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juniper stokes 6/19/23 juniper stokes 6/19/23

Coregulating with the Natural World

The importance of being in a well-regulated body cannot be overstated.

It’s really hard to be a fully functional, compassionate, and mature adult when your nervous system is dysregulated. Mindset and willpower can only go so far when your adrenals and vagus nerve are depleted or your general endocrine system is out of sync with your body’s needs.

This is awful for anyone…but for a perfumer? Absolutely devastating. It’s been a slow recovery (that bout of covid was especially rough). Though my smell had mostly come back by mid February, I could tell that I wasn’t picking up on the subtle nuances I used to. The loss of smell has been such a strange piece of this pandemic era…A strong sense of smell has always been a mark of a healer — the ability to sniff out both the diseases and the cures.

Like any trauma — and like so much of our modern lives in general — ecological trauma often leaves us depleted and exhausted. The ongoing existential threats, the feelings of powerlessness, and the potent pairing of anger and grief we experience can coalesce into overwhelm and physical, emotional, and spiritual dysregulation.

Our work is to alchemize this pain and grief into usable energy. Our birthrights include being in sacred relationship with the natural world. Our true potential to be effective stewards of the Earth is without limit.

Here, we’ll take a shamanic approach to recovering from ecological trauma. This approach is rooted in two fundamental principles:

First, as much as we might resist connecting with what we perceive to be the pain of the Earth, deepening our connection with the natural world is our path to healing.

The Earth has provided humans with multi-layered healing for millennia, and we must allow ourselves to receive and reconnect with the gifts of our Earth.

Second, as much as we might perceive humanity as bearing the burden for the fate of the world, we are not alone in our efforts.

When we embrace a cosmological shift to animist perspectives, we recognize that the Earth and all her inhabitants are inspirited — and as such, they have agency to affect the fate of the planet, just as humans do. Listening to and partnering with these nature beings is essential if we hope to enact any change within ourselves and our world.

As we partner with our bodies, with the Earth, and with spirit, we can begin to co-create a wildly wonderful world.

Coregulation with the Natural World

The importance of being in a well-regulated body cannot be overstated.

I’ve noticed that when I’m depleted or experiencing activation in my sympathetic nervous system (the “Fs”: fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and I might add “fatigue”), I become more reactive and judgemental. Yet when I’m well-regulated, I’m naturally more generous and forgiving. I have more energy to take positive actions, and my thinking is clearer, allowing me to direct my resources — time, money, and energy — where they’re needed most.

There are many daily strategies we can implement to tend to our nervous systems — I list several of my personal practices here and here.

One of the most beautiful ways to tend our nervous systems in response to ecological trauma is coregulation with the natural world.

In simple terms, coregulation is the idea that when a person is spinning out and unable to regulate their own nervous system, another person who is calm and well-regulated can help them — almost “lending” their nervous system’s health to the person in need: Think of a child who gets taken over by a sobbing fit, and their parent simply hugs them until they calm down enough to process whatever has just happened.

Humans, being social beasts, are perfectly primed to both give and receive this type of communal support with each other.

But what about coregulating with the natural world?

The shamanic and animist cultures we all come from included the Earth and spirits of nature in our circle of relations. Coregulating with the Earth is our natural way of being in the world.

When I walk through the Rocky Mountains, a place I’ve tended relationship with for over a decade, the mountains literally feel like my grandparents. The trees are wise elders. The animals my brothers and sisters. This isn’t metaphor, either. Nature beings — especially those I know well — are my kin, pure and simple.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked my favorite trails with a broken heart, ready to crawl into a hole and hide for the rest of my life. And over the course of miles and mountains, I emerge with the presence and purpose to keep going.

Coregulating with the natural world is effective because nature is naturally well-regulated.

While we certainly witness imbalances and traumas in our ecosystems, most of the nature spirits we encounter in our daily lives are resourced and regulated. They remember their divinity and often hold a broader perspective than our egoic human minds.

And, usually, they delight when humans turn to them for support. The spirits of nature are tuned in to collective memories of times when humans actively partnered with the Earth. They know that sharing their love with us is part of their destiny.

