Blog Posts

#9 - My Reading List for Answering Earth's Call

12/19/2014

Solstice asks us to consider what we want to let go to the dark and move toward in the light.

To that end, I am sharing my holiday gifts to myself paid for by my hand knits to further my education and answer the call heard in my heart. All but one here are some of the required readings for the Nature Therapy Certificate program I intend to enter May 2015, all dependent on a miracle of cash flow that is as yet uncertain. I have been introduced in the past to many of these books but have read none thoroughly.

Books of wisdom words are a classroom in themselves that augment experiential learning every time I head out the door and into the fern-laden woods under the clouds and watch great blue herons stretch out above me.

2015 is bound to be a great adventure. I resolve to leave behind my fears:

making terrible mistakes
surrendering to support from and collaboration with partners
stumbling into leadership

I resolve to embrace Mystery!

My 2014 Great Education

The work of Dr. Michael Cohen via Project NatureConnect has been a tremendous personal gift to me in continuing to heal from posttraumatic stress (without knowing I was doing that). Reading his writings, enrolling in the Orientation course and practicing nature connecting exercises through a "webstrings" model has helped me experience my place in the natural world in a much more satisfying and deep level than before. I do not personally know another human being in my culture who has slept outside for 40 consecutive years, allowing dreamtime in nature to inform his understanding. Here are some of the books I have and am willing to loan to anyone who asks.

My Own First Publishing Adventure 2014!

What I learned:

1) If you are going to self-publish something that earns you $0.11 per copy, you might as well invest in software to give it away for free as an eBook and then create a workshop around it. Pondering development of a 2015 workshop for school age children and children of all ages using the activities in "Naturography".

2) Paginating in Word 2007 or any MS Word for publication is a bear! I cannot understand how this system was created. This YouTube tutorial helps:
MS Word 2007 Page Numbering, Sections

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#8 - Process of Becoming

12/8/2014

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“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.”

― Anais Nin

Does leading groups of people scare you?

Why yes, but I dream of it.

Does staying in your current job longer than 22 years scare you?

Yes, even more.

Would learning who you really are scare you, especially if you have to leave everything behind?

A bit, but it would be unbelievable to understand my power and use it to help others.

Take my hand and step through.

So I did.

www.sacredfuture.org

If anyone is interested in joining me in this new Nature Therapy certificate program, please contact me at healingoutdoors@gmail.com.

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#7 - Snow! Taking Inner 4-Year-Old for a Walk

11/30/2014

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Though a Westcoaster, my early winters on Earth were spent in Boston. That's me on the right and my sister on the left, before sister #2 arrived. Sittin' on stumps in our hand-me-down jackets from Goodwill. I was one of those kids who would not come inside when I could be playing out in the snow. Snow angels, snow balls, watching snow fall on my eyelashes, tasting snow on my tongue, making tunnels in snow. My adorable sister? Not so much. No matter how many layers she wore, she wanted back IN.

So when it did a rare thing where I live now and snowed this weekend, my inner 4-year-old just had to get out in it! Crazy thing about snow and ice is, when you're a child it's 100% fun! When you have to be an adult (oh really, do I?) and pick up your child in your car and you slide on patch of ice and create damage to your tire rim from slamming into curb - not so fun. Thankfully WE are okay even if car is not.

A note of tree gratitude - thank you for being so glorious! I do not need to take one of you into my home to celebrate the holiday season when you are all around me rooted in your own beauty.

Peace: From the woods a mile or so from my house, I can hear gunshots ricocheting from a local shooting range. That's life's juxtapositions for you and life in a rural area, but every time I hear them when wandering in such pristine beauty, I feel compelled to write the word PEACE in the ground where I am. So I did.

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#6 - Got Medicine? Bring It

10/25/2014

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What do you do that comes easily to you? How do you gift others? Do other people say "Wow, I could never do that" but "that" flows from you without effort?

These are your medicines for the world, and this world badly needs them.

Whatever insights you have attained in the company of non-human community in this world, share them.

