How Nature Heals Trauma

Nature is a potent healer. Turning to nature for healing is a free way to pour into yourself daily. As humans, we need to be in nature to be balanced. And when you’re recovering from trauma, being out in nature during the day is even more important.

What’s behind the healing benefits of being outdoors in nature for your trauma recovery? It’s the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is the official name for what you might call the rhythm of life or the 24-hour cycle of human functioning. And it is this cycle that is disrupted by trauma, just like your innate sense of time is.

What is the circadian rhythm?

The circadian rhythm functions in alignment with the light transmission through your eyes and is closely connected to the daily rhythms in nature – the rising sun and the setting sun marking the beginning and the ending of the day, providing structure. The rhythm is connected with hormone and neurotransmitter release. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter known to contribute to well-being and happiness and melatonin is the neurotransmitter essential for good and regenerative sleep at night. While daylight exposure is required for both melatonin and serotonin production, an exposure to bright light during the evening or at night, as well as exposure to Electromagnetic Fields of a range of 60hz decrease melatonin levels and impact the quality of sleep, as well as your wakefulness and your mood.

Effects of trauma on the circadian rhythm

Both melatonin and serotonin production are compromised, when trauma is not healed. Low serotonin levels may make you hyperactive, depressed, or have difficulties to cope socially. Low melatonin levels go hand in hand with insomnia or difficulties sleeping.

How to realign your circadian rhythm and let nature heal you

To realign your inner clock to nature’s cycle, tune into the daily rhythm of light. Make an effort to expose yourself to daylight during the day (it does not matter, if it’s cloudy or not) and seek out warm, dimmed light during the evening and night. Steps as simple as this can reestablish the healthy functioning of the circadian rhythm and with it, balance the production of your neurotransmitters melatonin and serotonin.

Nature heals a part that is essential for recovery this way, because raising serotonin levels enables the desensitization of the amygdala and as a result helps you become less reactive on the path of recovery. Studies have confirmed that raising serotonin levels enables you to be less reactive, which anti-depressants such as prozac and other SSRIs drugs aim to do. From my personal point of view, taking drugs for that purpose remains to be a disempowering, short-sighted or temporary solution though, because it does not actually help you deal with the underlying issue that caused your trauma in the first place – they neither integrate the experience, nor do they teach you self-regulation. Maybe they can serve you as a short-term support. (Disclaimer: Not medical advice! If you consider taking anti-depressants, discuss this with your medical doctor or health care provider.) However, another downside of these drugs is that they interfere with your innate curiosity, playfulness and motivation. Why not turn to nature first instead?

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Resources

Korn, Leslie E., Rhythms of Recovery: Trauma, Nature, and the Body (New York: Routledge, 2013)