I’m sure most of you can remember spending time in a natural place that just felt good. Even if you couldn’t pinpoint why specifically, you felt yourself becoming present and relaxed. Unintentionally, you were coregulating with the natural world.

Intentionally coregulating with the natural world is even more powerful. While this practice can be done with a variety of nature beings and places, trees are some of our most accessible allies for this conscious coregulation.

Practice: Coregulating with Trees

Begin by approaching a tree you naturally feel drawn to. Hold your intention for coregulation in your heart.
(One of the core practices I teach when connecting with any spirit being, including nature spirits, is to ask permission before you engage with its field of energy. Yet knowing whether your getting a yes or no answer can be tricky without practice. By setting your intention for healing and then allowing yourself to be drawn to a tree that seems to be calling you, or that just feels good, you can safely assume permission has been given.)
Take a few moments to observe the tree. Witness its beauty, notice the details you would normally gloss over.
How do you feel in the presence of this tree? Notice your energy as you approach. How is it shifting the longer you sit with this tree?
Even if you notice that the tree is diseased or damaged, see if you can pierce that layer of existence to align with the true, divine essence of the tree.
Take some time to tune into the roots, the trunk, the expansion of the branches. What sensations arise in your body?
Feel into the solid, grounded energy of the tree. Depending on the kind of tree and time of year, you might sense energy that feels rooted and flexible, grounded and expansive, nourished and nourishing, resilient and joyful.
Check in with your own nervous system again. Feel the energy of the tree within your being.
You can deepen this practice even more by adding circular breathing with the tree. Visualize yourself inhaling both the oxygen and energy of the tree, and as you exhale, it receives your carbon dioxide and energy.
You can also spend time in direct contact with the tree: Either sit with your back along the trunk or go head and give it a big, long hug. Both can enhance the energetic experience of the tree. There’s a reason tree hugging is thing!
When you feel complete, offer thanks to the tree (more on this when we discuss reciprocity in Part 3 of this series). Acknowledge what you have received and move forward with gratitude in your heart.
If available to you, try repeating this practice with the same tree several times. You’ll notice that not only do new sensations arise, but new insights and wisdom will spark within your consciousness, as well.

Coregulating with Place

This is a practice you can do with rivers, mountains, flowers, stones, and the earth herself. The more variety you experiment with, the more you’ll realize that nourishment from the natural world has many different flavors.

Another place that I have a deep, long standing relationship with is the Oregon Coast. If you’ve never visited the Oregon Coast, know that it is wild. Largely undeveloped and protected with state park designations, these rocky beaches have retained an untamable, at times exhilarating, energy.

Massive rocky outcrops emerge from huge coastal waves. Cliffs filled with nesting birds of prey overlook tide pools full of sea anemones and starfish. Giant kelp and jellyfish wash along the shores. The water is numbingly cold even at the height of summer, and ravaging wind gusts are almost guaranteed.

This is not exactly a relaxing scene in many ways, yet the wild coasts of Oregon feel aligned. As rough as the waves and weather may be, the spirit of this place is strong. And I’ve never ended a trip to the coast without feeling more enlivened and empowered because of our time together.

Coregulating with the wild spirit of the coast is a very different experience from sitting with a tree in a park. The calm, nurturing, grounding energy of the tree contrasts with the wild strength of the sea — yet both energies are perfectly aligned with their own divinity. Both are resourced and regulated. And this is what heals us.

Your invitation here is to explore the gifts of coregulating with place.

Where do you feel enlivened? Where do you feel a sense of calm presence? Allow yourself to receive the healing energy of aligning with the Earth’s authentic being.

Coregulating with Animals

You might have noticed that until now, I haven’t included animals in the list of nature spirits to practice coregulating with. Put simply, animals are different. They have nervous systems, just like we do, and they may or may not feel resourced and regulated themselves. Coregulating with animals can be an absolutely beautiful experience, and it can benefit both parties, but it needs to be approached a bit differently.

When it comes to animals in the wild, coregulation is a rare gift. In my experience, wild animals usually don’t sit in presence and regulate with humans. While it can happen, and some humans are especially gifted at this practice, animals in the wild most often appear as messengers.