Each image below is of some medicine gifted to me and each carries a story I would tell if asked. I am no shaman, no wise sage, no person with indigenous ancestry (that I am aware - never took a DNA test), but I do spend time connecting deeply to Nature Community.

It is possible people who are shamans, healers, and knowers have prayed over you in ways you will never know. It is possible people and nature beings have gifted you medicine, but you don't yet see what it is.

When I feel overwhelmed with paying bills and all the suffering caused by the way I live in my economic and physical disconnection from nature, the fastest route to heart space for me is saying the phrase, "In nature nothing exists alone."

None of us exists alone. All of us can bring medicine.

My Medicine

One of the things that comes easily to me is long distance walking. Blisters and pain mean it is not easy, but the capacity for and inner drive toward it is something that has been a part of my core ever since I can remember. Walking distances outdoors to raise funds to bring healing (my own and others) is something I consider my "medicine."

Consider joining me either to walk a bit of the journey, drop off some much needed water, or contribute how ever many of the 25 miles I complete in dollars to a neighbor in need of healing. Thank you!

Another piece of my medicine is creating colorful things that keep people warm via knitting. Knitting is like breathing or meditation to me because I was taught by my grandmother when I was 6. So I have almost been knitting since I was born. : ) I have decided now in this time where every medicine is needed, knitting will be my 2nd job, a labor of love in each creation.

My goal is by Solstice 2014 to post an Etsy page from which anyone can purchase gifts made by hand in loving kindness meditation with the intent that each wearer know they are loved. What this means is I used to spend an hour or so a day meditating, but now I knit my meditation. Each stitch is part of a loving kindness mantra, and my challenge - as in meditation - is to maintain my focus on such phrases as "may all beings be free (of suffering)," "may all beings know peace," "may all beings be safe," "may all beings be filled with loving kindness." Of course there will be moments of lapse of focus in the knitting, but my intention is that loving healing energy will be transmitted to the wearer.

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#5 - Adventure Education

10/10/2014

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All photos courtesy of my amazing daughter, Carli who trekked 25 miles of coastline on the Olympic Peninsula this week. Congratulations Carli! Mountains of gratitude to the adult chaperones who made this life-shifting trip possible for 12 8th grade kids. Carli was one of three girls in this quarter's program, and she had never (to my knowledge) walked 5 miles, let alone carrying a 30-pound pack for 25 miles. She returned tonight in great spirits and intact, telling me how useful a Swiss Army knife is and that non-dehydrated food tastes incredible!

For more information on the Native petroglyphs photographed, look at E (Makah) on the following link: A Gallery of Northwest Petroglyphs

I know my heart is with outdoor education in some form, that I have incredible endurance even if not athleticism, and that I need to get more hands on training if I am to ever attract and lead groups confidently. To that end, I have been looking at the many opportunities in Washington State to get further skill training and wilderness medicine training. I have not been able to afford a tent or pack, which is one reason this Adventure Ed program was invaluable to my family, but I intend to make every effort to do some trekking with my now experienced daughter next year.

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#4 - Glory of Small Worlds

9/22/2014

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A photo essay on my weekend of nature connection after 12 consecutive days and 120 hours at the computer screen. Feeling very emotional knowing what I was missing.

The first photo group is a celebration of small worlds I cherish noticing when I am alone. Journaled this week about relationships, intimacy and all that jazz, and recognize my happiest memories are when alone surrounded by community of life's web. Moved by what people make possible in community, but still prefer alone.

Lost Lake is Found!

Ever since I learned of Lost Lake 21 years ago during my first bout of graduate school-itis, I wanted to pay it a visit. Yesterday, 10 arduous miles later I did!

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#3 - Our Senses, Forgotten Bridges

9/15/2014

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What We Need Is Here

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

Wendell Berry

The model of sensory awareness I study tells me there are 54 inherent biological senses humans have. When I first considered the list, I thought, "Are you kidding me?" I immediately agreed with the premise that 5 senses we are all taught in grade school (thanks to Aristotle) is outdated, but 54?

Then it occurred to me how many years people thought the Earth was flat as paper, so I thought it might benefit me to keep an open mind.

