Trees Don't Question Who They Are

Let your awareness go deeper into the ground beneath you, past the surface and into the roots. A tree never questions its shape. A fish doesn't long for shinier scales. Notice your own instinct to judge yourself for core deficiency beliefs and feeling like you're not enough as you are. Connect with the safety and reliability of nature.

Transcript

We live on the earth, And so why wouldn't we connect with the earth? Part of this is because trauma disconnects us from our body and ourselves, Our sense of value from the present moment. Also, The more connected we are in the body, The more connected we can be with other people, With our experiences, With certainly with Mother Earth. Part of our work is to practice being in connection. In our own body to practice learning what's going on in my body and in my system. How can I be loving and compassionate with myself and with each other? And we don't care for what we're not connected with. The more we're connected with our own body, It's like we'll remember, Oh, I've been sitting here for hours all braced and for no particular reason other than that I have a habit in my nervous system of that. When we notice that we let our shoulders relax. We take a few breaths. We maybe turn to ourselves or open our hearts with more kindness. And it's always interesting and helpful to let ourselves know that we're not alone. One of the ways that we protect ourselves is we often feel alone or like we don't have support or we don't have connection. It's just like our mind has a negativity bias and it will go into what could go wrong as a way to protect us. Also, That disconnection and feeling abandoned, Feeling alone can be a big part of our experience as well. Look around in the space that we're in. That's something that's so important. And if you have any wilderness or any nature around you, We could especially tune in with that as we go into this practice that's part of the practice that we'll be working with. What is around me that I could connect with? You might be doing this in a forest. You might be sitting beside a lake, Or you're out camping, Or the people are outside. And you might have that direct experience. Maybe you've got bare feet and you can feel the soil and the grass or the moss or whatever is under your feet. And we can all remember experiences that we've had like that. If you can see any kind of nature as you're looking around, Notice that. And notice if it feels safe enough to be present in the nature that's around you. What else is here too? If you're indoors, You might be seeing hues of safety. That might be visual. I notice there's no danger as I'm looking around. It might be touch. I can feel a cool breeze on my skin and I'm going to have to close that window up in a while because it's going to get too hot. But right now it feels really nice and refreshing. So what is it you're feeling? What is it you're sensing into? What gives you a sense that I'm okay? It's safe enough for me to be here and do this practice. What is it that gives you that sense right now? And it gives you a sense of, I could take a few deeper breaths. And when we try that out, Does that feel good? Poppin' does and sometimes it feels like I'm not into the big breath right now, I'm just gonna sit and observe my breath or let my breath gradually deepen. What we're really doing is we're checking in as what's happening in my nervous system. And then how can I work with that with kindness? With patience. How can I let myself come incrementally into connection, Relaxation, Deeper breath? So either if your feet are on the ground or if your feet are on the floor. You could imagine going down through the floor to the ground. But imagine that your feet are on the earth. And let's take a moment here to tune into that feeling of connection with the earth. When I do that, I notice there's a sense of strength that comes up from the feet through my legs. And you could do this in your mind's eye, Also in your energy body. If you are standing supported on solid ground. Let your body accept the solid ground. We have gravity keeps us in place on this earth. We can rely on gravity. We can rely on the elements to be what they are. They're not always doing what we want. But they are what they are and they're predictable and they're not vengeful. Another person might be in a fight response or something, And we have to be careful. And they might feel like they're aggressive or mean or something. Even when nature is wild or something's going on, It's not anger, It's not getting back at us, It's not any of those things. It's just nature, The forces of nature respond to the context. The environment. As we do, Our nervous systems respond to our environment. If you have thoughts in your mind about I can't trust nature or it's too dangerous or something like that, See if you could let those thoughts go a little bit more to the background for now and notice the solidness of the ground. Let yourself feel that energy