(If you’d like to learn how to understand messages from animals, I have a really special short course on the topic here.)

Our pets, however, can be wonderful allies for coregulating — and if you have a pet you love, you already know exactly what I mean.

While human-pet relationships can be as varied as any familial dynamics, most often our pets are happy to coregulate with us. Humans have karmic bonds with many species that make dropping into coregulation natural and healing for both us and our animal kin.

The frequency cat’s purr has positive physiological effects on our nervous systems. The unconditional love in a dog’s gaze heals the heart at the deepest levels. I even had a lizard who, though I didn’t have the language for it at the time, would coregulate with me…

I swear — that lizard and I had karma. A lizard wouldn’t have been on my personal pet list, as I always thought lizards were best left in the wild. But this one, a bearded dragon named Diego, was about to be returned to a petshop because his owner was moving across the country, so I volunteered to take him in.

At first, he was so foreign to me — a little dinosaur walking around my kitchen floor. Yet it didn’t take long for me to learn his language, see his intelligence, and tune into his amazing presence.

I was in grad school at the time — not exactly a stress-free era of life — and I would often take Diego out of his enclosure to run around my bedroom while I studied. I distinctly remember that whenever I would pause and take a meditation break, he would run over and hop in my lap to join me. Eventually, this magical little being would initiate the meditation breaks!

I loved that lizard, and would hold him while watching TV, feed him green beans from the garden, take him on little walks in the backyard…I know without a doubt that he was coregulating with my perfectionist student self, and I needed him.

If you open your mind and heart to the many possibilities of connecting with the natural, wild world — support can be found in the most surprising places.

Cultivating Self-Regulation

One of the basic tenets of psychological teachings on coregulation is that it’s not a replacement for self-regulation. We must develop the skills to soothe and tend our nervous systems on a regular basis, to cultivate resilience for challenging times, and to become beacons of stability and healing for others.

In a way, coregulating with the natural world is a beautiful step toward being able to effectively self-regulate. In the presence of nature spirits, we aren’t alone, yet we can be alone in the human sense. We can tune into our own resources, guided by the natural world.

Humans are losing their ****, and how body and Earth can help (aka, tend your nervous system)

You’re not crazy for feeling a bit crazy right now + healing from extreme adrenal fatigue.

It's not crazy to feel like the world is a bit crazy right now.

Ever since the pandemic arrived in 2020, life has felt a bit volatile — right?

I find peace through my connections with nature, spirit, and the cosmos…but I’m always tracking our collective energies through various media outlets.

Intuitively, I’ve felt that we should expect more collective upheaval until 2025 or 2026 (something many astrologers have confirmed). This isn’t saying that major goodness and growth won’t happen along the way. Rather, it’s more of an acknowledgement that yes, things feel a bit crazy and no, you’re not crazy for noticing.

The completely bizarre shootings of young people making mistakes last week really hit me. Being naturally sensitive, I’ve of course felt the pressure-cooker like energy of our collective. I’ve watched as people have become so filled with fear — what is likely deep, existential, multi-layered fear — that they are losing their humanity.

We’ve traded our reverence of life for the gods of money.

Now, personal survival and individualism to the extreme seem to come first no matter the cost. No civilization has ever thrived with rampant individualism at the core of its values (the elites in that civilization yes, for a time, but without collective care I don’t think you can really say an entire civilization is thriving).

I’m not surprised that people have lost their shit.

The pandemic, no matter how you were personally affected, shook the foundations that so many had taken for granted.

The way the media pours fuel on the fire of the most aggressive voices in our modern cultural movements — from every side and in all directions — has further shaken the foundations and assumptions that once provided stability in people’s lives. And has further made us fearful of each other.

(Though, for what it’s worth, shootings like this aren’t actually new. The media just decided to cover them all in one week. Once again, we must always check the agendas of any media outlets and the energetic influences they are susceptible to.)

I’m not saying the need to question our assumptions is a bad thing — it’s an essential part of our soul growth. But I do know that it’s not easy, and without the proper skills and support, and a lot of compassion, this process can feed into collective fears (furthering the divides that keep us disempowered from enacting real collective change).

