Recap Of Our 2025 Healing Hikes With Local Organizations

2025 was such a wild year, but what kept us committed to this work of healing in nature were the healing hikes.

Being in community with people who understood the power of nature to feel better, create deeper bonds with each other, and care for the land was all we needed to stay grounded and steadfast throughout a year that was so wildly tragic and magical.

We hope you enjoy this short video recapping all the beautiful people we walked with and all the places we hiked. This work really couldn’t continue without the belief that what we do here at Rino Consulting Solutions is making real change happen in harmony with nature.

We’re so grateful to the support guides, Julie Salzman, Maio Buenafe, and Patrick Brown who assisted our Founder & CEO in this year of growing the work.

It was truly challenging in many ways as we entered into another Trump administration. And we don’t anticipate this year, 2026 being any quieter or less dramatic than 2025. We believe we’re entering into the height of the administration’s attempts to amplify the colonizer’s and white supremacy culture’s agenda. Remember, our work in providing healing hikes began in 2016, the first time the administration came into office. So, this work is connected to those actions and also provide ways to support our collective community by building leadership capacity, self-determination, and a deep sense of belonging and unity.

We also understand that those efforts of the Trump adminstration and its followers are far less powerful in impact and numbers to distract us from our goals to create a more just and equitable world.

So we encourage you to keep staying close to us here as well as staying close to your community of love, equity, and unity as we face more challenges ahead. Continue to go to nature for grounding, supporting any efforts to better your relationships to others and your sense of belonging to your safe communities.

To book your agency or group for a private group healing hike, please fill out our application below to get started on coordinating your experience.

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"Root To Bloom" - A Program Born from My Healing Journey

Each season we hire community healers, & wellness practitioners as guest speakers to add to the wealth of resources around us. Here we are in the EcoCenter with movement healer, Sammay Dizon.

I used to be a community-based service provider and vocal advocate for diversity within land-based organizations. I spoke out, led efforts, formed groups and containers to drive the narrative of “lack of diversity” and hold myself to the fire, challenging my higher ups and the authorities-that-be, for more inclusive space for people like me and the communities I serve, who often looked like me. But I quickly learned through many failed attempts and fallouts that this wasn’t where my fire for change was going to be affective.

Sadly, like many other passionate (I would even say wounded) providers, I thought vocalizing my needs would get me somewhere, but it only left me burnt out. I was left with bigger questions about “Who am I in this work?”, “Why do I feel the need to stay?”, and the most challenging, “Why can’t I be who I am and focus on the actual work of creating change for my community?”. Well, the story I’m about to share below is a story of many years of the unfolding story that answered these questions. And when I say many years, I’m talking about 10+ years of a swervey, chaotic, and down right traumatic career path.

If there’s anything I hope you gain from reading the origin story of Root To Bloom, its that

(1) the path to your true purpose is hella long and arduous. If it’s not, you probably have more to learn and grow from

(2) when you finally surrender and listen to more than your experience, meaning your listening to your heart, your ancestors, your guides beyond the Earthly realm, you begin to listen to the forces of nature that have always been guiding you since you were born. You begin to trust the things that are beyond this world and magic begins to unfold.

So, I’m grateful you can take the time out to hear how this program speaks so much to my journey of healing as woman of color in environmental education work and that’s it is possible to create beautiful things for the people to meet their blooming!

🌺 Years ago when I started my non-profit environmental justice career I worked as a Program Manager in San Francisco's Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood. I thought it was my dream job and I would be there for a long time. Little did I know, the day I walked into the office on my first day...I was walking into what would be a 2 year nightmare. The organization's leadership had crumbled 2 weeks prior to me starting. Ironically the park site, Heron's Head & the EcoCenter's education programming centered the historic toxicity of SF's Southeast. I was teaching about toxicity and experiencing toxic work environments at the same time.

I don't know if you've ever experienced a level of workplace toxicity that causes you to flee from the community and distance yourself for your own safety and well-being, but I spent many years away from the community except for the few trusted relationships I kept close as I transitioned and explored other avenues of my career.

Almost 10 years after that job I found myself on the same park site, different professional path as an entrepreneur but still working with nature, focused on providing a healing learning space for community-based service providers. I couldn't believe that the path I walked to come back to a site that caused me so much harm would be a place that would not only provide healing for me, but also heal the providers in the program.

Our program theory of change disrupts the cycle and value on productivity in our providers with self care and healing practices

I am always in awe of Root To Bloom being in my life. Being my life's work. It could be that my healing needed this program to be designed to disrupt the toxic work environment of valuing productivity with valuing self care and provider well-being. Because from my experience, I knew that the productivity value that plagues many community-based service centered organizations can perpetuate capitalism’s engine of seeing people as a commodity of labor instead of seeing them as stakeholders of our greater community’s long-term health and wellness. I always wanted someone to acknowledge this in the organizations I worked in, especially those that targeted marginalized communities. So, in the Root To Bloom Program I made sure we talk about colonization’s design to keep us locked into productivity so that we don’t attain the awareness that we can value ourselves as gifted contributors to our own needs for a healthy and fulfilling life. Because if we attain such power, we can’t be controlled.

It always strikes me as my radical stance on loving my community by being able to create this program to say these things and teach emerging leaders to reclaim their power with tools we share in the program. Because I’ve been a product of burn out and being outcasted, “laid-off” or ostracized from leadership in previous organizations where I’ve attempted to integrate these values as was retaliated against in some form or fashion. But something many years ago kept me tethered to my beliefs and stayed steadfast in my search to find a way to still say these things and have autonomy as safety. It just so happened I needed to leave the non-profit structure and create an entity that, to be real, only I can fire myself from, lol!

