[Wendy Barnett]

What does it mean to be connected to Nature, and how can that relationship support your coaching?

I don’t think that I have ever really questioned that I’m connected to nature because being away from it has always felt like something is missing. I grew up in the country and all our family vacations were in Wales or Scotland, aka, the country.
In my early 30s, I moved to an urban town because I thought it would be wonderful to be able to walk to nice bistros and stores and have the kind of life that was social and extrovert. However, within 3 months, I found that I was driving out to the country every weekend, craving the open space and the green fields; I was suffocating even in this relatively mild urban area.
That was the first realization I had that, not only am I ‘not a city person’ but that nature is an inseparable part of me. Being in nature and truly connected to it is, for me, to feel free, unburdened and calm. Birdsong is nature’s orchestra an the crackle of the leaves under foot remind me of a carefree childhood, conker competitions, baked potatoes and laughter, fields of grass remind me of hide and go seek for hours on end. Reading the chapter about child passions reminded me of my own childhood; full of laughter and games. Memory is selective but what I remember most is playing outside in the yard, climbing trees, building teepees around the apple trees or funning around the neighborhood and the fields from morning to night. We’d bounce from house to house, field to marsh and back again, usually with scrapes and cuts and hungry!
The clean air, green leaves, grass and all their associated smells, recharge my soul and I feel myself restoring back to balance. Nature flows through my veins, shaken not stirred, in my blood and without it I wither and dehydrate.
Never do I feel more alive than when I’m hiking alone in a forest. I hear everything, listen to ever bough creak, bird sing, squirrel scamper through undergrowth, jay squawk and the mournful wail of the hawk. My senses are alive and on hyper alert because I never know what might be around the corner – a snake, a mountain lion, a bear – it’s exhilarating and the body tingles with anticipation, every sense on alert. Yet, with that high alert comes a soul-deep peace and complete trust that she’s holding me, that there’s nothing that will happen that isn’t meant to. I love the quote in the section about ‘Letting curiosity lead the way’ – ‘wandering through a landscape being led solely by curiosity and open eyes the fertile ground of discovery’. How many times have I done this? When I go out into nature, I may or may not have a plan and, even if I have a plan, I may not follow it because curiosity may take me on another path. I can’t replicate the joy of completely surrendering to mother nature in any other setting; timeless, agenda less exploration of all that’s around me.
As a guide, my greatest honor would be to support someone else in discovering the calm that can be found in nature. The lack of judgment, the ‘enoughness’ that she creates, the freedom that can come from just being and observing the millions of things around us. As a naturally curious person myself, I will learn to ask questions to help someone feel safe. I will share my own experience of healing through my re-connection with nature and provide my own learnings to see how someone else may open themselves to the possibility of what she can provide.
When in nature, I trust completely: I don’t question my weight, my looks, my ‘enoughness’: I literally go into the lizard brain and start to re-wire myself. I will be vulnerable and share these thoughts with others to see how they might consider themselves in nature and her beauty to see how they can start to feel the power that is the universe working with and within them. We will enjoy the simplest places, we will engage our curiosity which can open up possibility and let nature do what she does best.
You can take this girl out of nature but you can never take nature out of this girl!

[Wendy Barnett]

Tribe: as mentioned in my text, here’s my elevator speech. Read/use/ignore/bootleg and if you have any feedback, I’d love it!
“The place was incredible. I was about 3 miles out of Boulder up in the mountains, surrounded by trees and grass. The smells, the quiet and the wildlife were all incredible and very rejunvenating. It was also incredibly hot but because it was so dry, it was actually really nice.

The course is very intense and you learn by practicing on each other; there was very little theory which involved sitting around and working thru’ documents – it was intensely practical learning. Every day we worked outside in the grass learning how to listen deeply to what someone was saying and asking very specific questions at specific times to create space for that person to reflect on and question what they were saying and go a bit deeper. Someone might start by talking about wanting to create a plan for how to have a difficult conversation when, actually, the challenge was about them not having the confidence to trust in the decision they were making which is actually what made it a difficult conversation.

It was not just a really intense learning experience from a coaching perspective but also an intense exploration of personal understanding, because we were working as both guides and clients. We always paired up and always had at least 1 supervisor who would observe and interrupt to provide real time guidance. By working this way, it gave us incredible insight into what it feels like to be the client which taught us how to show up as the guide, in our own personal style.

I’m really excited for how much I learned from the 1st day to the 9th day and can’t wait to deepen my learning again in September.”

[Wendy Barnett]

HI
Wondering if lunch is provided every day or if we need to bring our own. Also, are there bugs / mosquitoes so that we need to bring bug spray?
(would someone mind replying somehow, just to confirm that these posts are working? Surprised to see no activity from others starting the course next week so maybe my posts aren’t working…)
Thanks
W

[Wendy Barnett]

HI folks
I’m Wendy. I live in the bay area in CA and am very excited to come to Boulder in a couple of weeks. I’m going to be staying with friends in Denver and was wondering if anyone else is going to be in Denver and interested in carpooling or sharing travel costs.
Looking forward to meeting everyone soon.
W

[Wendy Barnett]

I loved reading this Amanda! I became so immersed in the reading of the book that I’ve gone into chapter 7 and this was a good reminder of the dawn of man and the hunter gatherer mentality. I’m also fascinated to hear of other peoples’ relationships to nature as I feel mine so strongly that I wonder if others feel it too. When I arrive in Yosemite, I feel as though I shed a huge weight and when I leave, I always feel a heaviness in my heart.
I deliberately did not read yours before writing mine but to read the similarities now makes me chuckle. The curiosity, the lack of plan the safe abandon – it makes me smile to even read those words when I know that you are safer at the ocean because it’s what you know. I’m so excited for you to get to trust the forests the same way.
Talk soon. XO

[Wendy Barnett]

This has worked really well! I created something which I feel was true to the experience, would make sense to others but preserved the sacred that was just ours and the Starhouse’s! I’ve talked with about 5 people now and they all have been very interested, have understood what I’ve talked about and it felt good for me to say out loud.
I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to think about this and then to craft it because I have felt very prepared for the conversations and feel I’ve honored the course.
Hope everyone is still feeling the full on joy of that beautiful mountain 🙂
W