Reflecting Nature...as I unfurl into a new phase of life

Now that I have begun setting up my herbal business it would be hard not to notice the parallels with spring. I am in the process of opening up to the world, peeping through the soil, emerging to stand in the light, to be seen and bring joy to others.

From this place of transition, moving from full-time home-educator, to part-time self-employment, it’s important to me that I establish myself in something that I love. However, sharing what I love involves some level of vulnerability and given that I’ve not run my own business before, I am also venturing into the unknown.

Here I remind myself of the trees inside the dome of the Eden Project. Without the need to stand firm in the face of difficulty, in this case wind, their roots were so weak they simply fell over. As we respond to challenge, we become stronger.

So, it is with the reassurance of nature that I step out of my comfort zone, and invite in a whole host of feelings, including anxious excitement. 

Nature Roots My Self-Connection

Anxiety often comes from fear of what might happen, comparison and overthinking. It’s all up in the head and lacks anchoring. Aimless floating thoughts, bobbing back and forth, circling, sometimes even drowning. I can’t help but read in bursts, devouring books as each new interest arises. It is easy to become overloaded and lose sight of myself. I need to connect to my own wisdom. This is when I look to the wisdom of plants.

It is in the act of turning to the plants for guidance that I am brought back to myself. They are allies that connect me to my inner wisdom. If I am indoors I can take a pause for a visual journey and imagine regrowing my roots deep and wide, connecting with the roots of my favourite plants and trees around the neighbourhood. It anchors me. I feel firmly held within the root network of my green friends and recognise that I am reconnected to my own inner guidance. I take a deep breath and enjoy the returned clarity.

Sometimes I take it further and spend a little time with a plant whose root connection felt particularly strong on my visual journey. I observe how the plant expresses itself in this world and wonder how my life could benefit by applying this adaptation.

It may be a tree which has had to grow with limited space or light, or that has been damaged somehow. It is still beautiful despite the limitations and harm. It has continued to reach the sky, branch out and flourish.

Its genetic make-up defines certain characteristics, but the way it expresses itself is entirely unique to the environment it finds itself in.

Look Deep into Nature

I am always exploring, always questioning. I like to be ready with an open mind, open heart and open will, expanding my consciousness to new concepts. There is often a new curiosity that I’m travelling over and whatever it is, it is always aided by stepping out of my head and into nature. It’s a kind of magic that lets everything fall into perspective.

As Einstein said, “look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better”.

Many cultures throughout history have looked deep into nature to understand. It is a practice of observation and of reflection, and when I start to integrate this wisdom into my own life, I feel more aligned.

It’s not only the nature all around us that we can investigate. It also pays off to observe our own nature, as a human being, as an individual, and as part of the great web of life.

I love looking into a dense woodland which has numerous species all growing wild and interdependently. I think it’s a beautiful representation of how entwined our lives are.

I am also gathering a picture of my own idiosyncrasies.

Mirror Image

The Doctrine of Signatures is a concept recorded by Paracelsus in the 1500’s and is the idea that the shape, colour, pattern or texture of a plant gives an indication of its use in the human body.

Like how walnuts resemble to the brain, and they contain omega 3 and vitamin E which are great for nerve health. Or liver herbs like dandelion, yellow dock root and barberry that are often yellow and treating jaundice via their ability to enhance liver function.

 ‘The Signature of All Things’, by Elizabeth Gilbert is well worth a read if you haven’t already. It’s a fictional story that reflects all things in colonies of moss and is utterly captivating!

Eco-cycle Labyrinth

Whenever I have been taught something new through nature metaphor, the learning runs deep and sticks.

I love the Eco-cycle Labyrinth which has been adopted from permaculture principles. It’s experienced as an immersive infinity walk which can be entered at any point and continue around:

 Spark → Connect → Possibility → Risk → Emergence → Birth → Develop → Growth → Maturity → Maintain → Unravel → Decay → Death → Compost → Release → Fallow → Spark, etc…

Pause anywhere that elicits strong resonance and deep feeling. Explore what it means to you in your life. Notice how it feels to acknowledge where you are on your cycle of birth-rebirth. This practice helps me bring everything into perspective. It offers peace of mind knowing that I’m flowing along with the natural way of things.

Therapeutic Seasoning

A couple of years ago I intentionally worked my way slowly through a book called ‘Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life: A monthly guide for your Soul’s Journey on this beautiful Earth’, by Ian Siddons Heginworth. The author lives in Devon and uses elements of the natural world seasonally and experiential outdoors as a healing method to help us reconnect to our hearts. I loved the mythical stories specific to each plant and time of year, as well as the creative use of nature as an expressive medium to represent and initiate transformation and growth. 

Another nature inspired book I enjoyed is aptly named ‘Wintering,’ by Katherine May. I love the use of winter to help us accept the essential fallow period, where retreat and rest are to be honoured when needed. This book reminds me of how our western culture resists our powerful need for convalescence after illness, favouring a return to busy lives before the body has had a chance to power up and increase its resilience through rest and nutrition.

We are a culture that encourages a return to work with a health deficit, only to become ill or run down again to the point where it’s impossible to resist rest. Until the body finally insists with force through exhaustion. Nature shows us the way of health in its graceful surrender to winter.

Experiential Herbalism

Just as Katherine May has seen her need for rest reflected in the depths of winter, we too can look to nature to understand ourselves better.

Nature is a simple route to self-connection. One simple method is to sit with a plant or tree and notice what feelings come up in relation to it. It could be a bit of anger for invading the allotment. Or joy elicited from a scent reminiscent of childhood. Maybe resentment after a sharp thorn caused a painful injury. Or even disgust from a strong unpleasant taste.

One thing I wonder is, is it really the plant causing these feelings? Or could it be opening us up to access certain feelings we have been supressing? When I explore this, I experience a deepening. This is experiential herbalism, and it helps me to get to know myself better. Immersing myself in the wisdom of nature helps me grow my self-awareness. A practice I find very empowering.

Could you let nature guide you? I wonder where it would take you.

Nature unfurls

As a qualified medical herbalist, I offer online herbal medicine consultations. If you would like to book an appointment with me, please email sarah-janecobley@healthneedsthyme.co.uk. I will take a thorough health history so that I can create a personalised herbal medicine for you which I can send in the post.