Root To Bloom has unfolded as this safe place and container for fierce providers like me to have a home for processing and understanding our intergenerational traumas without retaliation or stigmatization; something I wish I had especially when I was providing direct service to adjudicated youth. Now, I have so many people, spirit guides, ancestors to thank for this. More importantly I can thank myself for saying yes to a path most wouldn’t dare step into. That inner voice of my WARRIOR SELF was definitely wounded but committed to my true purpose and I mostly send her rest and gratitude these days.

Testimonial from Denicia, Season 2 graduate

Allowing myself the surrender to other messages in my dreams or the synchronicities showing up in my everyday walk are just some of the reasons why I think Root To Bloom holds such a special vibe and space for the community that surrounds it. Together with my co-creator and conspirator, Kisai of CommUNITY, this program has consistently shown us the power of creating something so unique and exactly what we would have wanted as frontline staff; a holistic and transformative space where we could truly just be and heal.

And as we’ve begun to open our space for the fourth year of Root To Bloom, I’m reminded again of the power of my healing journey to heal some of our community’s deepest wounds. I can’t say that my healing has ended. I don’t believe its even possible to “be healed”. So as long as I’m on this Earth, my healing will continue on. But what I do know is that after these many years of diving into the scary parts, moving through the roller coaster of life and leadership, there are moments that I’m reminded all of my struggles and experiences can serve me later by showing up as healing for others. I just have to keep listening, keep trusting.

So I’ll leave you with some of the coach-y type reflections you can take as you continue on your journey of self discovery and healing in hopes that your journey can find a point of coming full circle. And I hope you can share your thoughts and responses with me below. I’d love to engage with your story of healing.

Click this image to listen to our IG Live session sharing the magic that birthed our program and its impact on our community

Reflections to Reclaim Your Purpose & Power:

🤔 If you were to spend a day doing exactly what brings you complete alignment with who you are and your natural born gifts, what would that day be like and more importantly how are you feeling throughout that whole day?

🤔 If you can speak truth to your power, as in say ALL THE THINGS you want to say to your current workplace/community about what real change looks like, what would you say? Make sure it’s as raw as you would say it if you had all the freedoms to say it all the way you want to say it!

🤔 What do people tend to say or witness in you when they describe who you are or what your leadership is like? You don’t have to agree or believe them because these can be signs of your true gifts and purpose in life whether you like it or not!

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Healing Our Soul Wounds

I first came across the concept of Soul Wounds when I saw this conference posted on Facebook. I was at the beginning stages of my healing journey, triggered by all the happenings in my life, mostly difficult circumstances. I was teaching at a juvenile detention center, going to therapy and practicing personal spiritual healing, and unearthing my ancestral information awaiting my DNA results. Seeing the two words, 'soul' and 'wounds' created a deep visceral response in my mind. I identified with it. 

The stories of struggle and pain I held throughout my life now had a name AND I was able to see that the stories of trauma experienced by my ancestors helped shape who I am today

Click on the conference's website to listen to all the amazing talks

The fascinating information I listened to on this website gave me insights to things such as

• Epigenetic research showing that the traumas my ancestors experienced are passed down as memories in our DNA molecules

• How collective trauma recovery can be done with community support

• And trauma, in essence, is when our sense of our identity is compromised by a tragic event,

• And so much more

What was missing for me in some of the research was the aspect of the healing I will always believe in, which is incorporating nature as a tool for healing trauma. I did, however come across this article highlighting the author and psychologist, Eduardo Duran as he wrote about soul wounds from a Native American perspective. This online article in Counseling Today, Trauma and the soul wound: a multicultural and social justice perspective reveals a non-traditional approach to understanding trauma. From the article, 

"Duran encourages mental health practitioners to address three levels of interventions when working with people who are suffering from trauma:

• Working with individual clients who are experiencing problems due to trauma

• Providing outreach, advocacy and healing services to the larger community of which the client is a part

• Engaging in efforts that are aimed at what he calls “healing the land”

...Duran discusses the importance of counselors working to “heal the land.” He emphasizes the American Indian belief in the vital interconnections that exist among all animate beings and inanimate entities, as well as the spiritual energetic connections that exist between all people and Mother Earth. He further notes that the current trauma being inflicted on the Earth by our collective polluting and poisoning of the global environment has a significantly negative and traumatizing impact on our own mental health and sense of psychological well-being. "

Our steps towards healing trauma heal our soul wounds when we hike. You can also say we are healing the land by being there, drawing upon a heightened awareness of the surrounding environment, giving gratitude, and asking for permission are ways we are healing our relationship with the land. Walking in meditation reclaims the same ancestral practices of communicating with the elements and all the life around us. Sure, it may be more evident on our vicarious trauma healing hikes, but in every gathering, in every circle and dialog we are practicing the steps that allow us to heal as we endure our everyday suffering. The simple act of acknowledging the four directions is one initial step in our ceremony. 

Finally, as we exist in a world in which traumatic news and events are now somewhat normalized, we must remember that our collective healing is an important part of our continued effort to keep fighting for justice through this transitioning time. As some researchers discussed in the conference, we must recognize the different types of dissonance that comes from our trauma and find ways to reintegrate into our societal structures stronger than before our trauma entered our lives. This is the goal; to be more equip in navigating our lives and live in our true and full identities as whole, complex, and beautiful beings. 

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Are You Using 'Accountability' Accurately?

