological identity, a consciousness of one's place in the ecological community' that leads to an active engagement of care.

References
Bohm G, 2003, Emotional reactions to environmental risks: Consequentialist versus ethical evaluation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23, 199 - 212.
Conn S, 2007, Psychology in a New Key: Ecopsychology and Ecological Consciousness, Paper presented to the Psychology-Ecology-Sustainability Conference, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, June 8, 2007.
Robinson G, 2008, Flood concerns over Brisbane River, Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 24, 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/water/flood-concerns-over-brisbane-river/2008/01/24/1201025080293.html
Windle P, 1995, The Ecology of Grief, in T Roszak, ME Gomes and AD Kanner, Eds., Ecopsychology. Restoring the Earth. Healing the Mind, San Francisco, Sierra Club.

Life for Rivers

Rivers for Life is a very insightful book covering the need for global care of water and river systems for both people and nature. Written by Sandra Postel and Brian Richter (2003) from the Global Water Policy Project, Rivers of Life's first chapter is titled: Where Have All the Rivers Gone? It documents the impact wrought by human development through changing infrastructure (such as dams, hydro-projects, dredging etc.) on rivers, wetlands and other freshwater ecosystems, so much so that the health of the river and the plant and animal species that dwell in and along the river are threatened. The authors estimate that worldwide that 'a significant proportion of fresh water species ...including 20 percent of freshwater fish species ... are at risk of extinction or are already extinct.' (2003:3)

Healthy river systems are fast disappearing. But at the same time there is a host of activists, river and wetlands restorers who are working to re-create river health and wellbeing. Postel and Richter advise rivers should be valued for their own sake not only for the services they provide the human community. They comment: 'Rivers are more than conduits for water. They are complex systems that do complicated work.' (4)

What's needed for the restoration of river systems is all the scientific research that's being done as well as great encouragement for people to care for local waterways. One suggestion is to tell river stories from the present and the past, e.g. stories from indigenous communities and from the early days of white settlement when cotton growing, sugar cane farms and cattle stations spread out along the river. People may become more aware, more engaged and perhaps more motivated to take action to protect the river environs.

Talking to people I meet on the trail teaches me so much about the river and its history. We discuss the birds we've seen, the experiences of flood times, how tough it was for the early settlers in clearing the luscious rainforest for farmland and more generally, about the threat of encroaching development. And we work together to care for the precious bushland. Each day I pull up a number of noxious weeds but with the recent fantastic rain, the weeds are growing faster and taller than my ability to rip them up them; it seems impossible to combat their spread.

Postel and Richter are optimistic that people will learn to appreciate the natural environment including rivers and so might replicate the 'complicated work' that rivers do by lobbying for river education and river health. To this end the authors make a serious plea:

'Unless human communities begin to adapt to natural cycles and coexist with aquatic communities, those natural communities will disappear and the ecological work they perform will be lost.' (202).

They call for an ethic of stewardship which respects 'the beauty and mystery' of the natural world while at the same time demanding from governments a more aware, community-embedded active rivercare program.

One of the case sudies from Rivers of Life is the Brisbane River and its deteriorating health. Postel and Richter point to the extent of land clearing where now only 14 percent of the whole river catchment area where most people live 'remains uncleared' (133). They document a litany of river impacts that have severely affected the river flow, from construction of dams to changes in waterway vegetation which interferes with 'shading and temperature controls' raising the likelihood of 'algal blooms and lowering dissolved oxygen levels.' (135, citing Arthington et al, 2000).

The list of concerns continues with the loss of biodiversity and subsequent loss of habitat for bird, animal and fish species, including the platypus.

To combat these problems (or are they horrors?), a number of counter strategies are suggested. It requires concerted and combined action among all stakeholders and residents but of course, such suggestions to restore healthy river systems may (or invariably do) bring conflict, as ecological demands can disturb policy and development desires and outcomes. Postel and Richter (2003:137) write:

'This conflict between managing the Brisbane River for human purposes versus meeting the river's own needs for water is one that arises on virtually every river. ... Complete restoration of the Brisbane's natural flow regime would likely cause too much disruption to landowners and water users to be publicly acceptable.'

In the end such conflict is played out between humans and nature where nature's voice is rarely heard. At the moment the Butcher Bird is sitting on the verandah singing the most glorious chorus and sounding, on occasion, like the Magpie, the Kookaburra and of course, itself. I love that. The very melodic refrain of the Butcher Bird reminds me how important it is to value local river systems and trees and get involved in that complicated work of the ecosystem of which, we humans too, are part.

