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Foundation 2 Cohort 21
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31 Replies
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I was a Catholic school kid and was raised in a large Irish-Catholic family where Sunday Mass was only missed if you were on your death bed. I was a serious Catholic adult and even started a Master’s degree in multi-cultural ministry at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, which in of itself was an awesome place where several different Christian faiths and non-Christian faiths came to study at each other’s schools. St. Francis has always been my saint of choice and both my father and grandfather are named Francis, so we go far back. I did not finish the program, for a couple of strong reasons, which I am sure will be shared over the course of the year, but for this particular question one is important. As I studied the Catholic faith in detail, God, Source, all the names, became too big for it to stay in the frame of Catholicism. However, my family remains Catholic and I am a regular attendee of all important occasions that continue to occur in the church and I credit a lot of the good parts of myself to my upbringing.
Aside from that though I see people around me walking paths in life without any anchors, specifically younger people because many of their parents have left the churches they were raised in as well. I do live in Southern Ca, so I acknowledge in other parts of the country there are still booming church communities and even in areas of Southern Ca. However there is a disconnection from something greater outside of ourselves. I recently had a call with Sheri, and even though I found a different path to walk in spiritually, I feel like this nature-connected coaching program and nature itself is really the practice of my spirituality. There are books and studies but also the experiential component of actually being outside. In Christianity there are 3 parts-the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and I feel like there are 3 parts here as well-Us(Humans), Source(Whatever you like to call that energy), and Nature(Holy Spirit, the relationship between the 2/the practice).
“There is a deeply bonded and reciprocal communion between humans and nature. The denial of this bond is a source of suffering both for the physical environment and for the human psyche, and the realization of the connection between humans and nature is healing for both. This reconnection includes the healing potential of contact with nature, work on grief and despair about environmental destruction, eco therapy, psychoemotional bonding with nature as a source of environmental action, and cultivation of sustainable lifestyles”(The Transpersonal Dimensions of Ecopsychology:Nature, Nonduality, and Spiritual Practice by John Davis). I think many people have left structured religion behind and are looking for an anchor, looking for healing and purpose, and I think our connection with nature can provide this path. I see Ecopsychology as a study of why being in communion with nature is good for us and ultimately benefits nature. The more time we spend appreciating nature in whatever way it presents itself whether its on our plates or in our backyard, the more inclined we are to take care of it.
As a coach I would like to guide people along a path to WHO they are. I use capitals because the WHO is all of who we are and who we want to become and where we came from-a spiritual being having a human experience. I see nature as part of that path, the practice and symbol of the Oneness we are all a part. A nature connected coach stays connected to nature and also coaches and guides their clients to do the same, utilizing the tools that are available to them moment to moment. I feel like being outside is the physical part of my spiritual practice now. The skill I need to continue to strengthen is my own connection to the physical part of nature no matter the distractions of life, and I feel like my regular attendance to this program is a metaphor for how I am doing. It will be something I keep track of through the days, weeks, and months.-
Amanda, I appreciated your comment about witnessing people walking around life without anchors, based possibly on their / their families disconnect from a church, and the realization that nature may be able to play that role of anchoring to purpose in life, along with insight and vision of how your role as a nature connected coach may guide people with nature to healing and purpose in life. I am curious to see how your path along this thread continues to unfold before you as your curiosity continues to seek this guidance. It is a joy to witness your journey of discovery. Thank you for sharing.
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As a “recovering Catholic” myself…. I can identify with your perspective, Amanda. I have had many conversations regarding the disconnect people seem to be experiencing , possibly stemming from the rejection of the place where community and connection had traditionally been planted and fostered… EVEN if the container was rife with dogma, intolerance and inequality and sometimes the exact opposite of HOLY.
Connecting with nature on that deep spiritual level… is indeed what brought me to healing.In it, I found my anchor. It also led me to search for Community on different terms.-
I get all of that Sue, the hypocrisy that can be part of any person or organization can drive me crazy, but I have to watch it in myself as well. I was just spending time with my mom and stepdad this weekend, and my mom suggested a read a book she had on the counter about people who had visions or returned back from death and their experience of purgatory. I basically rolled my eyes and said oh brother, and I pointed out that we didn’t even spend a lot of time in Catholic school growing up learning about that aspect of the church. Guess its making a round back in Catholic culture these days. I am thinking of your discussion post below now, and thinking of meeting clients and being flexible and even cognizant of their age because my mom growing up wasn’t the hell and damnation Catholic at all, so it’s interesting she has gotten more conservative as she has gotten older. She also as people do probably thinks more about her mortality and what comes next being in her mid 60s.
