Walk with SMB: The Three Environments We Live In
Episode 5 Summary: In this walk episode of Rooted, Susan explores the idea that modern humans move through three different environments each day: the natural environment, the built environment, and the artificial environment.
While each plays an important role in our lives, they operate in very different rhythms. Nature tends to regulate and restore. Built environments provide structure and shelter. Artificial environments—our screens, platforms, and digital systems—often capture and stimulate our attention.
Through reflection and the metaphor of the alder tree, Susan invites listeners to consider how these environments influence our sense of grounding, attention, and wellbeing.
Rather than offering prescriptions, this episode begins with a simple practice: noticing the environments we move through and what we experience in each one.
Sometimes awareness is the first step toward feeling more rooted.
SHOW NOTES
Episode Description
Most of us move through three environments every day, often without noticing.
There is the natural environment — forests, soil, wind, seasons, and the living systems our biology evolved within. There is the built environment — our homes, offices, roads, and cities that provide structure and shelter. And increasingly, there is the artificial environment — the digital systems, screens, and platforms that now hold much of our attention.
In this walk episode, Susan reflects on how these three environments shape our daily experience of being human. Drawing inspiration from the alder tree — a quiet ecosystem builder that stabilizes riverbanks and enriches the soil around it — she explores what nature can teach us about grounding, relationship, and balance.
Rather than framing overwhelm as a personal failure, this episode invites a different perspective: perhaps we are still learning how to live well across environments that operate in very different rhythms.
Through simple questions and observation, Susan offers a place to begin — noticing the environments we move through each day and how each one influences our attention, energy, and sense of self.
Sometimes the first step toward feeling more grounded is simply remembering where we are.
Key Themes
• The three environments shaping modern life: natural, built, and artificial
• Humans as biological beings living in increasingly artificial systems
• How nature regulates perspective, attention, and nervous system balance
• The ecological metaphor of the alder tree as a quiet ecosystem supporter
• Why overwhelm may reflect environmental mismatch rather than personal failure
• Awareness and observation as the first step toward behavioral change
Key Takeaways
• Humans evolved within natural systems, yet much of modern life unfolds in built and artificial environments.
• Each environment serves a role — nature regulates, the built environment organizes, and artificial systems stimulate attention.
• Overwhelm and disconnection may arise from moving constantly between environments that operate on different rhythms.
• Nature offers grounding and perspective because it reflects the biological systems we are part of.
• Awareness is the first step toward meaningful change — simply noticing the environments we move through can shift how we experience them.
“Most of us now spend the majority of our lives in environments that operate very differently from the natural world.”
Reflection Prompt:
Over the next few days, notice the environments you move through.
When are you in the natural environment?
When are you in the built environment?
When are you in the artificial environment?
As you move between them, pause for a moment and check in with yourself.
Where do you feel most grounded?
Where do you feel most present?
What do you notice when you begin paying attention?
Resources Mentioned
The Almanac: The Seasonal Guide to 2026 — Lia Leendertz
Prefer to Read? The full tanscript is available below.
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DescrHi, it’s Susan. Welcome back to Rooted.
This is a walk episode where we move through an idea together and see where it leads.
Before we get into today’s episode, I want to pose a few questions. Just notice what comes up for you when you hear them.
When was the last time you really noticed the sky?
What natural element do you encounter most often during your day?
How much of your day is spent looking at a screen?
Where do you feel most like yourself outdoors?
What is one living thing you’ve noticed today?
Those questions might seem simple, but they point to something interesting about modern life.
Many of us now spend the majority of our waking hours inside built and artificial environments, even though humans spent most of our history living much closer to the natural world.
And that tension might explain more about how we feel than we realize.
Today I want to reflect a little on where we’ve been so far in this podcast.
Most recently we talked with Micah about the idea of rewilding.
We talked with Claudia about the power of attention and presence through time in nature.
And we also had a sit episode focused simply on noticing.Each of those conversations keeps pointing me back to the central theme of this podcast: a deeper relationship between humans and the natural world.
Today I want to zoom out a bit and talk about something that helps me understand modern life in a different way.
Understanding the different environments we move through each day.
As I was thinking about this episode, I came across a passage in a book called The Seasonal Guide to 2026. It’s an almanac produced by Leah Leendertz. The book focuses on Britain and Ireland, but for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere there’s still a lot to glean from it.
In March she wrote about the alder tree as we move toward the spring equinox, which arrives later this month on March 20.
I want to share a portion of that reflection with you.
As we approach the spring equinox, the alder stands as guardian to this seasonal transition.
This slender tree holds both masculine and feminine energy, representing fire and water. It reminds us that life often involves holding opposites — dark and light, rest and action.
Alder is sometimes associated with war because of its deep blood-red sap and the charcoal its wood produces. Yet it also carries a deeply peaceful nature.
It reminds us that when life sometimes overwhelms us, we can steady ourselves by deeply rooting our energy into the earth.
Often found with its feet in water, alder wood is remarkably strong and durable. Its roots work quietly underground, preventing erosion, strengthening riverbanks, and fixing nitrogen in the soil.
These unseen qualities of reciprocity reflect the darker half of the year we are just emerging from — a dream time when nourishment is prioritized, foundations are laid, and intentions take root.
