Venturing into the wild inside ourselves

I have always loved traveling, exploring new places, and connecting with people and cultures different from me. The full sensory experience lights me up.

Over the years, as I’ve learned mindfulness and slower movement practices, I’ve discovered that as humans we have access to a whole lot of information and interesting stuff inside ourselves to explore. The adventure of going within has a similar fascination and curiosity for me as traveling to explore new places.

Our bodies are containers of history, both of our own, and of our inherited past. Learning to access and be with what is present in our physical system can help unlock and change old habits, subconscious beliefs, and unconscious stuck patterns.

Yet it can be really, really difficult to go there, especially if we’ve lived most of our lives lead by our mind and our thoughts.

Weaving in visualization and creative storytelling can help to tell our brain that it’s safe and OK to open up to the places in our body that there is resistance.

For example, by reimagining our pain or difficult emotions as a storm moving through, the brain’s old hardwired story can shift, helping the body to move out of old stuck patterns.

Below is a reflection about some of my recent explorations into my inner landscape. Come join me on my journey!

What comes up for you as you read this?  I’d love to hear thoughts or ideas you may have as you do so!

Inner landscapes

We have been told that our bodies and the Earth separate. But what if that wasn’t true?

The truth in my bones is that we are one. Earth is in the body. Body is earth.

I can feel the vines, the rivers, the depth of the ocean—all within the space of my physical system. When I close my eyes and listen, I feel a wild and active inner landscape.

It’s not always peaceful.
There are storms.
There are volcanoes.
There are earthquakes.
Powerful forces alive in me, as they are on the Earth.

When I explore my inner wilderness, I become more attuned to the pulse and rhythm of the planet itself.
To the rocks, the mountains, the molten lava,
To the green grass, the leaves, the trees, the birds,
To the skies, the clouds, the wind,
To the rivers, the lakes, the oceans.
The waters outside of me live within me too.

There is no hard boundary between the Earth and me. There is flow—moving back and forth like waves, spiraling in circles, swirling in the wind.

Emotions move like tides: in and out, in and out, changing with the cycles of the moon.

My body follows the rhythm. These natural cycles are mirrored in me.

Nature is built on systems, on patterns, on mathematics—an intelligence that speaks a rich multilayered language I feel deeply.

Like a symphony, many textures, many voices. All are important and included.
The more we harmonize with the earth, the more we have the capacity to return to ourselves—and to connect with each other.

Healing comes from connection, reconnecting those places that have been missing or broken.

Breathing in the love and sunlight, through a deep connected presence.

Breathing out to release and let go.

Leaning into the cycle of the breath and finding just a little more ease.