Nature, and the Art of Belonging Again

We lost our sense of kin.

There’s a particular kind of clarity that comes from stepping outside long enough for perspective to return.

In this conversation, John Thompson of Nature Bound shares what a lifelong relationship with the natural world has taught him about emotions, uncertainty, and our place in the bigger picture.

From his lived experience through wilderness, community, and deep listening, he brings us important insights on the role nature can play in soothing our busy modern minds.

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John, you write about a “right-relationship” with Nature. From your experience, how does time in nature shape our emotional intelligence and inner clarity in ways modern life often can’t?

Ilham,

To answer your question, I should start by explaining how I arrived at the term “right -relationship”. Every human sometime in their life, at any age, arrives at a moment of contemplation around “who am I” and “what’s my role or purpose in life”.

I arrived at the conclusion of me being part of Nature, confirmed scientifically, and by living evidence, the survival of First Nations Peoples in my country, over 65,000 years.

These people lived a life of abundance and adaptability in all climate conditions from droughts to ice-ages, with limited possessions, generous time for family and spiritual enrichment, caring for their environment with a deep, direct connection to Nature. This is not readily acknowledged in modern day communities.

I clearly see Nature as kin, a relationship carrying both benefit and responsibility. Effectively without going into detail, if we destroy Nature to the point, it can’t regenerate itself, then we are destroying our home, if not ourselves. So everything points to kin grounded in “right-relationship”.

Of course, nature is everywhere and not confined to the wilderness, forests and deserts I have been fortunate to experience.

This kinship leads to a sense of wonder about Nature. How is it all so?

Venturing forward, I found we humans were preceded in evolution by Nature and I have visited the tidal zones of creation and scientists studying 560 million year old fossils in a desert, once inundated by an inland sea - evidence of the very first creation, now considered as “World Heritage”.

In my quest to understand more, I discovered the importance of practicing “immersion”, the “observation potential” available everywhere and how Nature awakens all our senses.

There are relationships existing between most life forms, called “symbiosis”.

In fact these relationships exist within ourselves (heart, lungs, blood, 70% water, cognitive abilities) and externally, partnering with nature (energy, food, elements, airborne compounds). Nature also fosters mental health, through our realisation of life more grand than our personal ego.

Taking guests into wild places, I quickly sensed the “impact” nature was having on others and psychologists travelling with me confirmed the restorative influence our journeys were having. I was merely a facilitator of “Nature at work”. Guests would openly describe their feelings of calm and clarity in a dense forest, equally by gazing across a vast desert landscape, toward the curvature of the earth.

I believe, until you seek a true kinship or immersion in Nature, you don’t fully understand the experience. It is that compelling. Scientists confirm, it takes up to 4 days in a pristine natural environment to achieve cognitive calm.

One of my touring practices was to organise guests walking solo through a world heritage rainforest for a brief time and on regathering, it was amazing how they described their sensory experiences so vividly and passionately. I could hardly be more convinced about the “right-relationship” on offer.

In contrast, I undertook the normal career challenges in heady heights of the corporate world, over many years, experiencing and observing the complex, damaging agendas and relationships at play . All in pursuit of short term profit and gain, status, wealth, dominion over “lesser” humans and Nature.

Sadly, even having achieved their gains, stress and anxiety accompanied many contacts to their early passing. Their lives defiled by social conditioning, negative narratives “human constructs” and “creeping normality” all of which I have written about.

I have also observed family and friends walking through a pristine forest observing but not noticing any detail, beauty or significance. Simply, not belonging.

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What struck me there is how you frame nature as kin and how much you emphasize the idea of “immersion”. Which brings me to the practical side.
What are small ways people can begin restoring a healthier relationship with Nature in their daily lives, even if they don’t live near wilderness'?

Firstly, it requires a humble acknowledgement of nature being the one enduring living system you have to rely on. Accepting it may have something to offer.

The next step is to realise your uniqueness, deserving of an individual focus, rather than meeting external expectations or applied artificial influences, haste, incentives and pressures, so abundantly prevalent today.

Accepting next, you are not perfect, but you have a base position from which to build. Setbacks, unexpected or inevitable, are simply another base and opportunity to grow.

Most people revert to the negative narratives, of barriers, access, discomfort, time availability, an inner voice disputing any need, encouraging excuses and denial.

Nature is forever generating life. Every seed wherever it falls, has a chance to harness the resources where it lands and chooses to grow. From little things, big things grow.

Take a lesson from the first flower you see, facing each day determined to be its most amazing self, to attract others pollinating new life.

If you feel humanity has been lost then plant your own seed, entrusting in the moment.

It’s negative to spend a life in separation from or dominion over Nature. What better time to dedicate regular moments in a favourite “sit spot”, for some private deep inner listening. To sense your connection to earth, Nature going about the day, all around you.

You don’t necessarily need tag lines like “mindfulness” or “meditation” or any other human constructed catchphrases, disciplines, motivation or memberships. Just embrace Nature and your senses and enjoy the flow.

Realise, by virtue of your birth, you are in molecular union with the earth and everything around you is already bonded. Consciously belong and don’t push the offerings away.

It takes just a single private and sacred decision of your own, to go with your soul and follow the “river of purpose”, assured the first decision is the only one to make, for this will provision your journey and every next decision will be provisioned like the first.

The “river of purpose” will soon become your unique way of life.

Nature flows through you with every breath, with every mouthful of food and water you take. You are already connected and it beckons you through each window and doorway, if you care to open to the view.

Physically, you can bring the joys of Nature back home, re-wilding your garden, or indoors with your wall hangings, books, music and artful expressions, or sharing “secret conversations” with the pot plants.

Having reset your relationship with nature, you can continue tending to the garden, strolling in the park, observing the textures and colours, the breezes taking leaves and seeds to a new landing, savouring private viewings of the clouds, stars or phases of the moon.

