The Bigger Picture View Brings Healing & Mental Wellness

One of the things I’m interested in is the way hierarchies and systems of supremacies cut individuals off from the wider human body, so they’re not able to emphathize, or feel the pain of another. I once heard Jeannette Armstrong describe our Okanagan definitions of insanity, and one of them is ‘cut off from your whole earth part.’

- excerpt from, Turn This World Inside Out by, Nor Samara

Confession: one of my self soothing and decompression activities is to watch nature documentaries. Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Nature, you name it…I can get lost in it when my physical and mental being need a break from this daily life. Growing up as a latch-key kid in San Jose, the TV was where I turned to for my nature fix because it brought me the mystery and curiosity of the natural world. And it’s what that kept me close to a place that wasn’t “here”.

And after what seems like a lifetime of cultivating this love I have for nature, I recently found about this term that Astronauts know of as, “The Overview Effect”(watch the 15 min video with astronauts). When they’re there out in space, the view of Earth somehow changes the way you see your place on the planet. So when I learned about it, I felt like I finally had a word for that feeling I have when I get lost in the drama of nature and start to feel just a bit smaller as a human being. It brings back a sense of humility, of being connected to something bigger than myself, and essentially my multidimensionality. I realized this is what continues to nurture me and my mental health as my external environment seems to be imploding in on itself. 

Now, if you’ve been to any of my talks, workshops, or trainings you know that this is the central message I give to manage the deep work many of us are doing in social justice and community organizing: our wholeness IS our wellness. And even if you’re not in social impact work, the lines between corporate and community-based are quickly fading. 

So, if you’re curious about understanding the power of this nature-based approach to your work and everyday navigation through life, I offer my unique, nature-based way to engage with this material and begin your journey towards more self-awareness and intentional impact potential to your work.

You can start easily by reading more about my Radical Nature Framework and how this shapes the work of engaging with nature’s systems to heal our relationships with each other. Sharing this framework has been a profound exercise helping folks understand DEI, cultivate a social justice lens, explore spiritual guidance, and bring conscious land-based work forward. All this, guided by looking towards the natural world. Check out Our Approach and reflect on what comes up for you when you read about this framework. 

Find that moment to tap into that Overview Effect by taking a walk in nature, visiting a local botanical garden, or zoning out on the next episode of a nature documentary! And share with me:

What views and experiences in nature bring you back to 
a sense of wholeness and interconnectedness? 

3 Things Bruce Lee Taught Me About Water

“But a relationship is also a clear reflecting pool in which we can see ourselves most astutely if we dare to really look.”

- Shannon Lee, Be Water, My Friend. The True Teachings of Bruce Lee

Being a fire sign (Aries), water was one of the most difficult elements for me to connect to. But in my healing journey, I was being called to be in a deeper relationship with this element to create more balance in my life. Fire had been the dominant element I needed to accept my true nature of being an Aries with a fiery determination for life, ambition, and determination to accomplish my goals. But I was burning out, fanning my flames with resentment and anger from the hurts and intense impacts of previous relationships. 

I really believe that water was one of the most difficult elements for me to connect to because it’s the element that makes you take a deep look at yourself. And that’s not easy to do. I also realized, water is the only place in nature where you can see your reflection! Mind-blown

So I prayed for some guidance to help me get started on this journey to understand water. Then, I found Bruce Lee’s teachings through his daughter Shannon Lee. Be Water, My Friend was everything I needed! It was meant to be that I pick up Shannon Lee’s first book sharing her father’s teachings, starting with water. And I can’t wait for more from her! 

Of course, Bruce Lee’s teachings have always been powerful and priceless in philosophy and martial arts, but to hear about Shannon’s life growing up as his daughter and how it impacted her was pure evidence of what ancestral healing can do: guide you toward your purpose to continue a family legacy of helping people navigate their lives with deep meaning. 

What struck me most about Shannon’s story is that although her father passed away when she was just four years old, discovering his journals and teachings about water allowed her to be in relationship with her father so much more than when he was alive. Isn’t that amazing what ancestral healing can do for us?!