In my coaching certification program it was made more clear to me, this thing called accountability.

You see in my practice, one of the first things to establish in a new coaching relationship is the creation of a safe space to work through challenges. And because vulnerability is required for transformation, part of creating that safety is to establish a safe system of accountability. Not to just say we’ll be accountable for each other’s actions, but to create a system and process so that accountability is used accurately and for the powerful function it has in healthy relationships. 

What do I mean? Well, let me ask you, what is accountability?

Simply put, it’s one’s ability to take into account what just happened/what they did/the harm they just caused. And that’s it! 

So, when you hear accountability being demanded in response to the hurts and harms done onto ourselves and our communities do you think it’s being used accurately? I personally think that a majority of the time it’s NOT. Typically when I hear the request or demand of accountability, my deep listening tells me that what is really wanted is that the person who caused the harm needs to face the consequences or be held responsible, as in go to jail, or lose their job, etc... 

It’s fair to say that we become emotionally charged by these harms, BUT facing consequences or being held responsible is not the same thing as being held accountable. Again, being held accountable is being able to recall what you did. And only this.

And until we get better at saying what we mean and meaning what we say, we’re probably not addressing our issues with each other head on or solving problems efficiently. So, let me add some more pieces to this puzzle...

Accountability is only one piece of establishing a healthy relationship. The other pieces that are often overlooked are

• the process of recovery once a hurt or harm is done

• the process of repair of the relationship after a hurt or harm

*sidenote: replace hurt or harm with “broken agreement” and you can apply this system to your workplace, or any social institutions

Our healing can start with accountability, but it doesn’t end there. Restorative justice requires that RECOVERY and REPAIR become the steps included into a normalized process of healing and transforming the way we relate to each other.

So I challenge you to (1) think about whether you want accountability or really just want someone to face their consequences and (2) figure out if it’s accountability you know is needed, then ask the leading, critical questions:

1. What actually happens after accountability is established? 

2. Is there a system in place that takes into account the recovery process for everyone post harm?

3. Are there agreements in place about how the relationships will be repaired?

Chances are if the critical pieces of recovery and repair aren’t coupled with accountability, then you have a broken or dysfunctional system upholding (or not) that relationship. 

Requesting accountability without knowing how the entire system of recovery and repair are involved in that process is like setting off an avalanche of more harm and destruction.

We just end up with more to clean up!

How are you setting up your SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY for yourself?

How are you setting up your SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY for your community/work place/organization?

Share in the comments below. I’m curious to know how you can apply this!

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The Greatest Threat to Colonization is the Indigenous Woman: Part 1, Black Liberation

To understand a world in the midst of racial, social, and environmental transformation we must look into the belly of the beast and work to understand where these negative forces come from, how it functions, and its agenda. The forces of colonization and white supremacy are those forces. And the greatest threat to that is WHO WE WERE BEFORE those forces came in. Here’s part one of how I’ve lived through and view this battle.

Quick Google Search

What I’m about to share with you is what my eyes have seen, what words I’ve listened to, what life experiences have taught me about our humanity and the state of the world today. My views are a result of the guidance from many of my teachers and elders, schooling, educating youth, as well as my abilities to see things this way. I’m grateful fro all of those gifts and I welcome dialogue around this post.

MY LIVED EXPERIENCE

When I was in my mid-20’s I was dating a Black man. My father caught wind of this and give me the silent treatment for about 6 months. I had no idea what his reason was for the silence. Then my mother asked me one day, “Do you have a black boyfriend?” I confirmed. And the next thing she said shocked me, but didn’t throw me off completely. She said, “Well Dad’s not talking to you because he doesn’t want Black in the family.” My response was, “Wow, you both are racist!” I felt safe enough to continue with her by telling her, “I don’t get why you think this wouldn’t happen when you raised me here in the Bay Area.” Even though in the back of my head I knew racism was very much alive in the Filipino culture, and in particular, anti-Blackness. 

This was a “crucible moment” in my life that taught me that anti-Blackness was global. Because up until that point I was a brown girl navigating my life as a Filipino American. I wasn’t yet exposed to the histories and the stories of anti-Blackness outside of the United States. But it was clear to me in that moment in my parents’ faces, in their words, knowing their migration story, and the belief in anti-Blackness that it was an ideology they adopted from somewhere else. But where did they learn this? Back home in the Philippines? Or was it something they learned after immigrating here? I didn’t care to ask at that time. I was too disgusted and disappointed. 

We never resolved anything around this situation, but I knew that for myself, resolution was not even an option. I had to just continue on with my life however I chose because I chose my free will. 

OUR TRAVELING DNA

As a socially conscious educator and ecologist, my lens has always been one of curiosity and connection. I see things in terms of systems, inter-relatedness, and interdependence. So, personally as I went about my years teaching our youth, expanding my experiences, and getting to know me, who I am, and where I come from (because a lot of my work placed me in direct interaction with racism), I decided to take my own DNA test for ethnicity. This is where I began to understand my family’s history as well as our identity as it related to colonization. 

My initial DNA results

While I was waiting for my results to come in from Ancestry.com I began asking my parents how much they knew about our ancestors. To my surprise, neither of them could tell me much more past their grandparents’ names (my great grandparents). Not much was recorded. If I wanted to dig deeper into their stories I’d have to actually go to the Philippines, maybe go to the Catholic Church for records. What was also striking for me was to see that all of my relatives had Spanish names, not Malay or indigenous in origin. 