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Amanda, I feel inspired by this post as well as the last one. Your last post really got me to chewing on the idea of, “what does it look like for me to connect to my internal nature?” These last two weeks I have spent my time aware, curious, and in relationship and conversation with different parts of my internal world. I relate to you when you say that nature connection feels like the practice of your spirituality. I was raised in a Christian household and once I went off to college I deciding the church wasn’t for me any longer. Several years later I felt myself longing for a way to connect to something greater than myself. It does seem as though people who were raised in a religion (and are no longer in one) are more open to spirituality (whatever that looks like for them) vs people who did not have that upbringing. It reminds me of my travels to India and the conversations I would have asking, “what makes India a country that feels so spiritual?” The answer to that was a friend who explained that when children are small their parents put their hangs together to pray, are shown how to give offerings daily, and are part of yearly celebrations and festivals to honor their Gods. This way of being is ingrained in their culture. It makes me wonder how we as Nature-Connected coaches can teach a new way of being to people who may not have any past experiences in connecting to themselves or to something greater than themselves. I appreciate the dedication that you bring to your life and how you are determined to practice what you want to teach those you will be working with.
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Definitely looking forward to chatting with you about India, I spent 3 weeks in Bali and felt similar and saw similar spiritual/religious activities daily. As for your question about bringing people a bigger awareness of themselves or nature, in some ways I am my own client. I am using a lot of the exercises that we learned in Foundations, and I do feel my own connection to nature more consistently. It feels more noticeable, and I am always efforting to feel good or better or in Connection with myself and the capital WHO. I spent a lot of time outside growing up but was raised in a family that really enjoyed the indoors-movies, book, tv. I think as coaches even suggesting going outside regularly helps them get answers that they already have in themselves.
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Amanda, thank you for sharing yourself so authentically! I was also raised Catholic and always felt deeply troubled by the lack of women on the alter! My Mom reminded me the other day of a story. As a young girl in church one day I asked my Mom, “Why aren’t there any girls on the alter?”. She said, “because they aren’t allowed (this was before girls could be ‘alter servers’). I said, “Well, I want to be Pope someday.” Instead, I turned away from all organized religion and found my God in nature. I love your observation about people walking around without anchors and that maybe an awakening to nature can give people the anchor they need to feel connected to something bigger than themselves. This resonates so deeply with me and motivates me to continue my own nature connected practices.
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Amanda,
I love your statement about nature-connection itself being the practice of your spirituality, from the ideas in books and studies, to the experiential aspect of being outside. And the modified Trinity – Humans / Source / Nature – what a way to reinvigorate those concepts.
I’m curious, all this time later, how you are committing to the physical part of your spiritual practice? How are you making the time amidst it all? What does it look like now?
I’m remembering the session you facilitated for me where I was yearning toward cultivating a sense of devotion in my own spiritual practice. It was so powerful to be able to talk about concepts that often arise in a religious context but, as you say, are too big to stay in the frame of traditional religion. The impulse toward a direct experience of the Sacred feels so core to how we orient, that anchor you name. Your awareness of how that looks within Catholicism provided an invitation and language for me to explore how these anchors and spiritual practices might come through me, without religion. I love how you can still participate with your family and go to church, recognizing what is of value there yet still holding your own bigger and more nature-connected view.
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It Seems to me that Ecopsychology (and Ecotherapy) intersect with Coaching, specifically NCC at the application level. As Nature Connected Coaches we must view from the holistic and sacred lens, our perspective includes not only our place and impact on this plane, on this planet… the space we inhabit, the natural world, both inner and outer Wilderness. The impact we have, as well as How we are Impacted by it.
It also seems to make perfect sense… that the discord and the divisiveness that the planet is experiencing and the inner turmoil, discord and discontentment we are experiencing as human inhabitants of said planet stems from the impact of the GREAT DISCONNECT.
We are technologically more connected than ever before, YET more disconnected to self, spirit and the global WE than ever before.”Ecopsychology holds that there is a synergistic interplay between planetary and personal well being, i.e., the needs of the planet are the needs of the person, the rights of the person are the rights of the planet” Further,
Ecopsychology holds that “whatever contributes to small scale social forms and personal empowerment NOURISHES the Ecological ego, Whatever strives for large scale Domination and Suppression of Personhood, UNDERMINES the ecological Ego”
Including the theories and principles of Ecopsychology in our explorations within our own humanness and that of our clients can only lead to greater harmony and healing the discord.One of the challenges I can see is that there is no ONE formula or particular recipe for what a client needs, and what the Blend might be.
Rising to this challenge will require us as Nature Connected Coaches to be Flexible, to have a well stocked Toolbox, and to be open to switching up tactics based on the signs and language and needs of individual clients. While this can be a challenging perspective, It’s also one of the beautiful aspects of the work, because it allows us the Freedom to develop a personal voice and rapport with clients, where the clients feel SAFE and SEEN, HEARD and EMPOWERED, Taking the Reins of Change for Themselves!“How deep the listening must go to Hear the Self, Speak Through the Self.”
( p.2, The Voice of the Earth: an Exploration of Ecopsychology, Roznak,T. 2001)I also really appreciated all of the different questions to ask that were in (Coaching Skills The definitive guide to being a Coach, Jenny Rogers.Chapter 5) and how to use them effectively, and having them to compare to how we, as NCC practitioners use the sacred questions… and using these as a resource for developing your own voice as a coach.
