Foundation 1 Cohort 21

[Michael]

Hi All! Don’t forget to click the “subscribe” button above so you are notified when one of you cohort members posts.

[Rachel Juth]

Reflecting on the Foundations One, I experienced multiple ways of connecting to nature and the power that it holds. I imagine if you asked someone, what does it mean to be connected to nature, that each individual would answer that question differently. After reading Chapter 3 of the Coyote’s Guide by Jon Young, I learned that there are multiple ways in which someone can connect to nature. During the intensive we practiced a few of these nature connection routines, including; sit spot, thanksgiving address, and expanding our senses through- 360 awareness, wide angle vision, baseline, and radiance. Throughout the week, I noticed the difference I felt each day as I continued to visit my sit spot, take surrender breaths, and track my baseline. I felt a deepening into myself and a sense of connection to my soul.
In the book, Ecopsychology, Steven Harper states, “Thus, to step out of our limited definition of self, to become these wild, natural things and experience them, is to give life not only to them but to those parts of ourselves” (p. 194). He speaks of the idea that we are not separate from wilderness, but really we are one with the natural world. It seems like in our society we have created such a divide between us and the natural world. We do this by spending so much time indoors for our jobs, while at school, in our homes, etc. To be connected to nature means to step outside of the containers that hold us and keep us separate from the wild world. I often see the effect that nature has on the clients I work with. The wilderness therapy program where I work is both an indoor and outdoor program. We start the week at “base” which is the residential treatment facility. Once we plan the adventure we travel out into “the field” where we spend 5 days in the natural world. I notice the shift in clients when they arrive in the field. It almost feels like they expand and nature holds them however they are feeling and whatever they are bringing. I also notice the shift when we arrive back to base after an adventure. Clients seem to struggle with the confinement of being indoors and the lack of spaciousness that they once experienced in nature. Though the transition from the natural world is difficult for many of our clients, I think it is a way to show and remind us of the power of the natural world.
I enjoyed reading the chapter, Wilderness as a Healing Place by John Miles, as he discusses how we cannot have control over the wilderness stating, “By relinquishing the illusion of control over the environment people paradoxically acquire more internal control and can relax and pay more attention to their surroundings and to their inner selves” (p. 46). I relate to this as a I reflect on the week of our first intensive. It was significantly easier for me to let go and connect to myself at my sit spot each day than it normally is when I practice mediation indoors. At the sit spot there was a sense of spaciousness and opening that allowed me to connect within as well as with the other beings that were around me, especially the birds. In this way nature almost feels like a sense of surrender and allowing ourselves to be as we are and accept things as they are.

A curious question to ask our clients that we work with is, what does it mean to be connected to nature? I think there is power in meeting our clients where they are when they arrive. Therefore we can gain an understanding of what their experience connecting to nature is like. I enjoyed the invitation that the Coyote’s Guide offers when working with children, they mention not to force a child into nature connection, but rather present it as an offering. This feels important to take forward while working with our clients, what would our relationship with clients look like if we present nature connection as an offering rather than something they must do? In Wilderness as a Healing Place, the author quotes Kaplan and Talbot talking about Carl Jung’s view of nature being a larger framework stating, “The wilderness experience is “real”… because it feels real – because it matched some sort of intention of the way things ought to be, of the way things really are beneath the surface layers of culture and civilization” (p. 52). This is a powerful example of how nature can support a client. Daily life can become filled with chaos through busyness, having a job, taking care of family, distractions of technology, finding time for hobbies, etc. In society it feels like we lose track of what “real” is. This reminds me of when we are at the grocery store and are asked, “how are you today.” The simple interaction doesn’t always feel real. Nature seems to be a way for people to spend time with themselves and the beings around them to help them connect deeper to themselves and a sense of “real” through being with their experience.
Having a connection with nature doesn’t only support my relationship with nature, but also the clients relationship with nature and my relationship with the client. Nature connection is a way that allows me to connect deeper to myself, my soul, my truth, and my inner knowing. When I slow down, listen, tune in, and allow nature to be a teacher for me, I find myself connecting to a deeper part of myself. I have noticed that when I allow myself to connect to this part of myself, that I coach from my heart and soul. I notice that I listen deeper, I allow words to come through me, and the busy mind is less present. As I practice these nature connected practices, I can share my experiences of them with future clients. They also allow me to gain personal experience of their benefits. In turn, nature connected practices, as well as just being in nature, can provide clients the opportunity to explore their outer world and maybe even their inner world in their own way. There is a great example of that in the book Ecopsychology as Harper shares a story of a woman on a 3 night solo where she encountered a snake to which she had a lot of fear. He states, “she tried to calm herself and think of other things, then she realized she was trying to push away the idea and feeling of the snake and possibly some part of herself… “I decided I must become the snake” she told me later” (p. 195). This is such a beautiful example of a person who chose to take her power back. Nature reflected a fear and anxiety to her and she faced it in her own creative way. Nature can serve our clients as a mirror while also providing the space for creativity and exploration. Having nature as an ally in coaching opens the door to many possibilities and opportunities for our clients.

