Foundation One Discussion (WI/SP 2018)

[Brian Crosby]

Before my journey led me to the Earth-Based Institute I spent lots of time in the wilderness. I means lots…like years of my life. The interesting thing is that in the 9 days at the Starhouse I felt more in tune to the voice of nature than I had in all the years of my life spent in some of the deepest and wildest of wildernesses. During these years I was simply moving through nature noticing very little. All I have is a vague mental picture of what these areas look like. I remember very little detail beyond that. Looking back I was attempting to ‘conquer’ the outdoors. We all know this is a fruitless endeavor. Not only was I disconnected to nature, but I was equally as detached from myself and my inner wilderness. The whisperings of the soul are much easier to ignore when you are hiking 25 miles a day with the sole purpose of getting from point A to point B. After a decade of doing this, I was finally beginning to realize that something was missing in life and I needed to start seeking out purpose.

It was during this searching period that I discovered EBI. I did the intro course and started to notice, through the learned exercises, I was feeling different. Both in what I was noticing out in Nature, and inside my Soul. Over time a more clear vision was being illuminated. Two things kept standing out above the rest…work in nature…help people discover purpose. EBI was it, and 6 months later I found myself at the Starhouse. 9 days of life changing connection to Nature and Soul ensued. A quote from our reading entitled “Wilderness As A Healing Place” highlights much of what I explained in the above paragraphs: “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.” This was exactly my experience during the Foundations Intensive.

Being connected to nature means spending time there. As much time as possible, whenever possible. Not just in big wilderness adventures, but in the seemingly mundane moments. The day to day, walking to your car moments that harbor just as much incredible insight and connection. It is engaging all of the senses. Listening to the songs of the wind, seeing the way it sways the trees, tasting its coolness, smelling the bouquet of aromas it brings your way, and feeling its rush over your skin. It is honoring that nature is as much a part of us and we are of it. Being aware and still allows us to track how our presence fits into the environment, as well as what is happening in the world around us. Being open and attuned to what our ancestors and the ancient ones whisper will help us to connect in ways we couldn’t have imagined. So, simply being in nature with intention, pulling in all our senses, and doing this often are some ways to be connected to nature.

By developing this connection with nature, inherently the connection to our inner selves will also begin to flourish. Steven Harper’s “The Way of Wilderness” says “Metaphorically, our willingness to be in the mud and rain can reflect our willingness to be in our internal mud and rain.” Nature is full of metaphor and experiences that run parallel to our day to day lives. Some of this metaphor is grounded in reality. These metaphors bring up things going on in people’s actual reality. One could say that it almost forces people to look at their ‘junk’. I have seen it time and time again in my own life and in the lives of other people. Being still and connecting to nature helps one to stay fully present and in the moment. Jon Young’s “What is Deep Nature Connection” says “a person with the attributes of deep connection has the ability to be fully present in the moment, with awareness, compassion and empathy. This leads to the ability to be truly helpful and effective in sharing one’s gifts and talents with the world.”

The quote above leads directly in to how being connected to nature will support my coaching. 1st of all, maintaining my personal connection to nature is vital to me being fully available, without judgment, and full of love and empathy for each client that I work with. Connecting to Nature has allowed me to connect with my Soul in a way I never have before. Staying connected to Nature and my Soul in this way will allow me the depth of listening my clients deserve. And from this depth of listening, powerful questions will arise that help the client discover what they are looking for. It will allow me to keep my own agenda and junk out of the picture. Leaving it up to the client to come up with the answers themselves, as they have them all already, will help create a more meaningful experience that the client has complete ownership of. In addition, I will weave different nature-connecting exercises and metaphors into each session to help the client develop a sense of connection to nature and themselves. The following quote from “Wilderness as a Healing Place” by John Miles expresses some of these sentiments. “Wilderness cannot, of course, ‘cure’ illness, but by its nature it can place demands on us that force us to call upon physical and emotional potential often unrealized.”

The ultimate goal is to stay deeply connected to my Soul by way of being deeply connected to Nature. The natural byproduct of this connection is an ability to connect deeply to my client’s needs and to guide them to whatever it is they are seeking. The power of Nature united with the power of Soul is an invincible force.

[Kent-Singing Panther]

Thanks Brian, I really resonated with this statement you made “maintaining my personal connection to nature is vital to me being fully available, without judgment, and full of love and empathy for each client that I work with. Connecting to Nature has allowed me to connect with my Soul in a way I never have before. Staying connected to Nature and my Soul in this way will allow me the depth of listening my clients deserve. And from this depth of listening, powerful questions will arise that help the client discover what they are looking for. It will allow me to keep my own agenda and junk out of the picture. Leaving it up to the client to come up with the answers themselves, as they have them all already, will help create a more meaningful experience that the client has complete ownership of.” Nature connection has been one the most important parts of my life because it has touched my soul like nothing else has or could. And now I feel an even greater responsibility to stay connected to nature in order to serve others. Of course it’s not an obligation but a privilege.

Out of all the transformations I saw in the group over the f2f I was most excited to watch yours unfold. The breakthroughs you seemed to have over that 9 days was inspiring to see and affirming of how powerful the process is that EBI has developed from the legacy passed down through Stalking Wolf. Your future is very bright my friend. And the light you shine into others lives is, and will be, radiant.

[Daniel Brisbon]

Brian, so well put! I really appreciate your honesty and being willing to share your experience with us. It seems that you have really understood and experienced how nature connection is a mirror to our own internal connection with ourselves. And the quotes you shared in your post addressed that issue so well for all of us to understand.

I’m glad we were able to chat via zoom the day after you posted this and one thing we talked about that you brought up in your post is “spend as much time in connection as possible, not just in big adventures, but in the seemingly mundane moments”. And that’s when I shared about having an alarm on your phone to go off a few times throughout the day with a sacred question attached to it, such as “am I connected within myself right now?” or “how am I showing up when my own internal mud and rain start to appear?”

And what I mean by this practice is not just being attuned to your “higher self” or “soul” only during the 9 day intensive, but how can you be attuned to soul on a minute by minute basis? Not just when it’s easy, but when it’s tough as well.

I invite you all to think about how you can personally apply nature-connection and soul-connection to that micro level.

[Z Baker]

Id like to echo what Daniel is saying here, what we “re-discovered” at the intensive is not just something for the “woods”, but an awareness to be lived….no matter the location or situation.

My thoughts are that nature-connection and soul-connection provide a shift in perspective, toward life in general. What I experienced at the intensive was merely a reflection of my internal wildness. As the Greek anecdote says…..”As Above So Below; As Within So Without”

[Mandy Bishop]

Brian,

Thank you for sharing such an honest and raw look at the transformation you began to experience in the face to face. Like Kent, I also really resonated with this statement you made: “maintaining my personal connection to nature is vital to me being fully available, without judgment, and full of love and empathy for each client that I work with. Connecting to Nature has allowed me to connect with my Soul in a way I never have before. Staying connected to Nature and my Soul in this way will allow me the depth of listening my clients deserve. And from this depth of listening, powerful questions will arise that help the client discover what they are looking for. It will allow me to keep my own agenda and junk out of the picture.”

What comes up for me when I read this is my own conditioned belief that I have to try to control where something goes, or do something to make something happen. The face to face really illuminated this deep pattern within myself — all of the awareness exercises and the medicine walks kept bringing light to this engrained belief and pattern in my life that really goes against a natural process and in many ways gets in my own damn way. It became so clear to me that it is the opposite of this — the trusting, the allowing, the unfolding — that is the way to connect truly and deeply with ourselves, with nature and with our clients. I can tell that this allowing is an edge for me, like a brand new brain pattern that I want to nurture and encourage because I know that this is the way to hear the soul speak. I am so grateful this patterning has become illuminated in my life!

[Z Baker]

Brian,

Excellent post. I have much to say regarding this….but like my post, it will have to wait another day or two.

Blue sky,
-Z

[Kent-Singing Panther]

For me, nature connection is the most authentic relationship in my life. I have no disillusionment in my relationship with nature. She lets me BE and lets me know I belong. She doesn’t judge. She takes whatever “junk” I throw at her and still gives me every breath like a gift. She comforts me when I hide in the darkness. She sees my light and my potential. She gently whispers truth to my soul as I stand in awe of her beauty, her mystery, and her power. She is the missing part of me. She is me and I am her.