And then there’s the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and the effects this has on our psyches. Just a few months back, AI programs like ChatGPT basically seemed like advanced search engines. Now, even a layperson like me is seeing hints of true AGI. When a computer learns how it works and discovers how to improve itself, how long until we really do reach the singularity?

This monumental change to life as we know it further fuels humanity’s existential fears. And it’s not just about robots taking our jobs anymore — though that’s certainly a concern. And it’s not just about feeling as if you can’t keep up with these changes, or are losing your way of life — though those are at play too.

These fears arise because on some level, whether consciously or not, humans are wondering what role reality will actually play in their lives — and what the definition of “reality” will even be. (More thoughts on this here.)

Which brings us to what is real, right now: our Earth. No one is immune to the Earth changes before us.

We must tend our bodies and regulate our nervous systems to meet for the challenges before us.

When I feel into my own experience with shaken foundations and future insecurity, I notice that my personal response changes drastically based on the physical health of my body, especially when it comes to the state of my nervous system.

If I’m already feeling drained and stressed, and I know that my HPA axis is out of whack, I tend to go into protection mode: I feel so depleted and under-resourced already, that I’m put on notice to guard everything I have left — whether this is my time and energy or my physical property. New information or a new person becomes a threat until proven otherwise.

If I’m well-resourced and nourished, my personal response is radically different — and more in line with my true nature: I immediately turn to love. As cheesy as it might sound, our hearts are capable of endless compassion. From this place, when I see others acting out of fear, an inner determination to be a beacon of light, grounded and hopeful, in the midst of chaos fuels my motivations.

I can’t emphasize enough how intricately connected these responses are to my physical state of being.

My own journey through (and still in) extreme adrenal fatigue, catalyzed by a series of traumatic events and ongoing grief, has taught me a lot about this.

Even though my emotions might be going haywire and my soul feels wounded, if I’ve slept enough, fed myself nourishing foods, sipped on nervine teas, done my daily meditation practice, and kept up with regular abhyanga, my response to any disrupting information is more compassionate.

Unfortunately, it requires a lot of effort to stay healthy and sane these days (especially since most of us are already in recovery mode from the past two years). When your nervous system has been taxed by years of compounding stress — personal, collective, and of course environmental and physical — simply “maintaining” isn’t enough.

How to Tend Your Nervous System When Burnout and Trauma Are Becoming Too Much

Needless to say, everyone is different, and finding the magical combo of support that works for your system and your lifestyle takes time and real effort. That said, I can share what has been most impactful for me, in case it inspires any support in your own life.

(It should be said that I hit a state of what felt like near catatonic exhaustion, with real adrenal fatigue and ongoing grief that will not subside to this day. The dedication I’ve needed to put into recovery is hopefully more than most of you will need to do. If this sounds extreme, simply take inspiration for what feels true and doable for you.)

Vitamins — So basic, yet so important. If nothing else, remembering to take my daily vitamins and a probiotic keeps me afloat.
Meditation — When I was entering auto-immune territory, I knew I needed more significant changes. I committed to 40 - 60 minutes of meditation daily, mostly practicing the golden elixir meditation from Taoism, and this has probably helped more than anything.
Pranayama — Along with meditation, I practice yogic breathing for another 20-30 minutes a day.
Syncing with natural cycles — I try to expose my eyes to the light at sunrise, high noon, sunset, and the night sky every day. This means I’m up before sunrise and in bed by 9:30.
Plant Allies — These have been huge:
- I traded out my morning coffee for a homemade adaptogenic brew filled with bitters, mushrooms, and liver-loving herbs.
- I sip a big batch of nourishing herbal infusions to replenish my minerals and soothe my nervous system throughout each day — nettle, oatstraw, raspberry leaf, lemon balm, marshmallow, horsetail, tulsi, gotu kola, and skullcap are some of my favorites to include in the mix.
Spend time in nature — The natural world reminds us of our own natural essence. Physiological and psychological healing arises when spend contemplative time in the wilderness.
Smell good things — It’s so easy to add a bit of aroma to your day, yet it makes a massive difference for the psyche.