[Amanda]

Hi Rachel thank you for your post, I an enjoyed hearing about the program you work in and was curious to find out what exercises you program encourages for the kids that now have to step back into being indoors again. Which ones do they seem to retain? How do you think they bring the nature connection back to their worlds..

[Sheri]

Rachel, what a beautiful image you provided me when you mentioned how your clients seem to expand when in nature and that nature holds them, meeting them right where they are, however they are feeling and whatever they are bringing. I love the feeling that paints for me. Thank you.

[Cynthia Allen]

Rachel, I love the quote you pulled from the Wilderness as Healing Place article, “By relinquishing the illusion of control over the environment people paradoxically acquire more internal control and can relax and pay more attention to their surroundings and to their inner selves.” I also felt a resonance with this concept and love that spaciousness and opening that is felt when deeply connected to nature. I’m wondering how you carry this into everyday? I’m working on this myself so anything you’ve learned/noticed and feel comfortable sharing would be awesome!

[Jen Medrick]

Rachel, I love hearing about how you already work with your clients in the natural world and the inquisitiveness you bring to your engagement with their unique experience. I know you have been out in the field (not sure when you return)… I’m wondering how you personally respond to the “confinement of being indoors and the lack of spaciousness” when you return? Is that your experience too? I am always curious how others make sense of the idea that being out in the wilderness is the primary place to contact nature. It is certainly deeply profound and has all the ceremonial marking of severance / threshold / return (incorporation) as well as the removal from the habitual patterns and contexts in which most of us live. And, I feel a deep commitment to remembering and connecting to nature everywhere, including indoors or in the flow of life – even the grocery store! 😉 How do you help your clients with re-entry? How do you tend yourself here? I’d love to hear if sharing feels good.

Also, having been a recipient of the words and insights that simply come through you when you slow down, tune in, and listen, allowing your inherent nature to speak through you, you already share this naturally with others (me!) and it is such a gift!

[Suez Nields]

Rachel!!
I’d like to echo the questions about re-entry after your clients return from immersive wilderness experiences.I have been made aware that in both Wilderness therapy settings as well as in traditional therapy programs that there seems to be a lack when it comes to integrating the lessons learned and FELT while within the experience ( if that makes sense) How do you think we can, in our coaching work… help our clients Remember and relate those feelings into daily life? How do you personally do this?

[Suez Nields]

“ A culture that alienates itself from the very ground of its being, from wilderness outside ( that is to say, Wild Nature, the wild, self contained, self-informing ecosystems) and from that other Wilderness Within- is doomed to a very destructive Behavior, ultimately perhaps self- destructive behavior”
-Gary Snyder (The Way of Wilderness, Steven Harper ,p.184)

The culture and society in which most of us live our day to day lives has moved further and farther away from the outer concepts and connections to the natural world all around us and even within us. Being connected to nature implies being attuned to both the rhythms and cycles of the natural world, and attuned and aligned to our own innate and inner cycles and knowing.

The relationship to nature ( connection, if you will) has many benefits when introduced within the practice of Coaching.

Wilderness enhances self worth, boosts confidence and transformation occurs from Within.
Revealing the power and knowing that the body and the soul instinctually knows as its own, is both a powerful change agent and Medicine for healing.

Nature connectedness through outer wilderness experience heightens sensory awareness and through wilderness experience and nature connection transformation comes from WITHIN.

Experiences in Nature are wrought with variables that must be met as they arise- so openness and agility and adaptability come in to play which in turn builds up resilience in the face of adversity.
Fear can be transformed into alertness and awareness that can signal the client that something is out of balance.

Nature/wilderness can balance the masculine Feminine energies that exist within both individuals and group dynamics which is a balance that is difficult to even out in the culture today.

Nature Connection inspires Ritual and ceremony which can be implemented, reflected and celebrated within the container of Coaching sessions.

As coaches,( vs. other “helping” practitioners) we are uniquely able to allow the Client to explore their own inner wilderness and get a ringside seat to observe and with permission to guide through and to witness and allow them to be SEEN where they are, where they may have been and then to celebrate when they reach and achieve a goal. Uniquely also, this approach this “PRACTICE, implies PROCESS; there is no beginning or end, but a lifetime of engagement and discovery.” (The Way of Wilderness, Steven Harper ,P.185)

“Coaching works when it offers clients the opportunity to discover that they can be valued as a whole-moving past the conditional assumptions that have cramped their growth”(Coaching Skills, the definitive guide to being a coach, Jenny Rogers)

Throughout our foundations Intensive we were introduced to the Practices (Habits) and core routines of Nature Connection, which are all detailed in Chapter 3 of Coyotes Guide to Connecting with Nature , (Jon Young, Ellen Haas, Evan McGown)
I believe it to be crucial for us, in the role of Nature Connected Coaches, to be living in alignment and embodying the knowing that we have received through these practices, in order to share them and be believable to those we wish to reach.

[Amanda]

I appreciate your emphasis on the word SEEN and that we are in practice, a process, that we get to witness and encourage. It also reminds me that it never ends, so you can’t get it wrong. I have had times that I spent more time in nature and other times I didn’t, so I do recognize the benefits but it’s a process for both us and our clients. Meeting them where they are is what is important.