Several ecopsychology leaders use varying models to describe senses, but all seem to agree there are many categories of human senses. M. Amos Clifford of www.shinrin-yoku.org describes 8 categories as Body Sensing, Mirror Sensing, Intuition Sensing, Visual Sensing, Auditory, Olfactory, Touch, Taste.

Guy Murchie spent 17 years studying research literature to arrive at up to 80 inherent biological senses expressed among sentient beings, some of which are described in his book "The Seven Mysteries of Life".

It took me a year of working with a model of many senses to let go of my resistance to it and start using self evidence as my guide. So far I have worked through 25 senses and feel comfortable I "own" them. The most powerful exercise for me personally has been to go to a place that feels attractive to me in nature and sit for 10 minutes with the list of senses before me and see which ones make "sense" for me in that moment and place.

One sense I struggled to own is heliotropism or "sun sense" in plants that grow toward light. Then it dawned on me - what is epidemic in indoor civilization? Vitamin D deficiency! From lack of sun! Not only has low vitamin D level been linked to many disease states that plague modern society, but when I really listen to myself (after I down my vitamin D tablets with my coffee each morning), my body physically craves the sense of sun. In addition, imagine any human in a tunnel or a cave and I would make a safe bet we would all "go toward the light." Sunlight = Life on Earth at a very base level.

When "Mindfulness" is the buzz word of the day and even on the cover of Time magazine for its potential to create change in our psyche, it is the senses that I find actually anchor us to the fullness of the moment. Here is where ecopsychology comes in - the connection between our ecosystem and the way we think - to broaden our capacity for being mind-full. If we are spending close to 95% of our lives indoors, but our brains evolved to capacity for a wide range of senses available in natural environments, how disabled have we become in our ability to be mindful?

Over a year ago, I had an opportunity to talk to 50 middle school students about what ecopsychology was, and I asked them what they thought about the idea that humans have more than 5 senses. Almost immediately, most raised hands to mention a sense they could think of. Some talked about the sense of fear, the sense of itch as different than touch (which happens to be a recent finding in biomedical research), the sense when you know someone is looking at you, the sense you know someone is going to call you (intuition), the sense of thirst. So if this random sampling is any indication, young humans "know" we inherently have more than 5 senses.

For me, immersing myself in natural environments feels like solace and home. I can't wait to run toward my life by heading "outside." Part of the experience of Nature as home is because more of my inherent sensory brain is engaged, fully alive, activated. I also find myself buying art supplies for the first time EVER and wanting to make art, to somehow get inside the sensory connections I am making between me and the greatest artist in existence - Nature.

One of my biggest sources of tension has been the fact I earn a living that completely saturates to the point of impairment four key senses - sight, hearing, touch (repetitive motion), and language. These are the same 4 senses we all use excessively at our screens. I started out as a musician studying keyboard instruments intensively from age 7 to 21. I had highly sensitive hearing and an ability to move my fingers super fast. That skill set, along with a knack for medical language, is what has kept me doing medical transcription for over 20 years. It is also scary because my hearing is becoming impaired, my eyesight dramatically worsened from staring close range at a computer screen, my fingers and forearms are bearing a much larger workload than they were designed to bear, and I am sad to say I am a compulsive proofreader that pounces on any misplaced letter. Survival sense of the fittest? Hardly.

In many ways pushing buttons at a desk might be a rather luxurious form of "work," and many of us have been able to set up home offices thanks to technology. But for all of us doing these types of indoor, computer-bound jobs, I have to wonder what our technology is doing to our senses. Is it intelligent to continue living this way? Is it truly human? Are we overburdening a few senses and shutting down the rest?

I think we have to work much harder at being sensorially aware and thus "mind-full" than we probably ever did before as a species. For me the quickest path to mindfulness is to head out the door and surround myself with an entire sky, trees, sun, wind, a full spectrum of colors, and a chorus of countless sentient beings.

Poem by Erin Waterman, from Holding On & Letting Go

Ecopsychology

Joining how we think with the world that made us.

It is knowing my morning shower is the raindrops hitting my window flowing
to the salmon's matrix.