What struck a chord with me after finishing and then attempting to absorb all the information from the assigned and supplemental readings for this foundation, is all of the different ways to engage both our own curiosity and to inspire and invite those we are working with to explore their own curiosity within the container of Nature Connected Coaching. I’m beginning to get a clearer idea of the different levels that a client may be at, may want to reach and how they are connected. The Head level, the Heart Level then the deeper SOUL spot.
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Sue, I love the quote that you pulled out from The Voice of the Earth: an Exploration of Ecopsychology, “How deep the listening must go to Hear the Self, Speak Through the Self.” It reminds me of a quote that I always share with those around me, “Who you really are is the silence between thoughts.” You named how we can connect clients deeper to themselves through Head, Heart, and Soul. I appreciate the reminder that clients will be coming in at different levels and it is up to us to accept where they are and what they are ready for. There is no point in pulling clients ahead, even if we ourselves can see where they are headed. Patience is something that I need to remind myself of as a coach!
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Rachel-
I can see myself also needing to remember to let the clients set the pace… and not lead them to the place, but rather have them discover their own intrinsic answers … even if we are super excited ( or exasperated) or whatever the feelings we might have about it! I think you’re right, that patience will be key!
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I am loving all this Sue, and I completely agree with flexibilty and the ability to pull tools from wherever you can to meet the client where they are in the moment/journey. There was definitely a lot of different avenues and trails this week, and I do believe that the clients that we will be able to help will be attracted to us and vice versa. I see the Great Disconnect in my own family, which in some ways inspired me to pursue nature connected coaching. I have a nephew I have spent a lot of time with since literally the day he was born, and I have watched his attraction to video games and tv just increase every year. He is only 4 1/2 right now, and he actually was always outside with his toy blower and broom and trash can as he got old enough to walk and talk. We said he will have a landscape company or something, and I would love it, but he could also be a kid that sits in his room on computer games. I think if anything I have to remember that I love being outside and inside, and maybe people aren’t ready to be outside 7 hours a day, but the suggestion of a sit spot could change the entire trajectory of their life.
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Sue, I love the insight and wisdom you pulled from the readings that the discord and the divisiveness that the planet is experiencing and the inner turmoil, discord and discontentment we are experiencing as human inhabitants of said planet stems from the impact of the GREAT DISCONNECT. I also see such power in helping repair this disconnect through working with clients to heal. Your point about meeting clients where they are and not having one formula is also really potent. As we deepen our relationship to nature I wonder if it’ll become harder to relate to people who are really disconnected? I want to be aware of this for myself, because these are exactly the people who can benefit most from this work.
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Cyn-
You bring up a REALLY good point. Those people with the disconnection… maybe ARE the people that we don’t necessarily want to surround ourselves with as we gravitate more to those that fill our cup, so to say. Yet… these also are the people who can absolutely benefit from the healing NATURE of the work. so I think that its absolutely imperative that we are continually seeking to refill our own cups, so that there is plenty to tip out and to spill over onto others. and to put our desire to heal that disconnect in an equal balance with the connectedness we feel with nature and with those with whom connectedness is alive!
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Whew, I’m really feeling your framing of the Great Disconnect. My child (he/they) is totally absorbed with their phone. It runs in the background even when they are doing other things. And the need for a phone and computer arose during Covid and the necessity of having ways to contact friends or participate in school during lockdown. I feel this wave of sadness at the impact… while also seeking to meet my kiddo where they are.
Seeing first hand how this unfolds, I notice this great curiosity about how to utilize the overwhelming technology to expand connection to body, life, world, Soul – in my life, my child’s life, my client’s life. We’re doing it right here, in these conversations. We do it when see client’s on Zoom.
How does virtual space also become part of place, of Sacred Ground, of webs of interconnection? How do we expand our sense of inner and outer Wilderness in these new digital territories while also orienting to the physical body, the radiant community of life, the landscapes and rhythms of the natural world?
I don’t know why this is what comes to mind reading your post, but I’m curious how we, as nature-connected coaches and just as humans, widen and deepen how we listen, how we notice and honor where people are, and how we see and find “nature” throughout all the realms available in ways that serve the Earth, ourselves, and Life… I’m gonna have to keep exploring this.
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Ecopsychology is the study of the relationship between humans and nature. In the article Psyche and Nature in a Circle of Healing, Buzzell and Chalquist share there are ways and methods in which we as humans can address pain from an ecotherapy standpoint, some which include, “reconnection with nature and one’s own nature, working with our plant and animal friends, voluntary simplicity, detaching from rigidly artificial time schedules, changing home or work environments, dream therapy, wilderness retreats, environmental activism, healing spiritual practices, and recovery from compulsive consumerism.” After our first assignment with EBI, I have been thinking about what my relationship with myself looks like. I have been observing my relationship with pain and noticing the moments when it arises, trying to identify any patterns or threads. I believe that our emotions are trying to tell us something, almost like little indicators telling us that there is something to bring attention to. During these last two week of being off of work, I have noticed that my home environment plays a role in the way I feel as well as connection with nature and my own nature. I live in a small town and in order to get to wild nature it requires me to drive outside of town. I have noticed that when I stay with friends in Boulder, UT I feel inspired to walk out the front door and in any direction I go I am in wild nature. There is also a sense of peace that I feel in Boulder that allows me to connect deeper to myself and my surroundings.
