We all have to accept that life is unpredictable. Facing the ever-changing challenges of the world head on rather than ignoring them is always the best way forward. Trees such as the giant redwoods have been around since before the Alps or the Rocky Mountains existed. The key to their survival and resilience is adaption. Accepting a situation and adapting to it creatively. As Helen Keller says “security is mostly a superstition, it doesn’t exist in nature.” There are no guarantees. Plants already know that life will be a struggle and are hardwired for that fact. They go to extraordinary lengths to survive and reproduce. The Saguaro cactus that lives in the Sonora desert in the southern USA produces about 40 million seeds in its lifetime of which very few will survive and grow into a folk full size plant.
Creatively responding to change is the best way forward. When the winds of change blow some people build walls whilst other people build windmills. As trees can’t move like we can, they must adapt to their surroundings in changing conditions either within their lifetime or over generations. In terms of adapting to change the Siberian larch takes the prize for the most adaptable tree. It survives in locations that have temperature differences of up to 100 degrees centigrade. These deciduous conifers, which shed their leaves also have downward drooping limbs which help them shed snow. Many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing. They grow 30 metres tall in southern Siberia. In northern latitudes, where sunlight comes from the side rather than above the narrow conical shape of the conifers maximises the amount of light falling on the trees. As part of the immense conifer forests of the world they represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink.
Creativity is a wonderful thing to help us adapt, build and be resilient. It can help in a number of ways. The very act of creating something or being creative is incredibly absorbing and can distract us from our everyday worries especially if combined with fun or being with others who inspire us. Writing, painting, gardening, sewing, DIY and other hobbies allow us to use and express our imagination and a different part of our brain helping us to feel good.
Visualisation is a great technique to use, for example, when planning something, such as a garden, This involves imagining what it will look like and imagining yourself there looking after it. Athletes also use visualisation especially before a race. It’s actually been shown that if you go there in your mind, you can go there in your body. Incredibly brain scans have shown that motor areas of our brain related to being active show up when we visualise, the same as when we actually do the activity.
According to Albert Einstein – “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”. So as well as using creativity to relax and feel good through hobbies it’s also good to think creatively using the right side of our brain. The left side of the brain is more associated with logic and planning tasks.
We can also live creatively helping us to adapt to life. Regarding our need to have an income to survive in life, people are more resilient if they have more than one income stream to support them. In modern life, we tend to specialise in one thing, and that’s different to what nature does. Before industrialization, every person would have had multiple roles on top of their regular job. For example, the local blacksmith would have helped with the apple harvest and been paid in cider. In hunter gatherer days, everyone had multiple roles, part gatherer, part hunter, part cook, part childminder, part entertainer part builder, part fire tender and more. Societies were much more equal as a result because each member was aware of the challenges associated with each role and could empathise with others. The same goes now for many creative people who enjoy variety, such as artists and craftspeople. Many do various activities such as designing, creating, selling, giving talks and doing workshops. This gives them variety, interest and adaptability. Similarly for running a business or being self-employed today, adopting “tree thinking” encourages us to develop multiple markets or income streams rather than just rely on one.
Diversifying and continually developing and building up a network of skills across a number of areas helps to develop self-belief and courage leading to confidence to keep going in difficult times. So that if one “branch” gets damaged then you have other options to nourish you.
Keeping the focus on germinating new ideas and seizing new opportunities, that change brings is much better than wasting time blaming yourself when things go wrong. An example of this is eucalyptus trees, which are often ravaged by forest fires in Portugal. They don’t just give up, instead their seedlings take advantage of the change and regrow.
Creatively thinking laterally helps as well. Elephant remains dating back 120,000 years have been found on the banks of the river Trent, in Staffordshire. You might think that the logical approach of the native trees then, that were eaten may have been to put a lot of energy into strengthening their roots and trunk but the creative approach was to develop mechanisms that allowed themselves to be browsed and even cut right down, to then regrow stronger once the herd had moved on. This practice known as coppicing produces more vigorous multi stemmed trees. This continues today for many trees such as Acer, Beech, Elder, Hornbeam, Hazel and Willow. Trees benefit from being able to regrow stronger and healthier whilst communities are able to harvest craft materials on regular cycles from coppiced woodlands.
Humans are in fact the most adaptable species on Earth. Thanks to the way our brains and hands have developed in tandem. We can take on new information and learn new skills within minutes rather than generations. We can set goals and work towards them to improve our lot and we have consequently adapted to all regions of the planet. Our personal choices have almost instant consequences. We can make positive choices after gathering as much information as we can or we can do damage.
Looking at the world from different perspectives is another creative way to view life and is used as a coaching technique in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). When we look at the environmental and climate crisis we are facing we can feel frustrated by the lack of action and behavioural change from many people. But looking from a different perspective, instead of blaming people, we can see that people have become divorced from the natural world and hence don’t really see or understand the problems we face. Encouraging people to develop a connection with nature can only be a positive thing, enabling them to be more aware of nature and hopefully care more about it. As we reconnect with nature, we heal ourselves and then we are more likely to protect the natural world too.
By Katie James
With reference to Think Like a Tree by Sarah Spencer
Katie James runs Walking for Wellness groups in Bramley, Hampshire. The next walk is on Sunday 25th June. These are aimed at helping people build resilience by looking and learning from nature. If interested in coming along, please get in touch.