The commitments I’ve made to restoring my HPA axis and nourishing my nervous system have been significant, timewise and financially. But in essence, they’re really pretty simple. Take your vitamins. Breathe. Look to the skies. Meditate. Partner with plants.

There’s more of course — movement, cold showers, dietary changes, saying no wayyy more often, limiting media exposure, time with loved ones, and partnering with the spirit world, to name a few. I have a whole article on stepping into rest if you’ve forgotten how, and another one with many more healing protocols.

Ecological Trauma: A Guide to Understanding Eco-Trauma

The first step in transmuting the chronic grief, rage, and suffering brought about ecological trauma is to acknowledge its existence.

I recently came across an article in the Economist, of all places, entitled, “Shamanism is Britain’s fastest-growing religion”.

The article itself is not impressive (Shamanism is a religion? Um, no.), but it does share an interesting hypothesis:

People are increasingly returning to nature-based spirituality because of the existential threats facing our earth.

How interesting. Shamanism and other nature-based spiritual practices arose at a time when humans lived in partnership with the Earth. Now, after centuries of separating ourselves from the natural world, humans are waking up to the fact that the more we distance ourselves from the Earth, the more we distance ourselves from life itself.

Those of us who deeply love our Earth often feel a complex, ongoing, and even subconscious traumatic response to the immense pain humans have inflicted upon the planet and her inhabitants.

We feel grief — at the harm done to the Earth, the animals, the plants, waters, mountains, and more at the will of humans.
We feel rage — at all the ways our current environmental crises could have been prevented, at how many obstacles we still face to get even the most basic protections in place.
We feel guilt — for being part of the human species, for having to live in ways that cause more harm simply by existing within our society.
We feel pain — as empaths whose energy bodies do not separate the Earth’s pain from our own.
We feel numb — because continuing to stay open and aware can be too much for our hearts to bear.

These are strong emotions. And as difficult as it is to feel this much grief, rage, guilt, and pain, there is power in these feelings.

Emotions are charged with energy — and all energy is usable energy.

The question then becomes, how will you alchemize your grief into hope? Your rage into healing?

Living with the Effects of Ongoing Ecological Trauma

Before we jump into transmuting our pain, we must acknowledge what is true now: Humans are collectively traumatized. The existential ecological threats facing our species reside in all of our consciousnesses.

The word “trauma” has become astonishingly pervasive in our current cultural narratives, with many voices contributing nuanced definitions of what was once a more specific psychological term. Here are a few key components that I consider when referring to something as traumatic:

In general, trauma occurs in response to unusually distressing, life-threatening, and adverse events. These might be single occurrences, such as an accident, or ongoing experiences, such as abuse and neglect.
Trauma doesn’t just arise from directly experiencing a traumatic event — witnessing, failing to prevent, and perpetuating adverse events may also lead to trauma.
Trauma is more than an emotional response. It lives in our minds, bodies, and souls — and thus healing trauma must incorporate holistic approaches.

I find the perspective of trauma as a moral injury especially valuable when it comes to conversations on ecological trauma. When we experience, witness, allow, or perpetuate an act that transgresses our fundamental beliefs about how the world should operate, there can be a break in our psyches. Shame, guilt, fear, and loss of trust in the goodness of life fill the cracks.

What Is Ecological Trauma?

When it comes to environmental trauma, all of the above coalesce to create a complex and seemingly inescapable form of collective trauma. Let’s look more specifically at what this means in four ecological contexts…

1. Experiencing and Witnessing the Adverse Effects of Human-Caused Climate Change

When people first hear the term “ecological trauma”, their minds often wander to the effects of human-caused climate change — natural disasters that have been accelerated by human impact, food and water insecurity, the harmful effects of environmental toxins and pollution (an area none of us are truly immune to), and the violent conflict that may result from all of this.

With our ever more connected world, even if we haven’t personally lived through a natural disaster or experienced food insecurity, we’re constantly reminded that ecological traumas are happening (we witness them through mass media) and that they will likely impact our lives at some point (the existential threat).