I highly recommend you pick this one up if you’re into Bruce Lee. And if you haven’t checked out the latest Bruce Lee projects, check out the amazing HBO Series “Warrior” (Exec. Produced by Shannon Lee) and SF’s Chinese Historical Society of America’s Bruce Lee Exhibit. 

So let’s get on with the lessons I received from this book:

Lesson 1 -  It’s more than flowing like water, it’s about BEING THE water.

An ancient way of connecting to nature is to watch how its elements and organisms behave and relate those observations to your behavior. When I facilitate groups, sometimes I open with the question, “What element do you feel most like right now?” And some participants might say they feel “floaty” like air or wind, not tethered to the meeting or the present moment. Or someone could say “fiery” because they just heard something enraging. 

When Bruce Lee talks about being like water, its shape and movement are in response to the environment it’s in. In the book, Shannon Lee writes about the movement of water when it’s blocked by structures or obstructions it will change shape or move in response to those interruptions of flow. She affirms, “Water is responsive and alive.” This quality is much like our emotions. 

This was a lesson in bringing attention to my response and my capacity to control my responses to the environment around me.

Lesson 2 - This is clearly ancestral healing.

I’m deeply appreciative of Shannon opening up about her own life and how processing her traumas clarified her purpose. Moreover, her purpose then involved a deeper relationship with her father whom she lost at just four years old. To me, this was evidence that ancestral healing is real and that can happen in so many different ways to everyone! 

As someone who has had to redefine “family” after estrangement, this was a valuable piece of the story for me. Most of my spiritual development relied on this belief that my ancient ancestors were communicating with me, guiding me toward my true purpose and inherited gifts. I would have intense and lucid dreams filled with emotion and messages. I would feel them around me when on a personal hike and when leading groups on healing hikes. I started to notice insights and intuition guiding me on decisions I would have otherwise never make on my own. This can sound fairly witchy and esoteric to those conditioned with Western views on spirituality, but this book proved that ancestral connection and healing are so powerful. I gained a contemporary voice in Shannon Lee validating the power of ancestral healing for our journey back into ourselves. 

Lesson 3 - You must be both fluid and structured, in your own way.

Although we think of water as fluid and freely moving, our practical life still requires us to some level of containment and control of it. This is the power of this element. Because no matter what we build to redirect it or anticipate its flow, it will end up going where it needs to go. 

Much like navigating our own lives, we must strike a balance between flowing naturally and having control of where we want to go or who we want to be. It’s easier to let go of the need to control water and simply surrender to the element’s power by “leaving it up to the water to take you somewhere.” But giving full surrender to any element can either stifle someone from embracing their own desires or completely bypass the effort required to get to a specific place in life. Water will be on its own merry way without you if no specific container is created for it. 

Exhibit on the elements at the chinese historical society of america in SF

Finding your own way or moving like water in the container that is YOU has always been the central message from Bruce Lee.

His magic and medicine was in his unapologetic way of being himself. Working towards the mastery of himself in both spiritual and physical senses showed up as an actor and a martial art practitioner. If you ever want to know what his workout regimen was, it’s in this book, and it’s pretty gnarly! 

So, we can BE water AND water will form into exactly what it needs to be, based on its environment. Our adaptability to our environment while remaining integral to who we are is truly an art form. 

It was a significant lesson for me to be disciplined in this pursuit to understand myself in my fullness and wholeness as my power in an ever-changing and sometimes hostile environment. 

” When we train to know ourselves, then we gain assuredness and confidence. In becoming our quintessential selves, we reach our fourth stage of cultivation, which feels phenomenal. Perhaps it even feels like nirvana.”

- Shannon Lee

Sometimes I feel like this after and good healing hike!

---

Be the first to read the latest blog post as they drop! Sign up below

3 of Nature's Boundaries That Help You Cultivate Your Own

For empaths, caregivers, and nurturers like me, cultivating healthy boundaries can be one of the most challenging things to develop. Giving is natural and often gives us meaning and purpose. The downside of giving is that when left unchecked we can find ourselves exhausted and resentful; telltale signs that we’re on a clear road to burnout. The deeper impact is the feeling that we’ve lost ourselves to other people’s needs.