coming up through the ground. Through your legs. Feel your legs strong in your mind's eye at least. They may be strong physically as well. Feel that energy coming up from the earth. Earth is so vast. And we are on the earth. And if we walk on the earth and we take steps with consciousness, With awareness, We can sense that we're not just walking on this neutral surface, We're walking on the surface of this huge planet. And we might be walking with beauty. So often as we're looking around, We notice how beautiful it is. And it might be an obvious beauty, It might be a subtle beauty. I grew up in the prairies in Canada. Sometimes the beauty is pretty subtle. Lots of people will say, Oh, I drove through the prairies and I couldn't wait to get to the other side. It was just endless beige, Which isn't really true. The colors of the grasses and the grains and the trees and the bushes. And there's not a lot of trees. It's not a forest. It's a plain. Looking out here, I can see there's a lot of fog in the trees right now. So it's not the sunny, Sparkly, Kind of blue sky day, Not yet anyway, It's starting to clear. So as you're looking around either in your own environment or in your mind's eye, Notice what you're seeing and what is your response to what you're seeing. We all have preferences. Some of those are based on safety. I prefer it when it's not too hot, But it's not too cold. I prefer it when there's a breeze, But there's not a hurricane. So we have a lot of preferences, A lot of them based on our physical safety. Just as you're looking around in your mind's eye or looking out a window or something or if you're outside. What are you seeing and what is beautiful about what you're seeing? And as you're noticing that, Notice your breath, Your body, Let yourself be aware of your body. What are you seeing? What are you sensing? Maybe what are you hearing? What are you smelling? If we were to place ourselves on the Earth, Which of course we are, Obviously, But if we were to come into more awareness of that, So one of them might be sensory, Whether our feet feel like the soles of our feet physically, However they're connected with Earth. I also know that a couple feet below me is bedrock, And I also know what it's like to walk on the Earth, As we all do. As you're imagining walking on the earth or if you're actually doing that. What is just below the surface? Part of our disconnection is that we often just walk on the Earth as though it's not even the Earth. It's just some surface we're walking on. So if you were to perhaps slow it down, Robin helps to slow it down. As you're standing on the earth or walking on the earth, What's below the surface? There's whatever your feet are touching, But there's also the energy. If you bring your awareness to the energy of the soles of your feet, And then go down into the earth, The first couple feet. 50 feet, 20 feet, Whatever it is, Is soil. Rocks, Roots. Water, Air pockets. Some places have very deep soil and a lot of roots, Like the prairies for instance. Some of the roots of the native grasses go down many, Many feet. The grass is on the sand dunes of the ocean. Same thing, Otherwise it'd get blown away or washed away. If you were to plant your roots. . . Let's do that for a moment. Plant your roots into the ground. Notice what could be below the surface. What are you planting into? If you're standing on sand, You're going to need to go a lot deeper to anchor. Let your awareness go deeper into the earth. And let yourself now, As you're noticing your feet up through your legs. Notice if there's any difference in how you feel connected and grounded. Not just this little bit of space just below your feet. Earth is massive. And we're standing on the earth. And then at some point we might notice that we're not alone. We have the animals, Other creatures, Some of which are mammals, Some of which are others. We have plants, Trees, Grasses, Roots, Bacterias, And mycosium layer, And fungi, And all of these different things in and around the Earth. Some grow up there. Some go wide. Little creatures kind of scurrying about in the little pockets or maybe some bombs that they've dug out for themselves. For the most part, Human beings live above ground. Not very far below at least. In your actual circumstance or in your mind's eye, What is around you? And what's your response to that perhaps? Well, I don't like creepy crawly things, They're slimy. Oh, I love the lushness of life. Presence of other beings, Of other cellular organisms. Everything is doing their thing. Each one has a part in this. And notice if you feel like you are also a part of life on Earth. We might say that in words. Yeah, Of course I am. I'm here on earth, I'm in a body, I eat the food, I do all of these things. Sometimes I do things that are fun and I really enjoy and sometimes I'm swimming in a lake, Sometimes I'm freezing in my house. We have all of these different experiences. But what's your response when you say, I'm part of life on this