I simply don’t know how anyone could witness the growing numbers of wildfires and “1000-year” floods every year, hear predictions that our coast lines will be underwater and farmland will cease production because of drought, learn about microplastics in our waters and glyphosates in our foods…and not experience fears around safety and survival. This is trauma, and it has become a consistent part of modern life.

One of the most dangerous impacts of this line of ecological trauma is the sense of powerlessness it imbues us with.

There is nothing more dangerous than giving up. If you’re feeling powerless or fearful about these far-reaching effects of climate change — ask yourself, where are the roots of this fear? How is the mass media machine feeding my sense of powerlessness?

This type of ongoing trauma can become debilitating — it can cause us to numb out, give up, and shut down. And it can be tended.

Tending your nervous system in response to the existential threats we face strengthens your resilience to keep embracing what’s true while holding a vision of what is still possible. The elements of the natural world are available to support us:

Turn to the air, and breathe four counts in and four counts out.
Turn to the earth, and allow plant allies to soothe you with restorative teas.
Turn to the water, and soak in salts that draw toxins from your body.
Turn to the fire, and feel passion fortify your heart.

2. Our Innate Empathic Connection

In recent years, I have witnessed a wave of “empath awareness” content sweep through popular culture. While I’m happy to see this phenomenon named and normalized, I feel that most teachings on this topic, which tend to focus on recovery and protection, are missing an important point:

Empathy is our natural state of being.

We are meant to embrace the nonverbal, energetic knowing that alerts us to the state of the world around us. Our natural way of being is to intuitively understand the true feelings and motivations of others. Of course we want the skills and awareness to differentiate between other and self, to be able to turn off connection so as not to be overwhelmed — but we must remember that being an empath is a healthy part of our human wholeness.

People who deeply love the earth tend to be in touch with their innate empathic gifts. Being around too many other people for too long can overwhelm our nervous systems, and the natural world provides soul-soothing relief.

Unfortunately, this also means that as sensitive folks, we can feel the earth’s pain as if it were our own. Witnessing harm done to the earth and her inhabitants can feel like physical pain in the system of an empath. Hiking through a forest that has been clear cut, wandering along an ocean shore filled with plastics and fishing line, visiting locations where human atrocities have taken place — ecological empaths will feel deep grief wash through our beings and we may not even know why.

The temptation here is to shut down. But repression is not a local anesthesia (thank you to Jose Soutelinho for that inspiration). When we numb ourselves to grief, rage, and pain, we end up numbing ourselves to joy, hope, and love, too.

We must learn to acknowledge and feel our pain. We must expand our capacity to hold challenging truths in our awareness. And we must remember that the world is more than trauma. She is not broken, and neither are we.

The pain we perceive is only a small layer in the immense divine presence of the earth and the spirits of nature. Rather than shutting down, empaths can learn to extend their awareness beyond the surface and into the true nature of the wild world. And we can tune into non-human timelines, where we see that the earth is never barren and the potential for restoration is always there. Here, you’ll discover compassion, beauty, and divine order far beyond what our human minds might initially perceive.

3. Caught in a Double Bind of Ecological Abuse

Whether we experience, witness, or perpetuate it — abuse is traumatic. And our earth is under an onslaught of abuse that few of us have the power to prevent.

We know that precious resources are extracted from our earth with greed rather than reverence. We know that our waste, sewage, and toxic byproducts are dumped into her soils and waters. This trauma of witnessing and failing to prevent these acts is an inescapable part of our daily lives.

What can be especially traumatic at the soul level, however, is that we are also required to participate in this abuse.

Most people are dependent upon modern society for survival, yet modern society — and all the infrastructure, consumption, trade, and resources it requires — is the earth’s abuser.

Do we leave our abuser to fend for ourselves in the wilderness, knowing that our own departure does nothing to stop the machine, or do we stay and do our best to effect change, knowing that our very existence will have harmful consequences for the planet?

This is a soul-crushing bind to find ourselves in. And it requires soul-level tending.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: “Our ecological crises require cosmological solutions.”

