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Initial Post-Foundation One-Cohort 19
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30 Replies
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Being connected to nature, to me, is a state of being that is directed by soul. It is a deep understanding of and a careful tending to self, to other people, to non-human beings and the natural environment. It is an awareness and acceptance of the interconnectedness of all of these things. It is a presence in the now and an awareness of what is being reflected to me through people, non-human beings and the natural environment. My answer to this topic reminds me of a verse from the Tao, where the invitation is to “Live in accordance with the nature of things. In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. Stand by your word. Govern with equity. Be timely in choosing the right moment. One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the way of things. He moves in harmony with the present moment, always knowing the truth of just what to do.” I feel compelled to add that being nature connected is a state of surrender. It is a trust that all is as it should be and that I have everything I need to navigate my life.
As coaches, our personal connection to nature will allow us to collaborate with it and gain deeper understanding of a client issue. It opens up the possibility for nature to reflect back to us and our client. Jon Young, in his What Is Deep Nature Connection posting, talks about how deep connection can lead to an overall well-being that comes with a quiet mind, heightened creativity and deep listening skills. These are attributes that are highly valuable in a coaching relationship. We need to be able really HEAR what our clients are saying beneath the story. We need creativity in our process that can utilize the tools we have in the best way for creating insight and working toward clients’ goals. I think of some of the other attributes Jon talks about being present in nature connected people like “being truly helpful” and “empathy and respect for nature” and I feel a responsibility to have those present in me as a coach.
Additionally, if we can develop nature connection in our clients, we create new space for them to become more self aware and to be more in tune with their environment. Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature talks about this concept and how nature can promote self-expression because nature is a perfect example of that type of expression. It can allow them to see and articulate their issues more clearly to a coach and open up more time for working with the new way of being and goal setting during a session. It will help us work around that concept of “system 1” that Jenny Rogers talks about in Coaching Skills, where the brain wants to shortcut and leads to us being reactive. Instead we can encourage the brain to slow down and work harder to arrive at the answers we’re looking for to help our clients.
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What does it mean to be connected to Nature, and how can that relationship support your coaching?
I have tears in my eyes after reading “The Way of Wilderness” and ‘Wilderness as a Healing Place” chapters assigned to us. Both readings echo what my experience has been in Nature. I see Nature as a truly Sacred Space. This Sacred Space, the Outer Wildnerness, is the visible field of the invisible connection that surrounds and moves through all that is and flows through our Inner Wilderness. Being Nature Connected means being aware of this Mystery–a river of energy that runs through all things including myself. I am not separate from, but part of this Mystery. Walking on the Earth is a Holy experience. I enter into a spacious, vast, expansive, quiet silence. From this place of awareness and connection, I tune into the Land. I sense its calling and understand its wisdom. I begin to trust my insight and intuition as the Land reveals, like a mirror, the wisdom of my Inner Wilderness. I become attuned to Sacred Space and become one with Mystery.
In “Wilderness as a Healing Place”, John Miles offers the insight of Carl Jung who believed in the archetype of Sacred Space within us and related how this archetype is also found in Nature–places “pervaded by a sense of power, mystery, and awesomeness”–which suggest, according to Roger Bacon, “the existence of order and meaning.” Entering into this field with open intention allows us to experience transformation and healing. When we create a practice of entering into Nature with this open intention and awareness, we approach our connection with Wilderness as a “life-time of engagement and discovery” (Harper, pg 185) in which Nature is the teacher and healer. Harper continues, “Our relationship with Nature is is more one of being than having. We are nature, we do not have nature.”
Nature connection supports my work as a coach by creating within me a disposition to see my client as Nature–a whole, integrated being whose inner wisdom knows what they need for their own wellbeing and healing. Nature connection gives me tools to grow in this awareness. As a “tracker” I use my awareness to notice and be curious about shifts in their baseline and invite my client to notice these shifts in themselves too and to be curious. I see my client as “Wilderness” and “Sacred Space”. Nature itself is the healer and teacher. Through Nature Connection, we invite our clients to develop their own relationship with Nature (the Outer Wilderness and their Inner Wilderness),and to trust their growing awareness, intuition, and insight.