A sudden wave of emotion and information came to me and I realized

(1) they lost so much including the ability to retain indigenous names (i.e., because of assimilation), 

(2) what they endured compared to what I’m enduring in this life was so much more deeper and heavier on their soul and 

(3) what they endured brought me and my family to be here, now. I couldn’t help but be sad about this. But it also ignited more curiosity about ancestry, migration stories, and global race relations. 

Shortly after my results came in I picked up this book by Christine Kenneally, “The Invisible History of the Human Race”. It was common knowledge to me that all of us have that  <1% African DNA in us, but she confirmed it for me when she opens her Chapter 12 on The History of the World, 

“When you visualize the human tree, picture its trunk firmly planted in African soil. Modern humans emerged there several hundred thousand years ago and lived only there from 250,000 years ago for at least 150,000 years - much longer span of time than we have lived across the globe.” 

The chapter goes on to describe where this <1% comes from and how the band of humans that made the migration out of the land we know of as Africa remains in our DNA today. Kenneally goes on and says, 

“Around sixty thousand years ago a small band of them - perhaps not much more than one thousand to two thousand five hundred individuals- went traveling. We don’t know why they left or if they had any sense that they were going somewhere new, but we do know their decision kicked off one of the biggest events in the history of the human genome.

Those who remained are the ancestors of most of the one billion people who live in Africa today. The small band that left are the ancestors of everyone else in the world, and the suite of NDA they carried was only a small sample of the variety of human genomes that existed in Africa at the time of their departure. Indeed, we know the migration occurred because even now we can see that the genomes of everyone in the world outside of Africa is a subset of the genomic variation still found in Africa.”

So basically what that book was telling me was that we all come from the land which we call Africa. Which means, WE ALL COME FROM A MOTHER FROM AFRICA. As trivial as it may seem, realizing it like this blew my mind!

ANTI-BLACKNESS

So, we all come from a Black mother. The DNA shows us that she is our most common ancestor, whoever that woman was on the land we know of as Africa. But this revelation always brought me back to this perplexing ideology of racism that globally, being Black, especially was bad. 

Why is it that you can find anti-Blackness around the globe and ingrained in the beliefs of many cultures? Because I couldn’t see that there were other examples of other races being seen as so inferior in the same way. Well, the first reason is probably obvious: colonization.

THE COLONIZED MIND

There’s no other way colonization can happen successfully unless you also control the minds of the people that come from that land. Not only in Africa, but in all colonized countries (most land masses) if you don’t have pride in yourself and the land you come from, you won’t fight for it. 

Colonization’s goal is to separate people from their connection to their land therefore severing a connection to themselves & their identity. This is how the colonizer can take all the power over that land and its people. 

For Africa, it’s our human origin. It’s where our expansion to create and populate the rest of the world comes from. 

There is a certain power that exists when you know you come from a story that began creating this world. 

And that’s the type of power the colonizer DOESN’T want you to have.

The second reason is our need to …

RECONCILE WITH OURSELVES

This one is the more spiritual and existential reason.  

It wasn’t until I had this frank conversation with a peer healer and Ancestral Healing practitioner, Dumbei Okonji, where I realized what the ultimate teaching was around anti-Blackness. I shared what I knew about migration, DNA, indigeneity, connections to our land and ancestry, and asked her frankly,

“But why Black? Why do we hate on Blackness so much and why is it uniquely global? I just don’t get it.” 

And her profound response, 

“Well when it comes down to it, we just don’t like who we are.”

Knowing this, I began to understand the deeply seeded weaponry of self hate. The more we choose to accept and adopt all forms of self hate, the more we perpetuate our separation from each other, fulfilling the colonizer’s agenda. 

BLACK LIBERATION

When the evidence showed me the origins of humans coming firmly from Africa, I began to understand the importance of Black Liberation. 

To support and advocate for Black Liberation is to connect us back to who we are as humans. 
And this can be a form of radical healing

Knowing the history of Black people over time, what they’ve endured, their ancestral story, and the impacts that continue to destroy and perpetuate destruction due to enslavement and colonization, lives within their bones, blood, and DNA of their descendants. WE are all their descendants. 

Over time, as our origin from Africa migrated out to populate the rest of the land globally, our lineages began with our own indigenous mothers, giving each lineage their own origin story. Each of our lineages have their own grandeur family tree deeply rooted and planted in the land that we each came from. This also helped me understand the importance of indigeneity as the greatest threat to colonization, but that’s for Part 2!

So, in partial conclusion, this exploration of my own individual identity has opened up so much learning and unlearning about who I am and how my identity can show up event in how we relate with each other.

I hope you’re able to gain a little bit more for yourself after my share.

Please comment and add to the conversation in the comments below!

In Part 2 we’ll go even deeper into the concept and cover:
INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY & THE INDIGENOUS WOMAN

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Nothing Left To Justify

Everyday, every week, more and more I’m connecting today’s current events as metaphors about ourselves and our place in this world, identifying them as our “moments of truth” . For instance, this summer the gruesome killing of our young princess, Nia Wilson gave me the most clear message about what this tragedy is telling us about ourselves. Let me break it down for you, based on what I experienced here as an Oakland resident:

A couple of days before her killing, a local restaurant posted a call for a community counter action march from their venue to an expected meeting by a right-winged group, The Proud Boys. As the the hype intensified and community began answering the call to hold a counter, peaceful celebration of unity, I felt a sense of sadness and disappointment. Because what I actually saw were people in the streets screaming in anger towards the police and the flared up rage against the system being played out once again here at home. The sadness and disappointment was really rooted in my fatigue of all the death and violence happening here and questioning when will we actually stop resisting and be still to think about an actual way forward? I’m tired of seeing the resisting, the fighting, and the clashing. I’m not empowered by that anymore.