We must remember that the earth is alive, inspirited, and has consciousness — and we can partner with the earth and the myriad spirits of nature to bring about healing. We are children of the earth, and the soul of the earth holds us in endless compassion.

By connecting with the earth’s loving soul on a regular basis, we’re more able to release environmental guilt and fill our hearts with hope. We recognize that even if our personal efforts to live more regenerative lifestyles seem like drops in an ocean, the spirits of nature witness our heartfelt intentions and it does make a difference. The ripple effects might be unseen and subtle, but they are there.

4. Abandonment: Returning to Our Original Mother

For millennia, the earth was seen as alive and as an essential part of our more-than-human family. She was our great mother (and our fertile father in some ancient traditions), who ensured the survival and well-being of all her children. We were born of the earth, nourished by the earth, sheltered by the earth, and loved by the earth. And we remained in reverent relationship with her throughout our lives.

Much of modern life removes us from our ancestral partnership with the earth. Severed from this original relationship, we experience the traumatic effects of parental abandonment in the core of our psyches.

This core abandonment can leave us feeling unloved and under-resourced, as if we must fight for survival and bear the weight of our burdens alone. Helplessness, unworthiness, and ongoing anxiety are natural outcomes of disconnection with our earth mother.

Inherent in this dynamic is also the sense that it is up to humans alone to “solve” our climate crises — we caused it, and we alone can fix it.

While we must take responsibility here, this perspective traps us within the limitations of the human mind. Once again: Our ecological crises require cosmological solutions. We must recognize the natural world as inspirited, with agency in the course of its own future.

We must restore our relationship to the animated earth, listening to the deep wisdom of our mother with reverence, humility, and gratitude.

As deep as this wounding of ecological trauma is, it is perhaps the most available for healing — for our primordial mother has not abandoned us. She is with us every moment of every day, waiting for us to return home to her loving embrace.

Transmuting Our Grief and Trauma Recovery

The ongoing nature of these ecological traumas makes it challenging for us to stay present and well-regulated. It becomes much easier to numb ourselves to the pain of the world, turn away from suffering, and give up hope for healing.

By bringing key practices from trauma recovery into ecological contexts — in other words, by healing in partnership with the natural world — we experience transformational healing.

The Ancestral Convergence: Food & Ritual for Healing this Thanksgiving

I recently saw yet another post about eating ancestral foods and working with ancestral plants on Instagram…

Eat the foods your ancestors ate. Return to the foods that enlivened your DNA throughout generations. Turn to the native plants of your ancestral lands.

This was the message.

On the one hand, I love it. This is something I teach in my Rewilding the Spirit course, having students do a bit of research and prepare a meal that their bloodline ancestors might have enjoyed.

Yet I also teach my students how to connect with their land ancestors—the local ancestors that are keepers of the land they live on now, in this lifetime. Ancestors with whom it’s equally important to partner. Here, we prepare and enjoy local, wild foods to attune our current DNA to the current land we live on.

Reading this post on ancestral foods so close to Thanksgiving here in the States got me thinking—what would an ancestral Thanksgiving meal actually look like?

the ancestral convergence - food and ritual for healing this thanksgiving

I recently saw yet another post about eating ancestral foods and working with ancestral plants on Instagram…

Eat the foods your ancestors ate. Return to the foods that enlivened your DNA throughout generations. Turn to the native plants of your ancestral lands.

This was the message.

On the one hand, I love it. This is something I teach in my Rewilding the Spirit course, having students do a bit of research and prepare a meal that their bloodline ancestors might have enjoyed.

Reading this post on ancestral foods so close to Thanksgiving here in the States got me thinking—what would an ancestral Thanksgiving meal actually look like?

Would we turn to our recent American ancestors—those who cemented stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie into our collective consciousness?

Or perhaps we celebrate local abundance and honor the spirits of the land here, with wild rice and three sisters (squash, beans, and corn) themed cuisine? (An approach my family usually takes...)

Or maybe, as the post suggests, we travel further back to the native lands of our blood relatives.

I have to laugh as I think about what option three would look like…my Dutch, Irish, Swiss, French, and Welsh meeting Mike’s Italian and German heritage would create quite the menu!