When I started getting serious about pulling out of burnout, I didn’t expect boundaries to be the thing to figure out. I thought it was everything else outside of me that needed to change, like my work culture, other people’s expectations of me, or my guilt when saying no. Which, all of those are real things to work on, but ultimately taking ownership of my lack of boundaries is where the transformation happened. That meant I had to be honest about how I handled saying no and how much I defaulted to betraying myself and my own needs before others. 

Over the years I’ve learned effective strategies and dove deeper into setting serious boundaries. Certain tools were super helpful and I still use them today. Like legit - I use my Passion Planner religiously and schedule Sundays to schedule my week, making sure I block out self-care time first. I’ve shaved off so many projects with collaborators. I’ve processed the cost/benefits of committing to things and making big decisions around my business which is also my only source of income. With personal and professional relationships I’ve taken stock of how they unfold over time and have actively practiced ending relationships that start showing up misaligned. This is some grown-up stuff I’ve evolved into and it is absolutely challenging!

When I’m faced with enforcing my boundaries I always think about how boundaries naturally exist in nature. I often think about how these boundaries validate why I choose to shape the boundaries I have today. I truly believe that nature mirrors our own capacity to sustain, so I lean on the lessons nature has to teach us so we can better navigate this life. After all, since WE ARE nature, we’ll probably survive and thrive the same way nature does, right?

Blending what I know as an Ecologist and professional leadership coach, I’m sharing with you the three boundaries found in nature and how they function to preserve the cycle of life as well as our own capacity to move through adversities. 

Edges

From an Ecological perspective, edges are the spaces between one habitat and another. Think about a trail in the forest. This trail cuts through the forest, and what’s deep in the forest differs from the areas adjacent to the trail. The buffer zone, or edge is the 2-3 feet of space between the trail and the deep forest. Animals are more aware of these edges because it’s the space between their safety and exposure to danger (like humans on the trail).  

Thinking about edges metaphorically, we reach our edges when we have to navigate a situation or conversation that can potentially be unsafe or uncomfortable for us. We negotiate “Is this a safe conversation to continue or do I need to disengage?” (into the depths of the forest) to protect myself? Knowing your edges can be a critical piece of self-awareness for you!

What are my edges of safety or comfort?

Shorelines

Beaches are the best places for contemplation, don’t you think? A powerful place to experience the power of the shoreline locally is at Lands End and Mile Rock Beach. Hearing the pounding of the crashing waves and seeing the sprays of seawater into the air is a display of an intense event. I think about the energy of the waves and how the shoreline is there to absorb all of that intense energy. Once absorbed, the water then softens and rushes back to the ocean as if carrying away anything that needs to leave or be cleansed. 

When I think about being overwhelmed with big emotions I remember the shoreline. I think about having my own shoreline, or space in my mind or body where I can allow these intense emotions to land, absorb, and only hang onto the lesson I needed in that moment. I visualize the waves as those big emotions. The bigger the emotion, the bigger the wave.

Is my shoreline shaped to withstand these impacts?

I take a deep breath and visualize that wave being absorbed into my body as a form of acceptance, then see that thoughts or feelings that don’t belong to me wash away back into the depths of the ocean. Having your own mental shoreline can be that safe landing site for big and intense emotions.

Wetlands

Being in the Bay Area, wetlands are an important part of our natural ecosystem. At one point The San Francisco coastline only had 3% of its original wetland habitats remaining. Today, reclamation efforts have brought that number up, but more importantly, they need to exist because they serve a specific purpose for a healthy watershed system providing rich habitat and clean water from The Sierras to The Pacific Ocean.

Wetlands are that critical and unique boundary where fresh and saltwater mix. Specific plants and habitats soak up and detoxify water as it flows in and out with the tides. This boundary is a reminder that our bodies need regular detoxing and filtering amidst the daily physical and psychological pollution we’re exposed to. From chemicals in our food to the consumption of negative language or media, metaphorically “wetlands” are those places where these impurities can be processed with affirmations, guidance from wise teachers, or literally a cleanse of our gut! 

