Erin Leigh
Forum Replies Created
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When I think of the word “threshold”, what comes to mind is entrance to another space, another room or to an outside environment. I think of the hundreds of times I cross thresholds everyday, and usually that crossing is precedented by a conscious decision to take action in someway, unless I am mindlessly, aimlessly wandering my house. When I go to the kitchen it is with a specific task in mind, when I go to my basement it is because there is something there to do (usually laundry). Even at work, crossing the threshold to the breakroom is symbolic of a very different task than entering the showroom or my office. I notice that each action holds a certain mindset and emotions that go with it. I feel different in the space and action of doing laundry than in the space and action of baking cookies.
When it comes to the sub-conscious and guiding, the existing internal is explored, uncovered, exposed and inventoried. What am I happy with, what is not aligned with who I am and where I am going? This is severance. Taking out the trash, re-ordering the treasures, dusting the beloved forgotten and sweeping out the dust bunnies, exploration of what IS, and if done with gentleness and curiosity and intention, a healing occurs, a blank slate appears.
Energy is constantly in motion. It must come to balance. Energy is freed up in severance. What is done with that energy is up to personal will and intention. If that energy is not directed and formed into something new, new thoughts, new patterns, new habits, new beliefs, then the old is recreated making change a difficult thing indeed. When the soul is stirred and given a new way of being through intention and careful imagining of new ways of being, the clutter clears and gives way to room for things of value. At this point, a new room is being created and envisioned and sometimes it is a remake of what is and sometimes it might be a whole new addition being built, but either way creation and building is happening.
Once the mental and emotional energies are in place and patterns created, then another type of energy comes, Soul energy, consciousness coming to play and live out life in the new room. This is threshold. A climax! A celebration! The great “AHA!”. A realization of a dream on an internal level. A chance to BE in the new way. Once this moment of realization occurs, the human has changed and knows what it is that is on a Soul level that is needed to be in this new way. There is no going back, but if one tries to go back then the Soul level of living turns into an internal “should”. Again energy seeks to be in balance, and without the physical manifestation and action steps, the environment becomes cluttered with missed “aha” moments and should have’s. Which brings me to integration!
Integration is the everyday living, it is the planning and the cleaning schedule. It is the showing up and living out the “AHA!” everyday. It is keeping one’s self accountable for the way one wills to be. This is the direction of Soul energy to live out a well lived life, the key of which is the in the building and manifesting in the prior stages of creation.
So, I think threshold experience is, or can be if given the proper guidance and opportunity, a Soul experience that can lead to change.
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Ecopsychology, I have come to understand based off of the readings assigned and being strongly influenced by the chapter from Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind (Roszak, T., Gomes, M.E., Kanner, A.D. (1995). Sierra Club Books.), is an evolution of modern psychology which attempts to account for the Natural world in human construct. Freudian thought arose during a time of shifting human behavior and thought from a god-centered consciousness to a human-centric and science/evidence based consciousness. Appropriately, Freud grappled with the removal of an external being that gave eternal hope and the human race a chance for redemption meant for the human psyche. The premise of religious belief is the assumption that humans are inherently evil at the core of their being without an external form of “enlightenment” to escape eternal death. Freud in exploration of finding a solution to this way of thinking, replaced the sin nature with the ego and exploration of the unconscious to find connection and love. But at the core of this thinking is the belief that “within me there is something evil” and Ecopsychology continues this trend, extrapolating unconsciousness to stretch beyond the human psyche and into relationship with Earth, that evil residual in the human must be explored and brought to enlightenment for us to be in connection and harmony with our natural surroundings. The beginning and center is the human that seeks to escape entropy and disaster.
Nature-Connected Coaching, in contrast, begins with Earth at the center and human consciousness becoming aligned with and connecting with a Natural world that holds the answers because humans are Nature and belong here. It assumes that within the unconscious is a loving-all knowing consciousness that seeks harmony, balance, rebirth where entropy is not the end but the start of a new birth. Human consciousness feels to me like it loses the polarity of good versus evil in Nature-Connectedness (afterall, it is difficult to see the majestic eagle as a “bad guy” when that cute little bunny becomes lunch knowing that too many fluffy bunnies means environmental devastation on a local scale).
In short, the main difference I see between the two is the core of the belief system. Ecopsychology attempts to “fix” what disconnect is inevitable and holds polarity of consciousness; Nature-Connection assumes connection is inherent in human consciousness because of same-ness and looks at what IS and taking responsibility for changing consciousness to come into alignment with what one wills themselves to be.
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In Summary:
I appreciate the asking of us to write about nature connection in this forum because I feel like there have been deep and meaningful connections within the group that will be valuable as we “find ourselves” as coaches. Reading the responses have been helpful as it provides for a different way of hearing the person’s thought process.After Foundation’s One and this forum, I have gained a great appreciation for the Sacred Questions as I applied them to myself as I was reading and also an appreciation of how Nature Connection is so unique to each person. I feel like I beginning to get an understanding in a broad sense of nature connection beyond my own which is one of my main reasons for taking this course! So good job EBI, I am looking forward to continuing to grow in this understanding with my supportive cohort.
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I love how you describe creating awareness for yourself around other people’s body language and emotions on an everyday basis to be able to use that skill in coaching. I feel like that is such an important thing for me, BEING everyday and choosing to channel that into coaching. All of those little moments are like little thresholds that lead up to that big climax of effective coaching!
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I really hear in your words the intuitive awareness of how important setting up the container for the threshold is for the client to step into. Safety is such an important thing to me personally to be able to step into threshold and I very much resonate with this.
