Let Nature Hold

As the year gently turns toward December, every corner of the world feels its own version of change. This week offers space to ground yourself in that transition, while today’s edition focuses on engaging all the senses with nature to cultivate calm and presence.

Today’s Quick Overview:

🔬 Science Spotlight: How music supports memory…
🛠️ Tool of The Week: The 3-3-3 Rule…
📰 Mental Health News: Social media ethics concerns; early learning insights…
🙏 Therapist Corner: Staying grounded with nature…

Let's check in with what inner season you're in right now:

What season is alive inside you this Monday morning? Early spring, tentatively waking up? Deep winter, moving slowly and conserving energy? Spring needs gentle encouragement, winter needs rest without guilt, summer needs savoring, and fall needs space to let things go.

Grounding works best when you know which moments call for it. When do you most often lose your footing?

Therapy Grounding Techniques Sheet

When stress or anxiety feels overwhelming, it can be hard to stay present. This free Therapy Grounding Techniques Sheet gives you a simple 5-4-3-2-1 method to calm your body and mind using your senses. Easy to follow and therapist-inspired, this printable guide helps you regulate emotions anytime, anywhere. Download your free copy today and bring more calm into your daily life.

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Grounding & Gratitude in Nature: A Remedy for the Winter Blues

Answered by: Kelly Olenski, MSW, LCSW, C-DBT

Nature has profound impacts on our mental health. Research tells us that nature improves cognition, reduces stress, and makes us happier and kinder. Connection with nature is essential to our well-being, but as winter approaches, our connection with nature can become strained.

As daylight shortens and temperatures drop, millions of Americans experience the "winter blues"—also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Symptoms of SAD include feeling more depressed, anxious, or irritable than usual. People struggling with SAD may have less energy, more fatigue, and trouble with sleeping, eating, or functioning day-to-day. SAD can require therapeutic intervention. It is important to seek an evaluation from a mental health provider for any of the above symptoms.

In addition to therapeutic support, it is important to maintain connection with nature year-round. Below are some ways to connect with nature during the winter.

Grounding into Nature

Grounding techniques are mindfulness practices that help us connect to the present moment. Earthing is a nature-based grounding practice that literally encourages connection to the ground. Earthing is often practiced by walking barefoot on soil, grass, or sand. It can also include touching the earth with your hands or immersing your whole self through swimming in rivers, lakes, or oceans.

In cold climates, earthing can still be practiced with care. Some may participate in a local polar plunge, while others may opt for playing in the snow, taking a winter walk, or sitting by a bonfire. Earthing can be brought indoors through tending to houseplants or seed-starting to prepare for warmer weather gardening.

Other Ideas to Bring Nature Indoors:

There is evidence that nature continues to provide benefits even when we engage with it indoors.

To use a nature-based activity for grounding, bring your full attention and awareness to the present moment. Use your senses to notice what you see, hear, smell, and feel inside and outside of your body. If you get distracted, return to nature with ease, non-judgment, and acceptance just as nature does for you. Nature is reliable and will be there when you return to it.

Gratitude for Nature

By grounding in nature, we can notice nature as it is—its beauty, novelty, simplicity, complexity, and more. We can use these observations to appreciate nature and express gratitude for it. Like nature, research on gratitude shows that it can improve our mental health and well-being.

Below are some themes to help you find appreciation for nature:

Beauty – Nature expresses its beauty in many ways, such as color, design, or simplicity.

Support – Nature provides critical resources to all living things, including us, without forcing or failing.

Challenge – Nature can challenge us, especially in winter. Nature shows us what we are capable of and reminds us of our immense potential.

Inspire – Nature holds inspiring and influential lessons on how to live and be.

It is important to remain connected to nature despite the obstacles winter can bring. It has been shown that as little as 20 minutes a day can provide us with the immense benefits of grounding and finding gratitude in nature. Through nature, we can warm ourselves from the inside out and keep the winter blues at bay.

