Counselling for adults & young people

Our relationship to the natural world can hold and sustain us. Its a huge transpersonal connection right there without having to navigate any ? to be or not to be? questions. Many people feel that nature is the great mother, that she lives and breaths. These questions might help you acknowledge your individual, unique colourful relationship to nature. Why not get out your notebook and have a go?

How do the seasons affect you (or what seasons do you enjoy most)?

Me: I love summer, I love the heat of the sun, and the dryness of the air. I like the feeling of heat and air against my skin. I’m in my happy place in the sun. I feel safe and like I can survive. Cold wet wintery days trigger my inner grief and I feel overwhelmed and weighed down with the weight of the world. An indoor or outdoor fire in winter can restore my spirits and hope.

What is your first memory of the natural world?

Me: My neighbour?s garden with peas in pods growing and eating the fresh green peas.

What places have influenced you?

Me: The Yorkshire moors where I grew up. The land is craggy and dramatic. Bleak heather topped moors breaking into craggy valleys with streams cutting through and flora and fauna all around. The smell of wet mossy rocks and the feel of cold water.

What place in nature supports you? Do you have access to a garden or a park?

Me: I have a big connection with the RSPB nature reserve on the levels outside Glastonbury (where the sweet track is) This has been my refuge for years. I love the birds, trees, water and feeling of open space. My spirit can sore on the land. It’s wet and peaty and magnetic. It contrasts to the electrical business of Glastonbury’s green spaces that feel too busy and buzzy.

Tell me about your connection to nature (or what does nature mean to you)?

Me: Nature has a life and vibration which opens the finer senses. It is a doorway into another world. The devic kingdom or nature spirits have life and I allow them an identity. A tree can communicate and a felt sense of connection can be found in nature. The natural world represents the mysteries, the unknown. It is a hidden world that has an animus and lives and breathes. If I become still, I can hear this world. Its benevolent and healing. It holds the design of natural order, in a world of chaos. 

How do you feel when you are in nature?

Me: Calm, connected, able to breathe, uplifted, able to remember myself as whole.

Have you learnt from animals something that you haven?t learnt from humans?

Me: Love, loyalty and safety

Do you identify with a particular animal?

Me: Cats, wild cats.

Which animal do you admire most?

Me: Elephants, as a matriarchal society they never forget a connection and they have immense loyalty to their tribe.

What animal do you fear the most?

Me: Snakes, spiders.

Did you have a pet as a child? (or did you have a favourite pet?) What was your experience of the death of your pet? Were you supported?

Me; Yes we had childhood pets, and I was supported through their passing on. This was positive, primary education for me.

Where do you go on holiday – is it sea, mountains, wood or the sun?

Me: I love to go to the forest and I love meeting trees. I also love the beach and sea.

Is there an favourite element for you?

Me: I need fire to feel in balance and in ‘my’ element. Water is my teacher. Air is easy and natural for me. I can totally forget about the element of earth! Yes really. But earth is my healer.

Are you a water or a land person?

Me: Water. Dolphin, mermaid being.

What landscape would you describe yourself as?

Me: A beach with craggy high rocks at the back, difficult to reach.

Describe yourself as a tree or a flower.

Me: Curly Oak Tree or sunflower

How much time do you have outside in the average week?

Me: 7 hrs

How much screen time?

Me: 20 hrs

Have you changed your relationship to nature throughout your life?

Me: I was lucky enough to grow up as a flower child surrounded by nature and connected to a wonderful world of imagination and play. Whenever I go into nature as an adult I feel this connection.

Do you ever grow plants for yourself? How does that feel?

Me: Yes, but I can easily kill them because I don’t water them. So can trigger guilt of the bad caretaker.

Do you have cut flowers in your house?

Me: Yes I’ve just started doing it again now after not allowing myself for ages. It feels hopeful.

How do you feel if you receive flowers as a gift?

Me: Mixed. I worry about the flower industry, airplanes, and Amsterdam.

If you could do anything to save the world what would you do?

Me: Clean the oceans