Nature

Consciousness in Motion: Walking with Awareness
Anything we do with awareness is a meditative experience so, if we live our lives with awareness, our whole life becomes a meditation. A walking meditation allows us to be fully in the present moment.
Three Ways to Move the Body and Calm the Mind
When we think about health for the physical body, we often think about aerobic movement. It can be easy to forget that slow, mindful movement also provides benefits. Mindful walks outside, with and without shoes, energize and support the physical body and the mind. There are plenty of ways to enjoy this practice, and here are three.Walking MeditationJust as in...
5 Easy Meditation Techniques to Practice at Work
The workplace can be a source of anxiety, stress, and burnout. While there is no way to totally eliminate stress from the workplace, more businesses are recognizing the importance of holistic, evidence-based practices to improve the health and wellness of employees. This is due in part to research showing the many benefits of lower-stress employees, including improved work performance. Companies...
6 Pathways to Remove Negative Energy from Your Mind and Body
Learn six methods of energy cleansing from your mind and body from Chopra. Further, your journey of well-being cleanse negative energy.
A Beginner’s Guide to Walking Meditation
We all want to feel grounded and content. Regardless of how much you have to be grateful for, you can feel like something’s missing—and anxiety, unhappiness, restlessness, and longing for something more sets in. It doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful; it means you’re human.Neuroscience and social science research shows that most people possess something called optimistic bias or the tendency to...
A Summer Meditation to Help You Slow Down
Summertime conjures up images of ice cream cones, neighborhood swimming pools, family vacations, and beach bonfires. The rhythm of longer, warmer days makes summer the favorite season for many. Difficult decisions like Pool or beach? Strawberry or coconut popsicle? BBQ or picnic? may be at the forefront of your mind.While the summer may be filled with all kinds of exciting...
A Short and Easy Meditation Perfect for Summertime
Summer is here and that means vacation time for many of us. There are stirrings of excitement and anticipation as plans are made for outdoor activities, backyard barbeques, travel, or even just taking it easy. While this is fun, it can be easy to get swept up in the flurry of activities and begin to feel a bit stressed or...
Awaken to Spring: 3 Steps to Use the Energy of the Season in Your Meditations
The qualities you associate with spring center on renewal. Just as nature renews itself with the awakening of spring, so can you. Renewal is a quality of consciousness that permeates body, mind, and spirit. In the body, renewal involves feeling fresh, energetic, and youthful. In the mind, renewal is about new creative possibilities. In spirit, renewal is about living from...
3 Unusual Places to Meditate This Summer
Author Judy Blume stated in a recent interview, “You can live a whole lifetime in one summer.” What a great quote. Summer is a season that makes you come alive like no other. Perhaps it’s the long hot, sunny days and the feeling of being a little more carefree that seem to brighten everyone’s mood. Summer makes you more optimistic...
How to Practice Qi Gong’s Forest Meditation
There’s something unmistakably restorative about walking through a forest. It can be a time of relaxation, reflection, and reconnection with your inner Self. While it might be impossible to regularly escape into nature, you can have a similar experience in the comfort of your own home through meditation.Qi Gong—an ancient Chinese practice—offers a visualization meditation that walks you through a...
6 Non-Traditional Places to Meditate
There is power that comes with using meditation in unexpected places. Your meditation practice does not need to be confined to your bedroom or some tranquil space in your home. Your practice is portable and you can take it virtually anywhere in the world. Here are six examples of places you can meditate that you may not have thought of:...
How to Incorporate the 5 Elements into Meditation Practice
Exploring the 5 elements through meditation encourages you to expand your awareness and relationship with all of nature. Try these mediation practices.
7 Reasons to Spend Mindful Time in Nature
Humans are designed to be outdoors. Your brain is wired to respond to the smells, sights, and sensations you receive outside. When you spend daily time outside it makes you healthier and happier. Paying attention to your environment in a focused and mindful way while you are spending time on the beach or in the woods feels great. Here are...
Looking at Abundance Through the Lens of Ayurveda
Ayurveda looks at a human being from the lens of abundance. In Ayurveda, perfect health is not simply an absence of disease but rather an abundance of vitality.Swastha Vritti means perfect health. It is the state in which the body, mind, soul, and senses are in a blissful equilibrium.In the era of video meetings and endless hours of screen time,...
