Nature Immersion and Training

“A walk in nature walks the soul back home.”

–Mary Davish

We offer a many opportunities for immersion into the wilds. Our region of East Tennessee is teaming with intricate landscape of biodiversity. We work with you or your group to tailor what kind of experience you want or need. The goal for our nature immersion is to establish connection to all life around us. The deeper we connect with the natural world, the deeper we connect with ourselves. How we treat the land is how we treat ourselves. How we listen to the land is how we listen to ourslelves. There is a sacred harmony in the wild. Some of the common experiences we

Forest Bathing Experiences

It is a national past time in Japan. They call it shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. There is a lot of documented positive affects to spending unmitigated time in nature—or being there to just be, free from agenda. This is simply what forest bathing is. Exploring the forest slowly, watching it, letting it watch you, without trying to go anywhere or learn anything in particular. Even though this sounds simple enough, it can be quite hard to allow ourselves to just enter in without a core desire to learn something or grow or fix something in our lives. Of course, we do learn things and grow by just being in nature. But trying to make it happen is like a cork stopping the flow of it. In our practice, we offer very basic techniques and guided trips into beautiful places near the town of Knoxville to get familiar with this incredibly healing simple activity. Once acquainted with the practice, you will find that you begin to freely roam and practice on your own, leading to a profound sacredness of being. Stress is greatly reduced and your life opens up to accept and see the beauty all around you, and most importantly, within yourself. It is a great practice that sparks creativity and boosts personal confidence.

Solitude

The noise and pace of our world can be overwhelming—the traffic in our own minds especially so. In solitude, as we learn to slow down and sit, listen and watch, the busyness and chaos starts to unthread, and we find ourselves in the vast and uncontrolled “weave” and beauty of nature. This works to settle the pains and confusions of everyday life and allows us to (little by little) walk in the contentment and integration of the natural world. It also builds the foundation of breathing, mindfulness and creativity. We offer guidance, creativity and space around this. We also do this in groups in order to provide intention before a solitude and process afterwards. In our experience, the powerful bookends of group sessions helps to implant the lessons of a solitude, which most of the time come after the experience.

Sacred Wild Weekends

A sacred wild weekend is an experience with a group of individuals. We separate from the often chaotic and busy nature of our lives and celebrate life and beauty together in a wild environment. We play together, drum, sing and dance together, and build fires together. Throughout the whole experience, we weave ceremony and deep sharing circles. We also lead sessions about the natural world in order to connect deeply with all beings around us and ourselves in the balance of it all. We are nature, and the more we deeply connect with Nature, the deeply we connect with ourselves. We see deep integration on these weekends. Deep grief expression, and soul healing laughter.