Ecopsychology and Coaching can come together in several different ways. I think about the awareness practices that we learned during the intensive, wandering on the land, having sessions in nature, and the indicators of awareness in Coyotes guide.
During the intensive I remember Michael talking about going on walks with his clients out on the land. He mentioned providing space and support for a client to experience whatever needed to arise and how it would. When I heard this I thought, “I would love to have that kind of experience with someone”. There is such a power in bringing ecopsychology into coaching. It is a way to provide a container for people as well as a way to bring people home to themselves. Ecopsychology- The Principles states, “what our ancestors took to be common knowledge: there is more to know about the self, or rather more self to know, than our personal history reveals”. There have been moments throughout the last few months where I have been feeling profoundly grateful for EBI and the Nature-Connected Coaching program. It feels as though I have a found a portal into the soul! I truly believe there is more self to know and I experience that every time I have a coaching session or I am coaching another. I wonder what the world would like if more people connected to their souls?Bringing the idea of ecopsychology into coaching provides an opportunity to expand our toolbox. As a Nature-Connected Coach, we get to use nature as our ally. There is such a power in being able to teach and incorporate nature awareness practices into our sessions with clients and into my own life. Ecopsychology- The Principles states, “Ecopsychology holds that there is a synergistic interplay between planetary and personal well-being.. The human and the divine are cooperatively linked in the quest for salvation”. About a year ago while I was working my first shift as a Rite of Passage guide for my job, I walked up to a grandmother Juniper and I asked her if she had any advice for me, she responded, “you treat nature the way that you treat yourself.” I love this idea that we are not separate from nature and that there is a feeling relationship between us and the natural world.
In the essay, Ecopsychology – The Principles, Roszak states “Ecopsychology seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment”. When thinking about how it might fall short, I think about being a Nature-Connected coach and I wonder how many people may be turned off to the idea of connecting with nature. I think about clients who come into the wilderness therapy program I work at and some have had very little exposure to nature. These clients often do not want to be at the program and would leave if they were able to. It’s incredible to see how over time they open up to the experience and there relationship to nature changes. With our clients it takes patience, curiosity, and compassion to help them as they build a relationship with the natural world. Psyche and Nature in a circle of Healing states “The critical fact that people are intimately connected with, embedded in, and inseparable from the rest of nature.” I really enjoyed the essay Nature in a circle of Healing and I end with this quote. As much as humans want to try to deny it, we are inseparable from nature.
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I am thinking about the difference you notice in yourself when you have quick access to wild Nature and when you don’t, and what it will look like for clients who do not have that easy access and the ways they can be connected to nature through zoom or in person coaching sessions. Basically what is the bare minimum that people need to really feel that connection, and I think it varies person to person. I know as you said that Nature does effect people, especially the people in your program whether they had any experience at all with Nature or not. I do agree that Nature is a portal to soul/Soul, and from my view as a coach I feel like a guide that can help connect the two. I am not sure if we are in the portal with them or right outside of it, which is an interesting thought not to go on a tangent. I am also always curious about the rubber meeting the road after the coaching session or after the quest or wilderness therapy program in your case, and how the integration works and how to set up the student/client to be successful, whatever that means for them. I think Rachel, you have a really great seat to watch people explore nature maybe for the first time, and then I am really interested in the changes that happen at home. I hope to have a conversation with a person in her 30’s that went through a wilderness program in her 20s, I know they are not all the same, but just to find out what changes occurred in her life, what worked and what didn’t. Curious to find out if nothing else, if her connection to nature still remains, or changed by the experience.
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Rachel, I experience such richness in your posts and this brought up so much for me. Thank you 🙂 I love your inquiry, What would the world look like if more people connected to their souls? I feel like this is how we, as nature connected coaches, can contribute to collective healing in the world. It’s so inspiring to ponder! Another thing that resonated with me in your post is your personal connection to nature and where you feel it most. I went around and around trying to decide where my sit spot would be. I live in a small mountain town surrounded by ponderosa pine forest, and wanted my sit spot to be in ‘wild nature’ too because it feels so good! Then I realized that the ease of having my sit spot in my yard would help me more consistently maintain the habit of going there. I remember Michael talking about that feeling you get when being in nature for several days, that calm and slow pace of nature that can be so grounding and healing. And he talked about the nature connection practices being essential to us getting into that place. I’m curious if over time we will be able to more easily access that place from where ever we are? I wonder if it’s like training the brain to be grateful; training the brain to be more nature connected?
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Rachel-
YES… What WOULD the world look like if mour people connected to their souls???!!! let’s find out, shall we?!
I find too, that Accessibility can be more and more of a challenge for me in getting out into the WILD. Ive been struggling with this a LOT lately. It’s at this time that i feel pulled the most to do everything I possibly can to bring in the Wildness. I envy that you are able to have that connection for yourself right now… in your pay -the- bills work in the outdoor therapy arena!