earth? And we'll go through thoughts and then into the deeper energy of that. I am part of the life on earth. Fear has a lot to do with this. If we feel afraid, We often hold ourselves back or close ourselves off. If we're in a forest and we're afraid there's a bear, We're going to have a certain amount of alertness or hypervigilance, Or maybe we're not even going to go into the forest. Even in our mind's eye. And other people might be like, Wow, That's so cool. Look at the bear. So we have a variety of responses as we're considering life on Earth. And notice in your body, One of the ways we disconnect is from our body. We live in a very disconnected culture as well. There's a lot of hurry and sensory stimulation. But if we just come into our body in kind of a simple way, When we breathe in, We breathe in the air around us. We can feel the coolness as it comes in through our nose. Gets warmed up in our lungs. If we think about it, We know that the oxygen goes into the bloodstream, Goes through our whole body. So in that sense, We're connected with life on Earth. We breathe in the air. The same air that is being in our atmosphere for however long it's taken for Earth to be what it is. When we eat food, Where does that come from? It comes from nature somehow, Whether it's plants or animals that have eaten plants. Our body is made of food. I am part of Mother Earth, Literally. So we breathe, We eat, We see. We hear One of the interesting things I learned about the redwood forest is that however tall the tree is, The roots go that wide. They go laterally, Horizontally. If you think about a forest, A lot of the trees might be, Just a regular forest, 50, 60 feet tall. Some of them have tap roots which go down deeply, But a lot of them spread out. It's easier to get through the softer soil at the top than it is to get through bedrock. And then we have all of this connection and interaction between trees. We breathe a lot of the oxygen that trees generate. Sometimes we eat their fruits or nuts. We enjoy their beauty. Sometimes a year like in the fall if it's deciduous trees, It's pretty. But it's always the inherent beauty of something that's just doing what it's doing. So a tree is doing its thing. It takes in the sunlight, It has sap running up and down, It has roots, It has nutrients, It gives off oxygen. There's an integrity in a lot of nature. If we were to tap into our own beingness, This is who I am, But not in a complicated way, Just this is my body. My body takes in air and food and pleasure through my eyes and ears, And it's difficult, It's complicated. Being a human being in a physical body, That's for sure. And could we just for a moment tap into the integrity of being in a human body, In a human life? Allow ourselves to be without judging how we are. A fish in the water doesn't think, Oh, I wish my scales were more sparkly like that other one. And a tree doesn't go, Oh, I'm so misshapen because of that other tree that was on me for 20 years. My trunk bent and now it's come up again and I must be so ugly. That doesn't happen in nature. And yet it happens in us a lot of the time. So is there anything that you could let go of and just let yourself be okay with the isness, The beingness of you? In a body with a complicated life. All that there is there. Could we just let ourselves have some space to be who we are? And perhaps that opens up our heart a little. If you were to come back into noticing your feet being supported by the ground. Coming up through your body. Noticing the air coming into your lungs. All the basic processes of being in a mammal body, In a human body. The brain causes us such a problem a lot of the times. And yet it's also, It's doing its thing too and responding to the environment that it's in. So one of the things that we do in these practices is we look at the environment that it's in. We might notice what makes sense. Especially court efficiency beliefs or disconnection from ourselves, That's a result of trauma. It's not what we want, But it is something we can work with, Especially once we understand it and begin to have more openness to this is what it is. I hold my breath when I get stressed. I have a reluctance to go out and be around other people because I've been hurt. And yet we also are here doing a practice. Also, All of us in this have experienced some moments of connection. So connecting with kindness. So perhaps if you're inspired, That might be something to take into your day. That sense of can I be okay with myself as I am? Just like the trees and the animals and the sky and the water. They're not questioning who they are and are they good enough. They're just being themselves. That can be something that's very exciting for us as well. Could I just be myself? And have that be enough.

Reviews

I am so happy you recorded this beautiful practice. I love it and will return to it again and again. It feels so grounding to experience the interconnection with the earth, the trees and the other animals.