[Sheri]

Sue, I too sensed the power and strength, or maybe certainty is a better word, in your post. For instance, the belief you hold in nature connections ability to be “both a powerful change agent and Medicine for healing.” I also see your desire to be true and authentic in your offering,”to be living in alignment and embodying the knowing that we have received through these practices.” A clarity seems to be forming for you.

[Cynthia Allen]

Sue, I was struck by this statement from your post, “Nature/wilderness can balance the masculine Feminine energies that exist within both individuals and group dynamics which is a balance that is difficult to even out in the culture today.” I find truth in the healing powers of nature to bring this balance, it’s a felt experience and seems to happen organically. I hope the more we, as a culture, can holistically and systematically connect to nature, the more this current imbalance can find equilibrium.

[Jen Medrick]

Sue, I am struck by the clarity and strength of your description of the whole arc of how wilderness and nature connection can evoke growth, transformation, ceremony, self-worth, personal discovery, and more. I particularly resonate with your repeated emphasis that the shifts arise from WITHIN in contact with what is without. I’m curious how you personally engage with this in your own experience. What places or practices have met you in such a way that you are changed? That give you that feeling or living in alignment and embodying your knowing? I’d love to hear more!

[Rachel Juth]

Sue, I love the power of your post!

I agree with, when you say, “Nature connectedness through outer wilderness experience heightens sensory awareness and through wilderness experience and nature connection transformation comes from WITHIN.” I am curious when you experienced this personally during the intensive (or even post intensive)? I felt incredibly inspired by your video share with the group at your sit spot.. in the snow!! You truly embodied going to your sit spot regardless of the weather. I feel so curious if you felt a deepening into your sit spot from that experience?

I also felt the power of your words when you said, “I believe it to be crucial for us, in the role of Nature Connected Coaches, to be living in alignment and embodying the knowing that we have received through these practices, in order to share them and be believable to those we wish to reach”. Have been able to incorporate the nature practices into your daily routine? On the call yesterday, Daniel was talking about importance of having our own daily routine so they we are able to to walk the walk with the clients. Are there any practices that you find yourself coming back to everyday? I would love to hear what your incorporation with these practices have been like! Thank you for the share and insight!

[Amanda]

My post would have been different based on concepts and quotes that stuck out for me, but I am also writing this in the present moment, holding the vision I am moving towards as a coach. Earlier this week, a fellow Air Force family that opened their doors and hearts to my own was hit with one of the worst things I think can happen to an individual. The wife who currently cares for her husband(currently in the dying process of Alzheimer’s) received the news that her 45 year old son killed himself leaving two 4 year old sons. I met him when he was 16, and he was a happy guy(the youngest of two brothers), but he suffered from PTSD as a result of tours in Afganistan, struggled more because of a divorce two years earlier, was a firefighter, and was having a difficult time with his father unable to recognize him any longer. My mission, my question, part of my vision, is the question-”How do people move positively to the other side of trauma and grief?” I currently work for a man who is also a vet and was a doctor on the ground and patrolled as well. He is alive but he suffers from PTSD, takes medication, marijuana for short periods of time that nightmares occur, has a difficult family life, and is a sole proprietor and provider for his family because of his wife’s mental illness.
I asked my boss why he thinks some vets kill themselves, and he said they came back here and nobody in their life had been through similar circumstances, they didn’t know why we went to war in the first place, and when they left their post as my boss did, two years later the same people the military fought off came right back into position. They felt they had accomplished nothing. No purpose for going in the first place. In the Coaching Skills(2016) book it discussed Victor Frankl’s concept of choice during suffering. The same book sits on my shelf and the idea I have always taken away from it, is that there is meaning in suffering, and those who suffered during internment camps made the choice to do so because they had something they had to share with the world or they lived for the family they hoped also stayed alive during the war. “J” I will call him, who recently died, was a firefighter and a dad, and he was loved greatly by his parents, but that wasn’t enough for him to endure. I would say that some people deal with trauma and grief in very different ways, and perhaps my boss is able to shut down emotions to situations to live that “J” was unable to, but I also see another difference.
Wilderness as a Healing Place(1993)-”We need healing when we suffer pain and a reduction of our ability to live well.” The healing he spoke about was a process that involved the physical, emotional, and spiritual parts. My boss is outside most of the day, he regularly hikes and walks and his smokers for BBQ are all outside. He actually spent time in the mental health field after he retired and said he went to work in the dark and came home in the dark and his office had no windows. He said he lost his mind, and he just couldn’t work like that anymore, so he left to start the business he currently has, which takes place mostly outside. I believe nature saved his life and continues to do so. I don’t think he recognizes that being outside in nature is a process that has worked for him, but he does know that he needs to be outside, which led me to a quote and a question for myself and us.
”Uninterrupted and undisturbed nature takes care of itself.” (Way of the Wilderness,1995) I do believe clients have the answers for themselves, and I do believe we are all Nature in the bigger sense, but how does that quote apply to us and how doesn’t it?