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Two lines stand out to me in the overall richness of your post, Rachel.
Juniper saying “you treat nature the way that you treat yourself.” And the question you ask:
“I wonder how many people may be turned off to the idea of connecting with nature.”I’m coming back to the experience and concept that WE are nature. If we are treating nature the way we treat ourselves, and then turned off by the idea of connecting to nature, are we also turned off by the idea of connecting to ourselves? There is something that happens when we find ways to engage with outer nature where we also find ourselves engaging with inner nature. And then, this whole exploration becomes a path to Soul.
I love how personal this inquiry becomes for you… it invites me into more personal exploration myself. I have so much access to the natural world here in Boulder, CO and yet sometimes am resistant to making contact with what’s right here even when it is so deeply resourcing. I’m applying the questions to myself now: what am I struggling to connect to internally that is cutting me off from connecting to the world? And this is such an important question with our clients too.
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As an environmentalist working in oil and gas companies for 13 years, I never felt like I fit in. I committed myself to helping the companies be better and do better for the environment, the employees, and the communities where they operated, and I actually accomplished this in many ways. The refreshing thing to me, and maybe surprising to others, is that the industry is filled with people who really care about the natural world and work hard to safely and responsibly produce the resource that the world depends so heavily on. The problem (one of many!) is the system under which this industry (and all publicly traded entities) exists is designed to make a profit over everything else. It became clear to me that the most important thing was returning shareholder value, which can be in direct conflict with environmental sustainability. At the same time, I saw the incredible efforts made to eliminate emissions and oil spills, save birds from harm, restore the land, build wildlife habitat, and charitably contribute to the community. Reflecting on these acts, I can see the strength and truth of the ecological ego and I also see the strength of the “compulsively ‘masculine’ character traits that permeate our structures of political power and which drive us to dominate nature as if it were an alien and rightless realm. In this regard, ecopsychology draws significantly on some (not all) of the insights of ecofeminism and Feminist Spirituality with a view to demystifying the sexual stereotypes.” (T. Roszak, Ecopsychology – The Principles) I think it’s the imbalance of this polarity, the masculine and feminine energies, that have created the deep disconnect between humans and the natural world.
I see this as a place where Ecopsychology and Coaching can come together; to bring healing into action. “Ecopsychology seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment.” T. Roszak goes on to discuss the ecological unconscious and the awakening of the “animistic qualities of experience” that ecopsychology seeks to help people become conscious of. (T. Roszak Ecopsychology – The Principles) If we all can awaken to the ecological unconscious at the core of our mind and realize that all life is truly connected, I believe we will stop doing harm to ourselves, each other, all life forms, and the planet. This is my vision and hope for the world and this is where I’d like to focus my nature connected coaching path.
Stepping into the NCC, I felt inspired to bring nature connected coaching to my network of oil and gas leaders, policy makers, and field workers with the vision that helping them deepen their connection with themselves and the natural world, could lead to great healing and balance. I feel deeply called to help bring balance to our systems because with balance we can find health, vitality, cooperation, symbiosis, and environmental reciprocity. I want to help people grow, become better versions of themselves, become more conscious, and awaken to universal consciousness. I love the concepts presented by Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist in “Psyche and Nature in a Circle of Healing that, “Using nature as a mere tool for human healing perpetuates the very self-world splits responsible for both our ecologically resonant maladies and a deteriorating biosphere.” They go on to say that all beings on the planet have their own needs and freedoms to preserve, and by partnering with them, humans can reestablish a sense of belonging. Imagining a world where all beings feel like they belong and have mutual respect, reverence, and love for each other is a world where we find balance. This is how I see the principals of Ecopsychology adding foundation to my path as a nature connected coach.
As I continue my nature connected practices like visiting my sit spot daily, going on nature wanders, and tuning into my inner wilderness through the 7-breaths meditation, I’m finding more balance in myself. I’m also experiencing a slowing down and an increase in my sensory awareness. These practices are helping me awaken the ecological unconscious in my mind and see where I’m imbalanced. Ultimately, I think this will help me in cultivating the essential skill of deep listening. In Coaching Skills, Jenny Rogers writes (p. 39) that, “trusting your intuition” is essential in achieving Level 3 listening. This is critical in helping draw the deeper need out through the coaching process. I’m curious about the connection between the ecological unconscious and the deeper need. Are all deeper needs connected to the ecological unconscious? “If we have a connection with nature that expresses itself more authentically as love and loyalty than as guilt and fear, then freeing the ecological unconscious may be the key to sanity in our time.” (T. Roszak, A psyche as Big as the Earth)
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I love that you are in the system in order to change it. I wish I knew you when I was meeting doctoral and master’s level students that were angry and passionate about the destruction of the Amazon that we were all living in and experiencing for 3 weeks to study an indigenous language called Quechua in Ecuador. They were building oil pipelines right through the villages and around the families we were living with. I think what you are doing is extremely important and you can be a great connection between the companies and environmentalists. I can’t imagine the balance it takes to do that.
