Books about Healing through Nature
Some of the most inspiring books that I have read have been about the healing power of nature. These are all Non-Fiction books that feature people that have encountered illness, grief, trauma or dissatisfaction with modern living. What these books about connecting with nature have in common is that the authors have found solace and healing in the natural world, often when they have been at their lowest point.
The Salt path
Moth and Ray suffer two major setbacks in a row - first, they receive devastating medical news. and then they lose their home. With no plan and no money, they decide to put one foot in front of the other and walk the South West Coast Path, 630 miles of track that stretches from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.
This really is a story of redemption via nature as this couple only have a tent and the most meagre of supplies as they try to survive. The walk is incredibly difficult at times and they fare often at the mercy of the weather, but what happens is that they find themselves falling into nature’s rhythm.
Moth, who has a degenerative Brain disease called CBD, finds his health greatly improved, helped by the restorative properties of nature and walking, and simply by having a purpose each day. This is an inspiring tale of human endurance and the healing power of nature..
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Wintering
This is one of the best selling self healing books of recent years. After suffering some setbacks, author Katherine May sets out to look at the power of ‘Wintering’ to heal herself, looking at experiences such as thermal baths, the winter solstice and sea swimming. With references to literature and mythology, this is a wise and rewarding nature therapy book about adjusting to our own life rhythms and recognising there will be times when we need to retreat in order to reset and recover. A compassionate read that I will return to and am glad to have on my shelf, this is a book about the healing power of nature during winter.
Nature is healing Quotes:
‘Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.’
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The way home: Tales from a life without technology
In the West of Ireland, Mark Boyle retreats to a smallholding, gives up electricity and technology, and survives by working and living off the land without using any modern equipment.
In terms of books about the healing power of nature, this is a story about taking sustainable living to its absolute limits and whilst there are a lot of struggles along the way, what is most moving is how Mark reconnects with nature again. Reading it made me realise how my ancestors must have lived, and it definitely feels like we have lost something of our place in the natural world. This is a great book on self sufficient living.
Thin places
The book is a mixture of memoir, history and nature writing. The author suffers a lot of trauma in her early years during the troubles in the North of Ireland, and describes it in raw detail. The writing is at its most poetic and powerful when Kerri describes how nature brings her back from the edge, and allows her to find some sort of peace again. It’s not an straightforward journey, as you would expect.
This is not an easy read, but it is a powerful one. Kerri writes with such an open heart about her sufferings and the images from nature are vivid and strong. An incredibly raw and intense book.
I am an Island
This is a powerful memoir about a woman who, after moving to a remote Scottish Island, suffers grief, loss, pain and extreme loneliness, which pushes her right to the edge of what she can cope with. She then finds comfort and solace in the natural world around her, somehow managing to find her way back. Her account of swimming in the sea is especially poetic and uplifting.
This is a tough read at times, with some extreme descriptions of distress, but is ultimately inspiring. Tamsin finds her way back by adjusting to the rhythms of the Island and bending into nature, drawing on resilience and courage in a beautifully written nature therapy book about healing in nature, amidst descriptions of harsh beauty.