This piece looks back at last year’s Coaching Outdoors conference at Henley Business School, and how my workshops about an ‘entangled bank’ helped participants find meaning in outdoor coaching.
An ‘entangled bank’
We stood together on a riverbank by The Thames. Not Darwin’s ‘entangled bank’ exactly, which lay across the other side of London, but nevertheless a place where life converges in complexity, beauty, and meaning. A place where coaches came together to explore one deceptively simple question: “What makes life meaningful?”
We began with presence
We arrived with a centring practice borrowed from the book Being in Nature. Then, each person offered a one word answer to the question – “what brings you here today?” The answers were diverse: curiosity, rest, reconnection, insight. Together, they formed a web, much like the entangled bank itself.
We read aloud Darwin’s vivid description of life teeming near his home in Downe, Bromley, that he published in ‘On the Origin of Species’. Birds, worms, flowers, insects – different, dependent, and shaped by the same invisible laws. As coaches, we reflected: we, too, are part of that tangle. We are not separate from Nature but utterly enmeshed in it, with it, as it.
Roots, trunks, and canopies
A short teaching on meaning, adapted from Stanford Prof. Brian S. Lowry’s TED Talk, framed meaning in three dimensions:
- Coherence: the roots of the tree, giving us structure and understanding.
- Purpose: the trunk reaching upward toward our aspirations.
- Significance: the canopy, offering shelter, habitat, and contribution to others.
Meaning, we discovered, is not just intellectual – it is ecological, embodied, and relational. One of the ‘5 pathways’ to nature connectedness, that underpins our work at The Natural Coaching Company.
Stories from the Wild
We each recalled an early memory of being in Nature. These “natural histories” can be powerful storytelling moments – touchstones that still shape how we see the world, and how we coach.
One participant remembered lying in a field watching ants build a nest. Another, building dens in the woods with cousins. These memories aren’t just nostalgic – they are sources of coherence and purpose.
Awe and beauty
We wandered the grounds on an ‘Awe & Beauty Walk’. The invitation was simple: find something beautiful, and ask “What does this mean to me?” Some found moss in dappled light. Others, a bee or a birdcall. The smallest moments evoked the biggest emotions.
Research shows awe has real power. It enhances prosocial and environmental behaviour, reduces stress, even prompts ethical decision-making. For us, awe became a bridge – from observation to transformation.
Reflection: a mirror to self
Later, we returned to the words we’d used to describe the places we found beautiful – graceful, alive, joyful – and applied them inward: “How do these words describe me?” A shift from outer wonder to inner reverence.
What we learned
We closed with one of Darwin’s final reflections, one I personally hold dear:
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
We left with a sense that meaning is something we cultivate – not only by thinking, but by walking, witnessing, and wondering. Our coaching, like the entangled bank, is alive with connection.
Final Words from the Circle
Each person shared a word again – this time, what they were taking away: grounded, grateful, whole, inspired.
If you were there, thank you. If you’re reading this after the fact, we hope this reflection gives you a taste of what we shared – and maybe, a nudge toward your own entangled bank. Let’s keep asking what matters. Let’s keep connecting.
The next event
Next June I will be facilitating again at Henley Coaching Outdoors Live – now renamed as Nature Connected Coaching Live.
I’ll be leading a workshop on neuro-inclusive coaching, and co-leading a workshop on urban coaching with Jackee Holder. Can’t wait!