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Summary Post-Foundation 1-Cohort 19
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10 Replies
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I’m smiling as I reflect on my learning experience. I’m taking so much away as a student, coach/guide and a client. This has been a miraculous module that has delivered a wonderful, and full, experience that traveled across the available emotions of the human experience. The depth of the discussions amongst, and with, the cohort reflect the commitment and heart of each individual. The rich discussions have shed light on unique angles of the ICF concepts and prompts while providing a fun, engaging opportunity to uncover potential learning possibilities. The facilitation, mentorship and the community of peers that make up cohort 19 have built a safe container on top of foundation one.
A gem or two that I’m taking away, as a student, were discovered while enjoying the time spent at the Starhouse and surrounding area. Personally, Sunshine canyon and the local wildlife have given proof to the magic of nature connection. I drove home from the Starhouse each evening during the intensive feeling restored, energized and focused. To the North of the Starhouse, my “sit spot” has been a place of honor, spirituality and great lessons. The place itself is equipped with a broken mirror to remind any visitor that it is wise to “know thy self”. The mirror taught me to remove myself (ego) and be “unseen” in the coaching experience to increase effectiveness for the client. In short time I’ve noticed a positive difference in the responses I’m getting from those I interact with. This new style of coaching, for me, has translated into a softer, gentle and highly curious approach with family and in professional relationships (not to mention my first practice clients).
As a client, I’m taking away the experience of having been contributed to at a high level by each coach I interacted with. I went into each coaching session understanding that I was entering a broken process (for now) and that I was a “practice” client. With that being said, I was amazed at the level of presence, freedom and genuine connection fostered by each coach/guide. I’ve returned home from the intensive and have completed multiple “tough” conversations with ease, have scheduled a daily practice for continual connection with nature and continue to bring humility to my learning…all inspired by the coaching I received. Wow…I’m grateful.
Finally, as a coach, I’m taking away a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. I’m learning that I’m comfortable and feel strong while in the process of coaching. I enjoy setting solid expectations to clients and delivering the guidelines, establishing roles and discussing ethics. Moving from an issue conversation to the threshold and from the threshold to integration and SMART goals. This process and flow seem to come naturally for me. The areas that I’m excited about and I’m realizing are not my strengths…are creating disclosure/s, intake form/s and logos etc. What I’m noticing that I’m learning from my weaknesses is that I have an opportunity to create teams and teamwork in all situations while I grow and develop my craft and coaching business.
Overall, I could not be more content with my experience in foundation one. I appreciate the balance of spiritual and scientific approaches to teaching our cohort coaching and guiding. I’ve come a long way to get to this moment and I realize that the journey has just begun. -
One of my biggest takeaways from Foundation One is a better understanding of the theoretical and practical foundations of Nature Connection as a discipline in and of itself. As an educator at heart, I tend to think first about what I would need to do or know in order to teach a subject to someone, and the material we covered this past week really helped me to flesh out what that might look like. There are the layers of the foundation that Jon Young mentions Nature Connection is in terms of action, and there are also the skills and values that we can purposefully inculcate in ourselves and others. Even if my primary purpose as a guide isn’t to teach, having a solid understanding of these structural/theoretical foundations of Nature Connection can still help me to guide in more effective way. I also do think I would enjoy teaching it at some point too!
One of the main themes that I’m seeing in our discussion as a whole, is the idea that Nature Connection suggests We and Nature are one in the same. It’s different than the concept that we might typically associate with the word “connection”, two entities coming together to create a whole, but still with two separate parts. I think that Nature Connection is different in that we are nature. It’s not as if I and nature come together to create a whole, but that nature and I have always existed together, inseparable. . The practice of “Nature Connection” is simply a deepening of our understanding of that oneness. I am Nature, so the practice of nature connection deepens the relationship with myself.
Another major theme I’m seeing relates to Nature as a guide, and how as a coach, we co-guide with Nature. The coaching relationship isn’t just between me and the client, but me, the client, and nature- and that can truly be in any tangible or intangible location. And there are so many ways in which this collaboration can occur that trusting the process and trusting nature is paramount as a coach. Nature always has what we need, and will always meet us where we are.
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Foundation 1 and our first intensive have proven to be life changing for me. Although I feel a lot of blockages coming up in my life right now (which have, I believe, surfaced in response to this work), I also feel a deep strength and courage to hold my ground, stay patient, and eventually learn from these blockages that have been arising. I attribute a major part of this deep strength and courage to my stronger connection with nature, which has become stronger in the last month through EBI. Since starting our work with EBI, my relationship with nature (myself and other human/nonhuman beings) has been a central focus in my life, and I feel this connection expanding and deepening daily. My deeper connection with nature has not only benefited my work as a coach/guide for youth, but has also benefited my relationships with friends and family. I feel more present, compassionate, kind, gentle, authentic, and vulnerable with others. When I look into people’s eyes and feel into their space, I feel a lot more sensitive and empathetic to their energy and soul. When I sit or walk in nature, I am much more aware of the sounds of the birds, the wind, and the trees, the baselines shifts, and how nature FEELS in my body. I am listening in a new way.
