And the sun burst through.
I took this photo at the end of a coaching session in nature recently. The client and I were in different parts of the country, outdoors and on the phone. In the final moments he suddenly observed the sun bursting through the grey skies that had predominated throughout our conversation…I looked up and saw the same thing happening where I was standing, hundreds of miles away.
The weather and seasons featured throughout this session. It started with noticing how the client felt when the weather was grey and gloomy – and led to an exploration of what fallow periods meant, and why a lack of productivity and motivation was at times uncomfortable. We observed the meadows and grasses where we walked – that they were resting in this winter period, but that this would create the right conditions for flowers to emerge in the spring. That without the rest there could not be the growth. And that there were both daily and seasonal parallels to the client’s own cycles of productivity.
This led to some new awareness of what the signs of fallow periods were, a redefinition of them as a valid and in fact essential part of life, and some commitments as to what might be done differently in future with this improved awareness.
And then the clouds parted.
It always will of course, eventually. In periods of stress our horizons shrink – literally. This happens both in terms of our fields of view, which can reduce from 55 degrees to as little as 0.5 degrees. And in the expanse of our cognition, as we focus mentally on a real or perceived threat. We see the trees, but miss the woods.
Being outdoors in a nature-rich environment acts to reduce our threat state, restoring our attention and creative capacities. It helps us see the woods for the trees by coupling the power of creative, transformative conversations, with the benefits of being amongst the natural world.
May the sun burst through for you.