Whether it’s certain toxic people, negative language, bad vibes/energy, or food, cultivating a boundary where you can transition, filter, or cleanse these areas of your life nurtures this boundary allowing you to manage the ebbs and flows of all that life has to offer.

How do I create structures in my life that can discern what is not working for me?

---

Reflect on the questions below as an alternative way to think about boundaries. Instead of thinking about how to “build up” boundaries and enforce them, try thinking about them more as an area of your mental and emotional wellness that functions to help you navigate life situations. 

What “edges” do I have and what is on either side of those edges?

Ex. What brings me towards my limits of comfort or safety? Acceptable/unacceptable behavior or others or myself, etc…

What kind of “shoreline” do I have that can withstand the intensity of emotions that I experience?

Ex. What is my capacity to experience big feelings and emotions? Do I need to increase my capacity to withstand the pressures or impacts I’m experiencing?

How dynamic is my “wetland”?

Ex. Do I have different ways in which I can filter through the information and take what lessons can bring me back to myself or my wholeness?

Comment below and share with me how this post lands for you. Share as much or as little of your reflections. I’d love to know how you’re navigating your life!

Booklist 2: The Insatiable Human Nature Connection

I’m sure many of us have experienced their own scale of life lessons throughout this pandemic. For me, my life has recently gone through some major shifts. Earlier this year I made the courageous move (literally) to unburden myself from the things in my life limiting me from my highest potential. I recently separated from my husband, moved my daughter and I out of the home we were sharing for 6 years and found myself a gorgeous apartment in Downtown Oakland.

Along this journey I realized I was also RECLAIMING who I was before this marriage. The house we lived in was so small that a lot of my beloved books and personal belongings were left in boxes the whole time! Now that I was able to find a place of my own with much more physical space then the previous home, I found myself resurfacing these personal belongings and also resurfacing things I had loved so much about who I am and what my passions were.

And that’s when I started to reunite with some of the books I always loved having around. These books are what kept me so close to the wonders of the natural world. And as a kid who didn’t enjoy humans so much, it was nature that kept me safe and fed my insatiable appetite for curiosity of the natural world.

So with this short book list #2, I want to share with you some of the most intriguing finds I’ve kept over the many years. Enjoy looking through this and the key teachings I’ve drawn out of each book and continue on to see what I’m currently reading! You can also follow me on my Goodreads site to look at a bunch more brain food items I’ve got listed!

OUR TRUE NATURE AS LOVING BEINGS

Biological Exuberance
Bruce Bagemihl

My college Bio 101 teacher once told me that the point of all animal life is to eat, shit, and reproduce. A few years later my Mammalogy professor shared with us this book that defies all scientific belief about animals, showing that most animal groups have shown evidence of same sex interactions and gender bending behaviors. And this book is a THICK 655 pages of research articles, without the Appendix! It's a fascinating reference book.

If you ever need the evidence that nature isn’t as simple as you think, this is the book to pick up! At least rummage through it by checking it out from the library. I find it very fascinating every time I come across information about nature I never expected.

Like a text book on animal behavior and sexuality, this book covers it all and in fashion of a sort of field guide on the matters. Where each animal species is catalogued for their biology and researched sexual behavior, the studies behind the evidence are also a part of the book that makes it a solid source of information!

Dabble a little more into the book and you’ll find some interesting references related to the findings where articles cite other aspects of explaining the behavior in animals, often referencing indigenous cosmologies and beliefs about sexual behavior. Or other forms of psychoanalysis from other areas of study.

What I really appreciate in this book is that it continually keeps teaching me things that also make me think about the many different ways us humans find intimacy, sexual interaction, and even domination and power in social context. I highly recommend it!

---

LISTENING TO OUR ANCESTORS

Listening to Whales, what the Orcas Have Taught Us

Alexandra Morton

Science researcher and author, Alexandra Morton shares with us the years of experience and knowledge following families of Orcas and the unethical practices of marine aquatic attractions like Sea World. This book is super intense at times and reveals just how much Orcas are just like us, deeply connected to their family systems and emotional life experiences.