[Cynthia Allen]

Amanda, thank you for sharing so openly and vulnerably with us. It’s interesting how the events of our lives shift our perspective and point us in new directions. Or remind us what is important. I hear you sitting with this question of trauma, grief, and suffering and how helping others heal these aspects of the human condition fits into your vision. I wonder if you’ve had more clarity since this post?

I really love the inquiry you offered at the end of your post about how does the concept of uninterrupted and undisturbed nature take care of itself apply to us and how doesn’t it? If we are all nature, my sense is it fully applies, all the time, it’s the practice of surrendering to this that can be so challenging for me. What has come up for you in this inquiry?

[Jen Medrick]

Wow, Amanda, what an impactful time. I am really feeling that question: How do people move positively to the other side of trauma and grief? I have been close to someone suffering a variety of complex PTSD and traumatic impacts. I care about this question as well. And your inquiry on how your boss has survived in the face of the intensity of his experience feels profound. When you quote Way of the Wilderness – ”Uninterrupted and undisturbed nature takes care of itself.” – I find myself pondering that the whole situation with PTSD and trauma arises because “nature” has been interrupted and disturbed and we haven’t culturally or systemically provided ways to feel, express, integrate, and re-orient from those experiences.

We need that relational connection to heal and make sense of or give meaning to what caused the trauma. It makes me think of Soulcraft and other books by Bill Plotkin, who tells the story of the “Loyal Soldier.” After the World War II was over, for years, Japanese soldiers were found on remote islands or other obscure places where their planes had gone down. They had survived but literally been out of contact and had no way of knowing that the war was over. They were primed and ready to continue serving their country to the best of their ability. Unlike what has happened in the US (particularly after Vietnam and beyond), where soldiers have been spit upon, cast off, left to their own devices, and so on, the Japanese brought these soldiers home to genuine gratitude, celebration, and welcome and helped them find ways to bring that same devoted service to new arenas, to new purpose. I think most of us long for our actions to serve something bigger than ourselves. And these loyal soldiers (both literal and the parts within us) need to be woven back into connection in intentional and attuned ways.

I am very curious to see where this exploration will take you and what insights you may bring to support people in these arenas…

[Suez Nields]

Amanda,
“How do people move positively to the other side of trauma and grief?”

The healing of our Vets is a cause I also hold close. Im wondering, How can you see yourself as a Coach using nature Connection to help Veterans and their families in healing from PTSD? are there certain organizations that you will reach out to?
I can’t wait to explore these kind of topics together as a Cohort!

[Rachel Juth]

Amanda,
What a beautiful share. Thank you for your openness and sharing such raw experience. I enjoyed reading your perspective from a personal point. What a big and powerful question to sit with,”How do people move positively to the other side of trauma and grief?” I feel curious and excited to see how you unpack and explore this question through our time together this year. I wonder if a way that people move through grief is by allowing themselves to feel it. I have experienced, in my own life, the shame that I feel when I am in grief, especially when it continues to show up over an extended period of time. I feel as though our culture doesn’t allow space for people to be in grief for long periods of time. It seems like we are expected to get over it in a certain period of time. I also wonder if community support plays a role in moving through grief. I once attended a grief song ceremony in Oregon where members of the community came together to grieve. We held space for one another as the tears were shed and grief was felt. It was powerful and intense, but there was also something special about coming together as a community to feel emotion together. There was a great sense of empathy and a deep relatedness in the room. I do indeed wonder what our society could look like if more people embraced their grief and held space for one another. Thank you for sitting with a question that I believe will help so many people.

[Amanda]

**I realized I didn’t answer the kickoff question…I have different connections to nature, sometimes they are part of my work, part of my daily life, or sometimes it’s all have you at the moment to ground yourself.
In staying in the same vein of the post above, a connection to nature for me is a haven, a place to go for solace in the middle of grief or trauma, sometimes the only option. My eldest niece and grandchild at 4 years old drowned at her sister’s two year-old birthday party, and yes there were more adults to kids and she was 5 feet away, and yes her parents were the type that never allowed her out of their sight-extremely over-cautious. We did CPR but in the moments at the hospital we waited to find out her condition, I couldn’t stay in the ER and sit, and I had to go outside and walk under the trees. She is 10 years old now, and she is healthy and smart and worries all the time, but she is also a wise soul. A connection to nature is a gift I want to continue to share with her and share as a coach, because I do believe it can save your life when nothing else works.

[Sheri]

“Uninterrupted and undisturbed nature takes care of itself.” What a beautiful quote to ponder, Amanda. Especially when one considers we are nature. I just heard in another venue recently that maybe the best thing to do sometimes is to just BE, and let the situation take care of itself. I find it comforting that nature knows and does take care of itself, now we just have to get us out of the way which seems easier said than done!

Holding you and your friends and family in loving care during this difficult time. Here if you would like to talk. HUGS.

[Cynthia Allen]

SORRY FOR BEING LATE TO POST HERE. I LOOK FORWARD TO ENGAGING WITH EVERYONE ON OUR POSTS!