Three Ayurvedic Tools to Help You Reduce Stress
Stress is an inevitable part of life. The impact of stress on human health, especially in today’s world of overstimulation, is alarming. April has been observed as Stress Awareness Month since 1992 to raise awareness about this condition that lies at the root of most diseases.Stress Awareness Month is a national effort designed to create awareness about the detrimental effects...
5 Ways to Embrace the Great Outdoors This Autumn
As the fun, sun, and play of summer winds down, it can be easy to fall into the slump of back to school—and back to the couch. But autumn promises cooler temps and plenty of opportunities to embrace the great outdoors. Did your summer include out-of-doors adventures that you wrote postcards about? Did you spend some days swimming in the...
5 Ayurveda-Inspired Springtime Activities
Finding harmony and inspiration is a lifelong process, and the ancient medical system of Ayurveda can provide guidance and tips along the way, especially as the season changes.According to Ayurvedic wisdom, as the snow is melting and the air is warming, transitioning from winter to spring, you’re moving out of Vata season and aligning with Kapha elements. As the days...
Gardening RX: How to Grow 5 Ayurvedic Herbs
Growing a mini-Ayurvedic pharmacy at home isn’t as hard as you might think—and the benefits are huge. Imagine being able to reach into your own garden, where you know exactly how plants have been grown, and picking medicine for you and your family’s well-being. There is nothing more natural; and it can be a fulfilling way to add to your...
How to Enjoy Summer with a Balance of Playfulness and Purposeful Intention
Part of what makes summer unique is the sunlight that shines brightly into the evening. This time of year can remind us that life always is in flux, as the days will start to get shorter after the summer solstice. While we tend to associate summer with longer days, the start of summer marks the slow descent into the darker...
5 Simple Ways to Add Play to Your Day and Spark Creativity
Blank computer screen in front of me, a canvas waiting for the whoosh of ideas in my brain to come together and flow into my fingers, forming words that I tap-tap-tap on the keyboard. Something from nothing. Project complete.As a writer this is my creative process. On my best days, the ideas are many, and come freely. I type away,...
Five Reasons to Attend a Chopra Wellness Retreat
We live in a fast-paced world. Take a break and rejuvenate with our mindfulness and wellness retreats in beautiful locations.
Create a Healthier, More Vibrant Body Beginning Today
Your body is designed to be an energized, vibrant, self-healing vehicle well into your centenarian years. Yet, in our modern lifestyles, the repair mechanisms which promote longevity and health can easily become compromised. The following practices will reinvigorate your body and slow the aging process by increasing mitochondrial density, lengthening telomeres, and inducing cellular repair processes.Reduce or Eliminate SugarModerate to...
Grounding in the Garden: How Planting Seeds Promotes Healing
Have you ever taken a walk through a garden and felt an immediate sense of relief? Spending time in nature is believed to have profound mental health benefits and manmade gardens are no different. Whether it’s a rose garden, herb garden, or vegetable garden, each can bring about feelings of peace and wonder — and have a grounding energy, too.Walking...
Four Mindful Practices to Lighten Dark Winter Days
Do you love the long nights of winter, or do you dread the early sunsets? Our mindset has quite a lot to do with how much we enjoy this time of year, and trading resistance for gratitude can change everything about how we experience it. It is colder, darker, and wetter in winter, and that can be seen as a...
Tu Cerebro en la Naturaleza: Encontrar la Armonía cuando los "Momentos Humanos" son Escasos
No es sólo un mito. Estar afuera es realmente bueno para ti. Por eso, pasar tiempo en la naturaleza puede aumentar tu bienestar.Si hay algo seguro, es que la naturaleza es buena para nosotros. No sólo sirve como un elixir calmante para el cuerpo, sino que también ofrece poderosos efectos terapéuticos en el cerebro. Es imprescindible para la salud física...
Your Brain on Nature: Finding Harmony When 'Human Moments' Are Sparse
It’s not just a myth. Being outside is really good for you. Here’s why spending time in nature can boost your well-being.If there’s one thing for sure, it’s that nature is good for us. It not only serves as a calming elixir to the body, but it also offers powerful therapeutic effects on the brain. It’s a must-have for physical...
