When We Forget We Are Nature: The Lost Ecological Self and the Crisis Within

From Right Relationship to the Ecological Self

In a recent blog, How Forest School Principles Open the Doorway to Indigenous Communal Living and Learning, I explored the idea of “right relationship”—a principle rooted in many Indigenous traditions, where children are seen not as empty vessels to be filled, but as knowledge keepers already deeply connected to land, spirit, and ancestry. Their development is measured not by external achievements, but by their ability to remain in right relationship: with others, with the Earth, and with themselves.

Sitting out in the woods recently, contemplating this idea of right relationship, another thought surfaced: the notion of the ecological self. What happens when our right to live as ecological selves is denied? How might this denial contribute to the mental health crises, identity fragmentation, and ecological breakdown we now face? This blog is a natural follow-up to my earlier reflections, exploring the roots of the ecological self, the consequences of its loss, and how we might begin to reclaim it.

What Is the Ecological Self?

The concept of the ecological self was first articulated by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess as part of his deep ecology philosophy. Naess argued that when we expand our sense of self beyond the human ego to include the wider living world, we begin to recognise that “we do not exist apart from nature, we are nature.” (Naess, 1989).

This idea resonates strongly with many indigenous cultures, which have long held that humans are inseparable from the land, rivers, forests, and skies. For instance, Māori cosmology in Aotearoa New Zealand describes whakapapa—the genealogical ties that connect people, plants, animals, and ancestors (Royal, 2003). Native American worldviews often speak of humans as “relatives among relatives” within an extended web of life (Cajete, 2000).

Ecological thinkers have also advanced this view. James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis sees the Earth as a living, self-regulating organism (Lovelock, 1979). Satish Kumar speaks of the human–nature relationship as a “sacred trust” that nourishes both our inner world and our external ecosystems (Kumar, 2002). To live in tune with the ecological self is to reclaim the birthright of knowing that our flourishing is grounded in the health of the ecosystems that sustain us.

The Decline of Mental Health, Identity, and Ecological Disconnection

In our modern, industrialised societies, however, this deep connection to nature has been eroded, with serious consequences. Global mental health trends are alarming:

• The World Health Organization (WHO, 2022) identifies depression as the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting over 280 million people.

• Anxiety disorders affect approximately 301 million people globally (WHO, 2022).

• In the UK, roughly one in six adults experiences symptoms of common mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety in a given week (Mental Health Foundation, 2023).

  
  

At the same time, loneliness, identity crises, and existential disconnection are on the rise. A 2020 Cigna survey reported that 61% of Americans feel lonely—an increase over previous years—while younger generations, including Gen Z, are reporting particularly high levels of disconnection.

Are These Crises Linked to the Severing of the Ecological Self?

Emerging research suggests this may indeed be the case. Studies have shown that nature connectedness—a felt, emotional and cognitive bond with the natural world—is strongly correlated with better psychological wellbeing, lower anxiety, and a deeper sense of meaning (Mayer et al., 2009; Nisbet et al., 2011). When people are alienated from nature, they are more prone to existential disconnection, depression, and a fragmented sense of identity.

When individuals become unwell, they often seek out therapists, counsellors, or medical professionals—and in many cases, that help is both necessary and transformative. But there is a notable blind spot: the focus of therapeutic inquiry typically centres on relationships with other people—partners, family members, friends—and internal states. Rarely are people asked: What is your relationship with the Earth? How do you relate to the soil, the sky, the rivers, the trees, or the birds outside your window?

Yet our relationship with the natural world is just as vital as our relationships with people. It forms the foundation for all the rest. Without acknowledging this ecological dimension, therapy can become a form of symptom management that overlooks a more fundamental disconnection—the loss of the ecological self.

This insight is central to ecopsychology, a field developed by thinkers such as Theodore Roszak, who famously argued that psychology must “reclaim its roots in the Earth” (Roszak, 1992). Joanna Macy, in her work on the “Great Turning,” argues that the psychological and ecological crises of our time are intertwined, and that meaningful healing requires a reawakening of our emotional and spiritual ties to the living world (Macy & Brown, 2014). These authors highlight that personal healing and planetary healing are not separate projects—they are mutually constitutive.

