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Initial Post- Foundation One Discussion (Due by 7/8)
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38 Replies
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I find it interesting that we did our work in an aspen grove. I see so many analogies with the cohort we have formed.
Here are a few tidbits I have selected to share.
Aspen groves are often all interconnected through their root system – they all come from one source. Aspen grow in large colonies derived from a single seedling – they have a massive root system that new trees pop up from.
They are able to survive forest fires, because the roots are below the heat of the fire, and new sprouts appear after the fire burns out. The high stem turnover rate combined with the clonal growth leads to proliferation in aspen colonies.
The bark is photosynthetic, meaning that growth is still possible after the leaves have been dropped.
Sudden aspen death is also occurring as a result of drought stress.
Do you see what I see?
Hey… let’s keep in touch and hydrated!! 😉-
Hi Nadine! I love all the info you shared on the Aspens :). I’m not sure it they do this in the stated or not, but up here they spray them as weeds and there are now people fighting to “stop the spray” because, amongst other things too I’m sure, they are good at slowing down forest fires.
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Thank you for sharing this Nadine! I love the metaphor for our cohort. I just wanted to share, I was at the little lake beach by my house with my son yesterday and saw a few aspen trees! I had never noticed them before and I immediately thought of everyone. Miss you all!
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Nadine, thank you for sharing all of that info about Aspens. They are such amazing trees, and such a rich metaphor for how interconnected we all are… and especially this particular configuration of humans! I especially love that growth is still possible after the leaves have been dropped and after a forest fire. What is this telling you about nature connected coaching?
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And I could easily list many more metaphors drawn upon just the aspens alone. That tells me that an infinite amount of metaphors is available in Nature to gain insights on our journeys! And everyone will see just what they need if open to collaborate with Nature, and will find the answers s/he is looking for. I find the experience to come from the Heart and not for the Head, and because it feels visceral, and unexpected, it has the power to carve itself and stay in memory in someone’s body. Which could then be accessed later to keep the experience alive.
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Yesssss! Well put!
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What does it mean to be connected to Nature, and how can that relationship support your coaching?
Nature connection, to me, is living in harmony with nature, caring and respecting the Earth. The better we take care of our environment the healthier we will be.
I’m working on being more attuned to the Earth’s cycles, the moon phases, and the seasons, etc. It is being open to what Nature has to tell, show, teach us.In “Wilderness as a healing place” (page 44) when it says it “can allow us to build the structure of our being on a healthy foundation and also allow reconstruction and restoration of a cracked or crumbling foundation” I thought of my young childhood when I was outside almost all day in all weather every day and camping all summer every summer. I am sure that is a huge part of why I am where I am today. The latter may be even more so after many hardships growing up and in adult life as well, nature is what kept me going, was the one constant thing in my life. Even in the last 5 years since I left an abusive husband nature is what gave me strength, courage, inspiration and the energy to get to where I am today.
The way nature has helped me get through life, heal, transform, and thrive not just survive will support my coaching practice because I believe in it 100%, and I know it works. My brain seems to work in and see symbolism easily and I know this will be helpful as well.-
Hi Melody! So much of what you shared resonated with me. It also made me think of a documentary I watched about animal agriculture (Cowspiracy I think). It made me really conscious of how all of my actions impact Earth. I’m not sure if it was that one or another one that talked about the energy around the process of cultivating food. Basically, it was saying that if the food we eat is grown/raised in an unhealthy energetic environment, the bad energy attaches to the food and then we put it into our bodies. It’s really powerful when I think of that cycle… my impact on Earth, Earth’s impact on my food, my food’s impact on me, repeat. The harmony you mentioned is so important. Thank you for sharing that and getting my wheels turning on this!
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Amber I will have to check out Cowspiracy. For a long time, I’ve thought of being a vegetarian but always thought I wouldn’t know what/how to eat to sustain myself. With Dan’s cooking and the different foods I ate at camp last week too, along with learning more about herbal teas, medicines, etc last week I am feeling a little bit more confident that I may be able to find a way to eat a more plant-based diet, or at the very least healthier and eat to live, not live to eat.
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Yes!! I’ve seen it. Soooo good! I’ve dramatically cut back on the amount of meat I eat since watching that. I also try to stick to more local/humane meat/eggs/dairy. I can’t afford to do it for everything, but when I can, I do. I know there are still some environmental impacts, but trying to minimize the crazy industrialized products has been my starting point. I’ve also substituted meat in some meals with the Quorn brand products. They are really yummy (mushroom based, no soy) and they appear to be an enlightened company (from their website).
