"There are many different ways we can practice meditation and connect with our true self. In my book on the five elements, Healing With Form, Energy, and Light, I talk about using the power of the natural world to support a deeper and more authentic connection with our essence. When we stand on top of a mountain, we get an unquestionable experience of vast and open space. It is important to realize that that feeling, that experience, is in us and not only in the impressive vista. With a mountain, we can connect with and develop stability. Many of us go to the ocean for rest and enjoyment, but the natural power of the ocean can support us to develop openness. We can go into nature to connect with certain qualities and internalize these qualities, in the sense of taking what we feel in the physical connection and bringing that deeper inside where our experience becomes one of energy and mind.

"Many times we look at a flower and think, 'So beautiful! So beautiful!' In that moment, it is good to realize that the beautiful quality internally. Feel it with the support of looking at the flower. Don't merely look at the flower or any external object and conclude that the beauty rests there in the object. Then you are seeing your belief that the flower is beautiful but has nothing to do with you. Bring that quality and feeling to a deeper recognition: 'I am experiencing this. The flower is supporting me to experience this.' Rather than, 'It's just a flower. I'm not like that.' We have so many opportunities to try this in life."