How does ecopsychology inform people and nature in the fall?
The fall is a transitional time for nature and ecopsychology offers many practices that can help people to engage with the transference from summer to winter.
In life, there are four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. Each of the seasons have a different feeling because of the sunlight patterns. The ecopsychological perspective states that the seasons are influenced by both nature and culture. The fall is a time of harvesting or maturing, similar to how humans harvest their crops in the fall. In ecopsychology, ecotherapy is used to relate to nature with some practices like meditation, contemplation, music therapy, painting (a form of ecotherapy called art therapy), walking in nature, journaling, etc.
The ecopsychology perspective relates to two types of human disturbance: Ecos and pyschos. Ecos is the psychic or mental disturbance that relates to anxiety about everything being destroyed by humans, ecophobia. Pyschos is the physical disturbance that relates to anxiety about natural landscapes being destroyed by humans, erotophobia. In order to reduce ecopsychology disturbances in nature or culture, people can use ecotherapy practices that restore the four elements: air, water, fire, and earth.
In fall, in particular, a person might practice journaling about their experiences in nature in fall and how they respond to the changing ecological conditions. They might incorporate ecotherapy practices by looking at the colors of fall or listening to nature sounds in order to help them feel connected with nature and restore their sense of being alive.
They might contemplate the word, autumn, which is a root word for autumnal equinox, equal nightfall. People can use ecopsychology practices to meditate on the word autumn and contemplate its meaning. The ecopsychological perspective states that people can create a better world by creating new words for things.
People might also read ecotherapy books in the fall, which is another ecopsychology practice of restoring relations with nature through literature. Finally, people can use ecotherapy practices of doing art therapy using fall colors, listening to fall nature sounds, focusing on the four seasons of the year ecopsychology practices that help people restore their relationship with nature.
The ecopsychological perspective states that people are influenced by culture and nature. The ecopsychology perspective helps people understand how they are being influenced by their environment in the fall and what ecotherapies they can use to help restore their connection with nature.