September 13- November 8, 2021

Group Calls on Mondays at 5pm PST.

We live in a narcissistic world, where we are taught that we should strive to be someone special. Through conditioning, we become focused on the story of who we are, of how the world sees us, and with every attempt to become someone heroic, we become more estranged from the inner nature and the ordinary beauty of being alive. We are thirsty for definition because we have been taught to crave acceptance from the world of humanity, but what if we were worthy of love just as we are in each moment? What if nature was waiting for us to come home?

In this 8-week course, we’ll be exploring how to experience ourselves as nature experiences itself. Beyond separateness and specialness and egoic stories of who we think we are, this is a journey towards the most essential self, an ecological identity that is given to us even before we are born. It is something emergent, spontaneous, and beautiful in its ordinariness. We don't need to earn it or prove ourselves worthy of it; it comes naturally when we relax into being what we are. In this way, this course aspires to a kind of ecological liberation, an integration of the individual consciousness with the the landscape that is living and harmonious.

This course is open to anyone who is curious about exploring their own sense of ecological self. For those who have trained as Forest Therapy Guides, this course may also offer a subtle exploration of the philosophy and embodiment of the Way of the Guide, focusing on principles of authenticity, spontaneity, unconditional acceptance, non-doing, playfulness and paradox. The course is not designed to teach Way of the Guide, but to explore our inner nature; however, you may find that these experiences inform one another at a fundamental level.

In this course, you will learn and experience:

1.     Storytelling practices and expressive arts to represent and create distance between the ego self and natural consciousness

2.     Nature Immersion practices to investigate how the more-than-human-world can act as a mirror to our inner nature

3.     Contemplative Journaling with Sit Spot Scrolls 

4.     Embodiment techniques to cultivate ecological awareness

5.     A subtle exploration into ‘Way of the Guide,’ a core philosophical concept in the practice of Forest Therapy Guiding

6.     Supportive group calls to cultivate a learning community

7.     Much more.