The body is our only home. Our bones, breath and blood are the minerals, air and water around us. The person is an earthen form, living in the medium of air. We have come out of the depths of earth and from this emergence are suddenly placed within an anthropocentric environment in which we are primed and homogenized to be civilized consumer citizens. The separation from our roots increases, and slowly but surely we distance ourselves from the primal source of our nurturance and begin to forget where we came from. Before we know it, we have lost touch with the wisdom of our bodies, the natural rhythms of our inherent essence, and the connection to what makes us come alive. 

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Today in the mainstream West, we fundamentally live in a disembodied set of cultural practices and in such a way that favors mind over matter. Our bodies are increasingly separated from the natural world and it is easy to lose our ground and our somatic connection to the planet. We increasingly spend more time in front of screens, in sedentary workplaces, urban landscapes and suburban sprawls. Our bodies are submerged within a cultural machine that has us spinning in overdrive to the point of exhaustion. Human culture is no longer in harmony with the earth. Our natural rhythm, intuitive movement and seasonal way of being has been stripped away and replaced with a manufactured, unsustainable pace of living. 

More often than not, we find ourselves longing for a simple, more beautiful and wild way of being in the world; one that fosters connection and inspires wonder. Yet we do not know what steps to take in order to return to this otherworld and other way. Life demands so much from us. Obligations, expectations and the stress of everyday living has us moving at a pace we can’t even keep up with. We know that trying to maintain the status quo isn’t working any more. Times are changing and we can feel the urge from within to find a new way forward. Life is asking us to return to ourselves and to remember where we’ve come from. We are earth. 

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Somatics comes from the Greek root “soma”, which means "the living organism in its wholeness."  It is the best word we have in English to understand human beings as an integrated mind/body/spirit, and as social, relational beings. Soma then can be used to describe the body as an intelligent, co-creative receptor that bridges our inner and outer environments. Eco-Somatics acknowledges that our bodies are created from the living elements and intelligent forces of the cosmos. It recognizes that our bodies are inherently interconnected to the greater body of earth. The stories, memories, energetic imprints, traumas, revelations, evolutionary shifts in consciousness and historical records of earth live in our bones and blood. We are elements of nature: our soma and psyche (the mind of the soul) are reflections of the planet, each intricately embedded in the other. We belong to earth. 

How do we redirect the modern mind to engage with the natural world and reorient our bodies to the rhythms of earth? We must return to the wild. Nature is the master teacher and healer when we are open and available to be in active dialogue with what is offered. Cultivating intimacy with our inner and outer nature restores balance between body and mind, and between doing and being. It is essential for the health and well-being of our bodies to cultivate our ability to be curious, listen, receive, engage, move, breath and harmonize to nature. We are here to recognize and reconnect to our bodies and reawaken the earth within us. 

Embodied Nature is designed for the person longing to reconnect to their sense of aliveness - to their inner home within the body temple and their greater home on earth. It is for the one who feels the pain of disconnection, who feels out of sync with their natural rhythms, and who desires wild spaces and open time to experience the confluence of somatics, expressive arts (dance, song, art and/or writing), and the healing power of the natural world. Participants will gather each morning as a group to be guided in somatic practices of breath, vocalization, contact, intrinsic movement and stillness to generate a repertoire of inner attunement resources. Throughout our time together, we will deepen contact with our body’s experience, track our senses and tune in to our instinctive nature, contemplate and engage in meaningful moments with earth, connect to our natural rhythms, and harvest our experiences for reintegration.