8 Healthy Ways to Lose Weight in the New Year
If you are like many people, you want to start off the new year with clear goals for yourself. While there are many types of goals to consider as you begin a brand-new year, weight loss is one that many people choose to focus on.There are many healthy ways to lose weight in the New Year. Some of them are...
Grounding the Human Body: The Healing Benefits of Earthing
Learn how grounding yourself to the Earth's electrical energy can have substantial healing benefits from the experts at Chopra.
Mind-Body Benefits of Houseplants: 5 Plants That Don’t Require a Green Thumb
Even the most devoted city dwellers can find tranquility in a sunset, stand awestruck at the base of a snowcapped mountain range, and breathe a little deeper in the presence of gentle ocean waves.Modern life leads many people to spend their days inside—looking at computer screens behind concrete walls. Americans spend so much time as indoor animals (up to 90...
How to Practice Earthing with Walking Meditation
Have you ever noticed how grounded you feel after strolling barefoot along the beach? Or how invigorated you feel after playing with your kids in the grass?Well, it’s not just the respite from your daily life contributing to that positive feeling. New research suggests that the body’s direct contact with the Earth’s negative electric charge actually influences the electric charge...
The Importance of Vitamin D
Are you getting enough vitamin D? According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, two thirds of the U.S. population was deficient in vitamin D from 2001 to 2006. And this is a vitamin you don’t want to be deficient in: Vitamin D not only helps keep your bones strong, it also plays a role in the...
10 Ways to Harvest the Summer
The warmth of the summer sun can have a revitalizing effect on you, particularly after a long winter and rainy spring season. With the summer season just days away, you might already be daydreaming about what you want to do.Perhaps a vacation or a summer cookout is on your list. There are many more ways to take advantage of what...
5 Ways Gardening Strengthens Your Mind-Body Connection
If you’re getting into the swing of things this season, chances are you may be interested in doing a little gardening. You may be aware of the nutritional benefits of gardening your own food; however, you may want to consider the positive effects that gardening can have on your consciousness.Just about all nature experiences can be beneficial to your spirit....
5 Reasons to Spend More Time Outside
During your childhood, the comforting embrace of the great outdoors may have been the only place you wanted to be. Maybe you couldn’t wait to wake up on a weekend morning or get home from school so you could flee from the indoors and explore that ditch behind your house, toss a ball in the park, or watch caterpillars inch...
7 Outdoor Activities that Boost Your Prana
The changing of the seasons is often a tricky time for health. On one hand, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you may be excited with the end of winter and happy to see the budding flowers of spring. On the other hand, the rapid changes in weather and seasonal allergies can leave you feeling a bit out of...
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Gardening
By now you have surely heard the symphony of lawnmowers, weed eaters, bees, and children playing that signify springtime is upon us. This means it’s time to get back down in the dirt and co-create some of nature's goodness. This participation with Mother Earth can be very rewarding for not only our bodies but also for our consciousness. The wisdom...
Create an Outdoor Sanctuary in Your Own Backyard
From relaxing in the hammock to barbecuing or gardening, your yard becomes a sanctuary in summer. Whether you work or play outdoors, your surroundings can help foster your well-being beyond the benefits of fresh air. This summer, turn your outdoor space into an oasis of health for you and your family. The key is to balance the five elements—air, water,...
Healing Plants to Add to Your Garden
Gardening is one of the most meditative and relaxing practices. And it can provide great healing, too. This is especially true when it comes to medicinal plants and herbs, which can provide a range of benefits, including supporting the immune system, decreasing stress and anxiety, and so much more.
Fall Garden Produce to Plant This Season for Mind-Body Health Benefits
We often associate gardening with spring but, you can reap the benefits of growing your own produce in the fall, too. This is both true for your plate and for your mental health, as there are mind-body perks to sinking your fingers into the soil and planting seeds from scratch.Up ahead, we take a closer look at why planting a...