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I, like you Melody, try living in harmony with nature, caring and respecting the Earth, but a lot of people are not connected to Nature the way we/Cohort 18 could be simply because they have not been introduced to it in an intimate way.
I strongly believe you protect what you love!
To that end, I believe Nature Connected Coaching could help.
I am not sure what it looks like… but my “not-so-clear Vision” might have a component that ties coaching to Nature to environmental responsibility. I am not even sure I truly know what this feeling in my stomach is, maybe something to do with “partnering up” with a environment cause (plastic in the ocean, protect the elephants, deforestation, noise pollution….) to help people access and maximize their personal and professional potential. (to be developed further 😉 )
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Nadine! These are great ideas! I think you nailed it when you said that most people just aren’t connected because they haven’t been introduced to it properly (I’m paraphrasing and hope I am not distorting your words). Everything you wrote resonated with me so much. Just a few days ago, I went to a special place by my house, it’s part of the Audobon center. I was having a tough day, went there to connect and recenter. I can’t tell you how many people walked by on the trails, screaming, playing loud music, showing zero appreciation or awareness for their surroundings or the beings near them (myself included). There was trash and graffiti all over the place. I got so mad and upset that people don’t seem to have respect for nature or others in these settings. I’ve been thinking that there may be an awareness outreach component to what I build for a business because it’s so very much needed!
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Amber, I love the sounds of an awareness outreach component to your business! My sideline topic is often education and hopeful eradication of old-growth logging.
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Melody,
Thank you for sharing your experience with the transformative/restorative energies of nature 🙏🏼. It is clear in your work, in your play, in your very presence the esteem with which you hold the environment: “The way nature has helped me get through life, heal, transform, and thrive not just survive will support my coaching practice because I believe in it 100%, and I know it works.” Thrive, not just survive!! Heck yeah! It is beyond a restorative power, isn’t it?! It is the source, a comfort and a fuel. The stories and paths which led each of us to this work, and to one another, is why we will thrive in supporting others to do so!
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When I think of being connected to nature, I think of what it means to have ‘nature to nurture’. This is reciprocal relationship where we, as humans, need to nurture the earth – the environment, the natural habitats, the wildlife. And, in turn, the earth provides us with nurturing in so many ways – from meeting our basic needs to sharing beauty to creating a wholeness within all of us. This was really illustrated to me as I was on the lake early this morning. While I was paddling into various coves I began to use a wide angle view to see, hear and feel around me. Soon I began to notice the fish swimming under my board, the dragonflies buzzing across the water, the bees along the shore and the birds – herons, hawks, doves and buzzards – in the air. The quieter I became the more I could smell the creosote bushes and desert sage along water’s edge, feel the sun on my back and the coolness of the water around me. I began to feel completely and wholly connected with that moment and that place. That feeling held me in both an awe of what is around us and filled me up with a peace & serenity.
As I am now writing this, the above feels like it illustrates the benefits of wilderness that is discussed on pages 44-46 in Wilderness as a Healing Place from our readings: an increased awareness of the relationship with the physical environment/one’s surroundings; increase in self-confidence and feeling of tranquility; and contemplation. In those morning moments I experienced the increased awareness, tranquility and contemplation. And, I reflected back on the exercises we did over our intensive week through the wide angle vision and moments of surrender to open up to what nature had to offer today.
On page 196 of the The Way of Wilderness, Harper talks about “… the awareness of our expanded self is the experience of wholeness…the experience of wholeness, however brief, is perhaps the most healing experience available to us.” By nurturing these moments of wholeness through experiences in nature is how I intend to approach coaching. From my personal perspective the words joy, curiosity, wonderment come to mind when I think about being out in the natural world. From a professional perspective, my goal is to bring coaching clients to an awareness so their own words come forth that create that wholeness for them. And, along the way my hope is that there is a growth in understanding that the nurture nature gives us, we need to give back in turn.
One final thought on this post – the core routines that are discussed in Chapter 3 of the Coyote’s guide – really illustrated ways to bring this to life experientially. Obviously, we used some of these tools in our own intensive. But this really got me thinking of more ways to do this. I really was drawn to the Animal Forms, the Storytelling of the Day and Mind’s Eye Imagining. Curious to explore these more personally as well.
