Nature-Based Spiritual Arts
What are Nature-based Spiritual Arts?
So often, we feel we need to travel to remote wilderness areas or visit sacred places in other countries in order to find and nurture our own deep connection to nature and the world of spirit. However, beauty, spirit, and a sense of sacredness exist everywhere and the world needs us see and experience this truth.
A nature-based approach focuses on digging deeply into our own communities; the land, wildlife, seasons, rhythms, cultures, stories. Spirituality has historically come from a deep connection to these very things and the work of Nature-based Spiritual Arts is a journey into our own authentic and unique relationship and connection with our places.
While being deeply immersed in wilderness areas or exploring new lands can definitely be inspiring and life changing, I have developed Nature-based Spiritual Arts (NBSA) for the expressed purpose of enlivening, discovering, and nurturing our sacred connection with the wildly amazing earth, plants, animals, landscapes, and seasons that we live with each day.
From the depths of a crowded and bustling city to the rural countryside, birds sing, insects pollinate, plants grow – even through cracks in the concrete. No matter where we are on the planet, wildlife and humans share the sun, breathe the same air, and gaze upon the same moon. Sacred places exist literally everywhere; if only we take the time to notice. The miracle of life is impossible to escape.
NBSA practices enable us to remember our inherent way of being and relating on this earth. Whether explored individually or in a group, Nature-based Spiritual Arts work allows us to take the journey of deeply and sacredly connecting to the places where we live and the life we share each moment with on a daily basis.
Some of the components of NBSA:
- Sense – Experience our places on earth and in shamanic journeys. What sensations are drawing attention? What feelings?
- Explore – Spend time with intention outdoors and in our shamanic journey space, we will explore our surroundings, deepen our sense of connection, and develop a sense of feeling at home in the place.
- Dream – Discover our dreams both sleeping and awake and weave these images into the practice. What inspires and what delights? What does the heart say? The soul?
- Journey – Explore shamanic-style journey work and also journey through inspiring places in the outdoors where we feel called.
- Live – How do these experiences impact the way we live in our places, the decisions we make, the relationship we have with the living world around us? What do we do to honor our connections?
- Serve – After we have begun to integrate our experiences personally, we then explore how to let those experiences inform our decisions to act on behalf of our world? What is our authentic service?
PBSA work is based around the above 6 principles and is deeply individualized, authentic, and created with participation from the natural world and the world of spirit. No two sessions or workshops are the same.
This work is not lineage-specific. Instead, it is based deeply in connection to nature and spirit wherever we are, honoring and deepening our individual experiences with the world around us.
PBSA does not take from other cultures, but instead have been born out of my own Earthwalk and the wisdom of the natural world and my Spirit Helpers. My passion here is empowered spirituality. I want participants to feel like they can do this work on their own; inspired by our time together and their own personal connections to life.
There is a strong focus in this work on empowered spirituality – essentially helping people to feel they can relish, enjoy, nurture, and continue to develop their own deep and authentic spiritual connection to nature with or without continued support from me.
Another strong emphasis of Place-based Spiritual Arts is on giving back. How do we support the natural world, other people, the land, the animals, both domestic and wild, where we live? What do we need to do so we do not only take our own healing and inspiration from the land, but also work to conserve, preserve and support the needs of the earth outside our doors. Place-based Spiritual Arts strives to be eco-centric in all aspects. It is a way of life.