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Hi David, Thanks for kicking off the discussion. I loved your quote from the Tao. It offers profound wisdom. Aslo, you pointed out that “nature is a perfect example of that type of [self] expression” from Coyote’s Guide. This is important wisdom for me as I am so critical of my own self-expression. I value this beautiful Cohort, your words in your post, and my experiences during our intensive as all of it gives me courage to play in “self-expression.” Thank you!
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To me, being connected to Nature means being in a state of relationship with, and having a sacred connection with, all that is around and within me. It means being able to tap into Source and to be able to listen to, honor, and feel what comes up- within myself and within my clients. I know that nature is inseparable from me, and I am inseparable from it. I am nature. We are nature. We are whole as individuals, and connected, and ultimately a greater whole altogether.
In Coyote’s Guide, it is mentioned how humans have “evolved with original instructions designed for dynamic awareness of nature.” I reflect on my times spent out in the wilderness and how many life changing “ah-ha” moments I have had from just sitting by a lake, paddling down a raging river, rock climbing, and just being ‘one with nature’. That awareness deep within is profound and divine. By stepping away from all that distracts us and by tapping in to the sacred that lies within us and around us, we are able to get to a place of deep inner knowing and truth. Our sacred ancestors, as well as vision council, can help guide us to those deeper places of connection too.
As a coach who is connected deeply to nature, I can help my clients develop core routines of nature connection that will naturally help them to remember their own “instructions”. This is the beauty of nature as teacher. Nature is so ancient, wise, ever-present, and available to those who seek it. We too, are ancient, wise, and have the ability to be ever-present and available. In our readings (Coyote’s Guide to Connecting Nature. 2016) I loved being reminded to take opportunities to stretch the awareness of not only our clients, but also ourselves. We are on this journey of life together. My client is nature and I am nature. When we are out on the land- I want to be in connection with myself, with nature, with my clients, and have a goal to see the bigger picture and hear, see, and feel all that is around us. We are an ecosystem. This makes me think of our discussions and work with concentric rings, baselines and baseline shifts, and also the outer and inner edges. As a coach, my deep awareness and connection to all that is (nature) will undoubtedly help ground and align me as I work with others. I also know that when I’m truly “connected”, that is when I am able to share my gifts. I am thinking of the quote by John Muir, “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I was found, was really going in.” Our work is really about us showing up fully and doing our 10% and then surrendering to the process and letting nature do its work.
In the Coyote’s Guide, we read about how unstructured time outdoors gives us the ability to hear and follow the voice inside us. I refer to the voice inside me as my “absolute truth”. When working with clients, it is my goal to help them realize their deep inner needs and absolute truths and then to encourage them take them out into the world to share with others. According to Rogers (2014), “The core purpose of coaching is to increase self-awareness, to make choices explicit, and to close the gap between potential and how things are currently (p.9).” As a coach, I strive to be self-aware myself AND to help my client achieve their goals and make change in their life, so they can live their best life. Empowerment!
As I work on my core routines in nature and live the practices I am wanting to share with my clients, I will grow as a coach and will be able to show up even more fully for my clients. According to Young Haas, and McGown (2010), “Growing into and remaining as healthy and fully functional human animals requires ample time interacting with wild nature, time to play, be curious, be open-eyed and live, and discover how we fit in, how we are connected with our biological world (p.7).” I love knowing that the process of “discovering” is ongoing… and there will never be an arrival, but many opportunities to continue to grow. Life is a journey, not a destination.
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David, I love what you wrote…
“As coaches, our personal connection to nature will allow us to collaborate with it and gain deeper understanding of a client issue. It opens up the possibility for nature to reflect back to us and our client.”The word collaboration rings true. Nature as our co-guide (our lead-guide actually!) does open itself up to holding all that we, and our clients, bring to it. As we reflect back our client’s words, and they gain that deeper self-awareness and knowing through sharing those reflections, nature will also reflect back what the client knows deep inside themselves. Such powerful work! Can you imagine what would happen if each person was in tune and had nature connection? The world would surely be transformed.
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Hello Maria!
You wrote, “Through Nature Connection, we invite our clients to develop their own relationship with Nature (the Outer Wilderness and their Inner Wilderness), and to trust their growing awareness, intuition, and insight.”