References
Arthington AH et al, 2000, Environmental Flow Requirements of the Brisbane River Downstream from Wivenhoe Dam, Brisbane, Queensland: South East Queensland Water Corporation, and Centre for Catchment and In-Stream Research of Griffith University.
Postel S and B Richter, 2003, Rivers For Life: Managing Water for People and Nature, Washington, DC: Island Press.

Riverness

Riverness. This can be defined as the feelings that emerge out of the process of connecting with the river. Engaging with nature is aimed at getting out of our heads and into our senses. To feel kinship with all life. To heal. To learn. To experience. To recharge. To gain a fresh perspective. To build and cement special relationships with ecosystems and places. ‘To be engulfed by wildness and mystery and wonder’ (Baetz, 1997:35; see also the blog by RiverRatRanger). David Cumes (1998:79) remarks that there are no words in English to describe this ‘powerful inner effect on the psyche’, particularly in wild places. He terms it ‘wilderness rapture’.

Certain ‘power places’ are known for their potential to transform through experiences of self-transcendence known as ‘peak experiences’ (Maslow, 1964). These peak experiences or ‘flow’ experiences (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) are chactacterized by feelings of being ‘in the moment’, feelings of unity and oneness, of joy, bliss and peace, outside time and space, a sense of the numinous, a change of heart, and a change of being in the world.

The marvellous wilderness theorist and garlic farmer Robert Greenway (1995:128) promotes wilderness experience as an important pathway for regeneration. His research shows that 90 percent of participants in his wilderness programs over 25 years experience a heightened ‘sense of aliveness, well-being, and energy’ during the sojourn. The difficulty comes at the end of the experience when they return home and begin to lose that loose and open feeling of connectedness with the natural world. Within two days of arriving home, over half the people said their positive feelings had turned to depression. Greenway refers to this fluctuating feeling as the ‘wilderness effect’.

The patches of wild sacred places in the heart of the city are precious. Xavier Rudd in his touching song 'Messages' puts it this way:

So come sit down
Will you talk with me now?
Let me see through your eyes
Where there is so much life
We are biding our time
For these myths to unwind
These changes we will confront

So peace be where
With every place that you had
Look to your soul
For these things that you know
For the trees that we see
Cannot forever breathe
With the changes they will confront

References
Baetz R, 1997, Wild Communion. Experiencing Peace in Nature, Center City, Minnesota, Hazelden.
Csikszentmihalyi M, 1990, Flow. The Psychology of Optimal Experience, New York, Harper & Row.
Cumes D, 1998, 'Nature as Medicine: The Healing Power of the Wilderness,' Alternative Therapies, 4, 2, 79-86.
Greenway R, 1995, 'The Wilderness Effect and Ecopsychology,' in T Roszak, M E Gomes & A D Kanner, eds, Ecopsychology.
Restoring the Earth. Healing the Mind, San Francisco, Sierra Club.
Maslow A, 1964, Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences, Columbus, OH, Ohio State University Press.

Sacred Elemental Ecology

The river is flowing, flowing and growing down to the sea,
The river is flowing, flowing and growing down to the sea,
Mother carry me, your child I will always be.
Mother carry me, your child I will always be.

I learnt this chant many years ago. The flow of the song, the flow of the words when sung with others, over and over, is a powerful symbol or metaphor for the flow of life, the flow of knowledge, the flow of ecological and ecospiritual wisdom.

There is a wisdom inherent in the elements, water, fire, earth, air, that guides the spirit of the planet. This lush spirit flows in the movement of the ecosystem, the planetary turns and the tidal exchange of fresh and salt water. At the moment and globally, these spiritual and elemental dimensions seem out of balance: there's terrible floods in UK, widespread forest fires in the Mediterranean, while in Australia there were huge floods a couple of weeks ago in Victoria which broke the drought, but the drought is still raging in the heart of Brisbane's river city.

Humanity also seems out of balance. Australia has become a more stratified and snobbish society says social observer Hugh Mackay. And it's also a less nature-engaged population in part due to the techno-managerial imperative and a faster paced life which has resulted in a community somewhat disconnected from their place in the natural order of things. But we're also dis-located/dis-placed through the unthinking destruction of habitat.

In New South Wales a positive human-ecological note. A recent survey of environmental attitudes (2007) showed that most people are concerned about, and value the natural environment, with 90 percent citing water as an issue of great concern, with global warming not far behind. But this leads to a paradox - whose needs are paramount: human's or nature's? There is a dialectic at work here, between the reciprocal relationship with the natural world where nature is viewed as having intrinsic value (an end in itself), and the anthropocentric viewpoint with nature being seen in utilitarian (human use) terms.

