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Foundation One- January 2019
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Wow, reading through and having a discussion after this first module has really been a powerful experience. Seeing everyone’s own experience with nature connection has shown me how there are so many different perspectives on working within nature. How each has its own individual touch, but still has a lot of similarity in a bigger picture. This has helped me on my own journey. My own experience working with nature has played a specific role in much of my life, but seeing others has added to the fact that we are all working with nature. However, all of our paths differ. It has been exciting reading everyone’s initial posts, and responding to them. I am looking forward to continue this journey together and see how each of us are growing in our own path, as well as affecting each other’s paths. The energy I’ve felt so far has been very powerful. Both the posts on the forum, and the bi-weekly check-ins have helped as a reminder of where it is I feel this vision is pulling me. It feels right, and feels like this path I’m on both in my individual life and with all of this cohort is what I am supposed to be doing right now.
Overall, this has been a great addition to the recent intensive. It has been a little hard for me to keep that momentum going, but this group on here has been very beneficial. -
Summary Post
Foundation 1 has given me a much clearer understanding of how to answer the question of what is it that you do or are wanting to do as a “coach”. When I first came home from our intensive it was hard to formulate what my vision really was and formulate it into a conversation that someone could understand that wasn’t at the intensive. I found it funny when Michael was talking about having the initial discussion with someone in the cohort or out mentor before we start openly talking about the vision. My initial vision made sense to me but was not coming across very clear. So in closing foundation one gave me a better understanding not only for myself of the vision, but made it so that I could explain it to others in a captivating way.
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Summary Post:
I really enjoyed Foundation 1. It has given me so much clarity to my current stage in life. Even having a very strong commitment to my Deep Nature Connection practice and focusing on it with vision and through coaching, I have found that my intuition and presence has become much stronger recently. It’s just amazing how we can “re-train” ourselves in these ways to come into better understanding of ourselves and others. I’m super pumped to be diving into all of this much more in the future!
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Foundation one.
I would not have guessed when this began that I would be learning a new language. The language that nature uses to communicate. Through the reading, the lessons and the reflections I have begun to understand how the language works. My neighborhood is next to park which fills with geese this time of year. The geese are so ubiquitous that they actually become commonplace and a bit annoying when trying to run; so much poop and waddling bodies on the path. Yesterday, while expanding my awarnesses in nature I watched the geese fly in, land and take off. These fat, awkward birds CAN FLY FOR MILES! They don’t have big, developed muscles, they don’t train, they just do. On my run that day I allowed my body to just do. Where is my flow? How can I move my awkward body with grace like the geese. This is just one example of how I am learning the language of nature and applying it to my life. Seeing more, hearing more, smelling more. The other big lesson from foundation one is reflective listening. In my day to day experience I am giving far less advice and problem solving and reflecting back instead. Through this exercise so much has come to light that would have stayed in the shadows. -
*** Summary Post***
Good morning cohort mates,
Wow, reading all of these summary posts has really moved me. I am so thankful to know you all, and to be learning and growing with you. When I first started Foundation 1, I was feeling unsure and a bit lost. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, and if I would be able to pick it up and learn from it. I didn’t go to college, so in an academic way, I sometimes feel like I am at a disadvantage. The reason I didn’t go to college is because I couldn’t learn from sitting at a desk for hours, and formal schooling was just never for me.
The process through the face to face intensives, the video calls, the readings, the discussions, the forums really works for me and I am picking up so much more than I thought I would. I’m truly enjoying my nightly reads with the Coyote Guide. Now, I try to make the habit of starting every morning with gratitude. I realize that in the real world, we don’t always have the time to go to our sit spot and give a full thanksgiving address to start our days. So I take reality and mix in the nature connection to it. Every morning I am NOT able to go to my sit spot (my preference is going there at dawn or dusk) I give a thanksgiving address in the shower. It sounds silly, but I’m gonna have to shower, and why not take advantage of that 10-15 minutes with adding a daily gratitude routine in there?! Honestly, it starts my day off with a beautiful feeling and I think that carries with me through the rest of my day.
I am still focusing on MY personal connection to nature before I take steps towards helping others with theirs. I just think this is very important for me personally, to be be in a place of practice before I can teach. I’ve been focusing on Coyote’s 13 Core Routines for daily practice. These routines help deepen my connection to nature, even if in an urban setting. Reflection is something I am also continuing to work on, and deep listening.
This past weekend I was at a birthday party and afterwards my friend said “I noticed you were observing a lot. What did you observe? I felt like you were just taking everything in.” I kind of thought that was cool. It was the first time someone said something about noticing the changes I am making in my life. It’s true, I did observe a lot, I listened more, I sat and took it all in. I’m really happy it’s starting to get noticed. Like Ben said, it’s amazing how we can “re-train” ourselves to become a bigger version of ourselves.
