5 Easy Ways to Call on Nature to Ease Anxiety
Step 1: Connect with flowing water to help move anxious energy through your system.
When you’re experiencing high anxiety, it can feel like there’s no way out…
Your mind may convince you that you’re stuck, which can lead to dissociation, turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms, or denying your feelings altogether. Unfortunately, these responses often make things worse. Anxiety has a way of growing louder and finding you no matter where you try to hide.
In this article, I’ll share five easy-to-do steps for using nature to support yourself through a period of high anxiety. The images included were captured with the frequency of these suggestions and can serve as an anchor for each step, or as calming images on their own. These suggestions are designed to be supportive for your nervous system and psyche but are not a substitute for medical or psychiatric advice.
If you’re experiencing a crisis that feels too big to handle on your own, please call or text 988 or dial 911 for immediate support.
What if I can’t get outside?
If going outside isn’t an option right now, that’s okay. You can create a connection to nature through your inner world and still experience similar benefits. Instead of physically interacting with nature, you can tap into its healing energy through the quantum field—the space where all energy healing occurs.
Using imagery is a powerful tool. While being in nature physically provides added sensory input, don’t limit yourself to only practicing these steps under “perfect” conditions. That mindset could unintentionally fuel your anxiety.
To connect with nature in your inner world:
Close your eyes (or with open eyes, soften your focus on a single point).
Picture a relevant natural setting for the steps below (more than one is okay).
Engage all your senses in your visualization. Imagine the sights, smells, sounds, textures, and even the tastes you’d experience if you were physically there.
Sensory input plays a critical role in calming anxiety. The more senses you activate—both in the outer and inner worlds—the more effectively your anxiety will respond.
Tushar the adventure cat reminding us that animal companions can enhance any efforts to reduce anxiety, both in nature and at home.
5 Steps to Reduce Anxiety through Nature
Here are 5 steps for moving through an episode of high anxiety. I recommend doing them in order, but you don’t have to. If you can only do one, skip straight to number 3.
1. Surrender to the anxiety fully.
This means accepting that it’s there without trying to make it go away. Surrendering is essential because resisting anxiety creates a secondary internal battle and makes the anxiety worse. Surrender means you allow anxiety to flow through you—as long as it’s safe to do so. (We never want to exceed our window of tolerance.)
Using flowing water during this phase can help.
Water is not only critical to life as we know it and makes up the majority of our physical body—it’s also incredibly powerful and healing.
Water has tremendous destructive power and rejuvenating power we can capitalize on for moving anxious energy.
Flowing water can move a lot of energy efficiently.
If you can, go to a place in nature with flowing water—a river, stream, or creek is ideal. If that’s not an option, running water at home or a river in your inner world will work too.
If you’re near flowing water, you can enhance this exercise by putting your hands in it, or even stepping into it—if it’s safe and comfortable. Otherwise just observe it. Being in the water is not necessary.
If you’re at home, let running water fall over your hands, take a shower, or simply watch the water flowing from the faucet or hose.
Connect with the water’s essence. Flowing water is life force energy in motion. Emotions are the exact same thing. Anxiety is a lot of energy in motion at one time perpetuated by subconscious or conscious thoughts. You can usually feel anxiety flowing through you much the same way you can feel flowing water as it moves over your skin.
Step 1: Imagine water flowing through your system carrying the anxious energy with it and redistributing it to other nature beings who can use it.
Imagine offering the energy of your anxiety to the water, or merging it with the water. Let the water carry the anxiety energy with it to be redistributed in ways other nature beings can use. Let it teach your system that flowing energy is safe for you to experience. Spend a few minutes observing the flowing water and imagining it flowing through you. Listen for any insights the water may share with you.
2. Let go of the future.
It doesn’t matter if you have a presentation tomorrow or a flight to catch—you must let go of the future and focus on the present to get through this upwelling. If future tripping is what triggered your anxiety, this step is especially important.
A great strategy for coming back to presence is to focus on shades of green. The human eye is attuned to see more nuance in the color green than any other color by far, hundreds of thousands of shades. Scientists have speculated several fascinating reasons for this and it’s worth a deep dive on the internet if you need a healthy distraction from your anxiety.
Ideally, you do do this exercise outside, but it also works with houseplants, looking out a window, or in your inner world.
Choose a shade of green and find every instance of it you can in what you can see outside.
Repeat with another shade of green.
As your brain focuses more, you’ll start to notice even more subtle differences in shades of green you originally thought looked the same.
Do this exercise for a few minutes, noticing shades of green and matching them. Listen for any calming messages or insights nature or your higher self has to offer.
Step 2: Look for matching shades of green to bring your focus to the present moment.
Your mind may not like this exercise and could start telling you all kinds of stories or amplify your physical symptoms. If this happens, say, “Thank you mind. I know you’re trying to help me. I’m focusing on green for a few minutes. Let’s see how this could help me.” This lets your system know you’re shifting your focus with a positive intention, not distracting yourself to resist the anxiety. If you become too elevated, go back to step one with flowing water.
3. Stand barefoot on the earth.
If you can only do one step, make it this one. Stand on the earth—preferably barefoot—and feel the nurturing energy of the ground beneath you. If this isn’t possible, imagine it in your inner world. The key is to deeply connect with the immense healing power naturally radiated by our Mother Earth.
Feel the earth’s energy moving up through the soles of your feet, radiating support and calm throughout your body.