I remember Michael telling us a story about either Stalking Wolf, Jon Young, or Tom Brown (one of those three incredible people!) saying that they knew that a pack of coyote’s “got the kill” far away, without the coyote’s even in sight, just by tracking and attuning to the cocentric rings. When I heard this story, or similar stories, I thought to myself, “Wow, that sounds really cool, but nearly impossible for me to become THAT connected with nature…” A part of me believed that I would never get to that point, but another part of me fantasized about getting to that point. Right now, I can say that I feel like I’m starting to understand how the depth of that connection feels. This morning I was sitting at my sit spot, listening to a beautiful bird singing non-stop in the distance. Suddenly, I began to feel a major cocentric ring in my body that felt uncomfortable, but I didn’t hear any new or changed sounds in my surroundings. I thought to myself, “Is this discomfort really a cocentric ring? Or am I making something up right now?” Soon after I felt the discomfort and asked myself these questions, the bird stopped singing. Moments like this continue to remind me of the power of my connection, and to trust in my intuition. This work truly is a remembering.
I really appreciate that Foundation 1 has been so deeply focused on building our EBI community, tuning into our vision, developing a deeper connection to our intuition, and strengthening our connection with nature. The pace has been slow and deep, which has allowed for me to seriously ground and settle into this program. I feel that Foundation 1 has offered us the tools, experiences, and teachings to prepare us all for the wealth of information and experiences to come in the next year. I feel prepared to embark on this journey with EBI, and I am so happy and grateful to be taking this journey with our amazing Nature Baked community, Cohort 19!
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I am in awe of the beauty of the work we are all embarking on. The biggest take-away for me is the word TRUST. This word keeps humming inside of me and infuses evrything I do. I spent some time a couple of days ago resting my back against a tree, allowing the tree to take on all my weight. As I did so, I felt the perpetual stress that lives in the muscles of my neck begin to let go. I felt the tree invite me to let the stress flow into its xylem and phloem. I envisioned the stress leaving my body as the tree removed it. I felt the strength of the tree, its firmness and rootedness holding me as the stress began to dissolve. Trust is like that. We find it inside of ourselves when we discover our solidness and integrity. I am now inviting my muscles to let the tension flow through because “I got this now”, like the tree has me. I too am solid like the tree. It may take a while for the muscles to truly believe and trust. They’ve been stuck in tension for so long….
For me, Foundation One and starting Nature Connected Coaching is like discovering a treasure. I feel like a child holding something so precious in my hands that I want to share with the whole world. It feels to me that Nature is yearning for us to return and inviting us to come and play. Spirit is moving and finding new ancient doors to restore us to our completeness. This act of being restored to wholeness and completeness requires us to surrender and to trust. Like leaning back against the tree and surrendering my weight to its firmness, I am learning to surrender and trust that I too am Nature, just like the tree. Like the tree who finds no restrictions to its unique self-expression, I too can be fully as I am intended to be and trust in the fullest expression of my Self. I find that through this work of Nature Connection, I am giving myself permission to see, acknowledge and trust my gifts and in turn, see, acknowledge and trust the gifts of others. We each hold the keys to our self-healing.
I am so excited by this work!
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Thus far through our training, I have found:
-Community, support, soul-connections, family (that’s you all!).
-That the emotional pain I’ve spent my life avoiding/escaping is actually the source of my power.
-Validation and experience of an inner knowing that I can remember always having, but never having words for.
-What it means for me to drop my agenda and connect at the heart.
-A way of being in the world that feels more connected to soul.
-Inspiration and desire to put in the “dirt time”, without needing to “should” myself.
-A deeper level of awareness within myself.
-Helpful guidance in logistical business building.
-A wealth of knowledge in the required reading, and the intensive.
-Many new practices to help me stay grounded, centered, connected, and focused, and the realization of my sensitivity and need for those practices.
-A challenging new path that I feel devoted to, and from which there is no turning back.
-work that is challenging and deeply satisfying.This can’t be a complete list. There is so much that I have found and learned already, it is difficult for me to put words to.