What I have experienced in my nature connection is real and factual. Though metaphors arise, they are rooted in a realness unlike anything else in my life. As Kaplan and Talbot suggest in the “Wilderness As A Healing Place” reading, “The wilderness experience is “real” in some rather concrete ways, as well as in somewhat more abstract sense. It is real not because it matches one’s ways of the everyday world (which of course it does not do), but because it feels real–because it matches 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.” I struggled accepting the “reality” of everyday existence for quite some time and I let nature become my daydream. The more I connected with nature the more discontent I felt toward civilization. Everyday existence felt false and I saw people like they were zombies. I had little hope for the future of humankind and decided I didn’t want anything from culture or civilization anymore. I wanted to run. I wanted to escape into the woods to live free. But in my heart I knew that wasn’t an answer. This feeling was a shadow I needed to face and eventually I reached forgiveness. I let go. I leaned into my shadow and learned to love myself in the darkness.

I harbored a dilemma for a long time; the desire to run and the desire to help others. Nature had become the catalyst for my personal transformation and I wanted others to connect with nature so that they too could accept healing and gain wholeness. Yet at the same time I despised others, and myself, for living out such a cruel, unconscious existence onto the Earth. As much as I wanted to see the light in others (as I believed nature saw the light in me) I also saw much darkness and it felt overwhelming to deal with. My pendulum swung between peace and harmony with nature, to disgust and hopelessness in my everyday life. I couldn’t see how these two, seemingly opposite, existences could ever come together. Out of that mindset and during a difficult time in my life, I went numb. I had a hard time feeling anything at all, good or bad.

After nearly a year of existing in this numb state I was invited to a men’s wilderness retreat and had also met a mentor who helped me enter onto a spiritual path I felt a lot of connection with. But it was on the retreat that I had a very brief dream. Much of the retreat focused on dream work; nothing interpretive, just noticing what we feel in the dreams. The last night I dreamed that out of the darkness a coyote walked up to me, looked up, and smiled. I got the feeling that he was happy and it made me happy too. I didn’t really spend anytime trying to figure out what it mean, I just let it be and it has stuck with me.

Over the f2f Michael talked about the coyote and how adaptable it is; having the ability and adaptability to live in both natural places and civilization. This deeply resonated with me as that is the space I see myself living between. I’ve slowly learned to accept my place in civilization and the “reality” of everyday life. It exists. I can’t deny it or change it. And that includes people too of course. I can’t deny or change them. What I can do is deepen my relationship with nature, remember who I am, and live my life from the place of my soul. And I can show up for those who are lost and hurting. I have learned to trust my own inner knowing and I trust that other also have that inner knowing. If I can guide them to that place, then I believe they will find their own path and purpose.

As I read back through this post I sense the heaviness I used to feel and I am beyond grateful for the second to last day of the f2f when I was sitting in the place of client. The issue I brought to my coach was basically my desire to play more. I knew of the importance and freedom of play, but I was still holding on to some heavy baggage and desired liberation. The coaching experience was wonderful and led to an epic snowball fight that turned out to be just what I needed (and what others did too). Then over this past week I started reading “Coyote’s Guide To Connecting With Nature” and I was stunned to read about the relationship of coyote and playfulness. I really believe “play” has been the missing piece of my life puzzle. “Coyote goads us to be willing to have a true sense of play and abandon, knowing that this new, uncharted way will truly be the only way out.” (pg. 10).

Coyote teaches me balance and how to walk the edges of the worlds I find myself in. And this is what is needed because this is where I meet those who are seeking their wild souls, but feel trapped in the cage of civilization or their own worlds of illusion. Also, as stated in Coyotes Guide on pg. 13, “Coyote teaches us to straddle the edge between “two worlds”–the ancient, primitive world of wilderness and instinct, and the modern civilized world of science and technology.” The role of a coach/guide is one who is walking these edges; running a private practice business and all of its modern trappings, while tapping into soul and primitive instinct/awareness. What an exciting and empowering place to be in! I am honored to walk between these two worlds in hope that I will guide even one soul to their origin. Who knows what good that one soul will do for the world.

[Rachel Thor]

Hey Kent,

It was so lovely to read your post. I felt so many similarities ringing true for me. I loved following your story of the pendulum swinging between the natural world of flow and the structured world of civilization.
These words stuck out along that journey:
“I couldn’t see how these two, seemingly opposite, existences could ever come together.”
“Coyote teaches me balance and how to walk the edges of the worlds I find myself in.”
and especially
“The role of a coach/guide is one who is walking these edges; running a private practice business and all of its modern trappings, while tapping into soul and primitive instinct/awareness.”

I literally stayed up til 1am working on my website last night because it felt right. Then this morning I felt anxious about needing to finish (my brain had swung from integration to entrapment). After I taught yoga, I came to my desk and decided to listen deeply to nature and myself, and let everything settle again, to let everything be okay again. And my soul whispered to come read your posts! So that phrase especially is tickling me – that is totally where we’re at! How do we listen, slow down, then get it done when the timing calls for it, then remember to slow back down again!? This is the path and I’m so glad to have fellow travelers on it!

It also reminds me that I think this level of the two polarities, the “battle” as it were (David I know you called it this way) the two extremes on the pendulum of our natural ancestry and all the advances of our technological society… they have been so at odds for such a long time, and I think that we are CULTURALLY starting to bring the two sides together into integration. More execs are realizing they need nature and mindfulness, more hippies are learning how to walk in the world of business. I used to want to run away to the woods and forget it all too, but I am so thankful we have all decided to keep journeying up the mountain and then back down the mountain to bring the gifts to our people.

[Z Baker]

Kent,

Thank you for the beautiful, poetic verse….this really resonated with me “She sees my light and my potential. She gently whispers truth to my soul as I stand in awe of her beauty, her mystery, and her power. She is the missing part of me. She is me and I am her”. Simply, by going without we are exploring and re-connecting within. Are you familiar with the law of reflection? In a nutshell…what we see, experience in the world is simply a reflection of our own internal world. That beauty and harmony you experience without, is a reflection of what is INSIDE you. Thank you for sharing so openly and honestly and showing up in an authentic way. -Z

[Hannah Grajko]

Brian, beautiful post! So eloquently put. It sounds like you were completely immersed in nature for so long, but the deeper, meaningful soul connection had not been made yet; what an amazing thing to realize. Isn’t it incredible that we can have a force like that literally in front of our faces, inviting us to engage in a more profound way, but still have difficulty to do so for some reason? This has definitely been true for me! It’s really inspiring to read that that connection was made, and nature became reoriented for you as something really nourishing, and not just something to conquer. Your future clients are really lucky to have a coach that is willing to face his own junk that’s brought up through awareness in nature so that he can fully make space for what comes up for them, without judgment. Thank you for sharing 🙂

Kent, so awesome to read your post and see your vulnerability! Thank you for being transparent. I’m sensing a lot of similarities between yours and Brian’s post in terms of the feelings of control or conquering that came up in working out your connections to nature; it sounds like it was a really difficult dissonance that came up when you considered how to be fully united with nature while also living in “civilized” society. I too have found a lot of resistance in that realm of having a foot in both worlds. Reading how you have overcome (or perhaps are still overcoming, as these things can ebb and flow in our experience), is really beautiful and brings a smile to my face. I so appreciate how you’ve brought this aspect of play into the foreground of your ability to straddle the boundary. It sounds like that is a huge key for you in bringing a lightness to how you dance between these areas of existence that can be sometimes diametrically opposed! And I LOVED our snowball fight!!! I will never not laugh when I think of that.

I’m really excited to read everyone else’s posts about this, and I’m excited to finish up mine! Sincerest apologies for being late to the game; I’m traveling for work and am doing my best to get this done, but it’s not going to be as punctual as I would normally want. Thanks for understanding, y’all.
Love.

[David Raffelock]

So just a heads up that I forgot to bring my books with me to Kauai, so my response is informed only by the digital readings. Also, damn its hard to find time for computer work while on vacation on a tropical island!