The meaning of nature connection has transformed through my life, and I’m experiencing another change now, as I walk through this program. I reflect on the different interactions and connections I’ve had with nature and how these culminate to create my sense of nature connection. In my early life, nature was a place to freely explore, create, and play. I would watch the ants for hours and make up magnificent stories about their kingdoms and their lives under the cracks in the earth. My love for being in the natural world along with my love to move my body found me adventuring outdoors, climbing and skiing mountains, riding my mountain bike through remote valleys, meadows, deserts, and mountain ridges, and journeying deep into the wilderness at every chance I got. These experiences connected me to something bigger than myself and taught me self-confidence, perseverance, reverence and respect for all life. I’ve always turned to nature to come home to myself, my authentic self, my heart, and my soul. Just as Steven Harper writes in Ecopsychology, “People have always turned to wilderness to become whole again.” (p. 184)

Now, with the practices I learned in the Nature Connected Leadership course and the Foundations Intensive I’ve found deeper intentional awareness, connection, inspiration, support, and growth with nature than I have previously experienced. These topics and learning materials are bringing together what I have always innately felt as a human; that I belong in nature, that I am nature and nature is me. It’s like I finally found the script for cultivating this belonging and can create it and evolve it as I grow. The commitment to visiting my sit spot daily, doing the full sensory awareness practice, incorporating more frequent wandering in the wilderness, and engaging the 7-Breaths exercise has brought me a deeper comfort with myself and a profound knowledge of my soul through stillness and deep listening. I like how John Miles states it in Wilderness as Healing Place, “All of this compatibility can be liberating. It can allow reflection that can lead to discovery of a different self, a self less constricted, more integrated, and more desirable.” (p. 46) So, all of this culminates to form my meaning of nature connection as being a whole human with my unique gifts, fully aware and present, connected to all that is, and with reverence for life.

With this expanded awareness of nature connection, I venture into coaching and guiding people to meet their deepest needs and cultivate a greater sense of themselves. I see my relationship with nature being critically important in supporting my effectiveness as a Nature Connected Coach. As I fully embrace and embody my whole humanness though expanded nature connection, I will better be able to see others as whole, resourceful and with unique gifts. As we discussed during the foundations intensive, seeing our clients as whole, functional, and complete people who have the wisdom to create their best selves is a foundational principle in coaching. In the Coaching Skills book, Jenny Rogers writes, “Coaching is about drawing out this intrinsic human resourcefulness” (p. 27). On my wander during our Foundations Intensive, I noticed that when I slow down to the speed of nature, ignite my senses, and deeply listen, my soul guides me to exactly where I need to be. This sense of wholeness is critically important in developing trust with my clients and myself as a coach.

Also, cultivating awareness and presence through nature connection is central to supporting deep listening. Deep listening is a core skill in coaching to be able to hear what is underneath the story. I like how the Coyote’s Guide (p. 44) talks about listening to the story…”rather than passively listening to stories, you are pulling stories – pulling out stories and pulling on stories – to reveal all the rich gems of learning, as well as all the gap and pockets of unawareness.” I think that through the full sensory awareness practice and tapping into baseline I’m training myself to be aware, present, and a deep listener. This is so important to help my coaching clients see the gaps and unconscious behaviors that may be holding them back from their ultimate goals.

Finally, as my nature connection grows and expands my sense of reverence for all life and interconnectedness of all beings, my coaching will be nurtured in many ways. When I feel connected to all that is, loneliness dissipates, and joy radiates from me. As my reverence and gratitude for all life amplifies, things begin to fall into place and I embrace an intuitive knowing that the path I’m walking is perfect and exactly where I need to be. The more I can live from this place, the more I will attract what I want in my coaching practice and how I want to be as a coach.

[Amanda]

Cynthia your post made me want to go run outside! Thank you so much, I am also grateful to have more practices to be in connection with nature and sounds like we are attracted to similar ones. I am also reminding myself that it is walking the walk and talking the talk in our own life, so that we are connected and can be so in our sessions with clients. We can’t encourage people to do things to better their lives if we don’t make time to do them ourselves. I really enjoyed your last statements, because I feel that the more time we are outside in nature and engaging in the present moment of it we do tap into a knowing that allows us to trust the process of our path, which will bring what we need as coaches, people, and/or business owners and creators.

[Cynthia Allen]

Thank Amanda! As I read my last statements again, it reminded me of the quote you put in your post, ”Uninterrupted and undisturbed nature takes care of itself.” And it makes me ask the question, How can I be uninterrupted and undisturbed nature? The word surrender comes up for me. Easier said than done!

[Sheri]

Cynthia – Right On! I felt the “Joy Radiating” with this statement and the clarity that you are in touch with. Hang on to this…“When I feel connected to all that is, loneliness dissipates, and joy radiates from me. As my reverence and gratitude for all life amplifies, things begin to fall into place and I embrace an intuitive knowing that the path I’m walking is perfect and exactly where I need to be. The more I can live from this place, the more I will attract what I want in my coaching practice and how I want to be as a coach.“

[Jen Medrick]

Cynthia, I love the personal nature of your post and getting a sense of how the practices are living in you and inviting you into a deeper experience of your connection to nature. And, having a “script for cultivating this belonging” – YES! I’m excited to see how living from this place continues to expand how you speak to what you are doing, be the reverent and attuned person you already are, and invite exactly the people who most need what you bring to work with you! This post feels like a celebration!