Take deep breaths and imagine the air and earth nourishing the parts of you that feel physical, emotional, and even spiritual pain.
Visualize a circuit of earth’s energy coming in and anxious energy flowing out through your feet to be composted and recycled.
The benefits of grounding yourself physically to the earth are astonishing and numerous. “Earthing” is another great topic for an internet deep dive when you need a helpful distraction.
Do not worry about listening for any insights or wisdom while you are grounding yourself. Anxiety creates excessive mental chatter. Don’t make this step about receiving more things to think about (in fact don’t do that with any of the steps!). Allow this to be about receiving healing directly from our earth mother and nothing more. If an insight needs to surface, it will.
Step 3: Put your feet directly on the earth and feel her support radiate throughout your body.
4. Hug or sit with a tree.
Trees have incredible healing power and wisdom. I cannot overemphasize the value of being with trees, especially when you’re feeling anxious. They hold the energy of connection, interdependence, community, love, and generational healing. Trees are wonderful, nurturing companions in times of struggle. A few benefits you’ll immediately experience by sitting with a tree include:
Calming your nervous system via coregulation with the tree’s high-vibe energy
Feeling as if a weight has been lifted
Increasing your body’s vibrational frequency
Quieting your mind
Trees are the ultimate healers in the natural world. They love providing support and offer their full, gentle presence freely to all beings. There is much more to the healing power of trees beyond the scope of this article, a topic for another day.
Step 4: Allow the healing power of trees to support you through coregulation.
5. Change your perspective.
Anxiety thrives on fixed perspectives. Shifting your viewpoint—even slightly—can interrupt the loop of anxious thoughts. Call on a nature being to help you do this in your inner world, or physically go somewhere to attain a different perspective in nature. Examples include:
Call on the energy of a hawk to help you see your issues from a higher perspective. Imagine soaring above your anxiety and using your keen sight to spot the root cause.
Envision the world from the perspective of an ant.
Climb, hike, or drive to the top of a mountain or big hill to change your vantage point.
Changing your perspective requires your brain to physically utilize a different neural pathway than the one creating conditions for anxiety. For this reason, you cannot simultaneously change your perspective and experience anxiety the same way. Your physical symptoms may not change right away because the body needs time to metabolize the stress hormones (up to 60 minutes), but the symptoms will eventually change.
Taking yourself out of the cognitive loop that perpetuates anxiety stops your body from pumping more stress hormones and gives your nervous system time to regulate. From this calmer state, you can begin to explore the underlying factors contributing to your anxiety. You can’t do this effectively from an anxious state because energy is being diverted away from the parts of your brain that problem-solve. Changing your perspective both soothes your nervous system and creates the space necessary for clearer thinking. If the perspective you’ve been holding is contributing to your anxiety, it’s vital to find a new one.
Step 5: Change your perspective by hiking or driving somewhere to get a different view.
I recommend journaling after experiencing even a momentary shift in perspective. Just let the words flow. Nothing needs to make sense. Clarity will come as a result of the process, not necessarily during it. You may need to journal several times before noticing patterns or uncovering messages from your subconscious.
It can also be helpful to reconnect with the nature being that initially helped shift your perspective or to call on another one for a fresh viewpoint. Any nature being—whether it’s a rock, mountain, animal, plant, or tree—can offer a different perspective. If possible, journal each time you explore a new perspective to deepen the insights you gain.
How Nature Can Be Your Bridge When it’s Hard to Ask for Help
Eventually, we want to be able to reach for support from a trusted human. When experiencing anxiety, it’s natural to feel tempted to isolate or believe no one will understand what you’re going through—or worse, that you’ll be a burden. This is absolutely not true. People genuinely want to help and support you. Even if you feel broken or undeserving, remember that most people love to help others. It makes them feel a sense of value, worth, and wholeness to support others. You can even think of reaching out as giving someone else the opportunity to offer kindness and feel useful.
As humans we are relational beings. We depend on each other to survive and thrive. Our modern society propgates the idea that we need to be independent and self-reliant 100% of the time, but that goes against our biology. We’re wired to co-regulate, feel soothed by one another, and heal within relationships. Simply put, we need each other.
That said, reaching out to others can feel terrifying if you’ve experienced relational wounds. Expecting someone who feels unsafe in relationships to reach out during a crisis isn’t realistic or fair. This is where nature can step in as a vital bridge. If connecting with another person feels overwhelming, step outside. Sit with a tree, gaze at the night sky, or spend time with your favorite houseplant or pet.
Whatever you do, don’t try to face this alone. Nature offers abundant sources of connection and healing—whether it’s trees, rivers, the ocean, or the cosmos.
When you feel ready and safe, reaching out to another person can be an essential step forward. If that feels too big right now, consider starting with smaller steps: spending time in nature, reading personal growth books, working with a therapist, or connecting with an energy medicine practitioner or healer.
Be kind to yourself. If you’ve been hurt in relationships, it’s natural for reaching out to feel risky. Relational healing takes time, but it can be transformative when the time is right. For now, focus on what feels manageable and supportive.
I’m Here for You
If you’re ready to explore the root causes of your anxiety or begin relational healing work, I’m here to support you. I’ve been through high anxiety many times and have helped myself and others find healing, insight, personal growth, and spiritual connection. If you’re curious about how we might work together, please feel free to reach out.
Remember, you’re not alone in this journey. Nature is always here to support you, offering its wisdom and love. Lean on the natural world, and let it remind you of your worth, your value, and the deep support that surrounds you.
