When stress and challenges arise in my life I’ve always found healing in nature. Just by being out in it, I feel blessed. Because I feel blessed, I am grateful. Because I feel grateful, natural healing reaches me on a deeper, cellular level. My body relaxes more. My breath deepens first with a sigh of release then it naturally shifts into a slower rhythm than before. When I shut off my mind and feel the sheer pulse of life around me in the living, thriving impulse of nature to grow, my energy too is lifted up.
About two months ago I allowed anxiety in and found myself in a shallow, panic breath single-mindedly driving to Erna Nixon Park so I could walk and breathe amongst the closest trees. Here, as I walked quickly along the oak covered boardwalk, I focused on deeply breathing in and slowly breathing out at an even, rhythmic pace. I hadn’t noticed I was speed walking until my legs slowed down a little and my muscles relaxed. I am breathing in. I am breathing out. Soon my mindbody energy was able to slow down even more and I stopped walking. Standing still in the sun, I sighed. In the sigh, an intense release came as all judgement fell away into the leaf-litter beneath the boardwalk, falling off as naturally as a branch who’s season has come to an end.
Standing alone in the patience of the old trees, there was no stress of expectation. The trees, indeed the mountains, the desert, the ocean, all of nature treats everyone without discrimination. Life-giving rains fall on the just and the unjust alike. Here, in nature, I can just be and relax knowing the trees don’t care what I’m wearing. They’ll still share their air and shade with me. The ground will still support me even if I failed miserably at some online task. And if I mess up so extremely that I’ve really hurt someone in the process, the sun will still rise and shine on me another day.
Being in nature alone is renewing. Being in nature with others sharing the focused intention and tools to better balance physically, mentally and spiritually is a community growth experience. The Balance in Nature Retreat shares tools used for conscious connection to our inner guidance systems that restore harmony to all aspects of our being while immersing in the wisdom of the ancient oaks, knowledge keeps of the land. Saturday, September 26, 9:00am-4:00pm. No rush, just relax, breathe and balance in nature. Tickets available at: www.BeachsideQigong.com/online-store
Whether we walk together at the retreat or not, please schedule time for yourself to connect with the paradise we have chosen to live in and allow it’s life force energy to raise you up. May you always find balance in nature.