Restoring Inner Stability, Rhythm & Belonging : How Reconnecting With Nature Heals & Grounds Us
A Yearning For Belonging
In my work with women, one of the themes that arises most often is a yearning to let go of always being the holder, a desire to soften the instinct to push forward and strive, a longing to exhale and let ourselves be held.
Under the strong facade and the ‘holding it all together’, there is a part of us who deeply wants to put it all down and feel held.
We long to rest in the deep knowing that we don’t have to do it all alone.
One of the most powerful realisations women come to through our work is often this: our greatest belonging, and the most unconditional ‘holding’ any of us can rest on, is the natural world that we innately belong to.
In our modern world, this intrinsic sense of belonging often becomes fractured.
We get busy, our lives accelerate constantly, we might even have a sense of living in a tunnel vision - waiting to reach the light at the end and to finally give ourselves permission to let go of all the holding and to simply be.
Through this fast-paced journey we lose connection with our deepest home: nature.
Severed from her holding, we might move through life feeling untethered, unsupported, with a sense that ultimately, we are navigating it alone, even if we are surrounded with people.
We sense a yearning emerge within ourselves for a deeper and unconditional connection.
What we don’t realise we long for is the feeling of weaving ourselves back into the natural world - to find a home again where we most profoundly belong.
Without this homecoming, so many of us live a low-level state of ‘exile’, cut off from the felt sense of belonging to the world we live in.
How Nature Helps Regulate Our Nervous System
When we lose our connection with the natural world, it isn’t just a ‘poetic sense’ of belonging that we lose, it’s belonging in a physiological sense too.
Our nervous system evolved in relationship with the land, the trees, the shifting of the tides.
If we spend most of our time orienting towards a world that thrives on urgency and increasingly lacks human and nature-based connection, a world which moves faster than our bodies are designed to process, it’s no wonder we feel scattered, dysregulated, overwhelmed and overstimulated.
It’s no wonder we feel disoriented and our sense of belonging eroded.
Because we are orienting towards an artificial world that we don’t truly belong in.
But when we step outside, when we place our feet on the ground, when we feel the expanse of the sky above us, when we breathe in the air that moves through the trees, our body begins to sync back into the original rhythm it was designed for. It finds its way home.
Our heart rate slows down.
Our breath deepens.
Perhaps you’ve experienced this too?
Our nervous system, which is always scanning for cues of safety, recognises something deeply familiar, something unhurried, an unwavering steadiness it can rest in.
This is why the natural world is one of the most powerful nervous system co-regulators.
Multiple studies have shown the benefits of spending time in nature, from supporting us in managing our emotions, to enhancing our cognitive functions, our creativity, and the quality of our sleep. It can regulate our sympathetic nervous system in as little as five minutes.
And it can help us remember that we belong, that we are held by the great web of life, and that we don’t have to hold it all alone.
The Wisdom Of The Wild - What Nature Teaches Us (That We Have Forgotten)
Nature shows us the original blueprint for health, wellbeing, and flourishing: how to move through the world in ways that are sustainable, nourishing, and whole.
If we pause, listen and observe, we will notice that:
🌿 1. Nothing in nature is always ‘on’ - and nor should we
Nature constantly goes through cycles of death and rebirth, of expansion and contraction, of rest and renewal - think about the contrast between seasons, day and night, decay and renewal.
The rest, stillness, absence of visible activity that nature shows us during winter months is what paves the way for blooming and flourishing in spring and summer.
Yet as humans, we tend to live our lives at one pace: go, go, go. We expect ourselves to be permanently ‘on’, pushing through exhaustion and seeing rest as a hindrance to our progress.
But rest is the fertile soil from which we rise.
It isn’t just needed for replenishment, it’s essential for expansion and growth.
🍂 2. Every ecosystem thrives on interdependence
Nothing in nature survives in isolation. Every part of an ecosystem exists in an intricate web of reciprocity.
Trees for example, are fed by mycelium networks beneath the soil, which share nutrients between species. The biodiversity of the forest prevents any single element from depleting the whole system.
If one part of an ecosystem takes too much or receives too little, the system is at risk of breaking down.
Yet, so many of us have become hyper independent. We have cone to believe that self-sufficiency is the greatest sign of strength.
For many women, this runs deep. We have inherited a legacy of over-responsibility and under-resourcing.