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Kim – Thanks for sharing this quote from page 196 of the The Way of Wilderness, when Harper talks about “… the awareness of our expanded self is the experience of wholeness…the experience of wholeness, however brief, is perhaps the most healing experience available to us.” This spoke to me on many levels. The awareness of our expanded self is very much the sense I pull from my nature connection. Plus the experience of wholeness being a healing experience, I found much healing working through the ceremonies we experienced at the intensive. Thanks for shining a light on that quote!
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Hey Kim,
Such a fascinating lens to read over Foundation 1 entries (I was missing a few responses!!) from the perspective of flying in to the second intensive so many months later! Your foreshadowing here: “And, along the way my hope is that there is a growth in understanding that the nurture nature gives us, we need to give back in turn.” to the passages and readings on Ecopsychology is so right on. And, makes perfect sense, in your well voiced passions for stewardship. Your experience of wide-angle lens observation while taking a lap at the lake is also an experience that I have come to embrace when either leading groups or going out on my own for my own self-care. The experience that we all shared in the Aspen grove fueled that respect and reverence (I keep using that word, since hearing Sheri articulate it that way in the teepee!) that is so fundamental in this work. At least, so it feels for myself. The depth of your awareness, the sounds from all directions, parallels the depth of this work, of our connection to our environment and speaks so well to the psychological benefits as presented by Talbot and Kaplan.
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On the topic “How do you connect to the natural world? And what does nature-connection mean to you and what does it do for you?” I will refer to John Miles’s article “Wilderness As Healing Place”. Kaplan and Talbot identified three psychological benefits of Wilderness. A growing sense of enjoyment, increased self confidence, and contemplation.
In my daily life, I often times feel overburdened by demands, I feel like I am unable to do what my environment is requiring me to do, and this causes me to have difficulty concentrating, to experience mental work to be difficult and stressful, to be irritable in the face of noise and distraction and unable to focus.
Spending a week in the Aspen Grove seems to have healed me (at least temporarily). I quickly felt a growing sense of enjoyment and I did not to force myself to be present and to attend. As the week went on, I felt increased self-confidence and possibilities seem to pop up in my mind, and light at the end of the tunnel started to show. Then contemplation started to set as I felt more and more in tune with my environment.
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Nadine, I’m so happy to read that! I meant to tell you before we left that I noticed a playfulness in your step as you jaunted across the ridge one day. I could see the joy sneaking out. It was delightful and I’m so glad you are feeling it too. hugs!
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Nadine – interesting that we both brought up the three benefits from the Kaplan and Talbot study. Obviously it hit home! And so true about the stress of getting it all in the ‘real’ world when the real world is truly being outdoors and in a natural environment. It was amazing to see how much you loved being there during our intensive. And it was so clear to see how much you lit up when you were with the trees which illustrates what the study concluded. Now it is about bringing that into everyday life and weaving it into coaching as well.
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Nadine, I totally agree with feeling distracted, difficulty concentrating, etc. My neighbourhood feels so much louder than it did before. I definitely feel more irritable and like too many things are demanding my attention. Even the crows in the morning seem so demanding compared to the quieter birds in Gunnison.
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Connection to nature brings me an awareness of my place in the one-ness of all. Being plugged in to that source provides a clarity and comfort for me. Slows me down and helps me know and see things in a non-dual state. The better connected the more clear the awareness. Maintaining and nurturing that connection is important for my sanity. As I drift away from that connection the “world” takes over. My ego takes over and I become more concerned with images and perceptions that others have of me or what I may perceive, they perceive. When connected I know that those perceptions have no basis for guiding me in the bigger picture of my purpose of life. Yet, we live in this “world.” So my challenge now is to learn to live in both, to balance my nature connectedness with my ego that is necessary to survive in the “world” as we have created it to be. My re-entry experience from the foundations intensive has taught me that I have some serious discovery to learn how to bring back the mountain top experience and incorporate it into my daily real-world life.
Having experienced first hand the ability to be so immersed in nature and open to it’s guidance for the coaching of another at the foundations intensive has fueled me to stay on top of my daily nature connection time, as well as, to continue learning more on this path of connection. The soul-direction I am able to plug in to when my connection is deep is enlightening. Again, the challenge now, I feel is to learn how to connect to that level when not immersed in a deep wilderness location. The connection to nature is key in my feeling guided by source versus my ego in coaching others on their own path. It gets me out of the way to guide them in their finding the answers for themselves.