This book is also close to my experience and beliefs about whales and our relationship with them. As a scientist it’s fascinating to know that structurally (by examining whale bones) they are physically our ancestors. Fused bones in their fins indicate a connection to our own human feet and hands! Spiritually, these beings represent our ancestors. Being connected to them spiritually, many of my dreams where whales have been there have been dreams of messages being sent my way. That each time I had a dream about whales I looked at the context and paid attention to what they wanted me to know. They have always shown up in times of seeking guidance! To me, they are our protectors!

---

PLANTS HAVE FEELINGS TOO

The Secret Life of Plants

Peter Tompkins & Christopher Bird

I call this the OG of plant studies showing that we can form close bonds with plants, essentially a book about how plants have feelings AND that we surely influence those feelings in them. Think Emoto's water experiment, but the plant version. I love this book as it takes you through story after story of how scientists measured plant "feelings" and reactions to negative and positive emotions AND relationships with humans.

How many of you have increased the amount of plants or time with plants since the pandemic? Plants have surely shown up as those organisms in this world that can provide healing in many forms. From the need to care and nurture something outside of you, to needing a thing to talk to while in isolation, this book is the proof that it’s not a one-way interaction!

Read this one to take you through many experiments where plants were put to the feelings tests and probed to track reactions to things like a negative or violent person in the room to sending your beloved plants loving affirmations from afar, resulting in synchronous “good feelings”! I absolutely love the stories in this book and can surely do without some of the dry science explanations, especially in the last half of the book.

Either way, if you can find this original version, great! But chances are you’ll be picking up a newer version of this book if you can find it!

THANK YOU FOR READING!
 IF YOU FOUND THIS RESOURCE HELPFUL
AND WOULD LIKE MORE LIKE THIS, SUBSCRIBE
TO MY NEWSLETTER BELOW!

Booklist 1: Gathering the Guides

I get asked a lot to share what books I read. So here’s a very short list of the key guides that have really shaped my work today. It’s not the whole list, but they are the few that have informed my nature-based coaching process. Keep in mind they’re not newly released books, best sellers per se, or on some trend right now; that’s not really how I pick books.

Enjoy looking through this and the key teachings I’ve drawn out of each book and continue on to see what I’m currently reading! You can also follow me on my Goodreads site to look at a bunch more brain food items I’ve got listed!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CARE & LOVE

All About Love New Visions
bell hooks

“Without love there is no justice” -bell hooks

My master guide, right here! Ever since I’ve read this one, I’ve recommended it, shared physical copies of it, talked about it, heard other people share how mind-blowing it is, and I just think its one to keep on your shelves forever. bell hooks is one of my “crucible guides”. You know, those key people or creators that offer you those precious gifts that heal you all along the way? You might see me quote her often!

This book in particular really shined the light on what parenting really is about and why we see the needs of youth of color show up the way they do. It also shines the light on what the consequences are for adult relationships if we don’t get THIS LOVE THING down, like fo’-real, fo’-real.

At the time I really read this book I was just beginning my career of youth education and development as a program manager with Standford University. I was also full-on in the dating game! But I was new to teaching teens and I had all the responsibilities; designing their program, partnering with the teacher community, remembering my science, booking field trips and interns, etc...I knew I wanted to get it right with the youth so I stared reading bell hooks. I wanted (and had the autonomy) to bring in whatever pedagogy felt right to make my program successful.

What I realized about my work after reading this book was that as a child, I WAS CARED FOR WELL, BUT NOT LOVED. Heartbreaking, yes. Most importantly, validating. There wasn’t as much “love” in my household as I thought. No one really said “I love you”. And I realized I was cared for well into my adulthood with a super middle class amount of privilege all around. But love in my family, well it was uncomfortable to really go there, resulting in all kinds of relationship experiences all the way into my marriage.

Read it if you haven’t. You might find it a fierce approach to love as well as…

• drawing up a strong connection between knowing what love is to justice work

• truly understanding what to be aware of when it comes to love and youth’s needs to be taught how to love

• hard truths about how we go about our relationships, not knowing or naming the things that are missing or that are impacting our behaviors

NATURE’S NOT INVENTED, BUT I GET IT

The Invention of Nature, Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
Andrea Wulf

This book blew my mind personally because when I picked it up, I was many years an alum of Humboldt State University and would have had the tattoo on my arm for over 10 years already. This tattoo, I realized was connected to my passion for science and to Alexander von Humboldt’s work!