I love how you used the word ‘invite’. By inviting clients into a safe and sacred container of coaching, and into a relationship with nature, we invite clients to discover themselves. We as coaches surrender to the process of being a teacher and instead are deep listeners, reflectors, and a bridge. We are not telling clients what is, but instead are giving them opportunities to choose to step in to the wildness/their wildness and to ‘notice, make meaning, and draw their own conclusions’ from what nature has taught them. I also love how you wrote of inviting clients to be curious and to notice baseline shifts in themselves. Self-awareness! I feel that when we have self-awareness that is when we are able to make some of the biggest changes in our lives.
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In my personal experience, connecting with Nature has always felt like coming home. The story of following Coyote in Coyote’s Guide was validating as it helped me to put to words what felt like an amorphous feeling, “I was led from street edge, to clearing edge, to forest edge, into another world. Coyote had brought me home” (Young, Haas, & McGown, 2016). When in that other world, I’ve always felt more connected and at peace with myself, more authentically who I am and want to be. In nature I have felt wholly me, attuned to my truest desires and deepest needs. I feel imbued with a sense of well-being that is difficult to achieve in any other way.
Steven Harper (1995) suggests in The Way of Wilderness that nature connection is connection to the wilderness within and without. It is the means to a multi-level connection. We can expand on this concept using John Young’s (2013) essay What IS Deep Nature Connection, in which he suggests that connection also encompasses the community, and that connection with nature leads to personal and community well-being. However, nature connection is also, “a way and a tradition in its own right.” Connection with nature is a “process; there is no beginning or end, but a lifetime of engagement and discovery.” (Harper, 1995) Thus, nature connection is a means to connection, and an end in itself.
In the most traditional societies, nature connection has occurred as a matter of subsistence. It was supported through the cultural elements of traditional, indigenous societies “that are shared throughout the greater human family on at least three continents, and used for the purpose of peace” (Young, 2013). In these societies, nature was the primary teacher. It was the original learning tool or pedagogy, as “growing into and remaining as healthy and fully functional human animals require[d] ample time interacting with wild nature, time to play, be curious, be open-eyed and alive, and discover how we fit in, how we are connected with our biological world” (Young, Haas, & McGown, 2016). It is a teacher we have lost in modern society as “we’ve gradually allowed exploratory experience outdoors to be traded for indoor, largely sedentary experiences that depend on learning tools imagined and manufactured by humans” (Young, Haas, & McGown, 2016). Now we must explicitly and strategically cultivate deeper nature connection. A modern movement is evolving in which the cultural elements of more traditional societies are being used to connect people to nature, their communities, and themselves to cultivate healing and well-being. Thus the application to coaching. As guides, we can become the facilitators of this explicit, strategic connection to nature in order to help our clients develop a deeper connection with the self and others, towards a more optimal level of well-being.
In order to coach others in developing deeper connection with nature, we must first get in touch with and trust our own connection with nature. This requires daily, intentional connection in intimate, meaningful ways which can help stretch our creativity in how we guide and understand the experiences of our clients. Coyote’s Guide quotes Warren Moon, “The natural world powerfully fosters self-expression, because nature itself is so completely self-expressed” (2016). Thus nature also becomes a tool for self-expression in coaching, and appears in the expression of the relationship between coach and client, client and self, and client and nature. Harper’s various anecdotes provide a number of unique ways in which this self-expression can look. Ultimately as a coach we are a model, conduit, and facilitator for nature connection. The deeper we understand our own connection with nature, the more we can leverage that connection to support others on their own journeys towards understanding their place in the world in a way that supports optimal well-being.
References
Harper, S. (1995). The way of wilderness. In T. Roszak, M.E. Gomes, & A.D. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth healing the mind. (pp. 183-200). Sierra Club Books.
Young, J. (2013). New year’s message 2013: What is deep nature connection? Jon Young. http://jonyoung.org/2013/01/new-years-message-2013-what-is-deep-nature-connection/
Young, J., Haas, E., & McGown, E. (2016). Coyote’s guide to connecting with nature. (2nd Edition). Owlink Media Corporation.
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Leslie, I loved reading your post. “… we must first get in touch with and trust our own connection with nature. This requires daily, intentional connection in intimate, meaningful ways which can help stretch our creativity in how we guide and understand the experiences of our clients.”
