My Ecological Odyssey

Have you ever experienced that moment when your mind stills—when relief, belonging, and inner peace settle over you? Maybe it happens while reading a book, taking a bite of your favorite food, or looking around a room filled with family and friends. However it arrives, I hope you’ve felt it at least a few times in your life.

Travel as a Path to Presence

I’ve practiced yoga and meditation on and off since I was a kid, and these are two things that bring me closest to that feeling of simply being. Thoughts arise and drift away, and for a little while, I can fully reconnect with my body and surroundings. Meditation has always been a challenge for me, but over time, I’ve found something else that brings me to that same place of clarity—travel.

Even as I type this, I fear that it sounds like the words of every person who has ever left their home and experienced something new. And for some reason, I feel the need to prove to you that that is not the case. Not because I’ve discovered some universal truth, but because I’ve discovered something new about myself—how I want to see the world, how I want to live, how I want to be. Travel has transformed my understanding of self. It has expanded and contracted, shattered and rebuilt, all at once.

Nature, Humanity, and a Shift in Perspective

When I’m on the road, I feel a sense of euphoria, inspiration, and belonging that I struggle to access at home. Maybe it’s the novelty of being somewhere new, or maybe it’s that I finally allow myself to be present. It’s not just a better sense of self—I’ve also come to see the environment, our planet, differently. Standing on the cliffs of Kefalonia at sunset, floating down the Kinabatangan River in Malaysia, or getting lost in the souks of Marrakech, I feel an undeniable connection to life itself.

And despite everything—despite all the chaos of the world in February 2025—I have more faith in humanity than I ever did before. Not because I think people are perfect, but because I’ve seen, time and time again, that most people are inherently good. Or at the very least, they are not inherently bad.

The other piece of this realization is my connection to nature. Not urban greenery, not carefully curated parks, but real, untouched landscapes. Being in undefiled nature is an incredibly grounding experience. It’s the same feeling I get when I meditate—those rare glimpses of true presentness.

The Science Behind Our Need For Nature

Science backs this up. Environmental quality directly affects our happiness. The biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans have an innate connection to nature—that we are drawn to it, that we need it. Nature has even been proven to be a mental health intervention, with evidence showing that time in natural spaces directly benefits psychological well-being.

Nature-based soundscapes stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system—responsible for the ‘rest and digest’ response—by reducing heart rate and respiratory rate while decreasing feelings of anxiety and depression. They also promote increased creativity, a sense of belonging, comfort, and enthusiasm (Kumpulainen et al., 2025). Additionally, greater exposure to nature strengthens one’s connection to the environment and encourages pro-environmental behavior (Barbiero & Berto, 2018).

So it makes sense that the more time I spend in nature, the more present and grounded I feel. Yet over generations, we’ve built and overbuilt, surrounding ourselves with concrete jungles that separate us from the environments we were meant to inhabit. Evolutionarily speaking, we weren’t designed for this. Yes, we’ve adapted to skyscrapers and screens, to jobs and money and plastic—but that part of you that aches for fresh air? Maybe it’s aching for something ancient. Something written into our DNA.

Finding Connection – Wherever You Are

For me, nature, travel, yoga, and meditation all lead to the same place: a deep, undeniable sense of peace, understanding, and connection to the Earth. And I’ll keep chasing that feeling for as long as I can.

But what I’ve realized is that this feeling isn’t just about being in some remote, beautiful place. It’s about presence. Travel and nature make it easier to tap into that state because they strip away distractions, but that clarity exists everywhere. It just takes more effort to access when we’re caught up in daily life.

Maybe that’s what we’re all looking for: a way to quiet the noise, to feel more in tune with ourselves and the world around us. And maybe we don’t have to be standing on a cliff or floating down a river to find it. Sometimes, it’s as simple as stepping outside, paying attention, and letting ourselves be fully here.

Resources

Barbiero, G., & Berto, R. (2021). Biophilia as Evolutionary Adaptation: An Onto- and Phylogenetic Framework for Biophilic Design. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 700709. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700709

Kumpulainen, S., Esmaeilzadeh, S., Pesonen, M., Brazão, C., & Pesola, A. J. (2025). Enhancing Psychophysiological Well-Being Through Nature-Based Soundscapes: An Examination of Heart Rate Variability in a Cross-Over Study. Psychophysiology, 62(1), e14760. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14760