Encouragingly, new therapeutic models are beginning to ask the very questions traditional therapy has neglected. Eco-therapy integrates nature into the healing process, whether through outdoor counselling, gardening, or wilderness retreats (Jordan & Hinds, 2016). The Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku—or forest bathing—has been shown to reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure, and boost immune function (Park et al., 2010). Across Europe and North America, practitioners are developing forms of nature-based psychotherapy that explicitly explore clients’ relationship with the more-than-human world (Buzzell & Chalquist, 2009). These approaches point to a growing recognition: true wellbeing cannot be separated from our ecological belonging.

Still, the broader system continues to work against ecological identification. Capitalism and materialism encourage an identity based on consumption, positioning people as buyers and users rather than as members of ecosystems. Companies often promote a sense of lack or deficiency to drive purchase, steering us away from a sense of ecological belonging and self-sufficiency. The result is a world in which people identify with brands, possessions, and lifestyles—rather than with the living Earth—deepening both ecological destruction and psychological alienation (Kasser, 2002).

Right Relationship: A Pathway to Reconnection- a 'how to':

In my earlier blog, I described how many Indigenous traditions hold that children are knowledge keepers whose primary task is to remain in right relationship—with others, with the Earth, and with themselves. This insight offers a vital key to addressing both ecological and psychological crises. Our work is not simply to provide children with knowledge or consumer opportunities, but to nurture their ability to remain in that delicate balance of relationship. When this web is intact, the ecological self thrives. When it is broken, disconnection and illness emerge.

The Nature Connection Handbook and Nature Connected Communities Handbook

Recent work from the University of Derby helps us see practical ways forward. Two handbooks—the Nature Connection Handbook and the Nature Connected Communities Handbook—stand out as powerful resources for individuals, families, community leaders, and educators committed to helping people reconnect with nature.

• The Nature Connection Handbook is a practical guide for deepening people’s connection with nature. It includes frameworks, evidence-based strategies, and activity ideas to help integrate noticing, appreciating, and caring for nature into daily life.

  
  

• The Nature Connected Communities Handbook (Butler & Richardson, 2025) provides tools and strategies to embed nature connection into community life, from neighbourhood events to collective rituals and urban design.

  
  

Both handbooks emphasise that senses, emotion, meaning, compassion, and beauty—the five pathways to nature connection—can be intentionally woven into practice. They also resonate deeply with the Indigenous idea of “right relationship”: when communities foster connection to nature, they cultivate healthier relationships with each other and with the Earth.

Emerging Education Models: The Nature-Connected Curriculum

Education is one of the most powerful tools we have for restoring right relationship. Earlier this year, I released a Nature-Connected Curriculum, designed to weave ecological connection into the heart of learning. Unlike traditional curricula that treat the environment as a discrete subject, this curriculum integrates ecological belonging across disciplines. Every lesson becomes an opportunity to ask: How does this connect us to the Earth? How does this learning help us remain in right relationship?

By building ecological literacy, sensory engagement, and creative reflection into everyday learning, the Nature-Connected Curriculum equips children not just with knowledge, but with an identity rooted in interdependence. In this way, it supports the very outcome many Indigenous traditions prize most: raising children who know how to live in right relationship with others, with the Earth, and with themselves.

Reconnecting with the Ecological Self: Pathways and Practices

If disconnection is at the root of the problem, then reconnection must be at the heart of the solution. Psychologist Miles Richardson and colleagues have developed the Five Pathways to Nature Connection (Richardson et al., 2020), evidence-based practices which I have written about on many occasions and placed central to my work. These pathways are all tools that work towards restoring the ecological self:

1. Senses – Direct sensory experiences with nature: walking barefoot on grass, listening to birdsong, swimming in rivers.

2. Emotion – Identifying our emotions when nature to move us: wonder at a sunrise, grief for a fallen tree, joy at the first blossom of spring.

3. Meaning – Finding symbols, metaphors, and lessons in the living world through poetry, story, art and reflection: seeing resilience in an oak tree or cycles of renewal in the seasons.

4. Compassion – Extending care to non-human life: planting trees, protecting pollinators, reducing waste, restoring habitats.

5. Beauty – Attuning to the aesthetic richness of nature: noticing colours, forms, textures, patterns, and the subtle beauty of natural processes.