When did you last stop and look up?

As singer John Denver once said, “the future of life depends on our ability to see the sacred where others see only the common”.

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You kept coming back to this “seed” metaphor, a tiny acts of reconnection growing into a whole way of life. How has your own relationship with the natural world shaped the way you understand yourself and your emotions?

Like many people I have experienced health and business setbacks, global financial crises, COVID pandemic etc.

At a young age illness prompted the family transition from the pollution and complexity of a major city to a calming country village environment and connection to farming families.

An athletic career led to life with an eccentric coach, having guided olympic and world record champions to their glory, following his personal physical and mental self-repair in mid life. His teachings around wild animal movement, exhaustive training sessions in the wilds of coastal dunes and headlands, a natural dietary discipline, all became a compelling way of life for me.

Later a friendship and time spent with a legendary Australian bushman instilled the true values of a grounded connection to place. The finest pathway to knowledge and wisdom found in quiet campfire conversation and contemplation. Learning more by listening, deep inner “listening in silence” as the Aborigines practiced.

My wife and I chose to raise a family on an acreage, clear of the city, developing a macadamia orchard and sustaining vegetable gardens, breeding and riding endurance horses in the surrounding ranges.

40 years designing and conducting “outback” and wilderness tours followed, far from corporate boardrooms and institutions, revealing guest reactions to excursions outside their comfort zone.

We followed the footsteps of explorers and pioneers who traversed the wild unknown lands, sensing the spirit, faith and folly of their endeavours. Discovering “salt of the earth” families etching out a dynasty on isolated acreages larger than some nations. The true realities of life.

Inevitably, the desire arose to understand Aboriginal lore and the wisdom of Elders, their patient sharing of a moral compass, cultural knowledge, the basis of their survival over 65,000 years. An Indigenous world view, deeply connected to country and Nature, all species being equal under “Mother Nature”.

This led to formal cultural studies and guiding accreditation in the spiritual heart and National Parks of Australia.

Journeys took me to walking trails along plummeting sea cliffs overlooking the great southern oceans, through dense world heritage rainforests, across harsh but beautiful wild deserts and over delicate alpine moorlands to sit on inspirational mountain peaks. How fortunate and grateful can one be?

Soon it became apparent, so many people, particularly children, were becoming disconnected from nature in the face of technical intrusion and restless social change. My study of Nature pivoted from personal enrichment to a cause framed as “Nature Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv, an American “nature investigating” author and journalist.

Today, while celebrating nature, sharing experiences and wisdom, hunting and embracing awe, I revere the calming, connective influences of Sir David Attenborough and late Dr Jane Goodall, well aware every human is on a conscience journey to a “right-relationship”, best inspired rather than by artificially imposed will.

Hoping more people will take the fork in the trail leading to Nature enlightenment and humanity.

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You’ve spent decades watching people meet themselves out there, outside their comfort zone, in forests, deserts, cliffs, and silence. How does spending time in nature change the way people relate to discomfort, uncertainty, or difficult emotions?

Immersion in nature is a thought provoking and therapeutic experience. We can arrive in the garden, local park or wilderness with an open desire to receive benefit or choose to carry a bundle of negative narratives to justify our tormented mindset.

These negative narratives have been humanly constructed over time, essentially determining how we must perceive, react, control and justify our emotions.

Nature has had no intellectual input into these narratives, indeed it does not recognise title boundaries, ambitions, status or any other human constructs. However, it offers respite.

Intellectually, we can consider discomfort as a growth experience or a means to balancing life values.

Uncertainty can be considered as an adventure or challenge, stimulus or inspiration, an experience lifting us to a higher level.

Difficult emotions carry the potential to reach for solutions, an exploration into character building.

In Nature you can erase these and exercise different narratives.

Nature is an expert in rationalising the personal ego in us all, in fusing people of all status into a common bond or relationship, where labels count for nothing.

Discomfort, uncertainty and difficult emotions are what we carry, not what Nature provides. They are symptoms of modern social conditioning, not grass-roots reality.

There is a whole “attention industry” artificially driven by humans, set to exploit these emotions and restraining narratives for various gains, without prior approval.

The creeping normality of toxic values has essentially defiled our personal uniqueness if not our creative potential, if we allow.

Positive discourse has been hijacked without our permission.

Modern day humans might discount the wisdom of “hunter-gatherer” peoples but their lessons in survival live on.

As the world struggles with conflict and chaos on many fronts, the call for simplification and right-relationships is ringing loud.

Meanwhile Nature is patiently waiting with assistance in a range of social and health issues.

I have witnessed how humans can adapt glowingly to change or challenge living in the flow of Nature’s way. None more so than in an isolated desert property seasonally over-run by droughts, floods, pests and predators.

Despite discomfort, uncertainty, difficulties and extraordinary isolation, a multi-generational family has crafted a billion dollar enterprise from nothing, to serve markets across the world with prime organic produce - all achieved in tune with Nature’s Way.

As John Muir, the revered Scottish-American Naturalist said:

“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows through trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves”

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What stayed with me most from John’s reflections is this idea of right-relationship with nature and nature as kin. His insights reminded me of the movie Avatar and that deep reverence for the sacredness of the natural world.

John, thank you for the generosity of your answers, your stories, and your perspective. It’s been a real pleasure to explore this terrain with you, and I’ve learned a lot along the way.

And to you reading: maybe this is an invitation to step outside. To find a patch of nature. A park, a riverside, or a glorious tree you pass by every day. Anywhere you can observe nature at work, and be reminded of what it feels like to belong to something larger.

In this kind of contemplation, we can find our way back to what truly matters.

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When was the last time you felt truly immersed in nature? How did it feel? Tell us in the comments.