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Sheri, you articulated that so well, thank you! I am struggling with trying to find that balance as well. You mentioned wanting to “bring back the mountain top”. I still have a ways to go in finding the balance, but one thing that has worked for me is listening to music. I have one song in particular that is very important to me, it makes me dream of the mountains and it, on some level, feels like an embodiment of myself. Since coming home, when I listen to that song, I can kind of transport back to a certain spot on the ridge. I can see the mountains and feel the expanse. I can feel the ground and the fresh air. It’s brief, but powerful. I’m not sure if that is useful for you, but I hope it is. If you’ve found anything similar that gives you a sliver of the mountain top, I’d love to hear it!
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Amber, the sun is a key for me. Since returning from Foundations I have found that no matter how late I stay up at night I am waking as the sun is rising. The birds or even our cat seem instrumental in helping that happen, too. Many days it’s welcome pulls me out of bed to sit within its rays as they climb across my front step, other days I wander over to Lookout Park which is about 10 mins from my house and climb to the highest point around and am able to feel the sun spread its color and warmth across the sky to the mountains to my west. Music is certainly another source to set my soul back on the mountain top. Are you familiar with Birdtalker? Check them out, especially “One”. As I read your response I couldn’t help but think that your song belongs on your vision board! Sounds like it brings you into your vision. What else are you putting there?
Popping back in with an edit as I just went to the front step for some morning sun and was gifted with some metaphors I am feeling pulled to share as this was enlightening to me for my journey. The sun, particularly at sunrise, is bringing light into the darkness. I am feeling lead to grief work, specifically walking with those who find themselves in a darkness and guiding them into light, or maybe just bringing them some light to see in their dark. The sun rises each morning. It is a constant. We may not always see it through our cloudy skies but it is always there, if only on the other side. Sometimes we need someone to help us break through the clouds to see it. Our friend the wind often has some affect there. As well as, time. Often we just need to hang on a weather the storm to get to the otherside! Nature finds healing and balance through time. The east. The sun rises in the east. New beginnings, rising anew each day. No matter what happens the day before no mater the dark we go through at night, it always rises again. I am definitely in the east with the beginnings of this new PATH. Grateful today, for these insights, for friends to share them with and walk with as we are all on this journey together. HUGS!
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Sheri – Reading your edits in your response to Amber really resonated with me as well. Thank you for sharing your inspiration from the sun and how it speaks to you as you are walking down this path! Having some difficulty in seeing my own vision (vs. the dream) for coaching yet, to read how nature is guiding you to understand what’s in your soul is really meaningful. It’s so much what NCC is about!
On another note – I couldn’t be there for the real time call the other day but just seeing you all on the recording was just heartwarming! 🙂
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Sheri, that was so beautifully stated! Your metaphor for light and dark is so powerful. One of my favorite quotes (I have a pillow of it in my office), which I think fits between the light and dark, is “It’s not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”. I’m not sure if that resonates with you, and I’m not sure exactly why, but I felt compelled to share it. To me it’s about finding the joys and blessings when the light may not be as present as we’d like. I’m so excited to keep hearing how you are being pulled down your path. Keep sharing! 🙂
About vision boards- YES! I was thinking during the call, why can’t my poster board have a soundwave attached to it!? haha Instead, I will try to find some sort of artsy/symbolic way to put the lyrics to paper. I’m not familiar with Birdtalker, but I’ll check them out, thanks!!
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“It’s not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain” – Love it. I am really feeling pulled to accompany others as they move through their dark, whether walking or dancing! I think it is so important for us to share about our trials and help others through similar instances. We were created for community. We all have to go down our own path but I see points where our paths cross from time to time, let’s take advantage of those points to help carry another’s load, encourage their steps, shine a light on another’s path hoping to make the journey a bit more comfortable, especially if it is a difficult stretch.
Love the idea of putting the lyrics, or maybe an image that brings them to mind, to our vision boards.
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Sheri and Amber, reading about you wanting to “bring back the mountain top” rings so true to me. It’s getting harder as the mornings are warmer and noisier, but before I even get out of bed in the morning I lay there with my eyes closed and take slow deep breaths and pretend I am there in my tent or the hammock. I have also reintroduced a forgotten grounding, cleansing, protection routine after that, and then added doing the 7 breaths and journaling. (This went a little sideways the last few days camping, but got back on track being home this morning). I just want to hold on to that “bubble” we had up there. I feel like the genuine connection with self, others, and nature on the intensive trip has shown me what I truly want in my day to day life connections. Regular every day chit chat, beating around the bush, and “I’m fine”s just don’t cut it anymore.
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“Regular every day chit chat, beating around the bush, and “I’m fine”s just don’t cut it anymore.” I literally burst out laughing when I read this because it rang so true with me too. Would you mind sharing your grounding/cleansing/protection routine? It sounds like something I might be interested in doing 🙂
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For sure!