Then as I woke up the next morning to the horrific news that another young black life was violently taken at a BART station by a white man, I realized that this became the real moment of truth. Because as the day progressed, speculations and headlines in media questioned whether there was a connection to Nia’s murderer and the visiting Proud Boys. “Word around town was that he was one of them”, some of the posts read. But what we would soon learn about the killer was that he actually was a local resident who’s spent many years in and out of jail and had some mental health issues, unaffiliated with the right-winged group. So presumptively,

racism wasn’t the justification. It was mental illness.  

(AND side note: I believe racism is a mental illness)

So can we even blame mental illness for this attack? It can’t be blamed AND serve as a way forward! Where does that blame lead us to anyway? Another hurt or attack on another, probably. So, the big takeaway for me, with respect to this particular story, was that we as a people HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE RIGHT THING. We aren’t listening to the core of the issue and taking action in the right way. Blame is NOT the name of the game, but the STILLNESS, finding the humanity of the situation is where we must be to open up a path forward with healing that leads to a solution.

Treyvon Martin’s parents spoke about what they’re advocating for isn’t a race issue, it’s an issue about right and wrong and that ultimately it’s about not hurting each other. When Nia’s family spoke during the press conference shortly after her murder, they gave us clues as to what we should be paying more attention to. At least, that's what my deep listening was telling me. They said, “stand down, don’t react”. They called on community to stand down and be still [while the suspect was still out there].

My intuition’s bottom line from all this? Well, since I'm an intuitive connected to Earth, the way I'm seeing this is...

The more we pay attention to REACTING to these incidents as we have been doing in resisting, the more and more gruesome the next incidents of violence will be

And violence in every form; whether between people or in the extreme violence of Mother Nature onto this planet. The pains and hurts caused by humans onto each other are not separate from the Earthly destructions happening on our planet right now. That the more we continue on the way we have been with each other, the more vicious our environment will respond with its own destruction. It's all connected, I believe. 

So when will we as a nation, as a community realize that we need to be present with these realities and awaken to it FIRST before taking action? When will non-resistance be the expected next step after harm? To me, being present means going INWARD to “see”, to “listen deeply” to what our community leaders are telling us, requesting of us even, to do. Going inward means really opening up in a way where you can see these heinous crimes and the people who commit them as sharing something in common with you. Going inward means seeing the destructive natural events as connected to your own rage or exploitation of resources.

Because if we can't reach that connectedness with ourselves, the people around us, and the land we live on, 

There will be nothing left of ourselves to justify our actions towards one another

There will be nothing left of this planet to justify our misuse and disconnection to our planet and all its beings

There will be nothing left for us to LOOK TO, to justify why things happen the way they do

There will be nothing left to look at but each other

So in conclusion,

what are the first steps in your awakening or awareness of our interconnectedness of ourselves and our place in this world? I realize its a journey, as it has been for me. That some of the beginning steps include

• taking that difficult look at yourself and asking where the hurt exists?

• what kind of hurt is it?

• and what's available for me to begin the healing process?

Because when we begin to heal ourselves, we begin to heal those around us and the land in which we walk on.

The time is NOW, to understand our world more deeply. The time is NOW, to understand ourselves more deeply. The time is now because the world in which we know it is having its veil lifted. The systems and ways of thinking that are misaligned with the laws of nature are being broken down, so are the areas of land that have not been cared for sustainably. 

I truly believe the way forward begins with YOU.

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MEET THE COACH

Raynelle Rino, CPC

A long time social sector professional, Raynelle began her career in the sciences as an ecology field researcher then moved onto environmental education and social justice at the grassroots organizational level in the Bay Area. Her love for nature and youth development brought her to teach in unique settings like alternative high schools, environmental justice neighborhoods, parks, and juvenile justice facilities.

In 2016 Raynelle started Rino Consulting Solutions, a nature-based consulting firm that provides coaching and consulting services for professionals and other businesses. It’s mission is to support and inspire the leaders of today to live in the confidence of their identities as they move through a world in the midst of social, racial, and environmental transformation. Raynelle is a graduate of Humboldt State University with a BS in Biology, a Rising Leaders and 2042 Today fellow, and lives in Oakland with her husband and daughter.

The "Being" and "Doing" Identity Crisis

Earlier this month I had this crazy idea that I would fast on Thanksgiving Day. When I mentioned it to my partner, his response was, "Well good luck with that!"

But the idea came to me because I was reflecting on the land-based work I do that is centered on giving gratitude for the Earth, its stewards of past and present, and our ancestors. I mean, that's my thing, right? Reconnecting people to nature and its elements, guiding folks into the process of sensing and feeling the elements in their bodies and "inner landscape" so they can start thinking about what that experience means to their outer, physical landscape/environment.

Ultimately, I began asking myself, "What Am I Doing?"

There's no doubt in my mind that the work I've stepped into has brought me closer to my true path. And the many signs around me confirm that this is what I'm here to DO and I know that 

But now, the deeper question for me became,

Well, "Who am I being in this work then?"

Am I really identifying with what I'm doing as a reflection of who I'm being in my work? Am I working on what I say I'm about? Do I even have the permission to do what I'm doing?