This is what I personally like to refer to as ‘we have to live what we are asking our clients to step in to’. Being in touch and aware, and having trust in self and nature is key for coaching. When we are connected, grounded, and in-tune, we can trust that we are leading our clients into an intentional space that will support their growth. I’ve been a part of nature-led activities before where the heart and connection is not there and my experiences have been drastically different from those experiences where guides were truly connected to themselves, participants, and the land. This makes me think of the “I value you, I value me” and ultimately “I value all of us being connected as nature”.
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Hi Leslie and Susan,
Thanks for your responses! Its lovely to connect through our online communinty.Leslie, thank you for picking up on how ancient and universal are the practices we are re-learning through nature-connection. You wrote, “In the most traditional societies, nature connection has occurred as a matter of subsistence. It was supported through the cultural elements of traditional, indigenous societies “that are shared throughout the greater human family on at least three continents, and used for the purpose of peace””. We forget that we too are “indigenous” peoples. I found the following definition of “indigenous” as “originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native”. We truly need to join the modern movement you say is “evolving in which the cultural elements of more traditional societies are being used to connect people to nature, their communities, and themselves to cultivate healing and well-being.” As Michael reminds us, Nature Connection is our birthright.
Susan, Thanks for replying to my post! Thank you for your words about Nature being “so ancient, wise, ever-present, and available to those who seek it. We too, are ancient, wise, and have the ability to be ever-present and available.” It is so difficult to give ourselves permission to trust in these words and trust the voice inside of us. Our concentric rings affect so many being around us. Our words, our thoughts, our actions, our energy, all create vibrations which shift what is around us in unexpected and unfathomable ways. How we connect with others, how we notice and mirror their wholeness and their nature as “ancient and wise” as they reveal themselves, heals the whole.
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What does it mean to be connected to Nature, and how does that relationship support your coaching?
Being connected to Nature has always felt like some mystical ideal that lay far-out in the future, or in the past. I have read books and gained information about plants, animals, shelters, forestry, permaculture etc. Through nature connection practices and experiences I have grown in understanding of myself as an individual and as a member of the human community, yet I have always felt separate from Nature. How can I be “connected to Nature” while at the same time feeling disconnected from it? Jon Young’s article is really helpful in that it not only categorizes four different layers of nature connection, but he also breaks down the differences between them all, focusing on the attributes and characteristics of what he calls “deep nature connection”. He acknowledges that each layer is important, and is supportive of the next, but that the two deepest layers of nature connection are under experienced in most modern cultures.
I can see how all layers of nature connection are important to have experience in as a Nature Connected Coach, I also believe that each layer is a layer of “practice” and experience. As a coach, I want to hold knowledge of the environment I take clients into, and to share some of that knowledge with them. I want to use that knowledge to help clients have experiences with the beings I have knowledge of. For example, it is one thing to walk past a plant have the knowledge to identify it, while it is a deeper layer still know how to regeneratively harvest from that plant and care take it. This expresses both knowledge and experience, and leads to a deeper relationship with Nature. The final layer after knowledge, experience and relationship I would call “Being” Nature. The more I can embody and express the 8 attributes of connection, I believe the more impact my presence will have on my clients and the world.
As we understand more about our internal world, we can potentially grow in experience, relationship and ultimately “be” in our connection with our internal microcosm, which is a reflection of the external macrocosm. Ultimately, this program uses the external as a guide and reflection of the internal, and the deeper the relationship I can have with both, the more capable I will be as a coach, not to mention being a more bad-ass human.
One of the things I am noticing about Jon Young’s level of Deep Nature Connection, is that it would seem to result in a lack of unhealthy fear. I think the implications of this potential are especially powerful when I think of the effect of having a deep nature connection with one’s own internal nature, and I am excited at the vision of what being in such a community, country, or world look like. -
David,
Thank you for sharing. Many things stood out to me in your post, particularly this:“ …It is a presence in the now and an awareness of what is being reflected to me through people, non-human beings and the natural environment. My answer to this topic reminds me of a verse from the Tao, where the invitation is to “Live in accordance with the nature of things. In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. Stand by your word. Govern with equity. Be timely in choosing the right moment. One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the way of things…”
It’s beautiful to be remind of TAO, be in accordance with nature, going into the heart, being gentle and kind with others., But what stood out the most out of what you shared is “stand by your word. Govern with equity.” I often witness people struggle to be their word, having their actions match what they say. This leads me to think about accountability. As wonderful a it is to be one with nature and in the flow, without also being your word and leading life from a place of honor and integrity, not from ego place, but from a place where the ego and soul our integrated working the same accordance as nature. Leading from truth, from the soul, allowing spirit to show the way of life. Being the I and the One the same time.