Last week I flew across the Pacific Ocean to one of the most remote places on Earth. Honolulu (my layover stop) takes up a sizable portion of a breathtaking island in the middle of the ocean. This time flying into Honolulu for a layover, I was a bit more connected to Nature because of the recent intensive. I nearly cried when I peered out the small airplane window and saw the concrete growth bleeding through the land like ink through water. It sprawled down to coastlines and up through valleys, suffocating lush, tropical jungle.

When I close my eyes to contemplate what Nature connection was to me in that moment, I see Morpheus offering Neo a blue and a red pill. In that moment it was a lense of awareness I couldn’t take off, illuminating the contrast and battle between the wilderness and modern civilization. Nature connection is an awakening to the world around me, a connection to the truth that surrounds me and reflects what’s inside. It’s being unplugged from the script of civilization, and plugged into the fluidity of the universe. It’s being fully alive; experiencing the highs and lows, the darkness and the light – both within myself and the outside world – and truly feeling them! Nature connection is a means of seeing my inner and outer worlds as they truly are. And in seeing things for what they are, I am in harmony and deep understanding. Through connecting with Nature, I can show up fully for life.

In John Miles’ essay “Wilderness as Healing Place”, he describes “conditions” in which people suffer: anomie and alienation. What stood out to me as Miles defined anomie and alienation is what he borrowed from Richard Mitchell, noting that a person experiencing anomie is “free to choose from meaningless alternatives, without direction or purpose, bound by no constraint, guided by no path, comforted by no faith;” while a person experiencing alienation perceives their world as being “constrained by social forces,” “bound over by rule and regulation,” and that their “creativity and spontaneity are stifled.” Miles elaborates, explaining “the effect of this condition on someone is to feel powerless and indifferent, estranged and separate from self and others.”

While I agree in anomie and alienation being “conditions” that people suffer from, I also experience them showing up in smaller doses, depending on the moment or the day. I have moments when I experience the above indications of these conditions, and moments when I feel whole, fully alive, and what Miles refers to as “flow.” Miles uses a definition of “flow” from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describing experience of it as “a unified flowing from one moment to the next in which we are in control of our actions, and in which there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response; or between past, present, and future.” In any given moment, my experience of anomie, alienation, or flow is indicative of the level of connection to nature and connection to my soul. I feel anomie or alienation when I am estranged from Nature and my Soul, and feel flow when the connection is strong.

The word “soul” is a new staple in my vocabulary. Not because I have to use it for EBI, but because the word has gone from from theoretical to experiential. My own unearthing of and connection with my soul has taken place in various setting such as backpacking trips, Tracker School courses, hitchhiking for months, weeks of silent meditation, sweat lodges, wilderness quest, and our recent EBI intensive. In all of these experiences, I experience a deep connection with Nature and with Soul (and in my opinion, a connection to one cannot exist without a connection to the other). So naturally, the question arises in my mind: What is the link between estrangement and connection with Nature and Soul, from alienation or anomie to flow – the step in which to take towards the latter? I believe the answer is willingly taking a step into wilderness, finding the place of darkness, of shadow, and of not-knowing, and dredging forward.

In his essay “The Way of Wilderness”, Steven Harper eloquently describes to the reader his own definition of nature connection which he calls “wilderness practice.” Harper speaks of the connection between inner and outer wilderness, and what it means to take the step into wilderness: “The very idea that wilderness exists as something separate lets us know how much we have disowned of our internal as well as our external wildness….. To go into wilderness is to face the shadow of wild nature at its source. When we identify with our wilderness shadow, consume it, assimilate it, we thereby reown this vital and powerful energy.” It is here – the journey into wilderness – that a connection is made. We see our inner and outer worlds for what they truly are, and invite the power of that awareness.

In those moments in my life when I’ve felt most alive, most human, and most connected, it was because I was willing to step into wilderness and make a connection. I was willing to surrender to nature, invite the shadow, and be attentive to my inner and outer worlds. My movement into wilderness and Nature connection is a demolition of anomie and alienation and advancement toward what Harper calls a “vital and powerful energy” or what Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow.”

During the foundations intense, I stepped into wilderness, and came out with a deeper relationship with Nature and my Soul. I saw the natural world as a mirror, reflecting the inner workings of my own mind. I learned how to listen deeply to nature, myself, and the client and surrender to the process. So what can stepping into wilderness and connecting to Nature and Soul support my coaching you ask? The better question is, how can it not?

The attentiveness, connection, and surrender I feel when in a state of Nature/Soul connection allows for deep listening, seeing, and understanding; it invites intuition, creativity, and spontaneity; and it allows self-control and equanimity. All of those attributes are exactly how I want to show up for clients, and exactly how a client deserves to be met. When I ask myself my ultimate goal in life, the answer is to unearth my soul – reown the vital and powerful energy within my and experience flow. Maybe that’s not everyone’s goal in life, but for those who have that deeper need, true guidance can only be found in experienced wisdom of connecting deeply to the Soul. That is how my relationship with Nature can support my coaching.

[Kent-Singing Panther]

What a rich reflection David, thank you for that. I feel like your reflection and mine can be summed up with what you said at the end of your post, “When I ask myself my ultimate goal in life, the answer is to unearth my soul – reown the vital and powerful energy within my and experience flow. Maybe that’s not everyone’s goal in life, but for those who have that deeper need, true guidance can only be found in experienced wisdom of connecting deeply to the Soul. That is how my relationship with Nature can support my coaching.” For me your words reflect what I experienced through creating my vision board…essence. I trust that when WE walk in our essence, as our goal in life, all else will align as it should and our coaching becomes something that is both everything about us and beyond us.

I also resonate a lot with this statement, “The word “soul” is a new staple in my vocabulary. Not because I have to use it for EBI, but because the word has gone from from theoretical to experiential.” OF course I’ve had moments of soul contact in a tangible way, but for the most part it feels like it’s just something I talk about like it’s a theory. The intensive solidified how real soul connection is. And not just within myself, but with all of us.

[Daniel Brisbon]

David, thanks for such an open and honest response that you have shared with us. Yesterday I decided to get my “flow” on with some yoga at my gym and the instructor quoted an African proverb that made me think of what you have shared:

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot harm you.”

Starting with your first EBI intensive it can bring up a lot of our own inner struggles and inner darkness that we need to face. And it’s not about seeing these parts of you as bad or as your enemy, but rather as opportunities for growth. My question for you, and the rest of the cohort, is how can you turn your inner demons from enemies into allies, or opportunities,along your journey with EBI?

My own personal practice is to remember and perceive everything I experience as Rob’s abbreviation, AFGO. A Friggin Growth Opportunity!

Hope you’re enjoying beautifual Hawaii!

[Z Baker]

David,

“unplugged from the script of civilization, and plugged into the fluidity of the universe”…yes!

You realization of “a deep connection with Nature and with Soul (and in my opinion, a connection to one cannot exist without a connection to the other)” sums up my experience as well. I dig how you’ve identified a correlation between the concept of “wilderness” and shadow. The concept of wilderness is really quite new, it infers a “otherness” as if we as humans are separate from our surroundings.

Thank you for a amazing piece of writing. -Z

[Mandy Bishop]

David,

What you write about here is so rich for me! I appreciate how you break up the notions of anomie, alienation and flow into states of being experienced rather than “conditions” that one is sort of stuck with as an issue. It feels to me like the very manner in which you have observed yourself experiencing the movement from anomie to alienation to flow depending on your connection to nature and soul in that moment is in itself an actual flow. What comes up for me here is that perhaps we cannot expect ourselves to be continually in a state of absolute connection and flow to soul (I mean, maybe that’s possible and that is certainly the goal) but that as human beings in this society that we find ourselves in, perhaps some degree of wavering between checking out or feeling bound by social norms is something that might occur from time to time. And that noticing this, tracking this in ourselves and having the tools to return to the “fluidity of the universe” and our souls — that this is our real task as humans and is in itself an allowing and a flow.

I really appreciate your question and answer: “What is the link between estrangement and connection with Nature and Soul, from alienation or anomie to flow – the step in which to take towards the latter? I believe the answer is willingly taking a step into wilderness, finding the place of darkness, of shadow, and of not-knowing, and dredging forward.”