And in this moment specifically, I began to question why the sudden revelation to fast on the one day of the year where everyone else around me is consuming everything? I realized that I was always aware of what "Thanksgiving Day" truly represented; also known as "Thangs Taken Day", this "celebration" of abundance and gratitude was only possible through the genocide of the indigenous peoples of this land. How am I supposed to continue walking my path of nature connection and reclaiming ancestral practices of intuitive living if I'm celebrating a time when it was all violently taken away? 

Then the words started to come to me

 REVERENCE, MOURNING, SILENCE, REFLECTION

All of that combined, meant to me, that FASTING ON THIS DAY is what I need to do to align myself with what my service to the world is. Let it be crazy to most! For me, its this message I was sent to align my identity in what I DO to who I'm BEING as I walk this path. And that was a feeling of REVOLUTION! 

So, I'm not saying that you should join me in fasting, but I do encourage you to begin asking yourself those deeper questions, 

• What are you doing? or What impact do you bring to this world?
• Who are you being? or What personal values are you honoring in your work?

These questions are important to self-development but can also apply to organizations that are looking to find more of a solid foundation, revisit a mission or vision, or create a new identity. 

By looking at the two identities we hold in this world (diagram below) we can really begin to understand who we are in both society and the grander scheme of the world. 

Click on my About page where you can reflect for yourself who you identify as in society and in nature. Ask yourself these questions:

• Where on the triangle does your work fall under? Is it fulfilling a basic need or is it bringing service to those closer to the peak? Am I creating or perpetuating equality?
• When do the elements show up for you in life? Do I gravitate towards watching the stars more, or do I find reprieve when I'm closer to water?

Then use your insights to draw upon a specific intention to bring more awareness of your values to your life.

When you look at how you answered the questions above, notice any information coming up. This process could bring up your Value Set. Make a list of what values are important to you and if possible, name your top 3 values!

Now examine:

• Are you aligned with your identities in both society and nature?
• Do any conflicting ideas come about when looking at the two?
• How does it make you feel to think about these two identities? 

Finally, in this process remember to be gentle with yourself. Many times when we start to recognize disconnects or misalignments, our inner critic will come in and make us feel bad or guilty about it. Just know, 

LIFE IS A JOURNEY!

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FEEL LIKE YOU NEED A COACH TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THIS PROCESS? SHOOT ME A DIRECT EMAIL TO BOOK YOUR FREE 15 MINUTE CONSULTATION! 

In these 15 minutes we can walk through this identities activity and start to build a plan to begin aligning your work to your higher being!

The Growing Up To Do With Nature

As natural disaster levels intensify, I can't help but connect what's going on in Nature to what's also going on with our collective understanding of each other. I don't think its a coincidence that we're seeing unprecedented scales of hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires, simultaneously to shifts in our understanding of societal structures such as power, patriarchy, and race. As we are waking up consciously to our social structures, Nature herself is also coming in with her message, unapologetically. Perhaps there's a correlation there? I'll leave that up to you to ponder.

So now that Mother Nature is saying, 

 "We're playing a different game now,
and its a grown up game. So listen deeply
and do differently,"...

what do we do now? How can we really start to THINK and DO in a way that we haven't before? I think it's time to play that grown up game of listening to her. So, what will it take?

INTUITION
Flex your intuition like your survival depends on it. The next time you have that gut feeling, trust it as your truth all the time. If you have a "bad feeling" about it, don't do it or hesitate for a healthy pause. And in that pause, think about the very first image or word that comes to your mind when something doesn't feel right and ask, "what was that image/word about in relation to that discomfort?" You can also scan your body for the location of the discomfort or tension and try to draw on what that body part represents. Ask yourself about that connection, maybe think creatively about the metaphor embedded in the body connection. 

FEELING & SENSING
When we take the daily observations and attach an emotional feeling or intuitive sense to it, we're actually putting into action our listening. And this is what Nature wants since we don't "speak the same, literal language", our senses are there to help guide us towards knowing, or sometimes, survival. Even if survival means surviving that difficult conversation with your boss, being able to feel and sense your way through things allows you to be PRESENT in the moment and make more mature decisions about what to do. Challenge yourself to "feel" more of life. 

GET BACK TO BASICS
This is exactly what we do on our healing hikes. We get back to the basic interaction with nature, which is so much more than just "spending more time outside". To get back to the BASIC way of moving around our world will only serve us well because the evidence is in the way our ancestors lived. They survived the world many thousands of years by living simply with the land; they had a deep relationship with her. But how do we do that in this modern world and still follow the ways in which they lived? One simple beginning step is to be outside in a different way with the land. And that's one of the first steps we take when we gather; 

We give GRATITUDE and ask for PERMISSION

Do this every time you go out and I guarantee you, your relationship with Mother Nature will shift! You don't have to make a huge ceremony out of it. Just think about the words in your head and be honest and intentional about being grateful and humble about your presence.

If the tips above have ignited more curiosity, I encourage you to explore and practice outside! This is the essence of growing a deeper relationship with Nature. And answering the cries of Mother Nature doesn't only mean being more "sustainable" in our lifestyles. In addition to making greener and sustainable decisions, it also means having a deeper and more mature relationship with her and connecting with her in ways we're not used or ways that have been taken away. Reject the belief that we have no language to communicate with her and listen to the lessons of our ancestors that lived with the land.

Like what you read? Have something to contribute? Want to share feedback? Leave it in the comments and let's get to talking!