5 Vegan and Gluten-Free Cooling Summer Recipes
Ayurvedic healing rests on the simple, yet profound principle that like increases like and opposites decrease each other (or, as Hippocrates wisely put it, “opposites are the cure for opposites”). So to find balance during the hot summer (Pitta) days, you may counteract the warm weather by including more of what Ayurveda considers “cooling” foods, while limiting or avoiding “heating”...
Eating for the Environment: The 3 R’s
You can hardly watch the news without being reminded of global warming. Research provided by NASA has found that the atmospheric temperature has risen at an unprecedented rate since 1950; this increase is extremely likely to have been caused by human activities.How? Carbon, the most basic building block of human life, traps heat. Pollution created on Earth through biological emissions,...
10 Cost-Saving Strategies for Buying Organic
Organic foods are a smart priority for personal and environmental health. However, buying organic food can be an expensive endeavor. Luckily, there are budget-friendly strategies you can try to help you save money.The term “organic” refers to the way agricultural items are grown and processed. In the United States, certified organic crops must be grown without using any of the...
Summertime Gardening: How to Balance the Heat
Summer is in full swing, and that means you’ll experience high temperatures just about anywhere you go. While summer is a great time for being active outdoors, the natural occurrence of increased heat and light have the effect of raising the Pitta quality in your life. There are many benefits to this (drive, activity, spontaneity), but for those who are...
5 Ways to Make Your Picnic Greener—and Healthier
Picnics were once green affairs—long before words like eco-friendly were part of the everyday vernacular. Food was packed up in crocks along with silverware, dishes and glassware, and then carted—via horse and carriage—to a nearby park or rural area. In the generations since the late 1700s, when French parks became public and picnicking became a popular pastime, picnicking has become...
The Surprising Reason for Adding Playfulness to Your Yoga Practice
From the ancient Yoga Sutras by Patañjali, the sutra sthira sukham asanam can be translated into English as “may the posture be steady and full of ease (or joy).” For anyone new to yoga, it might seem obvious to aim for steadiness and strength. Therefore, it is the prominence of sukham — signifying the eternal sense of joy, bliss, or...
6 Ways to Connect to the Moon During Your Spiritual Practice
Learn how to spiritually connect to the moon from the experts from Chopra. This guide will give you examples and benefits of spiritually connecting to the moon.
Spring Equinox: 5 Rituals for a Fresh Start
The Spring, or Vernal Equinox, occurs in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20 this year (2017). Marking the end of winter, the equinox is indicated by the equal length of day and night all over the world. Trees and plants begin new cycles of growth. Butterflies emerge. Birds remember their songs. People leave scarves and winter coats at home in...
6 Restorative Yoga Poses for Hikers
All hikers know that the trail offers its fair share of rewards—beautiful vistas, serene lakes, and a sense of accomplishment. But hiking also has its challenges—uneven rocky terrain, altitude, and possibly a nagging sense of uncertainty. Adding a yoga practice before, after, or during your hiking adventure can be beneficial to both your mental and physical health, allowing you to...
5 Steps to Take Your Yoga Mat Outside for Outdoor Play
Summer is here, bringing with it long, warm days and an outdoor environment bursting with birds, bees, plants, and trees. Take advantage of the season and trade in an hour at your local studio for a rejuvenating outdoor yoga session. It’s an activity that anyone can do, not to mention, that it’s a lot cheaper than paying for a class.What...
How Nature Helps Solve Any Crisis
If you were asked to name a major crisis facing humanity right now, most people would include the environment at the top or near the top of the list. Thinking about climate change, how do you feel personally? The range of responses for most people is dominated by anxiety, a fear that Nature is approaching a disaster that seems inevitable....
Fall in Love with Nature
Although much of the time we view ourselves as separate from nature and our surroundings, we are all actually part of the same wholeness. Everything you do affects the nature around you and everything that happens in nature influences you.
Waking Up from the Dream: 10 Tools to Experience Your Non-Local Self
"I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?" - ZhuangziRecently, a good friend and I were discussing the philosophy of one of our favorite films, The Matrix. For those who...
The Value of Starting Over in the New Year
Starting over can be one of the greatest things you do, but it isn’t easy, which means it’s also one of the hardest things to do. Depending on the circumstances, it can require quite a bit of strength and courage to take that initial leap of faith. It doesn’t help that the idea of starting over is often associated with...