I totally resonate with this! That there is a well of deep wisdom in the place of darkness and shadow, and the wilderness absolutely reflects this to us. I also find this reflected through myth and story. I just listened to one incredible story recently that tells the tale of a Nubian girl who descends deep into the river of the underworld as she is looking for herself and her recovering her soul. It is called the “The Black Nubian Women” and so worth a listen if you are at all interested: https://kedarbrown.com/category/audio-stories-interviews/

[Ivy Walker]

As I read the posts that are up so far, I see a naming of a journey to Soul and a recognition of how relationship with wildness mimics relationship with self. What we know, explore and dare to see in one, we tune into within the other. Also, I notice how the writings name a sense of embodying this calling, this truth: to be in touch with the intersections of nature-wildness-self and let it inform what is blooming into the world through you and your work with people. For me, this is ecopsychology at its core– identifying with Earth/Nature/Gaia in a way that brings its needs, its consciousness back into the everyday conversations and human purpose.
~Gratitude

[Brian Crosby]

Kent…as I read your post, it seems like you were inside my brain in a way. You said that you struggled to accept the ‘reality’ of everyday existence, and that the more time spent in nature had you feeling more discontent toward civilization. You also stated that you wanted to ‘escape into the woods and run free.” I have had these thoughts for years…maybe even a decade. It wasn’t until I began to connect with my Soul and a greater purpose that those feelings and thoughts have begun to fade away. Helping to create a more connected self and culture is the only way things will change. I relate to you in these sentiments greatly Kent. I enjoyed your discussion of the coyote and how it teaches us to keep one foot in both worlds…the primitive one, and the societal one. I look forward to watching your journey of walking this edge develop over the coming year. Thanks for sharing!

David…I appreciated hearing about how seeing the development from the sky affected you. It pains me as well to think of what we are doing to the Earth. For the sake of “forward progress”. I’d like to think as we help guide others to a deeper connection to nature and self that the desire to slow the development and destruction of the environment will grow significantly. It is so incredible how Soul can go from simply a conceptual idea to way of life. To see you start to connect with this at the face to face was inspiring to watch. Can’t wait to see where you go with this David.

Something I valued reading in both of your discussion posts was how you recognized how intimately intertwined our connection to Nature and to Soul are. This is something that became so obvious to me during the face to face. Honored to be going through this process with you gentlemen!

[Rachel Thor]

I think there are SO many ways to answer this question, and there is particular lens sticking out strongly to me now. “To be connected to nature is to be in intimate relationship with the unknown.” Let me unpack that idea.

In Wilderness as a Healing Place by John Miles, Ph.D, researchers Stephen Kaplan and Janet Frey Talbot outline the three psychological benefits they found to spending time in nature. I will argue that these are psychologically beneficial because they have been – or are still – also evolutionarily beneficial.

Being in nature gives people a sense of spiritual connection and purpose. When you are fully immersed in nature, what you need to do to survive (eg build a fire), what you want to do for fun, flow states, or community, (eg build a fire), and what you are skilled to do through your learned strengths and intuitive pull – which may lead you toward the right flint stone or dry wood for the job – are all aligned toward the same thing – building a fire. I believe and have felt personally that this simple alignment of our wants, needs, and skills creates tremendous satisfaction, gratification, and a sense that we are exactly where we belong.

Kaplan and Talbot call this feeling competence or fascination. Csíkszentmihályi calls this alignment, in different terms, Flow. For him it’s the sweet spot where our skill sets and our challenges match each other appropriately. And according to positive psychology’s definition of happiness, it’s one of the 3 forms of happiness required for a holistic happy life. The three forms of happiness per the APA (positive psychology) are hedonistic, engagement, and altruistic. The idea is to have a relatively balanced world of all three.

1. Hedonistic is the happiness that results from pleasure: having sex, buying new shoes, or having a fun time. My opinion is that this form is talking very specifically about a certain drug that’s released in your brain’s reward center – dopamine. A hit of dopamine, directly created by a hit of cocaine or sugar for that matter, is a hit of hedonic happiness! Pleasure all the way (and mmm it feels good). We have traced most of our addictive behaviors back to dopamine addiction, and we can track dopamine hits back to our evolutionary roots – of our brain wanting to reward us for eating the right things and procreating.

2. Engagement is the happiness that results from flow: playing a piece of music that simultaneously challenges you yet you can succeed at, or focusing so intently on creating something – art, spreadsheets, sports strategy – that you lose track of time. This is an activity where your skill set meets the challenge at hand and you are getting immediate feedback along the way to know how well you’re doing at the task. Your brain and body are in the zone and chemicals fly. This is the first form of happiness I see Kaplan and Talbot talking about when they point to our wants, needs, and skills while living in the wilderness being aligned.

3. Altruistic is the happiness that results from acting on behalf of something larger than yourself: this type of happiness may actually come in direct conflict with the pleasure kind, but it doesn’t HAVE to. (aka this could mean you giving up your warm lunch to the homeless person on the street, so now you have less but you feel happy that they have more. But this also could mean that you use your gifts of art to create beauty for someone who is sad, thus you don’t lose in order for them to gain, it gets multiplied) This type of happiness refers to feeling like you have a generative purpose in the world, that you contribute, that you are making the world better for others in some way. Whether it’s created through a larger shared religious or spiritual narrative, or found through some other form of giving, I believe that this happiness comes from our evolutionary basis as a hive species that thrives on indirect reciprocity. (If we all give to the person in front of us, we can trust someone will give to us when we need it, doesn’t have to be tit for tat when we are all collaborating. – Read more about this concept in an awesome book called Super Cooperators.) This is the second form of happiness I see Talbot and Kaplan describing and I’ll explain why next.

Someone with their wants, needs, and skills aligned in the wild (what the researchers discovered to be true), will have a self that feels more integrated. This sense of belonging creates more spaciousness for inner reflection to be positive (stronger internal connections), and for deepened relationships with nature and other humans to be more healthy and mutual (stronger external connections). According to Kaplan and Talbot, “This can further create a sense of connection with something much larger than themselves, of vast size and high importance – a spiritual transcendence.”

The “spiritual path” used to feel “out there” to me, something external or higher to seek. But more and more I am unpacking its overlaps with our natural evolutionary needs. It makes sense that we feel an extra strong evolutionary chemical reward when the things we desire match the things that help us survive, AND that lead us to the ultimate bliss, which we know as transcendence. Our evolutionary history LIKES IT when we get all these things aligned.

So what I’m saying is that ultimately, as soon as we put ourselves back into nature, the place we derived from in every way and the place our evolutionary feedback loops are all programmed to work in conjunction with, we pretty immediately see the natural implications of at least the two most important of the three types of happiness.

We find our engagement happiness – our flow – where nature provides us challenges we can learn to meet and excel at (albeit I think this is one of the biggest reasons why we need skilled guides and mentors who still know the skills who can teach them again.) We also find our altruistic happiness – our purpose. It becomes easy to feel a sense of belonging, and therefore a deep desire to connect to and support all things both inside and out. These are the raw experiences and beliefs needed for that spiritual transcendence. (I’d also argue that nature meets the first form of happiness too. That once someone goes through a hedonic detox from TV and doughnuts etc. that their brain would being building new brain patterns for different pleasures, ones found in nature, like seeing tracks, hearing bird calls, or discovering fruit. I feel like I experienced those pathways growing just from our intensive week!)

So why don’t we just go back to nature immediately if it fulfils our needs for pleasure, flow, and transcendence, if it will make us happy in all these important ways? I believe the answer to this is stunning. Because we hold an illusion of control over our lives that we are afraid of losing.

In coaching skills on page 6, Rogers says “all clients fear two things: vulnerability and a lack of control”. Kaplan and Talbot iterated this with their second benefit for people spending time in nature: Increased self-confidence and tranquility by letting go of the illusion of control (my words).

“People realize by the vastness of the wilderness that they cannot control their settings, and paradoxically, this allows them to relax and trust themselves to handle whatever situations arise within the nature context.”

I think for so many of us in so many walks of life, we live this life of teetering on the edge of what we’ve built, pretending it’s stable or predictable, but as soon as we look up and out, we see a much wider world. That big world, whether it be leaving an old relationship or starting a new career or moving cities or literally taking a wilderness trip, is an invitation to cross the threshold of the illusion that we can control the larger outcomes.

