"Emerson’s Enlightenment Or Neuroscientific Nonsense?"

Recently minted guru and neuroscientist Andrew Huberman is a big supporter of the idea that the key to kickstarting your brain's engine in the morning is to gaze into the sky and soak in those natural colors and light. It's like he's channeling Emerson, but from way back in 1836 when Emerson was dropping similar ideas in his essay "Nature."

But here's the kicker—Emerson’s connection with nature wasn’t just about jumpstarting your productivity or tweaking your brain chemistry (although, let's be real, those are pretty sweet perks). Emerson's on about something deeper. He's talking about bridging the gap between the inner you and the outer world.

See, modern Western philosophy has this hang-up. It's all about splitting things into me and not-me, mind and body, inside and outside. But Emerson, he's saying that when we dig nature, we're bringing these fragments back together. There's this cosmic harmony when you're out there in nature, man. You can't hike, swim, or climb without being totally in the moment, totally united. Your thoughts, your feelings, your actions—they're all one.

Even when your mind wanders on a hike, it's cool. Those thoughts are like graceful dancers, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

But here's where it gets deeper. Emerson's talking about alienation—losing a part of yourself. He's saying that this unity we feel in nature, it's like holding onto a piece of our infant selves, keeping that innocence and wholeness alive.

But somewhere along the line, man, we lost it. We got caught up in our emails, our microwaves, our mindless drives. Nature, though, it offers us a way back, a way to reclaim that unity and integrity we lost along the way.

It's deep, man. Nature's not just a place to escape to; it's a place to remember who we really are. This is why it is important for each of us to spend time re-wilding. It adds new perspective to the race of our daily lives.