It is tasting more than roasted beans in my morning coffee, as no matter how fairly traded my muscles will never be as strong as the hand that picked them.

It is praising those protecting the lineage of seeds, capsules of millions of years of nutrients before sacrilege.

It is understanding the universe expands at just the right speed to sustain all
without implosion or explosion.

It is grief that the only civilization I was taught to see involves progress
defined by mass exterminations of trees and people that knew what worked.

It is awareness every economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of our environment,
not the other way around.*

It is solution templates to every engineering issue right in front of our noses,
if we only look.

It is a childhood pet being the only family member who really understood your dreams,
without needing a word.

It is observing fish in aquariums, asking where does this ecosystem end and I begin?

It is gasping as a lizard you catch drops its tail because giving up a body part
is better than life in a cage.

It is renewing faith that each breath, each respiration is a gift from a force that expires and inspires in unison.

It is reclaiming myself as a person who gets good feelings from:

Allowing my senses to connect to the natural world,
Knowing I am a conscious being learning from direct interaction with Earth, and my matter is Earth's matter forever and can never separate,
Quieting internal chatter and experiencing conscious connection to all that surrounds me,
Being healed and energized from time in forest community,
Moving in nature,
Observing the natural world and learning about my own psyche from it,
Seeing the importance of nature as teacher,
Allowing earth's energy to heal me,
Journeying inner and outer nature and recognizing no barrier between outer and inner,
Finding old and new brain sensory connections,
Being bathed in the light and movement of nature,
Watching nature's dance.

It is writing these words under a maple tree with earth worms, sparrows, trembling leaves and insect freeways extending particles all the way up to a thin blue line.

* "The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around."
~ Gaylord Nelson (Earth Day's founder, Governor of Wisconsin 1959-1963)

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#2 - Making Meaning via Nature Connection

8/25/2014

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What a rich two weeks! Saturday, August 16, 2014, I was invited to participate in a two-hour seminar and brainstorm session with the co-founder of Children & Nature Network, Martin LeBlanc. The fact I was among 25 professional educators and community leaders (I am not either), and ended up being the sole person representing the topic of "Health" was a bit serendipitous? Odd? I know many experienced leaders were invited but could not make it. Instead I showed up. At any rate, the wonderful room of people drew up an action plan of 12 concrete steps to make in my county to facilitate more nature connection opportunities for youth. Being there allowed me a brief glimpse into a world that lives my passions.

My book, Naturography, will be on sale at Greenbank Farm thanks to women I met at the seminar who felt it captured their mission well.

The most eye-opening takeaways for me were:

Child abductions are down 1% since 1970, yet this is most parents worst fear preventing a child from going outdoors.
My rural county has 470+ nonprofit organizations in it! No wonder it seems everyone and their grandmother volunteers in some way.
My county is super abundant in natural resources, yet facilitating conscious nature connection STILL is a challenge.
Despite the most homework, school testing, and structured childhoods, the average screen time for youth today is 50 hours a week! I squared that with my own teen by calculating her habits with her, and she ranks at about 10 hours during the school year. Phew!

The seminar was followed by a 30th anniversary celebration of my community's largest land preservation group, the Whidbey Camano Land Trust. There I led two groups of folks, ages 5 to 70, through some brief nature connection exercises. Unserendipitously, a giant outdoor wedding was in progress along the walking route I intended to take. Thanks to one participant's quick thinking, we were able to divert quickly in back of the wedding onto a deer path (thanks deer!) that led under some trees and bushes, and we still were able to complete our scavenger hunt and mindful walk.

Meaning Making

All humans make meaning. It's what we do, and each of us assigns meaning to exactly the same event or object or relationship differently. Identifying our life's purposes (I don't believe we have just one), remaining aware of our sensory aliveness in the moment (what we need to work harder at as a nature disconnected society), and finding meaning in our suffering are important ways meaning prevents us from giving up, deciding life is worthless, or throwing in the towel.

My psychology readings this week all seemed to echo this theme.

"We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering."