[Rachel Juth]

Cynthia,
I admire and have respect for your devotion to nature connection. Through getting to know you during the course and reading this post I see the dedication you have to nature connection practices that led you deeper into connection with yourself and the natural world. Hearing about how you would spend time in your younger years touched my heart! I loved when you shared, “I would watch the ants for hours and make up magnificent stories about their kingdoms and their lives under the cracks in the earth”. What a beautiful picture you painted!! This post reminds me of a Webinar we had with Daniel where he mentioned, walk the walk. It feels like by you being able to connect deeper to yourself and these practices, that you will be able to guide your clients to these places as well. What a gift that is!

[Jen Medrick]

Hi all,

I have been having a hard time for the last few weeks on multiple fronts, feeling a bit like I am drowning. I’ve had moments of sheer joy, clarity, and wonder, but also been walking with overwhelm and grief. I feel a bit like I’m in a (seasonably appropriate) place of freeze and thaw. I apologize for my absence from this discussion until now. I am deeply committed to this work and to this rich circle of community and am seeking support so that I can continue to show up.

******************

Here is my belated response to the question:
What does it mean to be connected to Nature, and how can that relationship support your coaching?

Steven Harper in the Way of Wilderness mentions learning that there is no word for wilderness in the Okanagan language. When I consider what it means to be connected to Nature, this feels so resonant. For me, being connected to nature is an ongoing coming home, a re-membering or returning to our essential belonging. We are nature. I am nature. Not separate, woven in. The wilderness is not out there, it is the pulse of life and form through all things, including me! When I am in contact with what is natural and wild in myself, in another, and in the world, I come to my senses. Literally. I am simultaneously the center of the world, this unique individual expression (Soul) having an experience, and one with the larger collective unfolding of Life, of All That Is. I simultaneously matter and don’t. I find this freeing. And it allows me to invite this same experience in and for another.

We are made of sunlight and soil, of minerals, of all the body’s salty seas. We share breath with trees. Our homes are made of sticks and stones, warmed by fires from burning fossils or the lightning of electricity. We eat the energy captured by green plants and woven into flesh and form. Like all the other beings, we live and grow and procreate and learn and die. The very ground beneath our feet is formed from the bodies of all the life that has come before, including our ancestors. Our minds evolved through generations of interactions and explorations. Our language arises in direct relationship to the world. Our very beingness arises from our interdependence with Nature.

We can forget however, both individually and collectively, that we belong. And this forgetting leads to so much of the “dis-ease” on physical, emotional, energetic, intellectual, and spiritual levels that besets our human experience. Reconnecting to Nature means expanding our awareness, stepping outside of the narrow and artificially limited ways of being that our culture or family may have taught us, dropping the illusion of our separateness. For me, coming back to my true nature is the most important work I can do. This is true on the personal level and on the larger collective level. It is a path, a practice, a deliberate engagement. I have been blessed to be raised by a father who walks this path himself.

Harper speaks to how wilderness or nature itself is the teacher… I might expand this to say that nature is also the companion, the territory, the healer, the mirror, even the beloved. In contact with the world, I gain perspective. I often get direct feedback on my impact (concentric rings!), my capacity, my deeper needs. I am impacted. I belong. I am met, nourished, challenged, ignored, seen, stalked, swept away, moved, held. I take up space, leave footprints, startle the hawk from the tree, cause ripples in fields of prairie dogs, successfully climb the tree or traverse the ravine. I drink in the coolness of water, taste the tart sweetness of raspberries, breathe in the crisp clean scent of sage. The sunset drenches my eyes with color – is that color for me or are my eyes for that color, that light? Gravity pulls me to the Earth, an embrace. The sun warms my skin. I meet my own edge as I walk the line of a ridge or explore balance crossing a swift stream on shifting stones. There is room for grief, joy, rage, curiosity, laughter, play, desire, fear… Emotions can move through, like water or clouds flow. There is an immediacy, a now-ness, to nature connection. Embodiment happens. Aliveness happens.

In connecting to nature, within and without, I start to see patterns, metaphors, and conceptual possibilities. I reflect on the seasons and rhythms of life, the ebb and flow of being. As a woman, my body has mirrored the waxing and waning of the moon. As a mother, I have carried an ocean in my womb that brought forth new life (like the primordial waters where all life arose). Like Summer, my daughter is moving into her own ripening, puberty a rite of passage. My parents are in the Winter of their lives, things falling away, slowing down, dying. Perhaps I am in the Autumn, harvesting where I’ve been and flaring up in new brilliant colors. There is grief and wonder, promise and hope, in these patterns. Life gives itself to Life (including through death). Spring stirs and sings and rises again after the freeze or inertness of Winter. The dawn bursts forth anew each day even after the longest night. This happens within me as well as without.

