Healing Nature & Activating Your Mythos
I asked everything of Earth-- I asked for my life. And she answered.
Greetings wonderful human,
I joined the birds to sing to the sun as it rose over the mountains this morning.
And so naturally, I thought about the healing power of nature.
Images by Elizabeth A. Kazda
Live this week:
Free online events:
Tuesday, July 18th The Soul of Your Story: Activating The Mythic Imagination
Thursday: July 20th, How to Facilitate a Creative Sanctuary
In-person workshops and retreats in Topanga, Canyon
Wed, July 19th: Hour of the Wolf Soul Story Council
Saturday, July 29th: Myth, Magic, & Medicine 1 Day In person workshop
While walking through the cool morning air before the sun scathed it, I tried on my new favorite mantra: “This is the best day of my life!”
I’ve been trying on the mantra no matter what is happening — just for the sheer delight of seeing what could happen if I lived that way. It is particularly hilarious to play when doing incredibly mundane tasks. Since this really is the only day I have.
Resting in the awe of early morning beauty reminded of a time I experienced the healing power of nature during a betrayal that struck so deep — that it anchored into a core wound and surfaced a mountain of unresolved pain.
I couldn’t see which way was up.
I tried everything in my power to get the pain out.
But still the pain was with me day and night. I could think of nothing else. I went from a normal person doing normal things— to being obsessed with what had happened and unable to think or speak of anything else. It was crazy making. For me, and my friends, and my therapist.
The pain finally released its grip after a sweat lodge. I emerged out of teepee sweaty and hot and laid spread eagle on the earth.
Where I spontaneously pleaded,
“Earth, take the pain I don’t know how to give up.”
And she did.
That soil on Kauai answered my prayer— and the pain left my body and entered Earth’s— and when I stood up— I felt different.
I know. It sounds weird. But truth is stranger than fiction.
Was it the power of being in a circle of prayer?
Was it the power of fire?
Of sweat?
Of red clay dirt?
I could see straight, think straight, and be fully present in the world again, and somehow my heart came out stronger and was able to trust and love again.
I came out more alive, and inspired for how to work with story as a healing modality for such moments. (I’ll be teaching that technique to working with story as medicine and how to transform “the bad guys” of your life into (spoiler alert) your “master teachers” in a free online class tomorrow).
But the sudden shift was real: I’ll never know exactly how it happened — Did the heat of the fire release what was inside? Did the earth herself absorb the energy and compost it?
All I know is one moment an energetic pain body that had taken over my body and consciousness— was no longer with me— and I was free.
No breath work.
No cathartic hitting of pillows.
No drugs to numb the pain.
No TV to distract.
Just a belly & heart to the earth — working with the original healer.
I don’t know where the intelligence came from to ask such a thing of Earth—
I had never asked anything of Earth before that moment.
But that day I asked everything of Earth-- I asked for my life.
and she answered.
You are INVITED to join me online and in person this week:
I'll be teaching a free master class on engaging your mythic imagination and working with story as a tool to heal -- and teaching in-person workshop in the wilds of Topanga on July 29th.
Let's listen and catch your story.
Do you have a healing story in nature? I would love to hear your story.
COOL FINDS: ELDER WISDOM PODCAST
Wanting the voice of an elder in your year?
Wiser Than Me: Julia Louis-Dreyfus wants to hear more from older women, so she’s sitting down with Jane Fonda, Carol Burnett, Amy Tan, Diane von Furstenberg, Isabel Allende and Fran Lebowitz (and more!) to get schooled in how to live life.
And Then… What’s Next: A couple of gals sitting around talking about the trials and joys of getting older.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” — ~Henry David Thoreau
with love,
Leah