The equinox marks the moment when we begin reaching from the darkness of our roots into the light of creative action.
At this time, the alder offers a quiet spark of courage — a reminder that emergence often begins with a small nudge toward the light.
I love the whole passage, but one line especially stands out to me:
“When life sometimes overwhelms us, we can steady ourselves by deeply rooting our energy into the earth.”
Of course this podcast is called Rooted, so it’s probably no surprise that I have a soft spot for that line.
But it reminds me that stability often comes from reconnecting with something deeper than whatever moment we might be in.
And then a quick science teacher side note.
One of the things I love about alder trees is something I learned years ago. In that passage you heard that alder is nitrogen-fixing.
What that means is that alder trees partner with a bacterium in the soil that lives in nodules on their roots. Through that relationship, the tree is able to take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form plants can use in the soil.
So the alder essentially improves soil fertility. It enriches the ecosystem around it.
It stabilizes soil along rivers. It nourishes the ground.
Ecologists sometimes call alder trees pioneer species because they prepare the conditions for other life to flourish.
That systems insight really captures my attention.
Ecosystems often work this way — not through control, but through relationships that support the whole system.
Reflecting on the alder, and the metaphors within it, makes me curious about something.
Maybe you don’t have alder trees near you. Maybe you’ve never seen one.
But when you think about the idea that a tree can help us reflect on ourselves and our relationships, I wonder:
What natural allies exist where you live right now?
Maybe you’re noticing trees beginning to bud.
Migrating birds.
Thawing ground.
Longer light in the evenings.Nature is always moving through cycles around us — if we pause long enough to notice.
And when we start noticing those rhythms, something else becomes clear.
Most of us now spend the majority of our lives in environments that operate very differently from the natural world.
As I’ve thought about that tension, an idea has helped me make sense of it.
The idea that we move through three different environments each day:
The natural environment.
The built environment.
And the artificial environment.When we think about the natural environment, that’s what usually comes to mind when we think about nature — forests, soil, water, wind, seasons, wildlife.
And it’s also us.
Humans are nature.
This is the environment our biology evolved within over millennia. Our senses developed there — sight, sound, taste, touch.
The natural environment also has an ability to regulate itself.
And in many ways, so do we.
We may have lost touch with that capacity a little bit, but it’s still part of our biology.
For me, nature also brings perspective.
When I sit outside in the morning in my sit spot, I’m often reminded of core truths. Something about being outside helps me feel more grounded.
And it often helps me see things more clearly.
Then there’s the built environment.
Homes. Buildings. Cities. Roads. Offices. Infrastructure. Clothing.
All of the spaces and systems humans have created.
The built environment isn’t the problem.
It shelters us. It organizes society. It creates containers for belonging and connection.
But if we spend too much time there, it can dampen our connection to natural signals.
I think about a simple example from the other night.
I took the dog outside for a quick walk. It was dark and quiet. Nothing seemed unusual.
But the dog was on high alert.
I couldn’t see anything, and then I heard faint thunder in the distance. A storm was approaching.
She had sensed it long before I had.
Her connection to the natural environment isn’t as dampened as mine.
And then there’s the third environment: the artificial environment.
Screens. Phones. Platforms. Social media. Virtual work. Algorithms.
These systems are a very new part of human life.
And yet much of our attention now lives inside them.
Artificial systems operate in a very different rhythm than nature.
When I reflect on these three environments, I come back to the idea of tension.
When people say they feel overwhelmed or disconnected, I don’t think it’s because they’re doing life wrong.
I think we’re still learning how natural creatures live in relationship with the built environment and the artificial environment.
Both of those environments bring convenience and connection in many ways.
But they operate differently.
Nature tends to be relaxed, wild, creative, regenerative.
The built environment tends to organize and structure.
And the artificial environment often stimulates movement, action, and constant input.
One word that came up for me as I reflected on this was numbing.
Sometimes the artificial environment can numb our awareness of the natural environment.
So I’m still reflecting on all of this as I sit here recording — using artificial tools to share this story.
All three environments are part of our lives. They all have roles.
Just like we can rush through a forest on a hike and miss so many things, becoming aware of these three environments may be a powerful first step in reconnecting with ourselves.
Maybe even reducing some of the overwhelm we feel.
So over the next few days, you might simply notice the environments you move through.
Notice when you’re in the natural environment.
Notice when you’re in the built environment.
Notice when you’re in the artificial environment.And check in with yourself as you move between them.
Where do you feel most grounded?
Where do you feel most present and aware of yourself?
How do these environments shape your day?
And how do they help you be you — truly you?
I don’t have advice on what to do with this yet.
I’m still exploring it myself.
But when we look at the science of behavior change, awareness is always the first step.
So simply noticing what’s already here — without judgment — is a good place to begin.
To close, I want to return to the alder.
That beautiful tree standing at the edge of water and earth, rooted deeply while reaching toward the light.
Beneath the surface, its roots quietly support the ecosystem around it.
And we humans move between natural, built, and artificial environments every day.
The tree offers a quiet reminder.
When things feel overwhelming, we can steady ourselves by rooting back into the living systems that have supported humans for millennia.
May the forest be with you.
Buen Camino.iption text goes here