It can be a shaky process I think, and indeed moreso because we are so culturally afraid of the unknown, but once someone has crossed that plane and has spent time getting their feet under them in the new world, the natural world, they can start to see that yes, they don’t control it, but they also work within it, and it’s not something they need to be afraid of.

The “unknown” itself is the natural state of unfolding that’s all around us, it IS nature. And yet, we find that nature is far less scary than we thought it would be as soon as we start spending time with her, especially with someone we trust who knows the ways of the her already. The more someone feels at ease in the unknown of the wilderness, the more known and comfortable the vast changing landscape becomes, and the more intimate a real relationship and a true connection can be. I believe nature is the sole (and soul) threshold we are wanting to cross back to, but this process can play out in any area of life for a client as mentioned above.

So I think that as a coach, the more comfortable I become with the skills and beliefs needed to be settled in a world of unknowns, the more competently I can trust joining the unknown of my clients. Likewise as a guide, practicing those same skills and maps makes me more capable of guiding someone into and across a threshold of unknown terrain, because ultimately one of my goals is to give other humans those very skills and beliefs they need to traverse the wilderness of their internal landscapes with curiosity and ease – the same unknown that lives “outside our houses” lives inside our hearts – because we are nature. To be connected to nature is to be in intimate relationship with the unknown, which includes the vast and mysterious depths of our own souls. And that is why I love coaching!

[Kent-Singing Panther]

Thank you Professor Thor 🙂 I felt like I was reading a text book for the soul. You brilliantly weaved together body and soul in way that affirms how I felt over the intensive; a greater understanding of how body, mind and soul works together. I resonate with this statement you made in relation to that, “The “spiritual path” used to feel “out there” to me, something external or higher to seek. But more and more I am unpacking its overlaps with our natural evolutionary needs. It makes sense that we feel an extra strong evolutionary chemical reward when the things we desire match the things that help us survive, AND that lead us to the ultimate bliss, which we know as transcendence. Our evolutionary history LIKES IT when we get all these things aligned.”

And I LOVE your closing statement, “So I think that as a coach, the more comfortable I become with the skills and beliefs needed to be settled in a world of unknowns, the more competently I can trust joining the unknown of my clients. Likewise as a guide, practicing those same skills and maps makes me more capable of guiding someone into and across a threshold of unknown terrain, because ultimately one of my goals is to give other humans those very skills and beliefs they need to traverse the wilderness of their internal landscapes with curiosity and ease – the same unknown that lives “outside our houses” lives inside our hearts – because we are nature. To be connected to nature is to be in intimate relationship with the unknown, which includes the vast and mysterious depths of our own souls. And that is why I love coaching!” RIGHT ON SISTER!

[Ivy Walker]

Yes! Thanks “Professor Thor”! 🙂 I super appreciate the depth of your post and in the final paragraph your naming of the unknown as the shared movement running through nature, as it runs through each of us, as coaches, within our clients, and beyond. To be able to track its presence and be conscious of how we choose to be with the unknown can be a really powerful, humbling practice. The unknown is a super exciting place in coaching, creating and just being alive. A challenge and wonder is being able to walk the learning edge the unknown can provide with spaciousness and discernment.

Loving all the posts and deep conversations here.

[Mandy Bishop]

Rachael,

I really resonated with the part of your post where you mention: “Someone with their wants, needs, and skills aligned in the wild…will have a self that feels more integrated. This sense of belonging creates more spaciousness for inner reflection to be positive (stronger internal connections), and for deepened relationships with nature and other humans to be more healthy and mutual (stronger external connections). According to Kaplan and Talbot, “This can further create a sense of connection with something much larger than themselves, of vast size and high importance – a spiritual transcendence.” And you go on to say, “It becomes easy to feel a sense of belonging, and therefore a deep desire to connect to and support all things both inside and out.”

I completely agree and feel like that is such a deep shift that occurs in us through this type of coaching and soul work in nature. You begin to see the sacred in absolutely everything and start to see that nature (including the nature that is not so pristine, the nature that is happening on the street corner or in the customer interaction, or in the pigeon’s flight) is collaborating with and supporting you and that you belong in that web. Thanks for such a rich post!

[Mandy Bishop]

Hi! I just wanted to send a note saying I’m reading everyone’s posts and am right here with you. I want to respond to everyone’s posts with a meaningful and substantive reply and I intend to be able to get to that in the next day or two (along with submitting my own). Still trying to find the flow of this new rhythm with work and school and figure out how to manage my time!

[Mandy Bishop]

For me, being connected to nature is about being fully present in my body, in my mind, with the land and with the other beings around me. I feel like there’s a difference between being in nature as opposed to being connected to nature. The former being much more about doing, and that later more about being and relationship. Being out in nature is something that many of us have had the opportunity to do many times in our lives — playing a soccer game, swimming in the lake, riding bikes, or going for a hike. Being in nature implies that nature is something outside of us. We go out into a pristine space that is outside and do some activity in it. We often engage with the outdoors in the same manner we engage with the rest of our lives — in a hurried, outcome-oriented, agenda-oriented, and sometimes controlling manner. This is in stark contrast to being connected to nature.

Connecting to nature involves be-ing in nature, quite literally. This means letting go of the chatter of the mind, the to-do list, the story of the thing that happened yesterday, or having a particular objective or agenda. This means being present with each passing moment, allowing the flow and the natural course to occur in and around us. By engaging all of the senses and concentrating on staying present with what arises we allow our human mind to take a backseat while we re-inhabit our bodies and remember what it is to be a vital living animal within the landscape. Our senses become keen observers to the landscape that surrounds us, and as we notice and track the outside world we begin to notice and track our inner landscape as well. When we connect in this way, we begin to realize that we are in relationship to the plants, the animals, and the elements all around us. We start to notice the direction of the breeze or the aspect of the sun, the way a bird song makes us feel or the sound of our own beating heart. The more we deepen into just be-ing in nature, the more we begin to see and understand the intricate layers of connections and interrelationship between ourselves and all things.

This is such an important aspect of connecting to nature for me. For as long as I can remember, I’ve created a family of my own through the birds and the plants. Having grown up in an household where my mom was very sick and unable to really care for me and my dad was not really present, they couldn’t meet my needs and my sister and I were somewhat neglected, unseen and unheard. I would often “escape” into the wilderness of the backyard where I could dig in the dirt, talk to the plants, climb the trees and keep company with the birds. When I was young, I considered these creatures my family. It wasn’t until I was much older that I remembered this deep familiar connection and returned to it to begin to learn the names of those I had once known so intuitively when I was young. I studied native herbal medicine and wild edibles, local trees and grasses. I began learning the names, feathers and flight patterns of birds. I found that this kind of watching and learning created an intimacy with the landscape. The relationship that existed between us became illuminated and I started seeing myself as one part of a web of relatives that was connected from one circle to the next. This was probably the entry way for me to form a much deeper and reciprocal relationship with her. When I was in nature in this way, I knew I was okay. I was amongst relatives that accepted me for exactly who I was, and that loved and supported me, giving me everything I needed to survive. And I realized I had a responsibility to her as well.

This kind of connecting to nature, of recognizing and acknowledging sacred relationships all around us, creates a sense of belonging that is a critical element to healing and personal growth. In Wilderness as Healing Place, Kaplan and Talbot talk about the profound effect this type of interconnection in the wilderness can have upon our inner worlds. “All of this compatibility can be liberating. It can allow reflection that can lead to discovery of a different self, a self less conflicted, more integrated and more desirable…They feel a sense of union with something that is lasting, that is of enormous importance, and that is larger than they are.” To me, this is the gateway to begin to move through the healing process from a place of not belonging towards a place where one values oneself enough to recognize that they have unique gifts to bring forth into the world. The Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature further emphasizes the importance of connecting with nature for our growth and personal expression. “The natural world powerfully fosters self-expression, because nature itself is so completely self-expressed. When we spend an abundance of time around this uninhibited self expression, we resonate like tuning forks to express who we are: we sing our own gifted songs.” (p. 31)

This has been true for me in my experience. An incredibly deep transformation has begun and is continuing through my connection with nature. It is a place I have gone to that was vast enough, grand enough to hold my grief through the processes of healing. It is a place I have been able watch and learn from other beings how to slow down, how to listen, and how to allow a natural unfolding to occur. It is a place where I’ve taken big questions about my purpose in life or who I really am, and where the land has actually answered me! It is where I’ve learned about how the soul speaks in metaphors and symbols, and where I’ve felt a bubbling up of inspiration, creativity and purpose in my life. In his blog post What is Deep Nature Connection, Jon Young speaks to the transformative power of connecting with nature. “As mentors we are looking at fostering positive attributes that arise when individuals develop connection with other people and with the rest of nature. In the process, a person inevitably learns to connect better to one’s own self. As connections are opened, a person’s inner light begins to shine. An understanding of one’s gifts and vision develops, along with an appreciation of the interdependence of community.”