"Once an individual's search for a meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering." [1]

For me, the pursuit of learning to articulate what I have felt intuitively all my life - an intense connection to the natural world as my "go to" space to cope with and heal from suffering, and to find joy, feels like the bedrock of my purpose. My culture rewards me for sitting stationary indoors at a computer for at least 22 years of waking hours. That is the skill set in front of my face and has meant survival for my family. Yet every cell in my being tells me I am happiest and most fulfilled when outdoors walking. The fact I have faced traumatic events beyond my control or work in a job that daily challenges me to find meaning is shared by the vast majority of humans on the planet. My goal with whatever Healing Outdoors becomes is to shift myself from one space to another, ride a cultural transformation shift inside my own life.

"Over 95% of our lives are spent indoors. This is traditional in contemporary culture, but with respect to nature it's biologically and psychologically abnormal. Nature inside and around us becomes a foreigner we conquer. Nothing else relates to nature that way. It's a form of madness." [2]

We all have childhood memories of key times in nature that reverberate through our lives upon reflection. My favorite memory of profound happiness in nature was around age 7 when I sat in the sand-filled elementary school playground across the street from my home in New Mexico. Nothing but sand may seem like a desolate, blank space to play, but I dredged a horseshoe magnet to collect iron particles from the sand for hours. I observed insects making little trails in the sand, avoided the "goathead" burs that can be painful, and walked a cactus nature path the school had created, actually talking to imaginary people I was guiding to show them the beauty of the cacti. As I reflect on this, it becomes clear to me that guiding people in some way to connect to nature has been written on my heart forever!

"As our ancestors separated from Nature's ways, they psychologically lost vital rewards and intelligences that nature provided. This loss created a void in our psyche, in the way we learn to think. The void produces a need for fulfillment. We experience constant cravings we satisfy artificially even though we're fully aware of the cravings ruinous effects." [3]

This week I am also starting my journey toward an art therapy certificate. I feel nothing like an actual artist but am hopeful I can learn to work as a companion with the artist beyond compare - Nature - and learn to separate my cultural learned voices from my immediate sensory reactions to colors, shapes and designs. My long-term intention is to be able to offer eco-art therapy as a tool for healing to others.

"We need a new organic holistic approach to problem solving, one that reunites us with the land, one that creates lasting change." [4]

[1] Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, "Logotherapy in a Nutshell"

[2] Michael J. Cohen, PhD, Einstein's World, p 5-4

[3] Michael J. Cohen, PhD, Einstein's World, p 5-5

[4] Theresa Sweeney, PhD, Eco-Art Therapy, p 13

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#1 - Introduction & Asking Questions

8/11/2014

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Introduction

This is the first of 24 newsletters, one published every 2 weeks for a year, on the topic of stress reduction via direct nature connection and how that fits into a bigger picture of healing outdoors available to anyone and everyone for free no matter where you live. These articles will help me in real time form a trail toward completing an Applied Ecopsychology master's thesis.

Each article will include images and reflections from my fortnight's time outdoors that fit recurring themes in my own life and others' lives as well. Below are quotes that represent three threads of questions braided together to be explored.

1) What is my true nature?

"Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected. We simply have to uncover it." [1]

2) How do I heal from stress? What are phases of an individual's recovery from trauma? Was there ever a time we as a human society functioned in a balanced equilibrium without waste or destruction as nature's example provides?

"Some people who have endured traumatic events, in describing the experience. . . tell of escaping into a post-trauma state of mental activity devoid of feeling or body awareness, a state not unlike that considered 'normal' in today's dominant culture and taught in our schools and universities."

"Could it be that we as individuals are dissociated because we inhabit a culture that is founded on and perpetrates traumatic stress?" [2]

3) What ways can I reduce stress and increase emotional balance right now that do not create side effects or waste?

"Stories that omit the Now of contact with nature, our non-literate other body help produce the negative effects of dualism." [3]

"When excessive disconnection of our body, mind, spirit from the unadulterated Dance of Nature is a cause of a problem or disorder, the process of genuine reconnecting ourselves with the Dance is essential as part of the solution." [4]

Reflections
(07/26 through 08/10/2014)

I feel literally compelled with my entire being to be outdoors and relish the moments I am. Like the average American, I need to work at daily arriving under the average 95% of a lifetime indoors. To put this into perspective, 95% of a 24-hour day is a bit over 1 hour each day outside. For many of us that one hour a day is not genuine conscious connection to the natural world, but rather moving between vehicles to indoor spaces. This disconnect is our cultural reality, but it does not need to be this way.

