We Are Nature, We've Just Forgotten

Sometimes I wonder if one of the deepest wounds we carry isn't trauma or anxiety or burnout.

I wonder if we've simply forgotten what we are.

We've forgotten that we are nature.

I know that might sound a little woo woo.

Stay with me.

Being in Colorado I get to spend a lot of time outside wiht my dogs. I’m a long-distance trailrunner, I climb and bike mountains, I swim in glorious alpine lakes, I hug trees.

I do all that because the older I get, the more convinced I become that something happens when we remember we're part of the living world instead of separate from it.

People come into my office exhausted.

They're anxious, burnt out, and grieving.

They're trying to think their way through things.

They're looking for answers.

Most of us have been taught that healing happens in our heads.

Think harder.

Figure it out.

Analyze it.

Understand it.

We're so good at living from the neck up.

But our bodies have been trying to get our attention for a very long time.

Our bodies know things our minds haven't caught up to yet.

That's why I spend so much time asking people,

"Where do you feel that in your body?"

Not because I'm trying to be mysterious but because your body knows and it’s always known.

The hard part is that we've been taught not to listen.

We've been taught to override hunger.

Override exhaustion.

Override grief.

Override intuition.

Override the whisper that says, "I don't think this relationship is right."

Or, "I need to leave this job."

Or, "I'm not okay."

We've gotten really good at disconnecting from ourselves and then we wonder why we feel disconnected.

Sometimes I think healing is less about finding something new and more about remembering something ancient.

It's one of the reasons nature is so grounding and helps so many people.

Not because it's another wellness trend.

Not because “getting outside” fixes everything.

It’s because your nervous system recognizes itself there.

The trees aren't in a hurry.

The river isn't trying to get somewhere faster.

The mountains aren't wondering if they're behind.

Nature doesn't optimize, hustle or compare itself. 

The dirt isn’t looking for a #LifeHack.

It simply becomes, naturally, what it was always meant to become.

I think our bodies know that too, intuitively.

You don't have to earn ~belonging~ in a forest.

You already belong. You're part of it. You are it.

Sometimes I tell people,

Go outside.

Touch the dirt.

Walk barefoot.

Put your feet in a river.

Sit against a tree.

Watch the wind move through the leaves.

Not because any of those things are magic (I mean, they are a little bit) but because they slow us down enough for us to hear ourselves.

We've lost a lot of ritual in our culture. We've lost ceremony. We've lost gathering. We've lost women sitting with women across generations. We've lost slow conversations, grieving and remembering together.

Instead we try to heal in isolation and we try to fix ourselves as efficiently and as fast as possible.

Healing and nature has never worked that way.

Healing has seasons.

There are winters.

There are springs.

There are long stretches underground where nothing appears to be happening.

And then one day...

something blooms.

Not because it hurried.

But because it was ready.

That's why I tell my clients,

"We'll go as fast as we can and as slow as we need to."

Healing asks something different from us than productivity does.

It asks us to pay attention.

To soften.

To stop gripping quite so tightly.

To remember that we belong to something much older than our calendars and our inboxes.

I don't think nature heals us because it's outside of us it heals us because it reminds us of what we've forgotten.

We are nature.

We've just forgotten.

About Erin Linehan

Return to Within is the online home of AS/WITHIN, the psychotherapy practice of Licensed Professional Counselor Erin Linehan. Based in Colorado, Erin works with women throughout Colorado through secure virtual therapy and also offers in person sessions by appointment in the Denver metro area. Her work focuses on trauma, nervous system healing, grief, self trust, EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), psychedelic assisted therapy, and the slow, courageous work of coming home to yourself.

Ready to Begin?

If you've spent years trying to think your way toward healing, maybe it isn't more thinking you need.

Maybe it's remembering.

Schedule a consultation or email Erin directly at hello@returntowithin.com