I love you all! -
Foundation One had to be one of the biggest growing experiences of my life thus far, particularly at the intensive. In the many months after I originally signed up for the Coaching Certification Course, I found myself, at times, racked with worry and discomfort around practice coaching taking place in the first week of learning. As I think about the depth of topics we covered there, I can think of no other way you could really teach that in lecture or classroom format where a group of students would absorb the information like we did. The highly experiential training we received there, while very uncomfortable at times, really drove the process deep inside of us. I was familiar with a lot of the meditations and exercises we practiced at the intensives but, since being back home, I’m finding that I’m getting much deeper experiences from them. My sit spot times have felt magical. And it’s not that anything particularly exciting is happening there, it just feels so peaceful and connected. I catch myself with a smile on my face out there very often. You could say my sense of awe has been restored. I also feel like I interact with people so differently now, whether it’s how I listen, how I am aware of their personal space and their baseline shifts, or knowing when to just be quiet a bit longer. I loved the concept of coaching presence and I’m working on applying those attributes to my everyday life, not just in a coaching scenario. Overall, I’m finding that I’ve been able to manage myself and my reactions to things with greater ease. I’ve been able to come home from Boulder and ask for the things I need that I’ve been afraid to ask for.
One of my biggest take-aways from Foundation One was the concept of getting to the greater need. I’m not only learning how to do that for myself, but I’m getting to practice that with friends and family (without necessarily going into a full coaching session) to help give them a little more clarity. This is such an important thing in life, to know what we really need and how to lift the veil that the need resides under in our minds. While being coached during the intensive I discovered many things I wasn’t seeing clearly and many of the topics I brought to my coaches led to a common theme….a need to honor myself.
The discussion forum with the cohort really reaffirmed for me that every single person has such a unique perspective. We all read the same chapters in the same books. We consider ourselves to be “like-minded”. Yet we all churned out amazingly different and insightful points of view on the topic of Nature Connection. This is so important to remember when working with our clients. We’ll never encounter the same issue from the same perspective, ever. It forces us to treat every conversation and every client as a new opportunity that has never been explored.
I am honored to be part of this program with a group of beautiful, brilliant, kind and loving people who go out of their way to support each other. Each member of this cohort had a significant role in my wonderful experience during Foundation One. Thank you to all!
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When I reflect back on our learning experience thus far, I find myself deeply inspired, connected, wanting to go even deeper/learn more, and also feeling whole. Time spent together at StarHouse with all of you was powerful, educational, magical, and healing. Each time I am on the land, I am reminded of the intense power of nature and its ability to heal. I am also reminded that when life’s storms and winds come, if I lean in and trust- I will not be pushed down but that I will often be lifted up and will fly! Surrender and trust are key.
I returned home after our time together, knowing that nature-connection is a way of life that I can live each moment. It is accessible to me at absolutely anytime – and I find peace and excitement in knowing that I can take my coaching literally anywhere… because nature is everywhere & we are nature!
The awareness exercises and coaching skills we studied and practiced have helped me feel even more grounded and centered in my life. Also, having practice coaching sessions, and practicing reflecting what is said in sessions, is helping me to feel more comfortable in stepping fully into my life’s work and calling. People in the world want to be seen and heard.
As I sat on the chairlift, listening to a friend share about their life, I sat in silence and practiced pausing. I watched for baseline shifts and also listened deeply to his words. The silence in our space was profound at times, and honestly almost a little bit uncomfortable, but I remembered that often in those silent moments, that is when the deep inner-knowing comes. My friend shared about his life and what he envisions for his future. It was magical and I was filled with gratitude for having had our recent training and ability to show up and let nature take over. I surrendered to the moment and let the sacred space, trees, and snowflakes do the rest. It was beyond powerful!
Also, as I look back at the reflections everyone has written, I see a common thread of community and connection. Think of what we accomplished together in just 9 days on the land, and all that lies ahead for us both professionally and personally! What a gift it is to have met you all and to call you not only colleagues- but also chosen family.
A friend who works in the field of rite of passage work once said to me, “Susan. As guides, we are trying to help people find what is ‘good, healthy, and strong’. We help others see their gifts and then they go out and share their gifts with the world.” This makes me think of our role as coach, to help others feel empowered to live their best life- in good, healthy, and strong ways. As coaches we have the privilege of witnessing life transforming moments on the land that undoubtedly will impact us as well.
In summary… I am filled with gratitude, and deep respect and admiration for all of you. You are nature and also are some of my greatest teachers too!
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Apologies for being late – it was my birthday on Thursday, so I took the day to myself. I also took Patch to see Call of the Wild and bought him a hot dog. It was a great birthday present to give myself the gift of that experience. I almost didn’t bring him for fear of being told I couldn’t, but a handy red vest and his best behavior ensured he was able to join me.
Patch is proving increasingly often to be a source of nature connection for me. Indeed, one of the most powerful assignments I took away from the intensive was to see him as a seal, which reminds me I’m a playful dolphin. Though I can’t say I’ve consistently practiced my morning meditation of embracing play through him as a reminder, I have noticed a shift internally towards greater playfulness. My inner child seems to be breathing through me with renewed vivacity and self-acceptance.