Grounding- I picture roots growing out my feet down into the centre of the earth and wrapping around the core of the earth, with excess energy being released into mother earth. Can also be done with picturing a green ball of energy as the centre of the earth coming up through the roots, up your legs across your hips and back down the other leg.
Cleansing- picturing white light going over, through me
Protection- picturing gold light going in my head, down my spine, out my feet, overflowing into my aura.
And newly learned, cutting etheric chords- (cutting energy chords between 2 ppl). I’m not too familiar with archangels, but this makes a big difference for me. breath deep, evenly throughout, ask archangel Michale to cut the etheric cords that are attached that you no longer want or need while making a cutting motion in front of you with your dominant hand. right after ask Archangel Rafeal to fill the empty spots left behind with beautiful healing energy. Thank both for their help.
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“I’m fine” – does not cut it anymore! So true. (and I hear that all the time from my teenager…errr.) Beginning this journey has certainly opened up my curiosity. I want to learn more about the gifts found in nature. I want to know more about what makes others tick. I want to hear their stories, what has shaped them to the being they are today and where are they headed?
I am so honored and excited to be on this path with all of you – to be learning and growing and getting deep into this connection – now that is FINE!
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Hey All, I’m getting in to this this afternoon! I have had a bit of a time playing catch up after travel. You’re all amazing. Check in quick in line with responses/reflections/contributions! ✌🏼❤️🙏🏼
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A whole lot of life has happened in the past week, and since I’m a bit behind on reading, I’m going to respond from my experiences over the last few weeks.
After our camping foundations intensive, I think connection to nature is everything. During our week in the wilderness, I felt an inner calm and peace that I’ve never experienced in my life. My nervous system was quieter than ever, in ways that I didn’t think possible. Upon returning home, my nervous system went haywire, the way it used to be (or rather still is). Functioning has been challenging to say the least. I’ve always known that nature calms me, but this time I learned it from a much deeper, more visceral place. I worked with some of you during our practice sessions on putting myself first and taking care of my own needs and am now realizing how much nature connection needs to be a part of my daily life to feel calm and grounded. None of this is new, however, my understanding of it all is much deeper.
This connection with nature is important and can support my coaching because I can be a much more effective coach if I’m centered, grounded, and connected. As we experienced in some of our practices, the energy that is brought to a coaching session is important and has a significant impact on the client. If I am not in a good place and taking care of myself, I am not bringing the best energy to my coaching sessions. I also don’t have the clarity, focus, and creativity to coach as effectively as I could when I have that internal peace.
I do not think these challenges are unique to me and I know my journey into developing regular nature connected practices will also help me help clients develop their own daily practices that suit their needs. Going through it myself will make it easier to understand what the process may feel like for others. It will give me more insight and creativity to help clients get through their own road blocks. It really is the foundation to it all.
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Hello Amber, thank you for your post. I realized this week how difficult it will be to conduct coaching sessions after a long day of work and as a Coach/Guide, I will too need access to Nature to recenter myself before a client session to feel grounded, connected and to be able to effectively partner up with the client. As you also stated, nature calms my nervous system. My Sit Spot also provides me that feeling, right away I feel calm and peaceful.
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Being connected to nature is about embracing the “Awe”. It is a phenomenon centered around feeling around knowing.
I was recently reminded of this fact, of experiencing this sense of Awe, while reading a local article in a regional magazine (Blue Ridge Outdoors) sighting the benefits of the natural environment and the impact on that connection on a biological level. The implications of which lead to strong signs of benefits to those struggling with traumatic pasts. The combination of nature as the healing container of this Awe, coupled with introductory exploration of mindfulness can have fantastic effects on the overall growth of clients I have the privilege to work with in my area:
“Most of our population lives in cities, and more and more we’re spending all of our time in front of screens,” says Craig Anderson, a postdoctoral fellow at U.C.-San Francisco and formerly a graduate student at U.C.-Berkeley. “Awe is an emotion that we feel in the presence of vast things that take us out of the context that we’re used to, and nature is really good at both of those things.”
