A Guided Self-Enquiry into Your Wild Belonging to nature

Our relationship to the natural world is one of the oldest, deepest connections we hold. Long before therapy rooms, self-help books, or support groups, humans turned to rivers, mountains, forests, and the night sky to make sense of life, loss, and belonging.

In eco-therapy and eco-psychology, this relationship is not seen as optional but essential—a vital connection that supports emotional, psychological, and even physical health. Nature therapy recognises that we are part of an interconnected web, and that healing can be found not only within ourselves but also through restoring our relationship with the Earth.

Many describe nature as “the great mother,” a living, breathing presence that can hold us without judgement, mirror our truths, and offer us a sense of place in the great turning of life’s cycles. In a time when our world is changing fast, and disconnection from the natural world is the norm for many, making space to reflect on our own personal, sensory, and spiritual relationship to nature can be deeply grounding.

This guided self-enquiry offers prompts to help you explore that connection—not as an abstract concept, but as a lived, felt relationship. You might like to take a journal, find a quiet green space, and allow the questions to open doorways to your memories, senses, and imagination.

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Your Nature Connection Self-Enquiry

1. Seasons & Cycles
How do the seasons affect you? Which season feels most like home to you, and why? Does your mood shift with light levels, temperature, or seasonal changes?

2. First Memory of Nature
What is your earliest memory of the natural world? Can you recall what you saw, smelled, heard, or felt?

3. Influential Landscapes
Which landscapes have shaped you—wild moors, city parks, coastlines, mountains? How do they live in your body now?

4. Nature as Refuge
Is there a place in nature that supports you when you feel overwhelmed? How does it hold you? Do you have access to this place regularly?

5. Meaning of Nature
What does nature mean to you personally? Is it a teacher, a healer, a mirror, a mystery?

6. Emotional Impact
When you spend time outdoors, how does your emotional state shift? What changes in your breath, posture, or thoughts?

7. Animal Wisdom
Have you ever learned something profound from an animal—patience, presence, loyalty—that humans have not taught you?

8. Animal Kinship
Do you identify with a particular animal? Why?

9. Animal Admiration
Which animal do you admire most, and what qualities speak to you?

10. Animal Fears
Is there an animal you fear? Where do you feel that fear in your body?

11. Early Loss
Did you have pets as a child? How were you supported through their death, and what did it teach you about loss?

12. Holiday Nature Preference
Do you seek the sea, the forest, the mountains, or open skies when you want to rest or recharge?

13. Elemental Connection
Which of the four elements—earth, air, fire, or water—do you feel most connected to? Which challenges you, and why?

14. Water or Land
Do you feel more at home near water or on land?

15. Landscape as Self
If you were a landscape, what would you be—wild coastline, forest clearing, desert plain?

16. Tree or Flower Self
If you were a tree or flower, what would you be and why?

17. Time Outside
How much time do you spend outdoors each week? How much screen time do you have in comparison?

18. Shifting Relationship
Has your relationship to nature changed over time? What influenced that shift?

19. Growing Things
Do you grow plants or food for yourself? How does it feel to nurture living things?

20. Bringing Nature Indoors
Do you bring flowers or plants into your home? How does it feel to receive them as a gift?

21. Healing the Earth
If you could take one action to help heal the planet, what would it be?

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Why This Matters

Eco-therapy and eco-psychology remind us that nature is not just a backdrop to our lives—it is the matrix we live within. In the words of nature-based psychotherapist Bill Plotkin, “Nature and soul are not separate.” Our inner worlds and the outer landscape reflect and influence one another.

When we are disconnected from nature, we often find ourselves disconnected from parts of our own psyche. Just as the seasons have times of growth, flowering, harvest, and rest, so do we. Spending time outdoors—mindfully, with attention—can regulate our nervous system, improve mood, and even restore a sense of belonging in the world.

Eco-therapy approaches may include:

• Guided walks in natural settings
• Sitting in stillness and noticing sensory experiences
• Nature-based rituals to mark life transitions
• Creative work with natural materials
• Working with the metaphors of weather, growth, decay, and renewal

When we listen to the land, we begin to remember our place in it. The earth’s rhythms can hold grief, inspire hope, and remind us of our resilience.

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A Gentle Invitation

As you move through these self-enquiry prompts, remember there are no “right” answers. This is an unfolding conversation between you and the living world. You might discover forgotten memories, hidden longings, or surprising moments of clarity.

In eco-psychology, healing happens in relationship—not only with ourselves and others, but with the Earth itself. These questions are simply a way to open that door and step outside.

So find a patch of sky, a patch of grass, a branch to lean on. Breathe. Listen. Ask. And see what answers the world offers you.

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If you’d like to explore therapy work with an eco-psychology lense, in a safe, compassionate space, I offer one-to-one sessions in-person in Somerset and online across the UK.
Together, we can walk gently toward the parts of you that are ready to be seen.

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