Nature is Medicine

Weekly insights to turn pain, trauma, and the human experience into opportunities for growth, purpose, and meaning

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Issue 17 // Read Time: 5 Minutes 6 Seconds

Nature is Medicine

I want to switch it up a little bit this week and share about an experience I had this past weekend in the desert of southern Utah. There will be a little teaching in this letter, but mostly I just want to share my expertience.

This week you will get:

What is a medicine walk?

My medicine walk experience

Invitations to your own medicine walk

What is a Medicine Walk?

A medicine walk is quite simple. Essentially, it is an intentional, non-directed experience in nature.

It could involve actual walking, sitting, or literally anything as long as it is you, your thoughts, and the natural environment.

I like to start my medicine walk by forming an intention. Sometimes, that is a specific question; sometimes, it's a wish for a particular type of experience; and sometimes, it is simply an open-ended exploration into nature, with an intent to learn from whatever comes up.

It is also helpful to create a threshold. A place that you can cross over to begin the medicine walk and cross back over to end it. A threshold helps you give the walk a clear beginning and end.

And once you have crossed the threshold, you walk, paying attention to the nature around you and following any impulses that arise.

For example, if you are walking through the desert (as I was) and you see a cactus on the ground that catches your attention, pause and let your attention wander. See if the cactus has anything to say to you.

Treat any thoughts, sensations, feelings, etc., as meaningful, and let nature speak to you through your immersive experience.

If you follow this framework, you will be surprised to find that nature, in fact, does speak to you. And her messages are pretty clear.

It is important to note that there is no clear path to walk, no destination, no end goal. Just you, presently immersed in the happenings around you.

Being in "Right" Relationship

I was fortunate to be in the central Utah desert near Goblin Valley. It is an incredible place, and if you have never had the privilege of visiting the southwest deserts of the United States, I highly encourage you to add it to your bucket list.

I set out on this medicine walk with no specific intent. I wanted to be in nature and to listen to what she had to tell me.

So I started walking, and my dog, Jon Ray, followed. Initially, I was unsure about him joining, but he followed without my invitation and seemed interested in tagging along.

So we set out with no destination in mind, just me and the vast open desert.

We were camped just below this desert castle.

As I climbed over the sandstone castle and entered the vast openness of the desert, I was compelled to follow the edge of protruding sandstone to a shady spot and look out over the landscape.

I sat down and started watching the wind blow small clouds of sand while tumbleweeds rolled by.

As I watched these occurrences, I wondered, "What does it mean to be in right relationship?"

The question lingered as I saw how the sand and wind had eroded the entire environment around me. Breaking down millimeter by millimeter for hundreds of thousands of years.

I wondered if this slow destruction and breakdown was "right" relationship.

And then I started wondering what "right" meant.

As I pondered these questions, it became clear to me that "right" meant with integrity. And integrity is doing what you say you're going to do when you say you will do it.

In the context of nature, wind blows, sand shifts, and water flows. All of those are "right," and all three lead to the constant erosion and change of the landscape.

Break down and build up happening forever in one continuous cycle of infinity.

So the breaking down and the building up were "right." They were acting with integrity because they were fulfilling their purpose.

I started thinking about my relationships and where I was not acting with integrity. Where I needed to fulfill my end of the bargain by doing what I said.

Or how I was avoiding the continuous cycle of breakdown and build-up to protect myself and others from fear of endings and psychospiritual deaths.

It became clear that I only have to live with integrity, and everything else will take care of itself. It is honestly that simple.

If I do my job like the wind, sand, and rain, my entire landscape will shape and form precisely as it needs to.

No architect could create the castle pictured above, but nature can. Simply by being ,my life (your life), can similarly take shape.

The Subtle Sounds

After that reverie, I got up and continued.

I walked up over a rock formation, and a gust of wind blew through. I heard the most beautiful, delicate rattle and looked down to see a dried-out bush rattling in the wind.

I was enamored with the sound and sat by it so I could watch the leaves rattle.

As I observed this plant, I wondered how many times I had heard this sound or something similar and not registered it because I was not present in my immediate environment.

I started to wonder how often I have sensed a subtle "rattle" inside, disturbed by the metaphorical winds of life, but ignored it because I was not present with my body.

The answer is MANY MANY times.

This comes with its own sense of grieving, but there is something satisfying about noticing that it has happened and calling in more attentional resources to ensure it happens less and less frequently.

The longer I watched and listened to the bush rattle, the more grounded and present I felt.

By the time I was ready to move on, I was regulated and felt profound peace in my body.

Invitations

Keep in mind that these experiences and thoughts were not planned in any way. They were brought out by an unconscious relating to the environment around me. It was nature speaking TO me.

We often forget how magical it is to be a human being. Maybe it's because we are victims of materialist science, addicted to dopamine, or overly obsessed with interconnectedness.

Whatever the reason, we forget that we are conduits for profound transmissions through the natural world.

I invite you to facilitate your own medicine walk, to go out and get into contact with whatever the natural world wants to tell you. It has a message for you, I promise.

Give the Earth your intention and attention, and it will give back to you.

Thank You!

If you made it this far - thanks for sticking with me and tuning in to a different type of newsletter this week!

I love that you are interested in exploring yourself in the pursuit of growth and expansion.

And I love that you are diving deeper into the unconscious patterns that limit our capacity as a species to transcend this paradigm.

You are becoming the change you want to see in the world and that is incredibly inspiring!

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey ✨✨

With Love,

Christian