Kelly Olenski is a Clinical Social Worker providing therapy services to people across the lifespan. Kelly uses a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) informed approach that incorporates experiences, especially nature, to help people heal and grow. For more information on Kelly’s current & previous experiences, you can connect with her on LinkedIn. Kelly practices through and owns Seton Creek Consulting, P.C.—a virtual private practice that serves people in Illinois and Arizona.

The 3-3-3 Rule

What it is: The 3-3-3 Rule is a quick grounding technique that pulls you out of anxious thoughts by engaging your senses. When anxiety starts spiraling, you identify three things you can see, three sounds you can hear, and three ways you can move your body.

Why it works: Anxiety thrives when your attention is trapped in worried thoughts about the future or replaying the past. When you deliberately shift your attention to what you can see, hear, and physically feel right now, you're essentially starving the anxiety of the attention it needs to grow. This interrupts the stress cycle.

How to practice it:

Pro tip: If you're prone to anxiety, prepare a "sensory toolkit" in advance, a playlist of calming music, a photo album on your phone of images you love, or small textured objects in your bag. Having these ready makes the technique even more accessible when you need it most.

Listening to Music Daily Could Cut Your Dementia Risk by Nearly 40%

The Research: Researchers analyzed data from over 10,800 adults aged 70 and older and found that people who regularly listened to music had a 39% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those who never, rarely, or only sometimes listened. The study also found that playing an instrument reduced dementia risk by 35%.

The benefits extended beyond dementia prevention. People who always listened to music showed lower incidence of cognitive impairment, higher overall cognitive scores, and better episodic memory, the type of memory used to recall everyday events. The strongest cognitive advantages appeared in those who reported consistent, regular engagement with music.

Why It Matters: This research offers hope in the face of a growing public health crisis. With populations aging worldwide and no cure currently available for dementia, the findings suggest that something as simple as listening to music could be a powerful tool for protecting cognitive health. Unlike many interventions that require significant lifestyle changes or expense, music is accessible, affordable, and already part of many people's daily routines.

Music engagement may work through multiple pathways: it activates diverse brain regions simultaneously, provides emotional regulation, encourages social connection, and may reduce stress and inflammation, all factors that influence dementia risk.

Try It Today: If you're over 70 or caring for someone who is, make daily music listening a regular part of the routine. Create playlists of favorite songs or revisit music from meaningful periods of life. Use music during daily activities like cooking or walking.

If you have the interest, consider picking up an instrument or joining community music groups. The key is regularity: make music a daily practice.

I can trust in cycles and rhythms instead of demanding constant progress. What feels like an ending is often just a pause before the next beginning.

Think of one difficult period that eventually gave way to something lighter or better. That transition reminded you that hard seasons don't last forever.

It's okay to rest in the dark times instead of fighting them. Winter serves a purpose; not every season is meant for growth you can see.

Step outside, even briefly, and notice one sign of nature's rhythm: the sun's position, the temperature shift, a bird's call, the way light changes. Let the natural world remind you that everything moves in cycles, including your own life.

Picture the ocean's tide: pulling back from the shore, then returning, endlessly repeating. The water doesn't apologize for retreating, doesn't rush the return. It simply follows the rhythm it's always followed, trusting that what recedes will come back. Tonight you can honor your own rhythms the same way, trusting that withdrawal and return are both natural, both necessary.

Spend three minutes writing: What cycle am I currently in (rest, rebuilding, growth, release), and how can I trust that this phase will naturally transition into the next without forcing it?

Close your notebook and ask yourself: Where have I been resisting the natural rhythm I'm in? What would acceptance of this phase look like? How can I find comfort in knowing that everything, including difficulty, moves in cycles?

"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night and spring after winter." — Rachel Carson

Dawn always comes, spring always returns; your hard season is temporary, not permanent.

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Coming Tuesday: What to say when family expects constant availability during holiday visits and you need alone time, and how to take recharge breaks without letting guilt override your needs.

Researched and edited by Natasha. Designed with love by Kaye.

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*The Daily Wellness shares educational content only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice and diagnosis. Please consult a licensed provider for personalized care.