 

Racial Justice Every Step of the Way

Back in 2014 I published what would be a key blog post of my career; taking a stand against what I felt were problematic practices of “diversity and inclusion” panels and discussions. My Shapeshifting the Panel piece was me taking a stand against the tokenization, the parading of our POC identities and experiences to predominantly white audiences as an illusion that we were doing something to “solve the problem” of diversity. It was a key post in my career because the article was picked up by a manager in the US Forest Service and I was invited to participate on an advisory council for the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, which then landed me a board appointment for an award winning news magazine, High Country News.

This blog post opened up my voice.

I remember writing the piece over the course of just a couple of hours. I started with my heart rapidly beating in frustration and determination because I knew what I did and experienced on my last diversity panel was something I wanted to let the world know. I wanted the community to know why it was problematic. I also knew I wasn’t going to let my voice be violated by opening up the pathway for defensive responses, blame, or ranting. It needed to come from ME in every sense of the wording, flow, and emotion.

I knew I needed TO OWN this piece.

So looking back on where I was in my personal AND professional development, I can see how those parts of my story are now being implemented in how I function as an independent agent with Rino Consulting Solutions. My values of social and racial justice are more clear.

So how does it show up in my practice?

I focus on THE WORK from a JUSTICE LENS
When I was vetted to serve for the US Forest Service I had to make sure this wasn’t exactly what I was standing against. I asked what would my positionality be with the council, why they wanted me there, and made sure this was an invested working group, not just a talking piece for the agency. I made sure the entire council as a whole was diverse in participation and perspective.

In my Open Space Equity Presentation I challenge the notions of where our separations in environmental engagement come from by looking at the evidence in land use, historical colonization, and the socio-economic impacts of how we engage with the environment today. I show the systems at play and how our personal value sets influence the decisions made in our urban environments. I connect the evidence to show how social and racial justice are embedded in the landscape. Doing the work means presenting a different perspective and understanding how that impacts our personal value sets, which then drive our passion to participate in change and make choices.

We talk about the systems at play for perspective and knowledge

I do racial justice, NOT diversity and inclusion
I remember one presentation I did for a college group really bombed. I mean, really bombed. I lost the audience, there was silence when I was done, and the post Q & A session seemed to just perpetuate my frustrations with diversity work. I heard later that I left the audience drained of their energy, lost, and I seemed really bitter to them. And I was.

I became stuck. I didn’t know how to think differently about how I felt about “diversifying the industry” and my participation in this work in my career. Until a close friend of mine listened to how I spoke about my frustrations with diversity work. And when she said to me, “You know, I’ve always been confused about why so many organizations don’t understand that there’s a big difference between ‘diversity’ work and ‘racial justice’ work. They’re not the same thing.” Instantly it became clear to me! I do racial justice work, not diversity work!

Mind you, diversity as a “body of work” is more than a thing, it’s a BEING. And some strategies like increasing the number of POC staff is a stopgap to cultivating your being a more diverse entity, culturally. It just gets you the numbers. Racial justice on the other hand, focuses on the actual systems of society that create the separation of communities, land, economics, power, status, and the disparities in industry engagement. It gets to the belly of the beast and works from the core. And I'm presenting THAT as the take away or starting point for the work. That’s what I do.  

So, going back to my bombed presentation. I had another opportunity to present to a similar audience. This time I changed the words on my presentation from “Diversity Engagement Strategist” to “Racial Justice Centered Engagement”. And I focused in on the language and content from a racial justice lens. What was the response from the audience? They wanted to know more about racial justice and what I meant by that. They shared stories of feeling the same ways in the workplace or in internships, and one student  even came to me after the presentation crying because it brought up similar emotions and challenges in her identity at her agency. She found deeper moments of relating to me and my experience as a WOC. I have to say, I think I landed that presentation!

Calling IN, not calling OUT
I consider myself a super-duper empath. The level of sensitivities I have with people and energies  around me are so enormous sometimes that I’ve actually had to devote intentional time and investment understanding how to manage my sensitivities. That’s the healer in me. So, when I see people in pain emotionally and physically it affects me A LOT.

In previous experiences as a training participant AND facilitator I’ve seen too many instances when activities done around power and privilege go nowhere the next day or just go south. I see and feel the pain and frustration. If not held and cared for in its delicacy and safety, triggers can bring out the ugly parts of us. I could shovel out a bazillion articles of what happens here, but I think we've all been around the tension in a room with diverse perspectives talking about race, power, and privilege. Why do I (1) want to risk being a part of that and (2) make efforts to try and manage and facilitate those types of incidents? That work drains me and always just leaves me with all kinds of negative feels. Or I have to go home and do all this extra work to decompress and level my emotions out. 

What’s my conclusion and solution to this? I believe in doing A DEEPER KIND of work in these trainings. At the root of all of this we long to be seen and heard on our own individual terms AND as a source of greatness to the world. I want to see EVERYONE achieve THIS. So, bringing in deeper practices of communication skills to the individual level allows people to OWN their experiences. Also, understanding when and if the processing needs to happen in the safety and privacy of the individual, within a shared identity group, or in solitude. Identifying safety is a key approach I began to implement in my trainings and a key component of how I coach. 

So, instead of asking folks to role play their power position or act out some implicit biases, I challenge folks to focus on language and deep listening during dialogue. I challenge folks to reach deep into their life and values and understand WHO THEY ARE FIRST before taking action. I offer tools that reach into our human condition after presenting our divided societal condition. I guide the development of individual growth towards impacting community growth, safely and effectively.

By knowing who we are in the world can we navigate it to create a world we want so that we are seen and heard on our terms

I CALL YOU INTO YOUR IDENTITY and reveal your unique gifts.

Check out what I did with Gateway Mountain Center’s Team by subscribing to my newsletter!