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I do agree, I created a polarity of thought in my post that intensified the focal point of difference between the worlds of ecopsychology and nature-connected coaching, mostly on purpose. I agree, not all ecopsychologists think the same way or come from a dualistic way of thinking. And we need people doing the ecopsychology work from a new paradigm in order for change to occur! I am generalizing about the historical and traditional mode of psychological thinking that in my mind makes ecopsychology and nature-connected coaching different.
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Hi Lilia, I agree, I am generalizing to a large degree the trends and history of psychology. I do not think that all ecopsychologists come from this place but we were asked to come up with a difference and I allowed my biases to go free here (haha). This is why I did not become a psychologist though, as my perception of everything I learned is coming from this place of something broken in the human psyche. And as long as it is seen as broken it stays broken, but what if nothing is broken and just needs aligning and direction with a powerful intention??? Everything to me is neutral and it is what I do with it that gives it a positive or negative spin. A paradigm shift is required and to me that paradigm shift is nature-connectedness. Again, this is a highly personal opinionated answer and not meant to be a guiding statement though.
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Simka,
I appreciate the global views presented here. This is my first exposure to the idea of Global North versus the Climate Justice movement and will be doing some curiosity-based discovery of the positions of both. I agree that environmentalism’s future seems pretty bleak on a global level, which is probably why I am such an individualist (see comment to your comment above ;^), I focus on the microcosm versus the macrocosm and what I can DO right now, right here knowing each heart change at the individual level eventually reaches the global level if there are enough of us.
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I re-read the book excerpt to find out why I formed my initial opinion. I point to page 5 paragraph 2 where the author lays out the definition of ecopsychology. “Biophilia” is to me a form of nature-connection and presented as merely a hypothesis, whereas ecopsychology is the study of applying this hypothesis and must adhere to the scientific accepted “truths” of what the subconscious is and what human nature is as discovered and agreed upon by the scientific community. At the core of ecopsychology are the original founding beliefs and “proven” supported knowledge, as it must be because it is science. Which is why I am not a psychologist or even an ecopsychologist because I do not want to or need to have an opinion that must be scientifically backed by tangled webs of studies based on a Freudian core. I am a proud biophiliast, which means I live my nature-connection and don’t give a damn if it is supported. It is true for me and that is enough, and if my clients find a way for it to be true for them fabulous…otherwise I am happy being a lonely biophiliast, an interesting specimen for others to study (lol).
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Greg,
I was giggling to myself as I was reading this because of the internal struggle between the philosophy of science…and science. I can relate as a biology major. I love how the Coyote guide encourages us to become the scientist, studying nature and applying our own findings to our world-view and personal psyche. The beauty of it and freedom inherent in coaching is that the board of scientists and psychological gurus that approve such matters are unnecessary as the nature-connection in coaching is personal and not subjected to the scientific scrutiny of that meaning.
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Lilia,
What I hear in your words beyond the definition and delineation of therapy vs coaching, is that, whatever the name, an emphasis of giving back to nature is of core importance, requiring a real paradigm change of not using nature as just another humanistic tool that meets our human need to heal, but true nature-connectedness and relationship where reciprocation occurs…Nature changes us and in turn we change our behavior towards our Earth. I could not agree more!!!!!
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Kendy,
Thank you for being you! I am reminded of on day one of Foundation One when Michael was talking about Nature Connection, and finding connection wherever one is, be it a city or a suburb or the wild, it is always there waiting for us to connect, patiently waiting for us to ask and learn. I appreciate the beginning words of “To be connected with Nature is to see ourselves as Nature. Life takes time, and Nature never rushes. It understands that all things will come with time.” I too have found nature to be most patient, both the inner nature of soul as I struggled to find what it means to be human knowing there are many paths that are right for many people but wanting to know what is right for THIS soul, and the external nature that holds the answers to the deepest questions and needs when one asks and open to receive the answers. I see you asking the questions of nature, and nature being there with an answer, constant, true and never rushing. -
Simka,
I really appreciate the layering of your writing, logically spiraling to the core message of that you want to convey. I resonate with your description of your teenage self! Her tenacity and drive and desire to do it (and it could be so many things!), but do it her way and in a way that honors her own way of being. What I saw in your process was this beautiful need to understand and explore your inner wilderness before conquering the outer wilderness. I see the way that you experience the nature of the external mirrors your internal nature. In this way, I see your intuition guiding your entire process and learning to trust it brings connection to the exterior wild and real physical change. Thank you for sharing in such a clear way not only your strengths but also your struggles, it helps to visualize what you are conveying in a very real way. -
Thank you! I have found two things with nature, the first is the recognition that I am experiencing nature through my own senses and therefore it is my sensory story, the second is that I never know who else is meant to benefit from it until that person shows up haha. In my guiding sometimes it will be shared through meditation so the person is experiencing it themselves and I interpret nothing, sometimes the words seem more important and will evoke the client to come up with a metaphor that they tell to me. It has taken lots of time getting to know and trust the nature connection for myself FIRST for me to even put this into words…and that is part of why I was so touched by your story as well, because OMG there are other people out there that do this tooooooo!!!! Oh and now, that is why I am in this course, to learn how to teach other people how to do the nature connection thing for themselves.
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Julie,
“we are all irrevocably connected to Nature, thereby all connected to one another, and thus Nature itself…we arrive at the idea that we are creating relationship in a ripple effect, with the universe from the outer rings to the inner circles of self, and vice versa. And at its core is respect and care.” I appreciate this truth and the gentle reminder that relationship with self is in the inner-most circle and ripples out to affect all of one’s connection and relationships within the Universe.