Nature connection is a relationship. I have cultivated this particular relationship throughout my life. Sit spots, wanders, solo quests, and ceremonial marking of seasons and cycles have been ongoing ways I’ve nourished connection. I have gone to both inner and outer territories for renewal, for resource. I have been welcomed as I am through the grief and rage of my divorce, crying in rain and snow and wind. I have walked my talk, trying on how I would move if I were confident, if I belonged, if I had purpose, if I we’re a coyote or a raven, if I were fierce or in love. I have sung, laughing and crying with wonder, to drifting clouds, soaring hawks, rising cliffs, bighorn sheep. I have carried pebbles and sticks and the occasional bone home when they spoke to me of my path and asked to slip in my pocket. I have simply gone out to meet my kith and kin as neighbors and friends – listening to the whispers and rattling of the wind through the Cottonwood leaves or speaking greetings to the prairie dogs or cawing in raucous delight to the crows or ravens wheeling and tumbling through the sky. All these beings are going about their own lives and paths. My life makes more sense through contact with all the others with whom I / we share the world. I expand beyond the smaller self. My mind quiets. I am filled with reverence and awe, curiosity, and a sense of mutual responsibility for the well-being of the world to which we belong. Indeed, that reverence and responsibility become part of my purpose, my soul calling.

As a coach and guide, my own belonging, my own familiarity with and recognition of this territory, is essential if I intend to invite others into their true nature, their fullness of being, their belonging as one exquisite expression of All That Is.

In Coaching Skills, Jenny Rodgers speaks to coaching being about closing “the gap between people’s potential and their current state.” As coaches, we hold that our clients are resourceful and capable, that our relationship is one between equals. This relationship between equals also extends to our client’s engagement with the world as well – we can invite them into their own deep connection to nature and soul. We support our clients in becoming self-aware and intentional, able to explore, imagine, and choose new ways of being and behaving in line with their own goals, needs, and intentions.

As a guide, because I have found my own way into relationship with nature, I can invite clients into direct contact with themselves and the world in an immediate and visceral way. I can invite clients to notice their own sensory awareness, to be struck by a moment of beauty, to explore fear or discomfort, to listen to (or not) the impulse to go one way or another, to stretch out and take up space, to be startled or joyful or angry, to meet what arises within and without… In the same way that I have carried my questions, doubts, longings, curiosity, and feelings into the world, I can invite my clients to do the same and to listen to the responses that arise through this exploration. The practices of nature connection that live in me, that I have tended myself, become the invitations I bring as a coach to my clients.

As John Miles discusses in Wilderness as a Healing Place, so much happens in this place of embodied and visceral contact. Physical health increases, awareness expands, contemplation emerges. A collaboration between guide, client, and nature can open all of our eyes to something new. Our relationship to the multilayered world unfolds as a reciprocal engagement, a conversation, that can inform all aspects of our lives.

Being connected to Nature is about being in contact with the full range of our actual experience, about recognizing our inherent belonging to and arising from the living world all around us. It is about coming to our senses, expanding our awareness, recognizing interconnection, being impacted by our connections and interactions, (re)inhabiting our bodies, deep listening, exploring new territory, expanding our choices, being held in the community of life, and stepping into our soul callings and knowings… and these are core elements of the what coaching is about as well.

The same awareness and wonder, the open-minded beingness, the flexibility and intention that I bring to my own connection to nature are also what I bring to my clients. As a coach, it is a privilege, an exquisite honor, to support people in their thriving. And this is what we need, now. People who are thriving, who are enlivened, connected, embodied, reverent, and purposeful, in whatever way is uniquely theirs. Bringing nature and coaching together is a natural path of transformation that can enhance wholeness, resilience, adaptability, creativity, and other qualities of our full potential as members of this collective unfolding.

[Suez Nields]

Jen-
Wow…
“For me, being connected to nature is an ongoing coming home, a re-membering or returning to our essential belonging. We are nature. I am nature. Not separate, woven in. The wilderness is not out there, it is the pulse of life and form through all things, including me! When I am in contact with what is natural and wild in myself, in another, and in the world, I come to my senses. Literally. I am simultaneously the center of the world, this unique individual expression (Soul) having an experience, and one with the larger collective unfolding of Life, of All That Is. I simultaneously matter and don’t. I find this freeing. And it allows me to invite this same experience in and for another…”

Jen Medrick Page 1, (insert title)
I for one,CANNOT WAIT TO READ THE REST OF THE BOOK!

This whole response reads like a love letter.
Thank you for gifting our eyes and hearts with it.

[Rachel Juth]

Jen,
Your post was absolutely incredible! First off, I want to say that I appreciate your openness and honesty of where you are in your own personal process. I will say that since our first Intensive there is a lot in my life that is shifting, changing, and challenging within me. It means a lot to know that I am not alone.
I appreciate the way in which you see the world and how you were able to name it in such a beautiful way. As I was reading I feel as though I was wrapped in and reminded of the beauty of the natural world. I felt the most connected when you said, “We are nature. I am nature. Not separate, woven in. The wilderness is not out there, it is the pulse of life and form through all things, including me! When I am in contact with what is natural and wild in myself, in another, and in the world, I come to my senses. Literally. I am simultaneously the center of the world, this unique individual expression (Soul) having an experience, and one with the larger collective unfolding of Life, of All That Is. I simultaneously matter and don’t. I find this freeing. And it allows me to invite this same experience in and for another.” Yes, yes, yes!!!! We are not separate but somehow it feels like we have forgotten this. I think how I try to make intentional time, when I am not at work, to be in nature, though really nature is all around us! Thank you for this reminder. I love and appreciate the way in which you see the world. It is both beautiful and inspiring.