What I have experienced through contact with nature's balancing ways feels like a homecoming, the unconditional acceptance of my true nature, and has left me with palpable stress reduction and emotional regulation that I have not found equaled by medication or counseling, though both have been helpful to me at various places in my own mental health journey. Meditation is helpful for stability of mind, and I can sit indoors and feel the interconnectedness of everything including my own true nature, yet the effects I feel from meditation are magnified many times over when I am in nature connection.

When I enter the summer woods, the first thing I notice is the joy I feel walking in dappled light, the brilliant alive greens filtering through the canopy, a sense I can breathe more deeply, take in more oxygen. My body moves the way it wants to move along a trail, feeling grounded and grateful on scaffolds of giant tree roots. I am greeted by squirrels warning the neighborhood about my presence, woodpeckers, wrens, sparrows, orioles, crows. I am intensely grateful for cool shade and protection from the hot day. From the moment I step onto the trailhead I feel accepted, taken in, welcomed. Diverse textures surround me. Mosses, lichens, fungi, pine needles and cones, huckleberry and salal. Gentle winds rumble from tree to tree overhead.

In 1987, I went on my first real outdoors trek, and that event changed my perspective and my inner drive forever, despite spending most of my adult life earning a desk job paycheck. Ten days in desert wilderness with a multigenerational, multiethnic group of about 16 people in Utah. In hindsight, it was the most functional human group I have ever had the pleasure to participate in, and I am forever grateful for all I learned about practicing "leave no trace" philosophy of human impact, how powerful campfire time can be in establishing equilibrium and support within a group, in addition to discovering my own strengths. I was 19, and up to that point I had been an asthmatic, piano-playing, straight-A student, and a bit of a biological science nerd with my first high school job an internship in an immunology research lab. When I scaled a 6-mile side canyon with a pack on without needing my asthma inhaler I was ecstatic!

I felt no connection whatsoever to my physical body because I had tried very hard to transcend it during four years of being confined to a plastic back brace 23 hours a day throughout all of high school for a curve in the spine. I had no clue what my body was capable of, had no appreciation for it, even loathed and felt caged by it. Many years later, I came to learn I shared many symptoms and feelings about body and intimacy that victims of sexual or physical trauma tend to have, though I did not endure those specific things. I learned this years ago when placed randomly in a general "women's support group" supervised by a therapist who wanted to see me isolate myself less. I soon discovered all of the 20 women EXCEPT me had endured incest in their youth. I was stunned by what that said about my society and what I learned about my internalized "body story."

The one body connection I had going for me was that I walked each day roughly 5 miles roundtrip to and from middle school and high school. I had no car until my mid-20s, and again a gap of car-free years in my 30s. Walking became my favorite mode of transport. After that first 10-day wilderness trek, I was able to participate in many other treks before graduating college thanks to a program called College Outdoors at Lewis & Clark College. Perhaps the spirit of Lewis & Clark's expedition bled over into my life from that point on, but as far as I can recall, even during times I lived and worked in big cities, downtown hills were my mountains to scale. I learned only after the fact that for two years in Seattle I had been walking 12 miles a day roundtrip to and from work along the tree-lined Burke-Gilman Trail that connects miles of the city to its University of Washington campus. At my 25th college reunion last year in Portland, my car's odometer showed me I had walked 11 miles a day between campus and a student rental house. I had no idea I actually walked these distances at the time, only that it felt good to be moving and connected to the natural world.

Body disconnect has been a recurring struggle for me, but the place I feel completely unconditionally accepted and most "embodied" is while in the forest, in the meadows, on remote beaches, near waterfalls - inside Nature connection. I am thrilled to have opportunities to guide others to experience this profound return to self for themselves as part of my Applied Ecopsychology program. As soon as I can get a registration form and guidelines up and running on my webpage, I will invite 10 people per month to sign up for a guided sensory walk on Whidbey Island trails I have spent thousands of hours getting to know.