Anthropocentism focuses on environmental quality as far as human needs are concerned. In contrast, biocentrism or ecocentrism takes account of the quality of the ecosystem and ecosystem 'services'. But generally in this society, there is a desperate lack of awareness about the needs of nature, about the ecological patterning within the land (earth), air, water and fire.

For many industrial-directed folk, the earth is valued for its economic usefulness to humans despite the talk on sustainabiity and the triple bottom line. And as global warming rears up like a firey dragon, the earth is becoming increasingly valued for its ecological utility - as a source of carbon credits which can be traded in the global marketplace. But such a view leaves the spiritual and religious values of nature out in the cold.

But not out of the hearts of nature carers. The wonderful nature writer and philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore (2006) takes up this issue of the significance of religious and spiritual nature connections in an article about the values of old growth forests. She writes that these magnificient groves of ancient trees 'speak with an uncommon power of the imagining and feeling part of the human mind. They have the power to make a person fall silent with wonder and gratitude, to deepen a person's connections to the wellsprings of life and death and mystery' (2006:1120).

Wonder. Gratitude. Existence. Mystery.

A similarly evocative idea was raised earlier by Neils Elers Koch (1997) from the Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute, who says that:

'The forest has always - and probably in all cultures - been a source of many intangible values such as religious feelings, spiritual values, peace, etc. In many cultures the forest is a symbol of the mother, or the forest is considered as an archetype. The forest as an archetype means that symbolically it reflects the basic structure of the unconscious, the undefinable, essence of life and existence ... If foresters do not respect these values they may reduce the quality of life and create large conflicts with local society.'

Like forests, the Brisbane River, as well as other riverine systems, can be seen in such instrumental terms as providing peace, tranqulity, beauty and joy. There is a gentle beauty about the flow of the local river, with its rise and fall in tune with the ocean. It's beautiful now but along the trail you can see the memory of the once magnificent old growth forest that stood here - huge tree stumps of rainforest that shaded the river and provided habitat for myriad creatures. An image taken in 1866 held in the State Library of Queensland shows a gigantic spreading fig tree along the river. An ant-like sized person stands beside the flying butresses and is dwarfed by the tree's mammoth size.

Kathleen Dean Moore says that forests of such cathedral-like trees invite 'a sense of wonder - radical amazement at life on this majestic scale' (2006:1121). That sense of amazement and majesty still lingers even if the trees have long disappeared. Could they come back? Well yes, if we replant them and nurture their growth, habitat and beauty.

Connecting to the ancient forests, the river valley, the urban wilderness, brings benefits in terms of human health and wellbeing. Being in the outdoors, on land or with water, can positively affect physical health in terms of exercise. It can also lead to spiritual renewal, a reduction in stress, a gaining of insight as well as personal transformation. These aspects are well documented in research. Of particular interest is the work of Frances Kuo and others from the University of Illiinois on the reduction of some illhealth symptoms such as ADD and ADHD in children (Kuo & Taylor, 2004) and obesity in children and adults.

In terms of social health, the provision of natural spaces in inner city environments can also have a positive effect on the reduction of crime and enhancement of community safety. This work from Kathy Wolf from the University of Washington is worth investigating by local councils and NGOs here. Greening the city would be more quickly enhanced if the social as well as the economic benefits of tree planting in urban areas, shopping centres and car parks were publicised.

The therapeutic benefits of being in nature, connecting to the delicate and often subtle rhythms of the natural world are at the heart of ecopsychology and earth-based therapies like hortitherapy, pet therapy, and environmental psychology. There is a documented link between the health and wellbeing of the human community, and the health and wellbeing of ecological systems. It's only natural.

Going riverwalking and working with the local Bushcare group both help to repair the human soul and the earth's.

References
Department of Environment and Climate Change, NSW, 2007, Who Cares about the Environment in 2006, http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/whocares/whocares2006.htm
Koch NE, 1997, Forest, Quality of Life and Livelihoods, 5, 25, XI World Forestry Congress, Antalya, Turkey, October 1997.
Kuo FE and AF Taylor, 2004, A Potential Natural Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence From a National Study, American Journal of Public Health, 94, 9, 1580-1586.
Moore KD, 2006, In the Shadow of the Cedars: the Spiritual Values of Old Growth Forests, Conservation Biology, 21, 4, 1120-1123.