I asked in one of our calls if there was one deeper need that was at the base of all the others and Daniel mentioned-“To be Love.” Maybe love and appreciation is the connection between the ecological unconscious and the deeper need. You can’t give what you don’t have, so maybe loving, accepting and respecting ourselves and everything we are translates to loving, accepting, and respecting nature? I have also witnessed the disconnection and lack of relationship with nature, it’s “out” there rather than part of who we are. Maybe there is a way for you to gift the people you work an experience of a threshold/transformative experience, so they can see the benefits themselves. I am sure you will be doing that as a coach.
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Cynthia,
I appreciate your inspiration and drive to bring your NCC skills into working with people who are connected to the oil and gas industry, policy makers, as well as field leaders. I can see how there is great potential for healing of the earth through working with these people. I honor and respect your vision and I see how the work that you did before starting EBI has brought you to this moment and added to your vision!
Thank you for the reminder of trusting your intuition. It is amazing to think that we have so much wisdom and knowledge inside of ourselves. If we are able to trust that and tune into our deeper knowing, it allows so much to flow through us.
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The word, the concept of vulnerability presented itself during this module to me, and I am thinking/pondering my way through it. There was a woman on a show I was watching and she seemed closed off emotionally from my perspective, and the audience found out later why that was the case. She said that for her to be vulnerable was difficult because it felt like a weakness rather than a strength. I started thinking about animals in the wild and when they are hurt or scared they freeze, run, or hide so they will not become prey. It is an instinct humans also carry with them until they are able to see that vulnerability in the human world can actually be a strength; it connects people together and helps form relationships. Intimate relationships do not work very well without the ability. Coaching clients come to us for help, something happens or doesn’t happen for them that they want to change or have or stop and it is a vulnerable position. I am looking to nature in the ways its vulnerability is actually a strength, what components are there that can teach us and show us this is true.
I picked to be a coach because the client has the answers for themselves. I don’t need to have the answers for them, and there is no wrong as long as they make their own choices. I am always adding to my vision of a coach and what do I want my clients to know or potential clients in terms of marketing/attracting? What vulnerabilities of mine do I want to share to develop that relationship whether it is through a website or a conversation or social media? I do believe that our challenges and how we moved through them are stories that make us different from each other and people will be attracted or feel like they have something in common.
At this point I feel like I am my own client in terms of creating time to go outside and am on purpose being easy about the next step and the next and the next step. I am enjoying being a student, and the more time I make to go outside the more I get back, and I think as a nature- connected coach, if we did nothing else, but help people spend more time in quiet outside our jobs would be 90 percent done. The challenge as a coach lies in helping them to have a transformative experience that really shows them what nature gives us when we engage and make a connection. Fun and ease need to be part of my life and work, and I think fun can definitely be a part of coaching, and it propels people to make changes. If someone is dreading to go to the gym then there needs to be another activity they can do for the same benefits.
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Reflecting on the material in this section along with everyone’s posts, I’m drawn to the concept of the collective psyche, the ecological unconscious, and the personal work that I’m doing to heal myself, thus healing the world. I’ve been playing with a looking glass metaphor. I’m not sure I have the words to adequately describe what is present for me in this metaphor, but I’m going to try.
The looking glass itself is a mirror. On one side is me and on the other side is the culture, collective, world, etc. In the middle is the mirror, the looking glass. The way I’m using this metaphor in my life is by seeing how I am the microcosm of the whole. In my last post I talked about the “compulsively masculine character traits that permeate our structures of political power and which drive us to dominate nature as if it were an alien and rightless realm (T. Roszak, Ecopsychology – The Principles). Using my looking glass metaphor, I can see some of these character traits in myself and I’m finding myself questioning how I contribute to this imbalance. I do my best to tread lightly on the planet, but I’m feeling acutely aware that simply being alive in this country, with my lifestyle, can negatively impact the planet. This breaks my heart and speaking it out loud is hard, but facing these truths will help me be more conscious and drive change within myself. Using this metaphor, I’m looking at myself in the mirror, and asking how do I contribute to the whole? Can my actions of slowing down, touching deeply into myself, listening to my soul, and connecting to nature have impact on the collective? Will awakening my own ecological unconscious help the world awaken theirs? Intellectually, I believe the answer is YES! Experientially, I believe the answer is YES!
But in this moment, I’m having a hard time maintaining my optimism. One week ago today, there was a mass shooting at the grocery store where I used to shop every Sunday on my way home from my partner’s house. It was 1 mile from where he lived and 0.5 miles from his kids school. I bring this into my post, because it makes me question the health of the collective psyche and if it’s possible to ignite change. I keep coming back to these questions, how can we heal? In a world where we’re so divided, so polarized, where do we begin? I feel called to help bring balance and unity to the divisions we face, but in this moment I feel hopeless. I’m doing some work on applying my looking glass metaphor to this situation, but I don’t have any revelations yet. Right now I’m processing my grief, anger, sadness. I’d like to share a poem I wrote this morning:
Inside I’m tender
One the edge of a bender.