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*Summary Post*
I have learned much since I started foundation 1. Most of it was learning about myself which I had not expected. Inquiry and sacred questions are so powerful for unraveling truth in a world that can leave a lasting impression on ones mind and spirit. When I get closer to my truth, I find it brings me closer to nature for it seems that there is nothing more truer than nature. This is just the start.
Vision is another big take away from this course. I have always known what vision is but what I didn’t realize is that it changes with us and I have to stay connected to feel where my vision is taking me. If I don’t, I feel lost and without purpose. I am excited for what is next.
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When I visualize a nature connected session, a clear, calm, and collected interaction comes to mind. Spending time with nature and connecting helps achieve this mindfulness and clarity needed. When this is achieved by the client finding the deeper need and how to handle it just falls in your lap.
Being a nature connected coach also means as a coach you have to integrate and practice you own nature connection.
For me nature brings a clear, calm, and collected presence to any situation. This is a wonderful tool that can be used with or without the physical presence of nature. We as humans are all intertwined with nature. With our daily lives, especially being away from nature, we tend to drift from this connection. Being aware and connecting with nature helps “reset” the mind and draw it back towards that natural nature connected place we all subconsciously long for. I believe that in itself allows for the opportunity for a more fluid and clear session. The presence of nature is powerful and centering. -
**SUMMARY POST**
Throughout my time at the Star House, and my time since, I have had the opportunity to reflect on what I want and what is important. My time in Colorado confirmed that this field—Nature Connected Coaching—is where I want to be. I will never get over that I can do what I want, that is connecting with people and guiding them to their goals, all while exploring nature.
With that being said, however, I am not without some self-doubt and trepidation. I struggle with not comparing my journey to that of the rest of the cohort. I see others in the group taking on clients and already creating or expanding their businesses and I am not sure how to get started. Despite the nervousness, I can report that I have started to seriously look at networking with like-minded businesses and practitioners in the area.
Speaking of like-minded people, I am truly grateful for this cohort. There are so many people that I believe will become leaders in the field. I have made connections and friendships that I never expected to make. Thank you all for that.
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Hello Cohort,
When thinking about nature connection it really brings up my relationship to my surroundings. Wether that be to the Earth, inside a building, or the people around me. We are all constantly interacting with nature, consciously or unconsciously. Many of the exercises and experiences with nature during foundation one really showed my how my awareness and relationship with nature can change my experience and outcome entirely. Contemplating on working with clients with this connection with nature brings up a few things.
First, my own connection to nature and the baseline I bring to any session. Keeping a consistent relationship with nature allows me to be aware of the presence I bring to a session with a client and how it may or may not influence the client. It feels that it is at the base and start for preparing for any session or situation in life in general.
In regards to the client, nature is proving to be instrumental in the healing and transformation process. Its shown me that it can set the “tone” for the session and allow the client to enter into a space that promotes openness, awareness and a deeper connection into one’s self/soul.
I know for myself, my connection with nature needs to be present before I can guide a client into theirs. after that Let nature do the work.
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Initial Post
I believe everything happens for a reason and timing is everything, even if from first perspective the timing seems off or just terrible altogether. Finding EBI and moving forward with enrolling was the start of getting back on my path. This week has given me a lot to think about, especially on the personal level since some things happened in my life during my week here. Reflecting back on my experience and my connection to nature I realize just how disconnected I’ve become. Never in my adult life would I have considered going out into the cold, snowy landscape just to sit and connect to nature. As a child, we’re so much more open to just doing it. Just running outside with no thoughts about weather, Let’s go splash in the rain puddles, let’s go make snowman. As an adult I feel like my thought process is “Do I really want to get out in this weather? Is it necessary for me to go out?”. As Michael said on the first day, my initial reaction to going out in the cold to find a sit spot was “No thanks, it’s warm inside.” But I let myself feel into that and moved into the uncomfortableness. I allowed myself to experience the moment in a different way. Yes, I was col but as I sat the cold faded into the background and I was able to just be.
The first two days of just learning to reconnect to nature was exactly what I needed. It was a reconnection to myself and my spirituality, which both have been ignored for some time. Walking a Pagan path is walking with nature and learning from nature.