We avoid depending on anyone but care for those depending on us.
Our ecology is out of balance.
Like trees, we grow strong when our roots are deep, and when we are in interdependent relationships with those around us.
Interdependence is what allows each part of an ecosystem to flourish. Being in reciprocal relationships is what helps us thrive too: with ourselves, with each other and with the natural world.
🌾 3. The conditions we create determine the depth of our flourishing.
When a plant isn’t doing well, we generally check the soil, the light, its position, the roots.
But when we feel stuck, disconnected, or depleted, we rarely ask ourselves:
"What conditions am I living in? Are they the right conditions for me to thrive?"
Instead, we often assume that something is wrong with us.
Perhaps we don’t need to push harder, to be more disciplined or more motivated, but we simply need to create more of the conditions that will help us thrive. The right balance between:
Giving and receiving
Rest and action
Nourishment and nourishing
We need to tend our inner soil of our life so that flourishing unfolds organically.
A Somatic Rewilding Practice: Grounding With Nature & Leaning Into The Stability Of The Earth
When you feel untethered, disconnected, or overwhelmed, and long to be held emotionally, mentally and physically, take a few moments to experiment with this practice designed to restore a felt sense of being supported by something larger.
Step 1: Find a place where you can physically connect with the earth.
If possible, lie down on the ground. If that’s not available, stand barefoot, sit with your back against a tree, or place your hands on soil. (If you don’t have access to a place in nature, try using headphones to listen to nature sounds, and imagine yourself laying down in a favourite place in nature).
Step 2: Soften into the earth’s holding.
Sense, feel or imagine how the ground meets you, holding your body unconditionally. You might even imagine the soft ground moulding itself to the shape of your body. With every inhale sense or imagine the earth rising up to meet you and with each exhale invite your body to soften into that support.
Allow yourself to be held.
Step 3: Imagine the layers of the earth as unwavering support beneath you.
Sense or imagine the soil, the layers of rock, the deep molten core, the millions of years of steady, unwavering presence beneath you.
Take a few moments here to let this knowing seep into your body, to let this felt sense of stability, belonging, gentle holding express itself a little more fully in your body. What lets you know that you are safely held?
Can you allow more space for this feeling to diffuse a little further in your body.
Let your nervous system know that it’s ok to soften here for a few moments, that you are being held by something ancient, benevolent and vast.
Step 4: Whisper to yourself:
I don’t have to hold everything alone.
I belong here unconditionally
I am always held in the earth’s tender embrace
Or any other words that feel resonant for you at this moment.
Sense or imagine your worries, stress, and any tension in your body melting into the earth beneath you - and composting into the ground.
Step 5: Stay here as long feels right for you.
Let the stability of the earth become your own. You are held.
Take as long as you desire here.
And when you feel a natural sense of completion and satiation, come back to the present moment, carrying this profound sense of unconditional support and belonging within you.
You Were Never Meant to Belong Alone
Nature offers a pathway to our original blueprint of health, to our sense of belonging, abundance and flourishing - to our inner rhythms, and innate wisdom.
When was the last time you felt deeply connected to nature?
How did it impact your sense of calm and belonging?
If you recently sat on a park bench, walked in the woods, or lied on the grass looking at the sky, you probably sensed something within you shift - however subtly.
Something profound happens when we let go of trying to hold it together alone, and when we let ourselves be held by something bigger.
Reconnecting with the natural world we innately belong to can offer that gentle holding.
Why The Wisdom Within™ Weaves Nature Into Somatic Transformation
This is why The Wisdom Within™ Somatic Coach Training and my coaching approach do not just focus on nervous system work, somatic integration, or embodied transformation.
Touches of nature are woven throughout. We reconnect with the organic wisdom of the natural world and anchor into the felt sense of being held by it as we move towards stability and expansion for ourselves and our clients.
We weave nature as a force of co-regulation, so our nervous system (and clients systems) has a blueprint for sustainable transformation.
This is one of the ways in which our approach is different from other somatic and facilitation trainings.
If this speaks to you, if you long for an approach to coaching and transformation that blends women empowerment, nature’s wisdom and the power of somatics, I invite you to explore The Wisdom Within™ Somatic Coach Training.
Whether you are a new or seasoned practitioner, this might be the missing piece you have been looking for, to guide the women you support towards deep and sustainable transformation with more ease and self-trust.