Feeling like I want to escape,
Wrapping myself in my cape
And hiding
From the hopelessness,
Wondering about justice.
What a dumb ass
Shooting up a grocery store
Do I have to expect more?
I’m feeling stuck
Emotions are amok
What the fuck
Is going on?
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Something that has been coming up for me since starting EBI is the idea of staying small. I had this realization today as I asked myself, “why am I struggling to find and go to a sit spot?” When I think about it I feel fear and it seems as if there is apart of me that is trying to keep myself small. It is interesting to me that when there are things I want in life that I can so easily self sabotage and talk myself out of it. I think about this with creating my own business and wanting to be a coach. I hear that little voice in my head that tells me that it is not possible. It reminds me of this quote by Marianne Williamson, <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be..?” <font face=”inherit”>This feels relevant to me as I imagine working with clients who</font> will also have the thoughts that tell them that they are not able to achieve or be the person that they want to be. I think about how I want to show up as a guide, a coach, and a human in this world and I am realizing that it is not something to be intellectualized but rather a way of being, a feeling to experience in the body. I imagine that if we as humans are able to change our relationship with our internal world that it will reflect in our external world. Ecopsychology gives us tools and suggestions on how to connect deeper to those parts of ourselves and the natural world. I feel extreme gratitude for this community and the opportunity to reflect and learn.
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Rachel,
I can relate to you about the sit-spot, I always ask myself ” Is this the correct sit-spot for me? Or how can I explain to my clients that it doesn’t matter where your sit-spot is, as along as you are Intune with it.
Also that little critic in my head, you are small and have always been small, why are you wanting to change now? I really relate to the statement “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,” Thank you for the reminder 🙂
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Upon reflection throughout this module the things that are coming up for me.. What for me is really alive right now is the whole idea that as coaches we are really, really being attuned to where our own alignment is and making sure that our Individual cup is being continually refilled by our connection to the land, our connection to ourselves, our connection to our communities our connection to healing (also obviously the word connection is coming up) I think that the ways in which we take care of ourselves will be reflected in the ways that we coach. Also what’s grabbing my attention..is that it’s really really important to practice: to engage in these practices that the EBI container has introduced to us to not only heal ourselves, but collectively. If people are living in this truth and in this alignment that it will have such a large reach and impact in a way that’s so desperately, desperately needed right now. I’m in Minneapolis ( which they are calling Ground Zero in the Justice and equality movement ) and with the focus of what’s been going on with the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd and then the murder of Daunte Wright , I’m also holding space for all the pain for the people in Boulder and their collective experience after the mass killings there , space for the pain of the pandemic and all thats been collectively lost there. It is all so very heavy. This whole idea of creating balance and healing in a world where it’s so clearly not in balance. There’s so much pain and so much suffering and so much… ( fill in the blank), but if we are able to do this work within ourselves we begin to see that it’s possible and can begin to look at the possibilities. We begin to look at transformation and change as a by-product of doing the work.For ourselves first… so that it radiates into the collective.
It requires adaptability. It requires a deep listening to the environment in which we are a part of… an openness to that 360 degree awareness. An opening to the dialogue of differences.
It’s imperative for the survival of the species and the planet. It’s a symbiotic thing!!
Sometimes seeing and feeling and experiencing all of it at a visceral level is what inspires transformation. “Necessity is the mother of Invention”,after all.
I’m so incredibly grateful to be held in this community of changemakers.
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Ecopsychology tells us that we don’t come into this world from somewhere else, but we are born out from it—we are a part of the earth and everything is connected. Ecology tells us that to be separate is not possible. What we do to the earth, we end up doing to ourselves and vice versa—on a psychic level as well as a physical one.
As individuals, we are looking for a new vision of how to be in this increasingly uncertain world. We are all looking for ways to re-imagine our responsibilities to this world, to write a new story or start over. New ways of being that lessen the confusion, and the unique challenges of these times. Our healing modalities are evolving now, to reflect the reality of our deep bond with nature As we begin to re-create and reclaim that relationship, we transform ourselves, and the world. Making sure that our clients understand how much POWER they have is BIG.
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This has been the hardest aspect of the whole NCC course for me to engage with and speak to. The enormity of this territory originally left me feeling utterly overwhelmed, struck with grief and love, wanting to speak eloquently to the essentialness of this question and not leave anything out, and afraid to touch the raw core of my own experience.
Tonight, almost a year later, sitting in my home in Boulder, Colorado, after days of wild hurricane level winds, raging grass fires that took out around 1000 structures, mostly homes, and the loss of beloved animal companions, landscapes, and a sense of place, and then a winter storm and frigid temperatures, this territory feels deeply relevant. The extremity of the last few days likely arises in part from human separation from the world. I’m feeling the ripples of fear, loss, grief, hope, love, community outpouring, and awareness of the larger context in which the last few days have occurred. My community is reeling and seeking to respond with resilience to immediate crises. And I, and likely others, are recognizing that this is also the local face of the larger climate change reality.