Connection with nature has been and continues to be totally transformative in my life in ways that aren’t controlled or outcome oriented, but just allow for nature to give me support, belonging, mentorship and unconditional love. As the potency of the connection with nature continues to unfold in my life, I know without a doubt that I will be guided to realize my own vision and bring my own unique gifts into the world. And I believe that this kind of connection can and will do the same for others in their lives as well. I believe that if I continue to see the true mentor as nature, that my role as coach is really to be more of a bridge to the remembrance of nature, without and within. In The Way of Wilderness, Steven Harper writes, “We can reinhabit ourselves only when we have learned to reinhabit the Earth. We are part of a circular, spiraling dance in which every part feeds the others and the whole.” As I continue my journey to be in nature and truly be in my own soul self, I will be able to be a guide or a bridge to that powerful connection with nature for others so that we may all begin to reinhabit ourselves and reconnect in reciprocal relationship to each other and the Earth.

[Mandy Bishop]

Kent,

I too can really relate to what you write about in your post regarding straddling two worlds, one of a sort of escape to the natural world which feels whole and cohesive, and the other a sort of messy and dismembered civilization. It is very disheartening for me to see how disconnected much of humankind is from nature and our roots and from the whole web of life. Reading through your post however, I felt such a sense of hopefulness and liberation. When you said, “I’ve slowly learned to accept my place in civilization and the ‘reality’ of everyday life. It exists. I can’t deny it or change it. And that includes people too of course. I can’t deny or change them. What I can do is deepen my relationship with nature, remember who I am, and live my life from the place of my soul.” I felt such a wave of empowerment in my own self reading this. It’s as if by you accepting your place in civilization and into the time and place you find yourself in in this life, and by you declaring what you can do within the relationship to yourself and your own soul, you are actually modeling and gifting and emanating that acceptance and that empowerment outwards to others… even through a thread on a post like this.

“What an exciting and empowering place to be in! I am honored to walk between these two worlds in hope that I will guide even one soul to their origin. Who knows what good that one soul will do for the world.” Also, BEAUTIFUL and I agree. Thank you!

[Brian Crosby]

Wow Rachel…I really enjoyed reading about your thoughts about how connection to nature is equivalent to being comfortable with the unknown. Maybe more than comfortable…intimate intertwined. Not only is this true when thinking about all the unknowns out there on the land when we enter it, but also the unknowns within our own inner wilderness. Being out in nature imposes the shadow self on us. To truly be connected we must be with the shadow.

The following excerpt from your post stood out to me as well: “Altruistic is the happiness that results from acting on behalf of something larger than yourself: this type of happiness may actually come in direct conflict with the pleasure kind, but it doesn’t HAVE to. (aka this could mean you giving up your warm lunch to the homeless person on the street, so now you have less but you feel happy that they have more. But this also could mean that you use your gifts of art to create beauty for someone who is sad, thus you don’t lose in order for them to gain, it gets multiplied)”. It stands out because I think it is very important to acknowledge that we don’t necessarily “lose out” when we go out of our way to help someone else. Our culture has gone down a road that is self-serving to a degree in which individuals are willing to destroy the lives of others for their own gain. Of course this is generalized as there are people like the 10 of us in cohort 15 that are working towards something far greater…a desire to help others connect with nature and soul to a depth rarely reached in this day and age in America. And there are individuals seeking out people like us to help them find a new way. Thank you for sharing Rachel!

[Brian Crosby]

Mandy,

I relate to much of what you discussed. You wrote, “I feel like there’s a difference between being in nature as opposed to being connected to nature.” As I discussed in my post, I spent a lot of time being in nature. Me connecting to nature is a very new process. The face to face truly cemented how this can profoundly affect my life. I will not go back to the way I approached nature in the past. I wanted to acknowledge the following 3 quotes from your post:

“We often engage with the outdoors in the same manner we engage with the rest of our lives — in a hurried, outcome-oriented, agenda-oriented, and sometimes controlling manner. This is in stark contrast to being connected to nature.”

“When I was in nature in this way, I knew I was okay. I was amongst relatives that accepted me for exactly who I was, and that loved and supported me, giving me everything I needed to survive.”

“Connection with nature has been and continues to be totally transformative in my life in ways that aren’t controlled or outcome oriented, but just allow for nature to give me support, belonging, mentorship and unconditional love.”

All I really have to say is…I hear you my friend. Slow down, be present, and allow nature to support, love, teach, and give us all that we need. A pleasure reading your thoughts!

[Hannah Grajko]

In my estimation and experience, to be connected to nature can mean a lot of different things at different times. For most of my life, nature connection wasn’t something I consciously thought about, as it was one of those effortless relationships which are so ingrained and consistent that I didn’t really consider life without it. For much of my childhood, being connected to the outdoors felt like entering a realm where true life began; it was a place of full authenticity and wildness. Anything could be created and all aspects of my being would be accepted. During adolescence, I felt the pull (as many of you have articulated) to attempt full nature immersion and shun civilized culture as we know it; I made plans to hike and adventure all over the country after high school as a way of distancing myself from the societal pressures that were seemingly intensifying at that point in my life. It often felt like I had to choose one or the other: A connection to civilization or a deep connection to nature. Honestly, I still struggle with this from time to time as I consider such things as figuring out if I want to someday buy a home in a city or out in the middle of nowhere. However, recently this orientation to nature has morphed into a more holistic perspective.

In the last three years or so, I’ve come to recognize that a connection to nature is one that is all-encompassing and ever-occurring. This seems to come down to awareness and allowance in my interpretation. My connection to nature looks like cultivating a practice of seeing the nature in everything, and letting it be as it is without judgment. Whether I’m in the forest, observing the patterns of lichen and the effect of wind through the trees, or on a city bus observing the energetic reactions of people to an act of kindness or an act of distress, nature is always unfolding, and the shift of one being affects the state of all beings. I think that is how I’ve come to recognize that nature connection isn’t a state part of separate and compartmentalized states of being; it is more integral to the flow of energy and oneness between all things (as we are all nature!). I also recognize that being in this state of awareness is easier said than done, but getting glimpses of this understanding is what true nature connection has come to mean for me. Considering it in this way allows me to practice being connected (hopefully) at any time, and not just when I’ve taken the time out of my day to go be with nature. The possibilities really open up when I look at it from this perspective!

There is also a characteristic of control that plays a huge role in how I stay connected to nature or fail to do so. When I am conscious of surrendering to the forces around (i.e. cold wind, a feeling of listlessness on a trail, the pull toward an area or beings), opportunities seem to unfurl in a way seemingly aligned with divine providence, and my movements and actions hail from a deeper soul realm than from a headspace of perceived domination. John Miles discusses this action/reaction perfectly in the following excerpt:

“Although often not a conscious priority, the need for control nonetheless can be an important factor in the way an individual attempts to relate to an environment. Yet the assertion of individual control is incompatible with much of what the wilderness offers and demands; rather than struggling to dominate a hostile environment, the participants come to perceive their surroundings as quite safe as long as one responds appropriately to environmental demands. Thus there is a tendency to abandon the implicit purpose of control because it is both unnecessary and impossible” (Miles 45).

Having control and surrender be a major theme in my life, it makes sense that the dichotomy is also my cross to bear, as it were, in my relationship to nature. In seeing this dynamic
I am able to have a deeper connection to my inner nature and the outer nature that surrounds me by relinquishing control over what experiences are presented.

