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PROGRAM OUTCOMES:
Paula, an online program participant, shares her results from
a nature-connecting activity.
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NATURE CONNECTS THE DOTS FOR WRITING MAGIC
I chose to exercise an activity
from the website about connecting with
a stream, and the life near and around it. I went for a trek
through a local Audubon preserve that I love. I took a trail
I had not yet explored and came upon a substantial stream with
a little stone bridge crossing it. The sun was bright, warm and
cheerful. There were skunk cabbage flowers aplenty that really
were interestingly beautiful to look at. I was so attracted to
inspecting their colorful, shapely displays, with the leaves
in varying degrees of growth and unfurling. I felt the wonder
of them and my sense of cheeriness grew as I inspected them.
I felt personal growth taking place.
A happy little woodland place with so many shades of emerging
green. It all seemed to be drinking up the sunlight so abundantly
available for the absence of the canopy of tree leaves this early
in the season.
The stream was full of song, changing tone and rhythm with the
pitch of earth and stones. Streamsong...I like that. I did as
suggested by the activity instruction; to walk along the stream
against the flow and register how that feels. There was a natural,
energetic sensation of gentle, neutral resistance that changed
when I turned to walk along with the flow. I remember thinking,
yes, this is a gentle version of what it feels like when I resist
the natural flow of my life when it doesn't serve mean energy
message to pay attention to when navigating life's events. Not
that it's necessarily wrong to go against the flow to reach a
desired location or goal. But that's where it's just more valid
information to consider when discerning whether it is worth the
effort. The degree of that sense of resistance can tell you a
lot. Is it gentle and neutral, or stronger and more insistent,
requiring a great expenditure of force?
A seemingly unrelated circumstance occurred two days later by
way of my frequent correspondence with a writer friend who lives
abroad. I attached an essay I wrote for myself, because the subject
matter was relevant to our conversation. I wrote the essay as
a simple exercise in focused attention to clarify my thoughts
for myself. I thought it would instigate further discussion along
the same lines. Well, it instigated a discussion of an entirely
different nature that had the subsequent effect of shifting my
self-perception regarding my own creative ability to a significant
degree. He asked me if I ever seriously considered writing. He
went on to say that he felt I had a gift for expression that
could be developed if I wanted to. He had no way of knowing that
the notion had been presented to me over and over again by many
people over the last few years. I always summarily dismissed
the comments since they were never based upon anything I had
written, but simply on relating anecdotes in social settings.
I like to write, but rarely
do. I never considered myself as having any actual talent. Now
here's the one person in my life who expressed this to me who's
opinion on the subject I could not dismiss. He, himself is a
very talented and accomplished writer. I went through some mixed
emotions about his comments, and came to the realization that
I do indeed like to write more than I ever cared to admit to
myself, and very much lacked the confidence to ever consider
bothering to work at it. He helped me to access a creative aspect
of myself I had been dismissing and denying out of fear--lack
of belief and confidence in myself. Tangled and bound by self-wrangling
stories. Not to say I have any career change in mind, to be sure.
But I am now more open to exploring that part of my creativity
and self expression in a new, more open light.
Here's the strange webstring
that connects the dots. In looking up the skunk cabbage on the
internet to see if that was indeed what I was enjoying in the
forest (because I had never before seen its flowering aspect),
I came upon an interesting website about healing flower essences.
It describes skunk cabbage essence as "Piercing the shell
of stagnant mental attitudes which are prohibiting new growth,
allowing a fresh circulation of inspiration." Wow!!! I had
to wonder if my interaction with these wonderful plants had some
magical, energetic clearing and healing influence on my being
that helped to instigate the exchange between the inner natures
of my friend and me, leading me to a newfound sense of creative
flow to follow and explore now that I'm accepting rather than
resisting my own desire. Very coincidental and curious!
Act now.
Master Organic
Psychology by doing it.
Explore it from our homepage
.
Contact us at 360-378-6313 mailto:nature@interisland.net,
http://www.ecopsych.com
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