Anyway, the gist is that I’ve always loved existentialist views and writing. I was always drawn to the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau, Coolidge, etc...but didn’t know much about Humboldt, let alone that he was a major influence on these Existentialists. Well, this book took care of that and then some.

The things I most appreciate about this book is that it brings back the forgotten and powerful stories of this man’s expeditions, his discoveries as it relates to civilization/society during his time, and the immense influence he had on the people he worked with. He was one of those that advocated for natural law being the sustainable way for us humans to interact with the planet and very outspoken about the injustice of slavery and ‘monopoly’ as referenced during his time.

“Humboldt claimed that the colonies could only be liberated and self-sufficient when they were ‘freed from the fetters of the odious monopolyI’. It was the ‘European barbarity’, Humboldt insisted, that had created this unjust world.”

As a result of reading it I found it most empowering to know that Humboldt:

• Used to be globally celebrated because of his infectious love for nature, science, and its diversity and advocated for indigenous people from whatever land he was exploring

• Influenced Simon Bolivar to liberate his people of Venezuela from Spanish rule, slavery, and the destruction of his country’s natural resources

• In the context of what was happening around the world at the time the US was becoming the “United States” I appreciated that he was always in disagreement with how the country was being built; off of exploitation and slavery of its people. He was one of the first and few voices to take a strong stance against the “European barbarity” and injustice he was observing in the locations he visited.

RECONCILING THE REMAINS OF ANCESTORS

Trace; Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape
Lauret Savoy

This one’s a quick, informative, memoir-like poetic read. I love that it was a personal journey for Savoy, well equip with a historical lens on places, historical events, including the time’s social norms around land and race politics. I do recommend this book for folks doing work with land-based agencies like Trusts, Conservation, Stewardship, Recreation because it adds depth to the present experience of how we make decisions, create policies, and honor those who have been directly tied to this land in some way. She uncovers the past (her past) and connects it directly to where we are today as a society.

Some key things I think this book informed me about was:

• The African American perspective of seeing, reclaiming, and bringing dignity back to her people, her specific family of origin

• Additional context to our current struggle with anti-blackness and the origins of this ‘land ethic’

• How and why places were named what they are

• The common theme amongst people of color on this land is the feeling of not belonging to a land  and not really having another option from that

• How even a Geologist can bring her identity into her analysis, love this!

“How a society remembers can’t be separated from how it wants to be remembered or from what it wishes it was - that is, if we believe stories of ancestors reflect who we are and how we came to be. The past is remembered and told by desire.”

HOW REAL IS THIS DNA STUFF?

The Invisible History of the Human Race
Christine Kenneally

I literally had just landed in Washington State when my DNA results came to my inbox. I was there for a weekend meeting and remember getting into the rental car, astonished but not surprised by the results. I was slightly distracted the whole weekend with questions about myself and my past and ancestors. As soon as I had a break I hit the bookstore and this book popped out to me and screamed, “pick me up!”

This book has soo much intriguing information about the study of genealogy and the origins of DNA testing. The depth and detail about human history and how DNA provides the evidence of our migration are some of the more impressive parts of the author’s research, in my opinion. She doesn’t shy away from the history of genealogy’s hard truths and the destructive and evil acts that have occurred over time due to certain ideologies. There are some real truth bombs in this book!

The one thing I did leave myself a tiny bit disappointing is that this book is coming from a Eurocentric analysis of DNA. Although much of the data of DNA and human migration include points from China, I kept wondering if samples were taken of my people of East Asia and the Pacific Islands. But, perhaps the research for that is happening now, or has happened and I don’t know of it. Can someone please tell me where THAT book is?