This realization and intentional way of being can support the way I coach in a myriad of ways. First off, if I am able to maintain a close connection to this process of giving up control over (while maintaining my responsibility to) my environment – both internally and externally – I am able to quietly observe the changes that occur and not become attached to a particular idea or state. This is of the utmost importance to the client because they are able to arrive and stay just as they are, and can be witnessed and express without judgment. As we are all aware, it makes a world of difference to becoming vulnerable when that which one is opening up to does not have a hidden agenda or preference about how one behaves or communicates. As coaches, if we can tap into this mindful place of listening intently without the goal of changing or fixing our clients, they will have the space and support they need to address the issues that are surfacing to create the change for themselves. By giving up control over the outcome of our clients’ work, we are both modeling presence and connection to self and the greater forces at play, while allowing the nature of their process to move as it needs to. The following quote really epitomizes the point I’m attempting to make: “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” (Miles 45).

Listening to the landscape of our internal nature, and seeing how that interacts with the nature outside of us is the best way I could ever think of to learn and practice deep listening. We have all the emotional and sensory tools required to thrive in a world that is wrought with challenges and hardships; being a keen observer to the signs and symbols that surround us in nature allow for a healthy observation of where we need to rest our focus for survival, healing, and wellness. If, as coaches, we are able to develop this curious, thorough, and nonjudgmental view of the nature in and around us, we will be successful in guiding clients toward that healthy state as well. How exciting it is that we get to improve both our states of being, and positively influence the states of those around us through this deep, meaningful connection!

[Kent-Singing Panther]

Hannah, thank you for your intelligent, insightful and articulate reflection! There is so much maturity in this statement you made, “My connection to nature looks like cultivating a practice of seeing the nature in everything, and letting it be as it is without judgment. Whether I’m in the forest, observing the patterns of lichen and the effect of wind through the trees, or on a city bus observing the energetic reactions of people to an act of kindness or an act of distress, nature is always unfolding, and the shift of one being affects the state of all beings. I think that is how I’ve come to recognize that nature connection isn’t a state part of separate and compartmentalized states of being; it is more integral to the flow of energy and oneness between all things (as we are all nature!).” This is the way I desire to see the day to day. And it’s so refreshing to share in this desire with others as well as the vulnerability in the tension.

And how rare is it that someone shows up the way you described here, “This realization and intentional way of being can support the way I coach in a myriad of ways. First off, if I am able to maintain a close connection to this process of giving up control over (while maintaining my responsibility to) my environment – both internally and externally – I am able to quietly observe the changes that occur and not become attached to a particular idea or state. This is of the utmost importance to the client because they are able to arrive and stay just as they are, and can be witnessed and express without judgment.” Way to BE coach!

[Mandy Bishop]

Hannah,

Yes, TOTALLY! I really resonated with your description of traversing through the seemingly different worlds of nature/wilderness and civilization/travel, and the realization that they are all “nature”. I am on the same page with you in coming to that realization and that it all comes down to our ability to deeply listen to whatever landscape we find ourselves in at any given moment, and our ability to sense baseline shifts as well. You encapsulated this beautifully with this sentiment: “a connection to nature is one that is all-encompassing and ever-occurring. This seems to come down to awareness and allowance in my interpretation. My connection to nature looks like cultivating a practice of seeing the nature in everything, and letting it be as it is without judgment. Whether I’m in the forest, observing the patterns of lichen and the effect of wind through the trees, or on a city bus observing the energetic reactions of people to an act of kindness or an act of distress, nature is always unfolding, and the shift of one being affects the state of all beings.”

I also really appreciate how you bring up the topic of control and surrender. This is something I am also really working with and notice much more clearly when I’m connecting with nature. This quote in particular really stood out to me as why it is so very important to be able to observe and bring awareness to these two elements in our coaching work: “As coaches, if we can tap into this mindful place of listening intently without the goal of changing or fixing our clients, they will have the space and support they need to address the issues that are surfacing to create the change for themselves. By giving up control over the outcome of our clients’ work, we are both modeling presence and connection to self and the greater forces at play, while allowing the nature of their process to move as it needs to.”

[Daniel Brisbon]

Thanks for sharing your insights Hannah! It is so great to see that you guys are really understanding and integrating what you learned directly into your lives outside of EBI. And I appreciate your honesty about your past and present relationship with the outside world, as many of your classmates share similar experiences.

What I am really seeing is that we may all have different visions in our coaching, but our experience and relationship within our own inner wilderness and the outer wilderness are very similar. We are all so unique yet so much the same.

Remember that as you practice in your own life, as well as working with clients. We all share many commonalities with each other and we are not alone on this journey.

[Kaity Holsapple]

Thanks everyone for sharing! I am just catching myself up with all of your beautiful words and experiences 🙂

A few things I really relate to from what the group has shared thus far:
Brian, I so enjoyed what you shared about connecting to nature in the small, mundane moments of life. This is a huge one for me. Simply taking the time to connect and remember my connection to nature throughout the moments of my day-to-day life can be a huge tool. It is always more difficult for me to connect with some of our practices (such as concentric circles, deep listening, or the pull) in the throws of modern life as opposed to in the middle of the woods. But, when I make space to remember and come back to it, it inspires me to place myself in nature more and more often. As you said, “Being connected to nature means spending time there. As much time as possible, whenever possible. Not just in big wilderness adventures, but in the seemingly mundane moments. The day to day, walking to your car moments that harbor just as much incredible insight and connection.”

Kent, I appreciate you bringing in the coyote to your post.
“Over the f2f Michael talked about the coyote and how adaptable it is; having the ability and adaptability to live in both natural places and civilization. This deeply resonated with me as that is the space I see myself living between. I’ve slowly learned to accept my place in civilization and the “reality” of everyday life. It exists. I can’t deny it or change it. And that includes people too of course. I can’t deny or change them. What I can do is deepen my relationship with nature, remember who I am, and live my life from the place of my soul. And I can show up for those who are lost and hurting. I have learned to trust my own inner knowing and I trust that other also have that inner knowing. If I can guide them to that place, then I believe they will find their own path and purpose.”
This is a big balancing act for myself as well. If my connection to nature is very strong, I can carry it with me back into “civilization” and allow nature to be with me, wherever I go or am.

Rachel, I love your words on happiness and trust unfolding through the unknown! “So what I’m saying is that ultimately, as soon as we put ourselves back into nature, the place we derived from in every way and the place our evolutionary feedback loops are all programmed to work in conjunction with, we pretty immediately see the natural implications of at least the two most important of the three types of happiness.” “The “unknown” itself is the natural state of unfolding that’s all around us, it IS nature. And yet, we find that nature is far less scary than we thought it would be as soon as we start spending time with her, especially with someone we trust who knows the ways of the her already.”
I directly relate to and feel these experiences myself when I am connecting with nature; both types of happiness and a deep sense of trust!

Mandy, thank you for sharing about how connecting to nature equates to presence for you! I can really relate to this: “Connecting to nature involves be-ing in nature, quite literally. This means letting go of the chatter of the mind, the to-do list, the story of the thing that happened yesterday, or having a particular objective or agenda.” To me, connecting to nature brings me to into a state of presence, and coming into a state of presence likewise connects me to nature!

Hannah, this really stood out to me: “My connection to nature looks like cultivating a practice of seeing the nature in everything, and letting it be as it is without judgment. Whether I’m in the forest, observing the patterns of lichen and the effect of wind through the trees, or on a city bus observing the energetic reactions of people to an act of kindness or an act of distress, nature is always unfolding, and the shift of one being affects the state of all beings. I think that is how I’ve come to recognize that nature connection isn’t a state part of separate and compartmentalized states of being; it is more integral to the flow of energy and oneness between all things (as we are all nature!).” We are all nature! This reminds me of what Kent was speaking to with the coyote and adapting from wilderness to civilization, and recognizing it all as nature. I totally agree that it is easier said than done, but feeling into it makes me feel the world is less segmented and more interwoven. I also think of Planet Earth 2, which has a whole episode on “cities” and how wildlife (just like humans) has adapted their survival to a city environment.

Thanks again for sharing, everyone!