I choose to begin with the INDIVIDUAL
developing deeper communication skills IN SAFETY

Personally, this choice brought me some NEXT LEVEL adulting and resulted in some major shifts in my life and the people around me. And because I've practice this approach myself, I know how to hold this process for others. More importantly, when we take personal responsibility, it lands the overall responsibility of creating change in the world to the individual, not others!

Racial justice IS self-care
I have to credit my business coach, Anthem for handing this one to me! He said that when we’re not working on racial justice we’re not taking care of ourselves. It was a reminder and validation that all the self-care time and investment I have done and continue to do in my work simultaneously informs and develops me. All of these challenging times; the times I felt stuck and times I felt like I was talking to crickets in the room were all meant to be there for me as 'trail markers' for which direction to walk next.  

And the way I feel about my walk is that it is more in alignment today with who I am and the values I hold in my life. What's your walk like?

What are your thoughts on a racial justice lens? Does any of this resonate or trigger you? Let me know by commenting below or forwarding to your awesome community of change makers!

Healing Our Soul Wounds

I first came across the concept of Soul Wounds when I saw this conference posted on Facebook. I was at the beginning stages of my healing journey, triggered by all the happenings in my life, mostly difficult circumstances. I was teaching at a juvenile detention center, going to therapy and practicing personal spiritual healing, and unearthing my ancestral information awaiting my DNA results. Seeing the two words, 'soul' and 'wounds' created a deep visceral response in my mind. I identified with it. 

The stories of struggle and pain I held throughout my life now had a name AND I was able to see that the stories of trauma experienced by my ancestors helped shape who I am today

Click on the conference's website to listen to all the amazing talks

The fascinating information I listened to on this website gave me insights to things such as

• Epigenetic research showing that the traumas my ancestors experienced are passed down as memories in our DNA molecules

• How collective trauma recovery can be done with community support

• And trauma, in essence, is when our sense of our identity is compromised by a tragic event,

• And so much more

What was missing for me in some of the research was the aspect of the healing I will always believe in, which is incorporating nature as a tool for healing trauma. I did, however come across this article highlighting the author and psychologist, Eduardo Duran as he wrote about soul wounds from a Native American perspective. This online article in Counseling Today, Trauma and the soul wound: a multicultural and social justice perspective reveals a non-traditional approach to understanding trauma. From the article, 

"Duran encourages mental health practitioners to address three levels of interventions when working with people who are suffering from trauma:

• Working with individual clients who are experiencing problems due to trauma

• Providing outreach, advocacy and healing services to the larger community of which the client is a part

• Engaging in efforts that are aimed at what he calls “healing the land”

...Duran discusses the importance of counselors working to “heal the land.” He emphasizes the American Indian belief in the vital interconnections that exist among all animate beings and inanimate entities, as well as the spiritual energetic connections that exist between all people and Mother Earth. He further notes that the current trauma being inflicted on the Earth by our collective polluting and poisoning of the global environment has a significantly negative and traumatizing impact on our own mental health and sense of psychological well-being. "

Our steps towards healing trauma heal our soul wounds when we hike. You can also say we are healing the land by being there, drawing upon a heightened awareness of the surrounding environment, giving gratitude, and asking for permission are ways we are healing our relationship with the land. Walking in meditation reclaims the same ancestral practices of communicating with the elements and all the life around us. Sure, it may be more evident on our vicarious trauma healing hikes, but in every gathering, in every circle and dialog we are practicing the steps that allow us to heal as we endure our everyday suffering. The simple act of acknowledging the four directions is one initial step in our ceremony. 

Finally, as we exist in a world in which traumatic news and events are now somewhat normalized, we must remember that our collective healing is an important part of our continued effort to keep fighting for justice through this transitioning time. As some researchers discussed in the conference, we must recognize the different types of dissonance that comes from our trauma and find ways to reintegrate into our societal structures stronger than before our trauma entered our lives. This is the goal; to be more equip in navigating our lives and live in our true and full identities as whole, complex, and beautiful beings. 

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SPECIAL APPEARANCE: Fist Up Film Festival & Upcoming Hikes

JOIN ME TOMORROW (5/16) AT E14 Gallery in Oakland
7pm-10pm
for the 8th Annual Fist Up Film Festival

for a special appearance after the screening of Independent Lens Documentary, Ovarian Psycos and other short films

 

 

I will join in on the post-screening conversation about healing, trauma, organizing, and the healing hikes that have mobilized the local community to go outside to reconnect with nature and our ancestors

Watch the trailer here

From PBS.org,

"In this excerpt from Independent Lens documentary Ovarian Psycos, Andi Xoch, one of the members of the Ovas bike brigade, talks about growing up as the child of Mexican immigrants in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, where Mexican culture was everywhere. This was the birthplace of the Chicano civil rights movement, in which women were respected core community organizers. Maylei Blackwell, author of Chicana Power!, talks about how she sees the Ovarian Psycos as a natural extension of this movement in which women are empowered to speak out."

 FILM INFO

Event is free and open to the public. Register on Eventbrite before they sell out.

Upcoming Hikes

Wednesday, May 17th
Coyote Hills Regional Park
Fremont, CA
9am-11am
Meet at the Quarry Staging Area parking lot
$5 parking fee
$30 Heart Offering

Friday, May 26th
Alum Rock Park
San Jose, CA
6pm-8pm (sunset)
Meet at the free parking lot
$30 Heart Offering

Wednesday, May 31st
Berkeley Location TBD
9am-11am