Why Nature may feel regulating
There is a moment most of us recognise. You step outside, into a garden, onto a path, beside water, and something in you sometimes feels more spacious. Your shoulders drop. Your breath slows You might notice where that happens for you, and when it doesn’t.
This isn't imagination. It isn't only memory. Your nervous system just did something remarkable.
There is wisdom within each of us
Before your mind has formed a single thought, your system is already reading the world around you. Temperature, light, sound, texture, scent. Whatever senses you have access to are unconsciously gathering information, sending signals. It's called neuroception.
This process happens below conscious awareness. And nature speaks directly to it. Our ancestors had this ancient wisdom.
Research in environmental psychology and green health consistently shows that natural settings, particularly those with soft light, birdsong, moving water, and organic shapes, can help shift our internal systems toward a state of physiological calm, linked to our ancestral neurology and our own memories:
Heart rate slows
Cortisol drops
Attention softens from narrow focus into something wider and more receptive
The Polyvagal Perspective
Polyvagal Theory, developed by neuroscientist Stephen Porges, offers an explanation for why this happens. It describes how the autonomic nervous system, including the vagus nerve, responds to cues in our environment, influencing how settled, connected or activated we feel.
Porges introduced the term neuroception to describe this subtle, subconscious sensing of safety and ease.
When neuroception registers safety, the part of the nervous system associated with calm, connection, creativity and social engagement opens up more.
Nature, for many of us, can register as safe. Not because we decide it is, but because our nervous systems evolved within it. The open vista to see outwards, seasons for predictable rhythms, the non-judgemental presence of living things, these are ancient cues of safety that our bodies still recognise, even when our modern digitised minds may have drifted.
This theory also explains why "Go outside and feel better" may not always work. If we have had negative experiences in a particular nature setting, we may not feel the same neuroception benefits there. A client I know loves being by water, they feel instantly calm. Another finds their calm in trees, not water, because water holds a different story for them. Equally, even clients who are deeply nature connected can find that in moments of stress or overwhelm, the same settings take longer to land or a new setting may resonate.
What This Means in Practice
These are often our system’s intelligent responses to an environment or life chapter. Understanding and normalising this brings discernment about what works for you, in nature connection and in a coaching journey. It makes the “go outside” green prescription more tailored to your why and how, and to who you are in your current life chapter.
And if the nervous system responds to environment, then environment can become a connected place of belonging that helps us co-regulate. Studies suggest that when we understand this, we may be more likely to act as stewards caring for nature.
This is where nature connected coaching begins, not with goals or strategies about going outdoors like it's a hack, but with understanding what nature connection is to you, the why and the how. With noticing what shifts when you slow down with nature. With learning to read your own signals and find meaning. With building a relationship with the natural world, so that nature becomes a familiar connection you can return to in your own way and time. Moving us from seeing ourselves as separate from nature to living as part of a shared ecosystem.
Nature Connected Coaching at GGC
At Glimmer Garden Coaching, sessions and workshops are grounded in exactly this understanding. Nature isn't a backdrop. It co-coaches with us, offering the sensory cues that allow something in us to soften, slow down and begin to notice what is meaningful.
You don't need to understand polyvagal theory to feel its effects. We pace and meet where you are. From there, nature and I walk alongside you. Coaching can help with goals, but nature connected coaching paces with you first, so that reflection and life goals feel possible, sustainable and genuinely your own.
Curious to explore this for yourself? Find out more in Ways of Working or join an upcoming event.
Glimmer Garden Coaching is a nature connected coaching practice. Coaching is a supportive, forward-focused process and is not a substitute for therapy or mental health treatment. If you feel you need additional support, your GP or a qualified mental health professional is always a good first conversation. We would always encourage you to seek the right support for you.
