Finding True Self-Expression with Nature's Elements
If we only say what others want to hear, we lose connection to our thoughts and feelings.
“Nature holds us in the way we might have lacked as children when we became afraid of expressing ourselves. It doesn’t tell us off, it sings to us, it bathes us in sunlight so our truth can germinate.”
For some years, I’ve been exploring my relationship to the wind as part of my Shamanic practice. There was a time when a particularly gusty day would provoke a fierce mania within me, and I’d want to stomp or run in circles. Out walking – especially if exposed on a hilltop – I’d feel the need to scream if a strong gale pounded at me.
Back then, I shoved these reactions down.
I held back from yelling. I resisted pounding my feet. I certainly didn’t fling my backpack to the ground and flail my arms and howl.
And then, one day, I did!
I gave in to these inner urges and ended up lying on my back, wailing, feet stamping on the earth.
It felt incredible as I surrendered to the way nature’s ‘voice’ had stirred up my own self-expression. I burst through a membrane that had kept me sealed for a long time: I was no longer behaving according to unnatural conventions, I was fully collaborating with nature and my nature.
Have you ever found yourself struggling to express your thoughts or feelings, torn between enticing creative urges and the fear of rejection if you were to go all in on them? And have you dismissed this struggle as simply the way things are, or the way YOU are?
It's a common experience – wanting to reveal something and then sensing a growing discomfort at the thought of doing so. We might put this down to a lack of confidence, or decide it’s because people don’t or won’t understand, but where does that leave us?
It leaves us in the same place as a seed who supresses its urges to grow – unfulfilled, ungerminated, unaware of the true shape and magnitude of ourselves.
Nature’s elements can help nurse our inner desires, enabling us to sprout through the membranes that keep us in a seedlike form so our true creative potential can grow tall.
For many, self-expression is difficult. Having spent so long saying only what others want to hear, we can lose connection to our own thoughts.
If, for much of our life, feelings weren’t welcomed – perhaps even sneered at – we become numb to the small, vital flutters within.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines self-expression as ‘saying or showing one’s thoughts or feelings’, but then gives the following example: he has a hard time expressing himself.
It’s an uncanny illustration of the relationship we have with self-expression; that something instinctive and natural, has become distorted.
I’d like to see us evolve to a place where we’re able to let our true thoughts and emotions flow with awareness and without inhibition, much in the way the wind flows freely and creates sound as it moves.
TRUE Self-Expression
Through my work as a coach, I’ve come to understand we can either express our truth, or our trauma.
There’s no ‘right or wrong’ here – the wind can both crackle through a pile of dried leaves, as well as bring a tree crashing to the ground. It’s more about becoming aware. For example, can you tell when you’re venting pent up emotion, which is the result of an upbringing that left you unable to reveal your feelings, so they can only emerge explosively after weeks of trying to contain them?
Nature is a model for how we can find our way back to true self-expression.
She teaches us how natural her sounds are: your own emotions can be as genuine as birdsong; a sigh released on an exhale is as pure as the wind giving voice to leafy boughs.
Chirping, splashing, plipping, plopping.
Creaking, cracking, barking, growling.
Rumbling thunder, gushing rivers, fizzling fires, and shrieking hyenas.
The more we LISTEN to nature’s artless, relaxed, innate voice, the more we learn to relate to our own sounds of expression.
Nature’s elements can also help repair the traumas that impair our self-expression. These are the upsetting shocks we experienced as children when we were told to be quiet, not cry, stop being selfish, grow up, shut up, and more. All of which cause us to lock the seed of our true self in a drawer.
Our healing journey to true self-expression starts with the earth
Unless we’re grounded, we have nothing to contain or hold our feelings for long enough that we can witness and then communicate them. Instead, we detect something, but not enough to give it words, and so our self-expression is muddled, confused.
In such muddled self-expression, I might sense a person who learnt to fear their emotions or ideas. Fear is very much connected to our relationship with the earth because without physical containment, we feel afraid, exposed, vulnerable, unprotected.
In last month’s workshop, I referred to our inner earth as a bowl in our pelvis that holds the waters of our emotions. Earthed, we ARE a container. This gives us the ability to hold our experiences and then journey through them to truth.
When I explore this with clients, we often discover their body feels uncomfortable, or uneasy at the thought of expressing something. They might say they’re nervous about offending a loved one and notice how their body tenses as they imagine revealing certain opinions to them.
In the face of uncomfortable physical sensations, we desperately seek to make the body feel calm once more. This can lead us to shift our attention ‘out there’ because we’ve learnt that pleasing or appeasing others removes our discomfort. But it also means we remain a seed, forever sacrificing our growth into magnificence.
The uneasy feeling comes from our nervous system moving into a state of fight or flight. For many of us, sitting down to write can trigger this state.
We have an idea but, as we imagine expressing it, we feel stressed because the outcome is scary, we might get it wrong, we could be rejected, people will judge us. Because of this, our nervous system sends signals to our brain, which then releases hormones like adrenaline. Our heart beats faster, our muscles tense up, and we become more alert. This is our body's way of helping us survive the ‘tough situation’ of our thoughts!
This is why writing, or expressing ourselves, can suddenly feel like something we don’t want to do. Instead, we click open a web browser, grab our phone, head to the kitchen for a snack. We’re literally running from the threat, using up the adrenaline pumping into our body, trying to find a way to soothe the way we feel.
Walking in nature can sooth in a way that’s not only more beneficial than scrolling, but also allows for long term healing. As we walk, we employ the excess adrenaline in a healthy way, and our nervous system calms as it attunes to the peaceful atmosphere of the natural world around us.
Nature holds us in the way we might have lacked as children when we became afraid of expressing ourselves. It doesn’t tell us off, it sings to us, it coaxes us out of that drawer, bathing us in sunlight so our truth can germinate.
Nature also helps to realign our elements within – earth, water, fire, air, sound, light, and ether – so that we’re connected to what we want to express.
Now, we’re relating to the earth within us – that bowl – and able to hold the waters of our feelings. Our inner fire, centred at our solar plexus, can warm those waters to the point they create steam. Air is now moving through us, which is connected to our heart and therefore our ability to give and to receive. This opens our heart, teaches us the balance of making an offering and then being still to receive. The air flows and powers our voice so that we make a sound that’s utterly natural to us.
We heal the emotional wound of being told the sound we’re making is not appropriate, not wanted, not right, because when we’re relating to the elements within us, we experience how the expression of our true self is the most exquisitely natural thing there is.
You can rewatch last month’s workshop (where we explored all seven elements) using the links in my offerings section. This month, we’re going to be diving into the first element of earth in detail, which you can find out more about below.
As always, wishing you creative contentment.
Gabriela, tree goddess
OFFERINGS
Watch my recent interview with Breathwork Facilitator Pablo Castro where we dive into self-expression and the power of warm water breathwork to heal the wounds that are impacting our creativity.
Join this month’s Journaling, Breathwork and Nature Healing Workshop. This month we'll be exploring the element of Earth. When we're balanced in this element, relating to the Earth within us, we're able to trust and feel safe. We enjoy the relationship we have with our body, and feel energised, healthy and strong.
If you subscribed to the community this month you should have received your discount code for a free spot in your welcome email.
Regular members can grab 20% off with the code Wild01 at checkout.
Watch the recording of last month’s workshop.
(You’ll want to set aside 90 minutes to complete both parts.)
In the first part of this session we set our intention and explore breathwork practices and journaling prompts connected to the elements of earth, water, fire, air, sound, light and ether.
In this section of the workshop, we dive deeper into Nature Healing bringing visualisation into the practice as we explore all seven elements.