Posts tagged with "healing"

Changes and Gifts: Taking Stock…

Sea of grass = winds of change

It’s a few days until our next wilderness experience, so there is a natural focussing of the mind on next steps etc. I then thought that perhaps what I need to do is a bit of a “stop and take stock” exercise around the whole Natural Change experience so far. So, forgive me if this post is a bit of a random collection - but I’ll pick up the threads over the coming weeks hopefully.

So, what have I learned/experienced so far? What are the tangible changes and the gifts it has brought?

1. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, there is a definite change in my motivation relating to all things “eco”. I’m still coming to terms as to what is the potential scale and scope of the changes I can make, both personally and “professionally”, but there is a definite will that didn’t exist before, which now comes from my heart, not just my head.

2. I’m getting out more - much more. For a woman who previously thought the great outdoors was that space between the taxi and the front door of Harvey Nics, this is significant! My lovely walking boots - see my earliest posts - are no longer shiny and have seen good use in woodland, hills and seashore. I now crave the chance to be outdoors and the sense of perspective and wellbeing it brings me - and am prioritising it above other things.

3. I’m consuming less - and am seeing a noticeable reduction in my desire for “stuff” and the need to be validated by my purchases. That said, there’s still an Armani suit I’ve got my eye on… 

4. I’m wasting less food - through planning meals better and cooking more, as well as buying local and from farmers markets.

5. I’m striving to apply the personal learning that I’ve experienced - which is hard to quantify here - into my life and work, even if it’s just applying some of the tips and techniques for team building and simplicity of approach.

That’s the good stuff, but what are the challenges that remain? Well, aside from the ongoing nagging doubt about whether anyone except us is remotely interested in all this, there is one ”biggie”: I feel a strong sense of wanting to move on from the “personal healing” aspect of the project - which has been astonishingly powerful and an unanticipated gift - to how I/we/us can make a difference in relation to sustainability. But - and it’s a big but - there are so many people and organisations fighting this good fight - what contribution can I make? Believe me, my own sense of expectation around this is big enough, without the added expectations of WWF and co! I’m in the voluntary sector because I want to change the world…

But, most of all, the thing I keep coming back to again and again at this stocktaking moment, is the amazing - AMAZING - group of people who have been on this journey alongside me every single step of the way. It’s hard to communicate the deep bond that has developed between us without running the risk of doing it an injustice - I’ll leave that Herculean task to the final research report! But the trust, openness, intelligence, courage, respect, warmth and laughter that have been the hallmarks of our times together have reinstilled in me my oft-assaulted view that human beings are pretty wonderful creatures actually.

That, readers, gives me hope. And, if nothing else, that in itself is a beautiful gift.

The primal wound

How is trauma linked to our relationships with ourselves, with others, and with the natural world? How can we help to heal these connections?

John Firman and Ann Gila, in their book The Primal Wound, describe some of the effects of trauma:

‘For many of us, modern life is a headlong rush to avoid dark feelings that threaten to disrupt our lives…. In order to block the surging tide of this hidden level of experience, we become enthralled with violence, sex, and mass media…..addicted to alcohol, drugs and power……. we compulsively strive for romance, success and control. All of this….can be traced to the primal wound ….. the isolation, abandonment and alienation haunting human life.

The primal wound is the result of a violation we all suffer in various ways, beginning in childhood and continuing throughout life. When we are not treated as individual, unique human beings, but as objects, our intrinsic, authentic sense of self is annihilated.

This primal wounding breaks the fundamental relationships that form the fabric of human existence: the relationship to oneself, to other people, to the natural world, and to a sense of [spiritual] meaning.’ (John Firman and Ann Gila. The Primal Wound)

The primal wound isn’t the whole of us, but it’s an important part that needs attention. This work can’t be done all at once - some wounds may have been there for a long time, and may be quite deep. They’re different for each of us. 

Firman and Gila say that healing comes from empathic relationship to ourselves, to other people, to the natural world, and to our sources of meaning.

Empathic relationship ‘rekindles the dormant ember of ‘I’, and ‘I’ begins to glow in the dark.’

I don’t think we need to be completely healed to help anyone else. But tending to our own wounds, and becoming more true to ourselves can help us light the way - and to see more clearly what needs to be done in our own compassionate actions.

Spaces in between

I’ve started noticing how often there are adverts in the in-between places - magazine ads in train stations, airports, doctors’ waiting rooms; commercial breaks in a TV programme; billboards next to roads.

These are places where we’re in transition – where the flow of experience is interrupted or suspended, places where our sense of self can be a bit shaky - where we need to grab on to something and say ‘this is me!’ These spaces can feel empty and lonely.

But if we stop and stay quiet in these spaces, there’s a chance to open out into what’s going on right now, and to catch a glimpse of ourselves at a deeper level. That’s a place where there’s a great potential for healing. And we have to be tender with ourselves - and each other - in that place.

Natural Change Genesis

I’ve been running outdoor courses based on the same approach as the Natural Change Project for over 12 years now. First in New Zealand where I developed the original programme as an outdoor leadership course, while working at ‘OPC’, New Zealand’s National Outdoor Training Centre, and then as a freelance facilitator working in Europe, mostly in Scotland.

The approach evolved quite naturally out of my experiences of working with a diversity of groups outdoors. I simply noticed that ‘something happens’, as the Scottish conservationist and father of the global national park movement, John Muir, said. I focussed on that ‘something’ and intentional tried to work with it. My belief - based on my own experiences rock climbing, mountaineering and sea kayaking - was that experiences of wild places had the power to transform the way we think, feel and act towards the environment, other people, and towards ourselves. For me that belief has now been tested and proven.

About four years ago, I realised that this type of ‘outdoor education for sustainability’, as it became, was actually more about healing than education. I like the definition of healing as ‘becoming whole’. Something to do with becoming complete, authentic and conscious of our place in the web of life. At this time I met Mary-Jayne Rust, a Jungian Analyst based in London, and we started developing and running ‘Ecotherapy’ courses together. This proved to be a rich and extraordinary process that has led to the techniques and processes that I am now using in my role as facilitator of the Natural Change Project.