Anderson and colleagues tested that ability in research published this past summer, examining diaries kept by whitewater rafters including college students and military veterans. Their results were striking: more awe-inspiring experiences outdoors can lead to improvements in well-being and stress responses, including those tied to PTSD.”I feel that the benefits of this connection is further amplified by the readings from this assignment. In “Wilderness As Healing Place,” John Miles speaks to the most impactful benefits of the connection to nature—this resonating with the Awe provided by nature’s 50% (of the 50/50 we discussed in our initial intensive):
People experience an increase in self-confidence and tranquility. They come to feel that they can deal with whatever challenges the environment may offer them. [It is suggested] that these benefits are in part attributable to the realization that one cannot control the wilderness environment. (pg 45)
Kaplan and Talbot’s article referenced throughout this chapter by John Miles, PhD, speaks to the same powers of metaphor and reflection that we discussed during our intensive. That the natural environment feels real. That nature presents how the universe “ought to be, of the way things really are beneath the surface layers of culture and civilization.” (pg 52).
These notions help support why things simply “make sense” when out in the wilderness. Some magical combination of the physical distance from otherwise incessant distraction; the healing properties of actual protective odors, called phytoncides, exuded by the trees which speak to the legitimacy of Shinrin-yoku (Forest Bathing); and the ceremony of the nature-centered coaching process allow for establishing severance, space for experimenting with intention, and ultimately, incorporation in the client’s daily life.
As a nature-centered coach—as a guide—I have the responsibility and honor to support someone’s navigation of that. And, as I continue to work on my trust in the process that is before me, I even have the freedom to dance and play among the Awe and allow that with which I am seeking connection to heal us both in the process.-
Hi Matt – This sense of Awe is something all of us have/will keep having in nature. I can think of countless times I personally feel Awe from little things to big things. So, really interesting to read a bit about the science behind it in the Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine you referenced. I could easily see how that plays into the Core Routines that are brought up in the Coyote’s Guide, especially the Story of the Day and the Questioning and Tracking.
It’s ironic too since in the Way of the Wilderness reading we had, Harper talks about Wilderness throughout history being the object of dark shadow and has been looked at in a negative light (makes me think of the woods in Snow White). But as you noted above looking at nature from an Awe perspective, and a coaching perspective, nature is a healer and puts us all in a place that feels, is, real. Thank you for bringing this up!
Interesting note – last week I was telling a friend about the program. He was asking all sorts of questions about how it would help with PTSD. I’m going to talk to him more about the study the article mentioned.
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Being that I’m writing this reflection long after having completed the didactic portion of the course and have (finally) begun doing a significant amount of coaching, I have a much more expansive perspective than initially gained through the class experience. I have to date chosen to do the vast majority of my coaching in person, in nature, and while I understand it is not economically the best decision for me, I find it to be the best path for connecting soulfully, client, nature and me. To be nature connected is many things. On a simple level it represents a stable home. I think this concept came from Nature Fix, but it may have been Forest Bathing, (or some other book). But the concept that nature is just outside our door, is relatively predictable, offers a certain familiarity and is always available to us, represents a stability that is similar to family, to home…it’s comforting and safe (at least around here). Nature also affords us the opportunity to go deeper into our own psyche. Recognizing our connection to nature is to recognize we are part of something greater than ourselves. Realizing this invites us to explore our wholeness and begin to discover who we are, not according to social norms but according to our own heart and soul. We begin to listen to the whispers of our soul, developing the clarity of inner dialogue. Coyote Guide stresses learning through exploration and questions. Even science admits to knowing very little of Nature’s boundless wisdom. To connect with nature is to discover, for many to rediscover, curiosity. Following this curiosity through experiment and observation often brings us to the place of personal metaphor. Dr. Bernie Sigel, author of Love Medicine and Miracles, and The Art of Healing, tells us that the unconscious is always speaking to us. When interpreting a picture he asked someone to draw of themselves or their surroundings, he pays careful attention to the details. The numbers of leaves on a plant may represent the number of family members, the time on the clock may be when someone is going to die. He often can tell whether a patient will live or die by what they have drawn. The unconscious speaks through the drawings. Similarly, in nature, what attracts a client’s attention may be a whisper from the doorway of the unconscious. Taking the time to question and examine the attraction is to pass through the doorway into a deeper understanding of the self. As an example, my 16 year old client found she was very attracted to the numerous stumps that were scattered through the forest we were hiking. As she looked to understand the attraction she recognized that for her the stumps symbolized transformation and purpose. Wounded in life, they were now offering sustenance to other life forms. This represented a reconciliation she is seeking in her own life. So for me, to be connected to nature, is to be connected with great wisdom, energy, creativity and love. And, it is a pathway to becoming deeply connected with self, in the context of the whole. As a coach I am the Sherpa along this path, sharing the journey for a while with my client.