[Z Baker]

I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about this post, and honestly have started its composition half a dozen times. It wasn’t until this past weekend that I found the words…. or rather the words found me. I had the opportunity to spend a few days exploring the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, particularly Canyon de Chelly the very heart of the Dinétah (traditional homeland of the Navajo people). Canyon de Chelly is not only the historic home of the Navajo but prehistorically home to the ancestral Puebloans. These “nature connected” earth people lived high in the sandstone cliffs of the canyon for almost a thousand years.

As I sat in meditation at the foot of a great sandstone wall which stretched skyward nearly 600 ft, and was the respite for a small cluster of cliff dwellings, these words rose up from my soul…

Out into the wilds, were my soul and heart burn
for the deserts wildness, and its energies I yearn.
I wander under these great rock walls in solitude, alone
dreaming of the ancients who called these canyons home.

They built cliff-side homes, created earthen wares,
farmed the land and charted the stars.
Yet, these once thriving people left few earthly scars.

They lived lives of connection, and simplicity, one rich in pleasures
nature & creator provided all their earthly treasures.

I slumber among their ghosts tonight, along footpath they once used
feeling strangely closer to them, than my society confused.

There is no need for war between wilderness and man
remembering these ancients
can help us live as honestly as we can.

Thus, I know they are here tonight: in spirit and my thought,
please yield to me thy wisdom of balance that I’ve sought.
-Z. Baker

What does it mean to be connected to Nature…?

Renowned human ecologist Paul Shepard, a pioneer in exploring nature-based cultures concluded that humans, whom have spent millennia (nearly all human history) living close to the earth in hunter-gatherer societies MUST be close to nature to properly grow emotionally and physiologically.

Shepard determined that our shift from hunter-gathers, living close/within nature to agriculturist not only has been destructive to our natural environment but to our health as a species. By removing ourselves from our natural environment we have inadvertently created many of the psychological and physical problems we face today.

Traditional Navajo believe in living by a concept called Hózhó (ho-zio) or the “beauty way”. Hózhó is the philosophy that guide one’s thoughts, actions, behaviors, and speech. To live in balance and harmony with all life is one’s ultimate goal, “developing pride of one’s body, mind, soul, spirit and honoring all life”. There are no “troubled” or lost people, no addicts or the insane, there are only people who have lost their way, lost their connection to themselves, their community and the Earth, they have lost harmony and balance.

I experienced this state of being in harmony and balance in a very real, tangible way at our F2F. Sensing “other than human” sentient beings through tree whispering and developing reciprocal relationship with beings at my sit-spot has left me with a new understanding and grounded perspective of the world I live within. With this knowing, I am feeling a heightened sense of integrity and drive, my dreams and visions are merging into a single pathway.

Simply put, living in an “aware nature connected” state is “our” natural state of being.

How can this relationship support my NCC coaching??

As stated above, this elevated relationship with the natural world I am experiencing is feeding, driving my vision. Providing a motivation to share in these discoveries….1) a RE-discovery of a world in which we humans evolved and existed in for millennia. 2) a RE-awakening of connections to nature, self, soul and ultimately all that is.

This heightened sense of awareness and personal connection to self and soul, allows me to speak and act from a place of authenticity. I’ve always believed that as an instructor or guide, I cannot lead someone someplace I have not been and experienced firsthand. As I continue to connect and explore the underworld of my soul, I am creating a detailed map that I will then be able to use in assisting clients in their journey to soul.

In a practical way, as stated above, distraction and disconnection has created the toxic smoothie many of us are consuming and living within. Assisting our clients in the Re-awakening and re-connecting process can and will have life changing affects on them and their relationships.

If you’ve gotten this far…. thank you for reading. Many, many thought swirling in my head regarding this question. I hope this was not too convoluted. -Z

[Ivy Walker]

Zak, thanks for the message (poem) from your journeys. To me, your post feels a long way off from convoluted– rather it feels poetic, succinct, informed and connected-to-land. What an accompanied and resourceful place to find yourself “feeling a heightened sense of integrity and drive, my dreams and visions are merging into a single pathway”. The words ‘reciprocal relationship’ really stood out for me in your post and in what you described. Is this felt understanding part of what you currently are, or envision, weaving into your offerings/teachings? I ask this with curiosity for the long picture and not necessarily for a clear, defined answer at the moment. Thoughts?

[Z Baker]

Ivy,

Thank you for your kind words. The reciprocal aspect of my experience, both at the f2f intensive and at Canyon de Chelly is a new and evolving state of awareness. One which has eluded me for decades or rather has led me like a trail of bread crumbs to where I am today..HUGE puzzle piece for me. I see this as a key aspect in the deepening of the nature connection process. Still working out HOW to work this into my program. -Z

[Kent-Singing Panther]

Zak, thank you for the intention you put into your post and crossing the threshold of writing it. I know you’ve been very busy so I respect that you took time to really reflect and not just slap some words on the page to get it done. I admire your integrity. I expect all of us will come back to this question time and time again. It is the question that continually drives us toward building the bridges with nature and society we’ve been called to build. I too am slowly learning what it means to BE in a nature connected state; a state we awake into and drift off to sleep in. We are always connected; it’s only the illusion in DO-ing world where we misplace our inner knowing. I hear the yearning in your writing that you never want to give into that illusion and constantly BE in conscious connection. It’s hard work but that is why we are here!

[Hannah Grajko]

Zac, your poem was so beautiful and vivid; thank you so much for sharing with us! I had a real felt sense of being there with you and seeing visions of rich history and wisdom that is deeply integral to the land. It really made me want to learn more about those peoples!

The following paragraph really touched me: “Traditional Navajo believe in living by a concept called Hózhó (ho-zio) or the “beauty way”. Hózhó is the philosophy that guide one’s thoughts, actions, behaviors, and speech. To live in balance and harmony with all life is one’s ultimate goal, “developing pride of one’s body, mind, soul, spirit and honoring all life”. There are no “troubled” or lost people, no addicts or the insane, there are only people who have lost their way, lost their connection to themselves, their community and the Earth, they have lost harmony and balance”. I LOVE the perspective of looking at the world and humanity in this way; so incredibly empathetic and complete. This connects in my mind how psychologists were once called “Alientists” because they believed that patients dealing with mental illness were simply alienated from their true nature (this knowledge comes from a current T.V show called “The Alienist”, which I don’t recommend for those with deep sensitivities, but it serves as a source of education and enlightenment about how we’ve oriented ourselves to the concept of “true nature” and what disconnection from that might look like). This point you’ve made really speaks to the value and importance of keeping our connection alive through the ways we’ll be working with.

[Rachel Thor]

Zak, awesome and insightful post. I love your voice (in person and in writing) because I always feel a sense of that depth of connection that’s been well integrated into “this world”. concise and poignant, and very meaningful. I just wanted to say thanks for living your life as a bridge!

My favorite quote from your post is this: “This heightened sense of awareness and personal connection to self and soul, allows me to speak and act from a place of authenticity. I’ve always believed that as an instructor or guide, I cannot lead someone someplace I have not been and experienced firsthand. As I continue to connect and explore the underworld of my soul, I am creating a detailed map that I will then be able to use in assisting clients in their journey to soul.” I LOOOVE this and agree a lot. I resonate especially with the metaphor of the map.

Gabrielle Roth says that “between the head and feet of any person is a billion miles of unexplored wilderness.” It seems to be the more we explore our own wilderness, the more we become equipped to “track” our internal selves, our souls, which helps us help others in their exploration too. Such an honor to be guiding in this life with you!

[Mandy Bishop]

I totally echo this and really appreciate you including some indigenous beliefs in your writing! This statement about the Navajo, “To live in balance and harmony with all life is one’s ultimate goal, “developing pride of one’s body, mind, soul, spirit and honoring all life”. There are no “troubled” or lost people, no addicts or the insane, there are only people who have lost their way, lost their connection to themselves, their community and the Earth, they have lost harmony and balance” reminds me of the way the Karamajong, indigenous to Northern Uganda, also view the health of their community. An elder there told me that they look in the eyes of every person they meet to determine if they could see/feel the spirit of that person. If they could not, they did not think that person was bad or wrong for being addicted/detached/insane, but they then knew they had to help that person find their way back to the Earth and the tribe. I love this sense of holding within community so much and it is something we have become so disconnected from in our society.