So what does it mean to be connected to Nature? For me its going back to childhood. Learning to play again. Chasing a butterfly or just feeling the rain on your skin. I think it’s a deeply personal experience for each individual. Nature is incredibly powerful and restorative. It holds great wisdom and healing even when we are not consciously seeking answers from it. As a child I would climb a magnolia tree when I needed space and fall asleep in it’s branches. It was actually one of my favorite things to do and helped me during some tough times. But I never equated that to Nature healing me, I just thought it was a quirk of mine but I now realize the tree was teaching me things. There are many meanings about the Magnolia tree, some that stand out to me are independence, endurance, and perseverance. It was at this time in my life I was realizing the issues in my family and the start of my depression. I always felt better after being in the tree. As I got older I stopped going to nature to restore myself. Instead I locked myself in my room. It never occurred to me that shutting myself off from Nature would affect me so much. Looking at the Coyote’s Guide on Core Routines a few of them stood out to me, specifically animal forms. I remember as a child really trying to imitate animals, not only in movement but in sound. I can make a dove call to this day. I just wanted to talk to the animals as I felt I could tell them everything, more so than humans. Animals have so much to teach us about living in this world and I wanted to be outside with them, running wild. That’s nature connection to me. Being attuned to the environment and blending with the baseline as the Language of Birds teaches us. Making a choice to tune in and feel into the environment, the space, ourselves. Allowing our self to have a fully human experience, which means feeling our emotions, the good and the bad and allowing nature to help us on our healing journey.So how will this relationship and reconnection to nature support my coaching?
I’m still trying to figure out my particular brand of coaching. But I do know I want it to be very different from modern psychotherapy and clinical practices. When I started studying psychology it was too scientific for me, too cold. Something was missing. That’s how I ended up at Naropa and studying both Eastern and Western medicine. I never really thought about ecopsychology or even wilderness therapy. It wasn’t something on my peripheral until now. I wanted to get back to nature, back to my spiritual practice and fully incorporate it into my life. I want to tune back into myself and really experience life, not just moving through it with blinders on. And I want to bring that awareness into my coaching practice. Like Steven Harper describes in The Way of Wilderness, the ancient tribes and cultures knew that natural environment was the best for healing. And that’s exactly where my path has been leading me, back to nature. Nature is the best place to heal because it’s not always picture perfect. It reflects our inner worlds and shows us where we need the healing. That reflection and mirroring back is the perfect support no matter what style of coaching I land on. It’s the greatest teacher and I look forward to learning more and allowing nature to support me on this journey.
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Hi Sandy!
I just wanted to say how wonderful your writing is and I love how you talk about being “all in” when you are fully connected to your environment. Allowing nature and the curiosity that comes from it to guide and inform you not only externally but internally as well. When you talk about the firsthand experience and not having a story we want to attach to things really got me thinking. I think as society we are caught up in our stories about ourselves and those around us and we have all these preconceived ideas that prevent us what you were saying of just having an experience.That’s powerful right there. Thank you for sharing.
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Hi Taylor! Loved your post! I too really enjoy the thought of the 50/50 rule and having a good chunk of unstructured time. You’re right in saying we don’t see that anymore. So much of our time is planned out that it feels weird to just go with the flow or to sit and do nothing. The openness of being a nature-connected coach is definitely inspiring. I love the enthusiasm you have around all the readings and the materials being presented here. It’s infectious! Can’t wait to hear more from you!
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Foundation One Summary Post
I’m not really sure what I expected when I showed up to Foundation One. All I knew was that I had followed my intuition and was eager to see where it led me. Meeting everyone for the first time, hearing their stories and perspectives on life, coaching and nature brought a lot to the forefront for me. Reading everyone’s take away in the forums was especially thought-provoking and enjoyable. What I enjoyed the most was seeing so many different personalities coming together to bring Nature-Connection back out into the world, spreading it as far as we can. I think my biggest take away is knowing that I can reconnect with nature. That I can develop those awareness skills and not only become more aware of the environments baseline around but also my own baseline and how I affect the environment around me. I thought I had lost that when I stopped being in nature and became more reclusive and stayed inside. It made me remember the little girl I used to be. The one so determined to be connected with nature and animals that she would stand outside, next to the bird feeder and still herself, no matter how long it took, until the birds were not frightened by her and came down to the feeder. I want to be that way again. I want to walk through the woods with a baseline that doesn’t disturb them. Now I know it’s possible. Now I know I can sit outside, in snow even, and make that connection again. I’m excited for what’s to come and feeling blessed to be sharing this journey with such wonderful souls. -
MJ, as I sit down to write this response, I am reflecting on our time together and how we met so long ago. I am reminded of our collective awe for the land and the sacredness of the Star House
I recently had the opportunity to reflect on what being a Nature Connected Coach, and more broadly, what nature connection means to me. Your understanding that nature is everything and everyone and everywhere is spot on. It’s a great insight that you were able to see this connection from the very beginning of our journey. I have found, nearly 2 years later that your answer rings true—nature is truly all of us and everywhere.I hope that your life back in the busy city, after all of the intensives and work with EBI, that you have held this belief and have been able to incorporate this philosophy into your life and your business. Continue to deepen your connection to nature and the greater unknown, my friend.