I’m recognizing my own empathic awareness, that biophilia – “the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms” that E.O Wilson (who just died this week) hypothesized. I’m safe, my home stands, my family and beloved animals are well. And, I’m finding myself surging with grief and gratitude, determination and despair, and such a deep and abiding love for the world, for Life itself, that my heart breaks open. This connectedness, this love, and a desire to support, evoke, and invite it in others, is actually the heart of the work I want to do in the world – as coach, guide, and simply member of the community of life on Earth.
When I think about how ecopsychology and coaching come together, I’m struck with Roszak sharing John Seed’s assertion that we need a “profound revolution in human consciousness… a change in the human heart and mind” if we are to save the beings and living systems with whom, to whom, we belong.
Ecology is the study of connectedness, perhaps spirituality is too? Connectedness to Source, to something bigger than ourselves. Psychology is the study of the individual psyche, the individual human experience of existence, a connection to Self. Bringing them together links our Selves with our larger embedness in the world and life. Perhaps we are an emergent locus of awareness, a current within the larger body of Life, a line or note in the veritable symphony of all that is? As part of this “music,” we shape and are shaped by it.
Coaching seems to be at its heart a path of supporting clients in finding their fullest potential, in helping them thrive, develop new awareness, orient to the deeper need and desire for meaning in their lives, and effectively weave all of this into how they actually live and act in the world. As nature-connected coaches, part of what we might hold for our clients is the invitation to orient their own thriving within the larger thriving of the world. To recognize that their own wholeness is inextricably linked to the wholeness of the world.
This orients us (me) as doing a particular type of activism in service of nature and Life as a coach and guide. I genuinely believe that our real thriving emerges from a sense of deep belonging – and that our belonging to the larger community of life is both undeniable and an essential awareness for us to return to and cultivate. Working with people in collaboration with nature is a way to nurture this awareness and cultivate this belonging while also tending directly to their own intentions, deeper needs, healing, and transformation.
As John Davis states in Wilderness Rites of Passage, “The natural world mirrors, evokes, and develops those inner qualities usually assigned to the realm of religion and spirituality – unconditional love, joy, power, peace, support, grace, and guidance.” Even if we don’t make it explicit, by choosing to work in the natural world, to bring in the embodied experience, to welcome what actually is, and to support our clients in the direct threshold experience of being who they need to be to inhabit the world they most want to live in, we are modeling and inviting their deeper connection to the world and to Nature / Life / Source in the largest sense and helping them find the resource and resilience that this connection brings.
Ecopsychology is a continually evolving field that recognizes, tracks, and affirms the link between individual and collective, between Self and Source. It asserts that the well-being of each is inextricably linked to the well-being of all. Many of the writers and thinkers we have read in this arena inquire what it would be like to nurture love and loyalty rather than guilt and fear to begin to create that shift in consciousness, in heart and mind, that changes how we perceive and show up in the world. It’s this same shift in consciousness, this orientation to what we want (versus what we don’t want), that we actively seek to engage with our clients to support change.
I believe that what we most need right now are people who are embodied, connected, and fully engaged, who know their own hearts and mind, who know what they love, who can tolerate ambiguity and discomfort, who can search deeply, and who can creatively explore new answers to both personal and collective questions and recognize themselves as part of life on Earth. Supporting this in myself and my clients and in the world at large is the heart of my Soul calling.
I’m left with questions:
- Do we as nature-connected coaches have an ethical responsibility to seek to foster our clients ecopsychological selves along with everything else? To orient our clients’ exploration within this larger framework?
- And if so, how might we do this and how is this held along with the essential tenet of coaching being client-led?
- How do we mix larger contexts (ecology, culture, and more) with individual want, desire, need, and intention?
- And thinking about how clients can come to coaching at the behest of a “sponsor” (from Coaching Skills), could we / should we consider Nature or ecosystem or Being (as the ever emergent expression of all that is) as the sponsor for our work with clients? Where we are holding the client with deep respect but also holding the needs and expectations of the sponsor as well?
I feel like this is the tip of the iceberg of this inquiry. I still feel overwhelmed by the enormity of this territory and I also feel a new capacity and renewed commitment to owning for myself that inviting others into this deeper belonging and awareness, in service to each person and the larger collective, is my Vision and purpose. I’m also sitting gently with myself as I struggle with this particular exploration, holding my heart tenderly and honoring the depth of my longing, love, and desire to help us collectively shift into new ways of being.
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I feel like I actually wrote most of my summary and take away questions in my initial long post.
After reviewing what we’ve all written here, I continue to walk away with a desire to explore how broadly we can hold the ecopsychological perspectives, in our lives and in our coaching. We have these amazing tools through the NCC program and our own engagement and experience to help ourselves and our clients become aware of ourselves, orient to our relational natures – self to self, self to other, self to world, and inhabit the world from a realization that we are inseparably a part of nature, of all that is. I want to see how many ways this orientation can show up – from body and senses, to mind and intent, to relationship and culture, to a turning myself over to something beyond knowing: Source / Spirit / Life. I want to carry that experience into my vision and my way of being an invitation to others.