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James,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. As you brought up: “…Jon Young’s article is really helpful in that it not only categorizes four different layers of nature connection, but he also breaks down the differences between them all, focusing on the attributes and characteristics of what he calls “deep nature connection”. He acknowledges that each layer is important, and is supportive of the next, but that the two deepest layers of nature connection are under experienced in most modern cultures.
I can see how all layers of nature connection are important to have experience in as a Nature Connected Coach, I also believe that each layer is a layer of “practice” and experience…”To understand our own Nauture, we are meant to experience the external world which assist in bring out or drawing out the nature that lies within the individual. It is through experiences that expansion occurs, or a deeper understanding of our inner world, which then allows a deeper/broader understanding of the external world and the way nature communicates with us. I find, in the beginning practices, it’s assist to breakdown the “layers” what do they mean”. As you stated, James, each layer “ is a layer practice” and experience…” I feel you’re on point. I have experienced that “practice and experience of a layer” with a patterns in my life. Bringing in awareness, learning to listen to the layers beneath the “trigger” assist in understanding my inner world, which, practice, supported me to change internally, which inherently changed my outer wold and visa versa. Once the practice or going into the layers, and listening to the inner and outer world, that once took more time to breakdown, it will become easier to exiernce the lawyers as they all occur simultaneously. Like anything new, it takes practice and allowing for the experience, until it going into the layers inner and out worlds, comes with more ease.
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Hi Susan! Your reference to Jenny Roger’s “The core purpose of coaching is to increase self-awareness, to make choices explicit, and to close the gap between potential and how things are currently (p.9).” makes me think of a part of Coyote’s Guide that talks about guiding clients to the edge of their comfort zone and beyond. This first requires us to meet them where they currently are and then pull them farther and farther out. To me, a client’s potential will be found in these explorations of the outer edges of the comfort zone and by staying a few steps ahead of them, we can help them reach places they never thought possible. The thought of that is exciting! I’m happy to see the two different readings talking about the same concept even though one is written from a strictly coaching point of view and the other is more guiding. As someone who has an interest in possibly incorporating both, this seems very applicable!
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Hi Leslie! I felt like you were speaking on my behalf as you described your own experience in connecting with nature. I,too, feel like the most raw version of who I really am when in nature. I feel comforted. I feel accepted as I am. I truly feel at home there. I’m starting to feel more like I am part of it rather than seeing myself as a visitor in nature. Nature makes me want to challenge myself in ways I sometimes don’t engage in when in societal life. There’s something about doing that in a way that leaves you to your own devices to solve problems and maintain your well-being that is exhilarating to me! In a world where we have technology to show us how to do anything, to answer any question we may have…..the art of self-reliance is dying.
The question I have for you, and for myself, is how do we maintain our feelings of being in nature when living our day to day lives, which are also nature :)?
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David, I love that you quoted the Tao, and the chapter you quoted. I was thinking today how Jon Young’s Level of Deep Nature Connection may be synonymous with Tao, or closely related. I also love your question to Leslie and yourself (perhaps to all of us), “how do we maintain our feelings of being in nature when living our day to day lives, which are also nature?” My experience of the contrast between “our day to day lives” and nature connection is also a difference of living from the Heart or the Head. I am still unearthing this idea, but I feel inadequate at living within a harmony or balance of the two, and feel like the answer for myself lives somewhere there.
Susan and Leslie,
I love how you both mentioned living what we are teaching and being a conduit/mentor. I was reminded of Jon Young’s insistence that Deep Nature Connection can only be achieved through mentorship, and the reality by coaching we are also Coyote mentoring those we coach by being an example. This concept reminds me of the responsibility I feel to continue my practices for my sake and the sake of those I will interact with.