Attractions are Nature's dance from atomic particles all the way to us and through us. The expression of these natural attractions runs through us as part of nature's equilibrium. Humans are observers and story makers lost inside our self-created story. I hope to show through repeating nature connecting exercises we can increase our awareness of Earth ecosystem as our Other Body, trust and value our own sensory experiences in the moment, increase our self-esteem and sense of belonging in a world that wants us to exist. The quickest route to this understanding is to try holding your breath as long as you can. Do you see Earth's life system wants you here in this moment? How would you feel if this ability to breathe were taken away? If you try breathholding while touching a green plant or tree, your sensory experience might be deepened as you heighten awareness of the direct exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen gases required for all life on our planet.

Starting with breath, we can become aware of many more connections and experience more joy and unconditional love in this moment. You might think you need to live near some grand scenic wilderness to be able to experience this, but I have participated in online groups through Project NatureConnect with people in as diverse places as crowded, bustling Asian cities who find they make similar profound sensory connections to a piece of fruit from a market, a patch of night sky from a window, a breeze through an apartment. Nature calls us to remember who we are, and we can listen.

If you are interested in a free way to experience your own "homecoming", consider signing up for the Orientation course of Project NatureConnect where you can connect with people from around the country and/or world online all simultaneously engaged in nature connecting activities where they live. Here is the link: http://www.ecopsych.com/orient.html.

[1] Pema Chodron, No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva (p. 248)

[2] Chellis Glendinning, My Name is Chellis & I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization (p. 62)

[3] Mike Cohen, http://www.ecopsych.com/earthstories101.html

[4] Mike Cohen, The Hidden Organic Remedy, Nature as Higher Power (p. 153)

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Four Healing Outdoors Projects

7/29/2014

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1) End of August: Look for a registration sheet on the Healing Outdoors webpage as I offer monthly guided healing walks on Whidbey Island, where trees are more plentiful than people. Using my knowledge from thousands of hours on Whidbey Island trails, I will select a route based on needs of each group of up to 10 folks, open to anyone. Everyone will receive a copy of my book of 20 simple nature connection exercises. Leave your desk and life stresses and reconnect your senses to the feedback loop of nature.

2) Every 2 weeks: Newsletter article on the topic of healing stress and trauma via nature connection, combining real-time autobiography in my own nature adventures and publications by ecopsychologists. These articles will form a skeleton of work using the Natural Systems Thinking Process toward my own master's degree in Applied Ecopsychology.

3) Creating a database of nature connection exercises anyone can do from a variety of environments via the feedback and suggestions of people participating in Healing Outdoors events.

4) Design and write up a 2-day nature reconnection retreat program for family caregivers in hospitals, who I would add to the list in the quote below (along with anyone stuck in a cubicle without windows and medical transcriptionists listening 8+ hours a day to dictated reports of patient medical traumas for hospitals ; ), something I happen to understand too well).

"In the early 1980s, I began to wonder about practical applications and asked myself, “Which groups of people experience a lot of emotional duress and might benefit from a view of nature?” The answer was hospital patients and prisoners." - Roger S. Ulrich

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#9 - My Reading List for Answering Earth's Call

My 2014 Great Education

My Own First Publishing Adventure 2014!

#8 - Process of Becoming

#7 - Snow! Taking Inner 4-Year-Old for a Walk

#6 - Got Medicine? Bring It

My Medicine

#5 - Adventure Education

#4 - Glory of Small Worlds

Lost Lake is Found!

#3 - Our Senses, Forgotten Bridges

#2 - Making Meaning via Nature Connection

#1 - Introduction & Asking Questions

Introduction

Reflections
(07/26 through 08/10/2014)

Four Healing Outdoors Projects

Author

Archives

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My 2014 Great Education

My Own First Publishing Adventure 2014!

My Medicine

Lost Lake is Found!

Introduction

Reflections(07/26 through 08/10/2014)

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Archives

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Reflections
(07/26 through 08/10/2014)