Reflecting on Foundation One, I’m noticing how personal development such as that mentioned above flows directly into and undergirds professional growth, which I’ve noticed through the couple coaching sessions I’ve had been able to guide since our intensive. The personal and the professional are of course linked, yet it’s been a joy to see the two become indistinguishable.
I have noticed a marked enhancement of my personal coaching sessions thanks to having learned the basics of the EBI methodology. It’s as if there’s a map now in my soul which can be consulted any time I am lost – whether during a session or in life.
Though the process for moving forward in a session looks different from the means by which I navigate life, fundamentally the wisdom I’m drawing on to inform my decisions springs from the same well. The consistency and reliability therein is reassuring and refreshing.
I am looking forward to bringing more nature connection practices into my life right here, right now. Not tomorrow or next week – now. That’s been a huge learning for me as of late along with some foundational dietary changes. Perhaps the fact that I’ve resolved chronic pain in the past couple weeks thanks to cleansing dietary changes is worth mentioning in this post: nature connection for me involves a sacred, mindful relationship to food. I’ve noticed myself taking more interest in what I’m putting in my system and really tending to and caring for the beings whose consumption sustains me. Greater enjoyment of cooking and food has opened my soul up to a deeper experience of the world and a more intuitive connection to my clients. Anytime I revert to old patterns or habits, I worry I’m going to fail or relapse; I must remember that there’s no going back, and that I’ve been growing in leaps and bounds – that I am whole and in connection with you beautiful wonderful people and the work we are blessed to share in.
Thank you all for your patience as I’ve gotten in here and started posting. I’ve been keeping up with the readings by and large am glad we have this space to interact, share, reflect, and keep momentum going. Wohoo! Intensive two, here we come!
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Wow, thank you all deeply for contributing in such heart-felt ways to these posts and this discussion. They are a joy to read over!
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Hello everyone!! I am honored and inspired by our cohort and it’s ability to hold space for each other. During This time of Foundation 1, after returning home from the January intensive and being I felt renewed, recharged and more clear about what I wanted to shift within myself to create harmony and joy in myself and home life. Connecting more to the reading material and the way I might connect to nature and be in a deeper relationship with nature and in turn with myself and the wold around me. Interesting enough, there was a different plan for me as I integrated back in to my day to day life. All I wanted was to return home to joy and a calm place to convalesce after having a surgery. The best way for me to describe my journey was as if I was in open ocean deep and vast. Started off calm and beautiful, then the “storm” came with many emotions and unpredictable waters.
Sitting with this experience now, that I have returned to calmer waters, I Realize i was experiencing multiple concentric rings. Concentric rings may not always feel concentric as the vibration and frequency of them pass through each other. Meaning, I was feeling the entire household, my partners, chaos, fear, anxiety, vacillation; doubt, her children’s worry, fear, concern, sadness, and wanting stability; and my own gratitude, mourning, clarity, confusion, love. It was like I was in the center, getting “pounded” from every direction, all I knew what to do was breath…stay in my heart…stay in my truth, stay open… when I felt strong enough to do so, I would sit outside and just breath…that’s all I could do, breath, talk to my body, talk to the wind, talk to the plants, take in the sun and feel the grass beneath my feet…My system was being overstimulated with information. I reminded myself to keep my heart open…That became a mantra “just keep my heart open”
The core piece for me I put into practice daily was breathing and calming my nervous system. Secondly, paying attention to what I was feeling from others. The earth kept me grounded, while the the breath kept me in a state of calm in the “storm” It was an opportunity to not be swept away or into someone else’s perceptions and experience. I just remember sitting outside, hands over my body, talking to my body, praying, breathing in the life changes that were happening all at once. It was in the breathing that assisted me to be present, be now, and know that I am safe, my nervous system was just taking in a lot of information at all once.
The tools brought forth from Foundations 1 have proven to be powerful, simple, accessible in every moment should I remember to use them. Power of of nature is in the now.
It make sense to me now that’s it’s taken me this long to write this response. I have been digesting a lot of information and needed the space to collate it all. I am still processing it.
As a coach, it’s a gift to experience the process and the power of practices and daily ritual can have, particularly during times of adversity and unknown. Having this experience not only make me a better person, but also a better coach/guide. Sometimes when I can’t “hear” all I need to remember is to take the breath in and release the breath out…This is not always easy, and I realize that breath work can be challenging for people to calm their system and calm their mind.
Having an intense experience will allow me to hold a deeper space of patience, inner knowing, and understanding for what a client may be experiencing. Sometimes, it just may take weeks, or months, etc… for a client to process and come to their understanding of what is happening within themself and come to what their deep need or want is. Or to even recognize what “state of being” he/she is in or experiencing. That being said, it may take a client that same time to come to an understanding of the inner nature and how they are nature, the natural world around he/she can remain and is a constant state of support. Sometimes it’s just picking out one thing to focus on and stay with that and allow it to integrate and support the system.