These pathways have been developed in recent times but evidence of them throughout indigenous cultures can be found alongside other, creative and communal practices which offer fertile ground for reclaiming the ecological self:

• Art and poetry can reawaken our imagination and help us perceive the sacred in ordinary ecological encounters—through drawing, writing, painting, and sculpture that reflect our relationship with the living world.

• Storytelling and myth carry ancestral ecological wisdom, weaving narratives that remind us of our place in the larger community of life and help us bring meaning to our everyday encounters with the natural world.

• Foraging, crafting, and cooking foster embodied, reciprocal relationships with landscapes—making us aware of ecological cycles, seasonal rhythms, and the gifts that the land provides.

• Community rituals and eco-celebrations—from neighborhood garden gatherings to seasonal festivals—can renew a shared sense of belonging and interdependence, helping families and communities to re-enchant their relationship with nature.

• Outdoor learning and nature-focused educational programs, particularly those shaped by nature-connected curriculums, enable children to grow up with ecological wisdom, a sense of place, and a felt sense of being part of something bigger.

When families, schools, and communities embed such practices into daily life, children can grow up rooted in a living sense of interdependence rather than alienation. Adults, too, can rediscover relational identity, purpose, and emotional resilience. The Nature Connection Handbook and Nature Connected Communities Handbook provide very helpful frameworks, prompts, and activity ideas for bringing these practices alive.

The ecological self is not a luxury, an abstract theory, or a philosophical curiosity—it is a birthright of us all. Yet the health crises of our age—mental illness, loneliness, identity fragmentation, and ecological destruction—are warnings about what happens when that birthright is denied.

If capitalism and materialism have sought to define us as consumers, then reclaiming our ecological self is a radical act of healing, resistance, and renewal. Therapeutic models such as eco-therapy, community resources like the Nature Connection Handbook, and innovative educational frameworks like the Nature-Connected Curriculum are signs of a shift already underway.

Ultimately, the work of our time is to keep ourselves and our children in right relationship—with community, with Earth, and with self. When that relationship is alive, we flourish. When it is denied, we wither. As Satish Kumar (2002) reminds us: “When we heal the Earth, we heal ourselves.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to join the conversation in the comments below—your questions, stories, and perspectives are always welcome. Whether we agree or not, every discussion adds depth to these conversations, and respectful dialogue is what makes this space truly valuable.

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References

• Buzzell, L., & Chalquist, C. (2009). Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind. Sierra Club Books.

• Butler, C. W., & Richardson, M. (2025). Nature Connected Communities Handbook. University of Derby.

• Cajete, G. (2000). Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. Clear Light Publishers.

• Jordan, M., & Hinds, J. (Eds.). (2016). Ecotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. Macmillan.

• Kasser, T. (2002). The High Price of Materialism. MIT Press.

• Kumar, S. (2002). You Are, Therefore I Am: A Declaration of Dependence. Green Books.

• Lovelock, J. (1979). Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press.

• Macy, J., & Brown, M. Y. (2014). Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects. New Society Publishers.

• Mayer, F. S., Frantz, C. M., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., & Dolliver, K. (2009). Why Is Nature Beneficial? The Role of Connectedness to Nature. Environment and Behavior, 41(5), 607–643.

• Mental Health Foundation (2023). Mental Health Statistics: Mental Health Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk

• Naess, A. (1989). Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy. Cambridge University Press.

• Nisbet, E. K., Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2011). Happiness Is in Our Nature: Exploring Nature Relatedness as a Contributor to Subjective Well-Being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 303–322.

• Park, B. J., Tsunetsugu, Y., Kasetani, T., Kagawa, T., & Miyazaki, Y. (2010). The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing): Field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 15(1), 18–26.

• Richardson, M., Hunt, A., Hinds, J., Bragg, R., Fido, D., Petronzi, D., & White, M. (2020). A Measure of Nature Connectedness for Children and Adults: Validation, Performance, and Insights. Sustainability, 12(15), 6260.

• Royal, T. A. C. (2003). The Woven Universe: Selected Writings of Rev. Māori Marsden. The Estate of Rev. Māori Marsden.

• Roszak, T. (1992). The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology. Simon & Schuster.

• University of Derby, Nature Connectedness Research Group. The Nature Connection Handbook: A Guide for Increasing People’s Connection with Nature. findingnatureblog.files.wordpress.com+2University of Derby+2

• World Health Organization (2022). World Mental Health Report: Transforming Mental Health for All. WHO.