Self Guided Journey:Chapter 4 — Nature’s healing

I have been spending a lot of time outdoors recently, and have just finished a week-long 100km small-group walking retreat. I am continually amazed by the antidote nature offers my busyness. It settles me, and helps me reconnect with my soul. It helps me rediscover the mysteries around me, and open — once again — to not knowing, to being. Nature heals me.

I believe each one of us needs to take our healing journey seriously. We are all wounded from living within a paradigm of separation. Separated from each other and nature separates us from an experience of wholeness in ourselves. So we build up layer after layer of ‘not good enough’, we over-effort, we disconnect from our souls, we struggle with life’s challenges, crush ourselves under judgement, and fall into overwhelm.

But nature helps us heal. It activates the natural healing mechanism within the wholeness system, within us. And nature’s healing magic is oh so gentle.

I was born on the edge of the bush in Te Uruwera. I grew up with the company of wildness — with awa (rivers), and rakau (trees).

The awa and rakau grew me up might be closer to the truth. They still do.

There is a saying from my ancestral people, Tuhoe:

Hoki — a ki ou Maunga
Kia purea koe
E nga hau a Tawhiri-ma-atea
Return to your mountains
So you can be purified
By the winds of Tawhiri ma-atea — the God of weather patterns
- John Rangihau

We may not all be able to return to the mountains of our birth, but we can all find a special place in nature to activate our healing. Let Papatūānuku (earth mother) and all her beings settle your nervous system, restore your joy, and reconnect you to your wisdom.

Inquiry — Your relationship with nature

In your journal, explore your relationship with nature.

• Where did your relationship with nature come from?
• Is it what you wish for? What would you like it to be? How might you deepen it?
• Where and how do you connect to nature?
• Do you have a special place?
• What is your relationship with your own healing journey? Are you on it? If not what would it be like to start?

Action — Find a special place

Find a special place — a rock, a tree, a park, a patch of earth, anything that is close to your home. We often have places far away, but we also need something close to hand. A place for everyday renewal. Be instinctive about it — see what attracts you. Let your heart guide you.

Practice — Know your special place

Try and get to know this place. Take a slow walk around your special place, and notice:

• The movement around you
• The colours and textures
• The smells
• The feeling
• The patterns

Sit and let yourself sink into the earth. Breathe in the trees They breathe us in also. It is an exchange. See if you can feel that relationship. Ask this place what wisdom it has for your life.

See if you can feel the healing exchange.