Read this one, especially if you’ve done your DNA test and I promise it’ll add more life to your journey! Key teachings for me are:

• “DNA confirmation” that racism is a social construct and genealogy has a much richer and disarming past

• So much harm has been done to each other all because of the ideas we have in our mind about who is worthy or belonging to a particular group

• There’s a subculture of people claiming to be decendents of Ganges Kahn, to the point of lawsuits and such. Like whoa, had no idea!

• From a spiritual perspective, looking at DNA data only scratches the surface of who we are as a human organism in this world, a good stepping stone for a deeper exploration of Self

I’m really excited about what’s next for DNA research because she does talk about some of the work being done to further our understanding of our history and identity such as the intergenerational impacts to our search for ‘ourselves’. I’ve always been really interested in understanding the impacts of intergenerational trauma on our health and well-being as I wrote about in a previous blog on Soul Wounds. This book is like a good recourse to understanding the complexities of our identities!

WHAT I’M CURRENTLY READING…

Way of the Ancient Healer, Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions
Virgil Mayor Apostol

Words can’t even begin to describe how precious this book is to me right now. I think my love for my people is becoming even more profound now that I’m deep into some ancestral healing and discovering the ways that my people worked to heal others and what our relationship was like to our land. This book is such a comprehensive, yet surface dwelling understanding of how my people moved about this world. I’m floored by the information and how much I really identify with all the things I’m reading in this book!

And by surface dwelling, I mean I don’t honestly know how one book can really capture the depth and power of my people. So this book leaves me so intrigued by the traditions and stories included in here. Sometimes it’s soo hard to believe, the ways in which my ancestors did their healing work and to know that I can possibly bring some of these back. I can tell we come from a long line of very deeply rooted origins to this Universe.

If you are finding yourself on any level of spiritual awakening or curiosity to indigenous ways, I highly encourage you to pick this one up. And be open to the information as it may bring up some triggers or limited beliefs that come with a colonized mind!

How to Be an Adult in Relationships
David Richo

As a Transformational Coach I always drool at the opportunity to know more about struggles in ourselves and our shadows. This book, although its title sounds like it’s stuck in an industry of self help books, it’s SOOOO GOOD!!! It really is. Break into it and you’ll find page after page of truth bombs and stylistic prose like,

“Nature cannot afford to lose any of her stewards, so she has calibrated the heart so it is never permanently fulfilled”

Or

“Can I stand in the moonlight and feel its reflection as nature’s mirroring and let that be enough for now?

I just broke this open a few months ago and try really hard not to highlight almost every other sentence. It’s dense but in the best way possible! This, no doubt is going to be another permanent one on my bookshelf!

THANK YOU FOR READING!
 IF YOU FOUND THIS RESOURCE HELPFUL
AND WOULD LIKE MORE LIKE THIS, SUBSCRIBE
TO MY NEWSLETTER BELOW!

A Directional Tool for Supporting Your Life's Purpose and Passion

Who knew that something as simple as the directional compass can support and guide you through any of life's challenges and wanderings, both literally and metaphorically? Well, it wasn't until I began looking into more traditional healing when I realized the compass we were taught as young children also had some powerful significance for our ancestors and how THEY walked through life. In my work today as a nature-based coach, the compass, or Medicine Wheel is the central piece in reconnecting people to nature. 

I even found it a valuable reflection tool for business development. As I was guiding high school students through a workshop on entrepreneurship, I gave my own story as an example of how my journey was reflected in the Medicine Wheel. So, I wanted to offer this priceless knowledge over to you as another reflection tool.

Download the activity and get deep into a reflection on your life's purpose.

Specifically, this downloadable activity is ideal for

• someone wanting to start a business or begin a major project
• a transition time where your next step can go one direction or the other
• if you need to re-evaluate where you are in life and need an organized way to sift through your thoughts

It'll help you to

• Intentionally reflect on YOUR PERSONAL PASSION, YOUR STORY, and YOUR SERVICE BACK TO
  OTHERS
• Reflect on what it will mean to you to begin walking this path or walking in it with more
  ownership
• Connect to the universal compass, the Medicine Wheel, and their respective natural ELEMENTS involved in developing your true path.

To deepen your exploration and walk into your true path with a guide, book a quick consultation with me by visiting my Contact Me page