4 Keys to Following Through on Your New Year’s Intentions
It’s common to set goals and resolutions at the start of a new year. It is also common to throw in the towel soon after you have begun. If you’re tired of being part of a statistical trend or are interested in reworking your approach to the new year, there are some tried-and-true methods for making your well-intentioned goals last...
7 Sustainable Travel Tips for Your Next Vacation
Are you on a solo holiday for a few days? Are you finally taking that much-needed family vacation? Do your summer vacation plans include travel? Whether your next vacation is a big trip, a weekend getaway, or just one day off, do your best to make it a sustainable vacation.What Is Sustainability?When you think of “sustainability”, you may be wondering...
Break Out of a Rut with These 7 Tips for Creativity
“Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. The work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you.” –Elizabeth Gilbert,...
Embody Summer: 10 Ways to Let It All Hang Out
Summer’s here and it’s the time of year when you’re being called to enjoy the warmth and fun of the season. As a child, you may have waited all year for school to let out just so that you could swim in the lake with your friends, have outdoor parties, and lose ourselves in three months of fun. As an...
6 Tips to Take Your Spiritual Practice Outside
Do you have a spiritual practice? What does it look like? Are there rituals and traditions? Is it a solo endeavor or a group practice? Whether your sadhana, a spiritual exercise that allows you to feel closer to your highest self, looks like Sundays at mass, candlelight yoga, daily prayer, or writing letters of gratitude, moving your routines outside can...
Nature Therapy: How Nature Can Help Heal and Expand Your Awareness
Human beings have become an indoor species. Starting with the domestication of fire, moving to the Industrial Revolution, and to modern day, we increasingly spend the majority of our lives indoors. According to a study, the average American spends 93 percent of the time in enclosed buildings and vehicles. This leaves only seven percent of time spent outside!This is a...
Into the Wild: 6 Steps to Stay Safe on Your Outdoor Adventure
The days are longer and lighter, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to play outside! Whether you grew up camping every summer or you’re a nature newbie, everyone can use more Vitamin N these days (that’s N for Nature!).There’s nothing quite like the power and joy of the natural world, whether it’s beach, forest, lake, or desert....
Reap What You Sow: 4 Reasons to Plant a Garden
Planting and tending a garden is great to improve your home’s aesthetic, but in addition to being good for property value, planting a garden is also good for you as a person. Finding a single activity that involves exercise, mindfulness, delicious food, and fun, and that also happens right in your own backyard, is hard to find.Gardening is a great...
How to Welcome Winter with Open Arms
Winter can be depressing, but it doesn't have to be. Welcoming winter with open arms becomes a little easier when you use particular tools to stay warm, focused, and healthy. In general, winter is nature’s way of telling you it’s a time to slow down and enjoy your personal and family time. But we are human and often stubborn, not...
5 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint with Gardening
Whether you are an avid gardener, a rookie gardener, or are tinkering with a container garden on your patio—you have a number of opportunities to make a difference in your personal health and the health of the planet. We’re living in a time when humans are pumping extraordinary amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the...
How Nature Can Help You to Evolve
One of the major trends in society today is that millions of people are choosing to improve their inner lives through meditation, Yoga, contemplative practices, and more positive lifestyle choices that reduce stress and chronic illness. This individual effort feels personal, of course, but all evolution happens in the surroundings of Nature. Evolution is a natural force. We see it...
Adult Playtime: 6 Ways to Bring More Fun into Your Day
When did you last escape your responsibilities—work, bills, groceries—to play and goof around like you did as a child? Adult playtime may be more important than you realize. In addition to providing an opportunity to have fun, playtime has a host of physiological and psychological benefits, including: Healthier immune system Improved sense of connectedness Increased empathy Boosted creativity Reduced stress...
3 Techniques to Help You Embrace Change
People tend to be wary of change. We try to keep our daily routines consistent and predictable. A last-minute visitor or unexpected dinner plans can put us into a panic. Bigger changes such as a sudden or even planned change in jobs or move can send us into a tailspin. But they don’t have to.Certain personality types accept change more...