[Amanda]

As I read through all of the posts and discussions, I realize that there are a million things for us to choose to do in this lifetime as human beings with the freedoms we have been given in 2021, and yet here we all are. I think that is pretty great, and I definitely feel part of a tribe and echo many of your feelings and intentions. My understanding of nature connection, in regards to the program, changed when Michael said that nature included natural surroundings but also our body processes and everything in our environment. I have to say that it let me off the hook a bit because I didn’t grow up camping and hiking and mountaineering. As a kid I did have the freedom to chase grasshoppers and frogs even though my mom was a worry wart. I was able to do that because we lived on Air Force bases and everyone felt safe, otherwise I probably would have been raised with many of the same worries I see kids raised with today.
I have been playing with the word “natural” connection, which I think encompasses a bit more for me. I think that awe and reverence does occur most readily observing the natural world. I lived in Hawaii from 12-16, and I remember riding around in the car thinking, “Wow, everything is a postcard!” It is truly a breathtaking place to visit or live. However I think humans and their creation of music, art, dance, books, GOOD television:) and movies also connect me to myself, the planet, and other people. I think we are given an opportunity to connect, through a myriad of ways and it is up to us to notice. I do believe my sit spot works on me, and want to meet people where they are and find what will make them curious enough to try it out. Right now there is a movie on Netflix called, “My Octopus Teacher,” about a man that visits an area of the ocean near his house and stumbled upon a relationship with an octopus. It happened at a time in his life when he didn’t know what to do and had put down his work as a photographer, but he was inspired to pick it up again. A nature/natural connection is always there waiting for us, but for me it means slowing or quieting down enough to hear my intuition on what is the next best thing for me to do in the moment. I don’t want to forget that at one time I didn’t know what a sit spot was because my clients may not either.

[Rachel Juth]

What struck me the most from this discussion, is Amanda’s reflection on slowing down/quieting enough to hear our own intuition as a way to connect with our internal nature. After reading her last post and letting the power of the words sink into my bones, I have noticed how this is a truth for me as well. The more that I slow down and connect to myself, the more I feel connected to the natural world around me. I notice when I slow down in the morning, taking the time to drop into the present moment, it allows me to connect more deeply to myself. In turn, the way I see the world changes and the connection that I feel to those around me also changes. I feel grateful for this reminder of slowing down and connecting to the deepest parts of ourselves. This is something that I want to take forward as a guide and a coach. Currently, it feels easier said than done, though there is an unfolding and a dedication that is coming alive for me that feels stronger than ever before. We can only take our clients into the unknown as far as we have gone and I feel a curiosity to dive deeper into my unknown.

Several of you asked how our program supports clients in their weekly transition and how I tend to myself during that time. I brought my attention to the transition this week in the field and I noticed how much I also struggle with leaving the natural world. I imagine this ties into connecting to our internal world and being aware with (and okay with) the struggle. For clients, this week in particular, I was open to holding space and conversations with them by validating their experience and getting curious about it. Our program uses what comes up during transition as a way to better understand a clients process. I myself still feel as though I want to explore what is happening for me at this time.

[jacklyn.couturier]

Rachel, I can’t agree with you more about Amanda’s post. Slowing down/Quieting our own minds so we can hear our own intuition or self (soul) and trust that nature has all the answers. That is why when I see my clients I like to see them on the land and not over zoom. But when I do see a client on the web, I request they put some sort of plants or rocks around them as we do our session. I want them to actually feel, hear, and smell nature all around them. Even though I know that nature is all around us.

[jacklyn.couturier]

Yes I am late…Very late but I am showing up with my full self 🙂

Being Connected to Nature is the most powerful, healing feeling one can have. I did not realize this until my sister died in 2017, then followed by multiple deaths of family members, and people close to me. My body started reacting in ways that I did not understand. So instead of seeking nature, I went to the doctor and of course they had no idea what was going on, so pill after pill nothing was helping, I was still having seizures with no answers.

Until I was advised by my therapist at the time to do a (supervised) solo. I thought she was crazy lol

I remember hiking what seemed like an eternity to my solo spot in the woods with nothing but a sleeping bag and tarp. I spent 24 full hours laying in the grass, smelling nature all around me. My body and soul felt free. I knew my sister was there watching over me because nature showed me, she loved butterflies, the entire time I was at one with Nature so was this butterfly right next to me. The next day as I hiked around on the land I asked for a sign that she was ok and at peace, not long after that rain drizzled down on me, I knew it was her. 😊

I now can say that nature is healing, I am a firm believer in that due to the fact I’ve been seizure free and off all seizure medications to this day. 🙂

After that solo I knew I wanted everyone to experience this feeling, this relief, this gratitude I had felt after leaving the land. I knew I was ok and would be ok. That’s what connected to nature means to me.