Not all who wander are lost: how nature can help us dream, explore and restore

Where do you do your best thinking?

One of my friends finds her mind clears when she swims in the sea. Another loves to wait until she has got the kids to school before going to sit in her shed surrounded by her plants with a cup of tea. A lovely coaching client told me she ‘worries well’ in her garden, finding peace there. Perhaps you do your best thinking in the shower or when listening to music. We are all different but we all have somewhere or something that helps us to think more clearly.

I think well when I’m outside.

I’m good at concentrating on focused work and have no problem sitting at a computer thinking and creating for long periods but whenever I’m stuck, feel troubled or have a problem to solve I know I won’t find the answer looking at the screen. I get up and go outside for a walk – either by myself or with my dog Riley.

By giving myself permission to switch off and not think about the task or issue in hand, I often find I come up with that missing jigsaw piece of thought out of nowhere – I like thinking of this as the post scripted nature of our lives. Walking outside helps my mind to settle and I can almost feel the cogs inside start to click into place again. Perhaps it’s the fresh air or the physical activity.

However, I think it’s both those things and more.

I’ve just completed a certification that focuses on coaching outdoors and what our natural setting can offer us in terms of exploration and inspiration so I’ve come to appreciate that nature isn’t just a setting for talking or thinking. Nor is it a background app doing its own thing unrelated to what we as humans are experiencing.  Our wonderful natural settings offer me and my coaching clients opportunities to reconnect and breathe often acting as a mirror for how we are feeling if we are willing to look for it.

“Being outdoors in nature is not about embracing something new.  It is about re-connecting with something we already know” Lesley Roberts, Coaching Outdoors.

So now, I’ve become much more conscious about how our beautiful natural settings can support my thinking to take on a different quality. For example...

·      If I want to think calmly and peacefully about something, I have a favourite spot to go and sit by the sea, on a small ledge below the harbour wall, hidden from view. I just look out to the boats bobbing on the water and breathe allowing whatever thoughts to come in to arrive, just like the small waves and ripples and notice without judgement what is going on in my mind.

·      If I’ve got something to sort out in my head or a problem to solve, sitting still isn’t going to cut it! At these times, I march up a hill or the sand-dunes and find a vantage point to look down, giving myself a helicopter view of whatever is bothering me, taking myself out of the equation and more able to think objectively. The landscape can help me fill the gaps in my thinking.

·      If I want to think big and maybe dream, I’ll go and sit somewhere to look out at the horizon or walk along the beach.

·      If I’m feeling a bit vulnerable, I’ll walk somewhere that offers somewhere quiet and contained to sit and think – maybe it’s a meadow near where I live with very long grass or a bench in the walled garden at one of our local heritage sites.

·      Or sometimes I just watch the weather and notice how it can change so quickly even after long periods of being settled and remind myself of the impermanency of everything in our lives highlighting the importance of being able to adapt to change.

A couple of evenings ago, I was sitting alongside hundreds of others on a hill in a very special natural setting watching the sunset listening to live music – bare feet in the grass – nature connection and community felt very restorative. Listening to the music, I gave my mind permission to turn off the cogs and lose myself in the moment. Nature can be a soothing balm or a place for excitement and adventure. It doesn’t judge or distract, just offers a space to listen to yourself, explore, dream and find clarity. So...I invite you to go wandering and see where your thinking takes you. Notice what is around you, however small or insignificant and give yourself up to exploring your thoughts.

Walking and thinking is something you can do alone but it can be even more explorative and revealing if you do this alongside someone else. I have started to work in this way with some of my coaching clients when they are curious or interested, using where we are and what we see to support thinking from a different perspective. I think Mary Oliver, the poet, says it best...

“It doesn’t have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention then patch

a few words together and don’t try

to make them elaborate this isn’t

a contest but the doorway

into thanks and a silence in which

another voice may speak”.

So, as J. R. Tolkien famously wrote, ‘not all who wander are lost’ – instead by going for a wander, we might just find ourselves.

I invite you to think about where you do your best thinking and why that is. What do you notice? Could you do more of this and be more intentional about it?

If you want to know more about coaching outdoors or are interested in exploring your dilemmas outdoors in some of our wonderful Island settings, then get in touch on flamingoplm2022@gmail.com