Three Ways to Connect with Nature for Support

Why you don’t have to head to the wilderness to build a meaningful relationship with nature that supports your changemaking.

If you’re like most of the changemakers I work with, you probably live in a city without much access to nature’s wildness on your doorstep.

Instead, your daily nature dose might feel limited to your houseplants, the trees that line the sidewalks on your way to work, or the pigeons cooing outside your window.

If nature is something you deeply care about, it's no surprise this experience can leave you feeling like something is missing.

And this can be true even if intellectually you know that not only is nature all around you, but that you are nature itself. (A reminder that just because your mind thinks it doesn’t mean the rest of your body is on board.)

But what if you didn't have to escape to the woods to have a deep relationship with nature?

Although I will admit I have often threatened to move to the woods when I’m overwhelmed or over it all, there are much easier ways to connect with nature—both to meet this longing but also to guide and sustain our systems change efforts.

Specifically, there are 3 core ways I help folks partner with nature, and I bet at least one of them surprises you.👇

#1: Knowledge Building 

Here, we learn how nature works, so we can take those lessons and apply them to our own lives.

While this looks like engaging our minds + intellects rather than getting our boots dirty, I have witnessed over and over again how having a deeper understanding of nature can help us feel really powerfully connected to it. 

In practice, this is where I teach nature’s regenerative cycles—from the seasons to the menstrual cycle—so you can learn new ways of working, leading and managing your energy that are inherently sustainable. My favorite “side effect”: falling in love with nature more deeply!

#2: Direct Experience

This is where we put ourselves in contact with the natural world. But it doesn’t require the 5-day wilderness trek you might think.

Sometimes it can be as simple as gazing out of your window, cooking a meal with ingredients that come from the earth, or stepping outside to feel the breeze on your skin.

In my client work and teaching, this often looks like simple, everyday practices that make a lot of space for what you have access to and feel comfortable with. Many people are surprised how something that feels so simple can help them feel like nature has their back, gifting them with presence, creativity and well-being that endures long after the practice itself is over. 

But the truth is this: it just doesn't take much for nature to work its magic, so we don’t have to wait for the month-long hike to receive what nature is always trying to gift us.

#3: Nature-Guided Inquiry

Here, we get really curious about what nature would do in our shoes to help us break out of binary thinking, discover unexpected solutions, and find ease in uncertainty.

Part biomimetic exploration, part coaching, part imagination exercise, it’s about inviting nature in as your thought partner to help you move through sticky challenges and unlock fresh perspectives (with me there to help!). 

This approach has been a growing edge in my work with 1:1 clients and small groups—and also so much fun.

Not just because of the very helpful results, like getting unstuck. But because of the way it helps us see ourselves as nature, no longer dissimilar from a honeybee on a quest for nectar or a robin eagerly waiting for her eggs to hatch.

Suddenly, the whole of the natural world is your ally when you were feeling like the lone wolf. 🙌

While I don’t use all 3 approaches with every client, workshop or program, they make up a growing toolkit I bring to this work to help us find our way back into a meaningful relationship with nature, starting wherever we are today with the resources, time and access we have available to us.

To learn more about Sister Seasons’ unique approach, head to the About page. 

To experience these practices in action, explore programs for woman and non-binary individuals and services for impact-focused organizations.

Photo Credit: Matteo Di Iorio