Riverpsychology

The river has a subtle way of moving into the heart. I miss it if I can't riverwalk. It is a place for reflection and quiet contemplation about the world. But in focusing this blog around the river I wonder if it is possible to shift more into the global political, social and spiritual arena as the media is filled with the suffering and pain of people and land in pockets actoss the globe. Palestine. Sudan. Iraq. There is a human and an ecological toll.

For example, during the week (June 16) the Secretary-General of the U.N. Ban Ki-moon said that in part, global warming has aggravated the conflict in Dafur, Sudan. He points to the severe drought that has plagued the region and suggests that water shortage have provoked the fighting. 'Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and political shorthand — an ethnic conflict pitting Arab militias against black rebels and farmers...Look to its roots, though, and you discover a more complex dynamic.'

Contemplating these big issues as well as possible solutions seem daunting, fraught, and yet, brave peacemakers are continually working to heal and encourage peace. On a recent visit to Brisbane the inspirational peacebuilder Satish Kumar asked what would happen if, instead of a Department of Defence and the Armed Forces, there was a Department or Ministry of Peace.

These thoughts travel with me as I muse along the river.

The rivertrail is a good place for reflection - to take time to merge with the ebb and flow of this tidal river, to watch the mangrove roots rise through the mud, to listen to the tiny olive SilverEyes chirp through the upper eucalypt branches, to breathe the musty-dusty earth and to find an internal placidity among these elements. Being connected to the river, as the light drizzle barely wets the ground, affects the physical (exercise), emotional (sense of wellbeing), and spiritual (heart) and shows me there is a correlation between being part of the river system, connecting with the watery ecology, and the way I feel.

This interconnectivity between human and ecosytem is the core of the field of ecopsychology. Ecopsychology promotes an intimate and dynamic connection between healing the mind and healing and protecting the earth.

Ecopsychology combines psychology and ecology and advances that there is an interconnection between personal crisis, societal crisis and the planetary crisis. As separate discourses, psychology focuses on suffering as an individual problem while ecopsychology sees it as a collective problem as well. The challenge, hopes clinical psychologist Sarah Conn (1995:171), is to find ways to deal with the personal issues so they are no longer seen as individual problems but ‘as microcosms of the larger whole, of what is happening in the world’. As the person works to heal themselves and rediscover joy in the world, they are also learning to contribute to the healing of the earth.

Peter Cock (1996) terms this process of encountering nature and aspects of our own natures as ‘being and becoming in nature’. ‘Being through nature’ can come about by sitting quietly in the outdoors and just ‘be-ing’. These quiet reflective moments open up a path of communication to the wider world where people can get in touch with their inner nature, through a process of becoming responsive to elements in the natural world, and being responsible for caring for self and others (human and other-than-human)

‘Becoming through nature’ assumes that the earth has something to teach us about ourselves and our relationship with it. Cock (1996:3) describes the process as one of observing and taking note of how we feel in nature, seeing ‘attributes of ourselves highlighted in the characteristics of plants, animals and elements, such as the hardness of rocks, the slipperiness of fish, the piercing eye of an eagle, the persistence of a wombat’. These metaphors then become messages for personal reflection and self-transformation.

However, there is no guarantee that this self-transformative process will lead directly or indirectly to environmental action, although the person may gain a deeper awareness about themselves and a deeper understanding of the connection that binds them to the natural world. John Davis (1998:95) maintains that either outcome is relevant as the experience itself, if practised ‘regularly over a long period of time is a potent spiritual practice’. For Davis, the process of ‘being and becoming in nature’ takes on the mantle of ritual.

Riverwalking is a ritual. Today I meet a Black Faced Cuckoo Shrike, a family of unknown largish birds I can't identify even from the bird book (they could be curlews). Later I spy a tree filled with more than a dozen resting Ibis. They look like giant white fruit and this charming sight nourishes my spirit.

If you would like to make a comment, click on 'Comments' below.

References:
Cock PH, 1996, 'Ecological Practice for Nature Carers: Work in Progress', Paper presented to the Social Ecology Colloquium: Sense of Place: Depth Perspectives on Australian Landscapes and Environmental Values, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, Dec. 1996.
Conn SA, 1995, 'When the Earth Hurts, Who Responds?' in T Roszak, ME Gomes & AD Kanner, Eds, Ecopsychology. Restoring the Earth. Healing the Mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club.
Davis J, 1998, 'The Transpersonal Dimensions of Ecopsychology: Nature, Nonduality, and Spiritual Practice',The Humanist Psychologist, 26, 1-3, 69-100.