And what if we tried to really incorporate all our ancestral influences? Pumpkin pie, wild rice, pickled herring, spaghetti and (vegan) meatballs…

As ridiculous as this image might seem, I actually love how clearly it demonstrates an important truth:

We are the convergence of many ancestral lines.

Ask yourself: What would a truly representative ancestral Thanksgiving dinner look like in your home?

A Thanksgiving Menu with Ancestral Cuisine

This year, Mike and I are having a quiet dinner…but still going all out on our menu, as I’m somewhat addicted to cooking.

Our menu tends to mix some traditional foods with some local ones, and I always try to add a bit of wild, foraged plants in the mix. As we’re both vegetarian and I’m gluten free, everything becomes an updated fancy-pants version of ancestral cuisine.

We’ll have a few dishes I make every year—butternut and wild rice salad, boozy spiced cranberry sauce, pumpkin bread rolls, and green beans. Mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy always make the menu as well. (You can find a few of my favorite recipes here!)

We often have a stuffed pumpkin for our main, but I’m changing it up this year with a sagey mushroom, chestnut, and walnut loaf. Fingers crossed it turns out!

Gratitude, Trauma, and a Complicated Time of Year

Thanksgiving has traditionally been a time to focus on gratitude. Yet, I think many of us are sensitive to the fact that this holiday brings up many challenges, as well…

For those who have lost loved ones—and so many have, especially in the past couple of years—Hallmark images of happy family holidays can feel like knives in the heart.

For those who experienced early childhood trauma, any holiday focused on family can heighten a complex array of difficult emotions, decisions, conversations, and more.

And, while Thanksgiving is still a time to reflect on all we’re grateful for, it’s also becoming more and more a time to reflect on the ancestral traumas that gave birth to this holiday. The very real scars on the peoples and lands who tended this earth before the arrival of settlers cannot be ignored.

These challenges are real and painful, and they can make it easy to slip into guilt and despair. They can even activate fear around even publicly celebrating this holiday.

Yet gratitude is one of the highest vibration states we can enter into. Gratitude shifts our energy and opens our heart. It fortifies our spiritual strength in trying times. It tells the earth and our loved ones that we appreciate all the gifts in our lives. It communicates our own true worth to our innermost selves.

What if we treated our Thanksgiving menus as opportunities for healing? What if we ritualized our feasts as vessels of ancestral reconciliation?

Thanksgiving rituals for healing - navigating complicated legacies with love

Rituals for Thanksgiving Healing

Rituals work because of the powerful confluence of intention and energy they create. Though seemingly magical, they are one of the most powerful ways I know of to create real, observable change in our lives.

Any major holiday is already charged with extra usable energy—generations of repeated intentions and actions have already ritualized these days.

This means that when we set the intention for our Thanksgiving dinners to become healing ceremonies, we really can impact our personal and collective energy in powerful ways.

Though the details of your personal rituals will look different depending on your intentions, a few pieces will be the same:

Set your intention for healing before you begin preparing your meal. Then hold this intention throughout the cooking process. See your love, gratitude, and desire for healing flow from your heart, into your hands, and into the food.
If possible, state your intentions out loud at your dinner table. Invite the others present to offer their intentions for healing, as well.
Affirm that as you consume the food laid before you, your body becomes an alchemical vessel of transformational healing. Just as your digestive system physically transmutes food into energy, the energy of intentions you’ve poured into the food alchemizes into healing.

Any and all healing intentions are welcome here. Trust your guidance. Here are a few suggestions depending on what might be alive for you in this moment:

For family gatherings that might trigger personal trauma or seemingly inevitable conflict, try infusing the food with the emotions you wish to cultivate more of—perhaps self-worth, protection, or family harmony.
For those who wish to honor loved ones across the veil, you may like to prepare their favorite dishes. Imagine the part of them that lives on in you getting to enjoy the meal through your physical vessel. Allow space for their physical absence to be named, and perhaps their spiritual presence to be welcomed.
If your heart is pulled toward all the people without healthy, hot meals at this time of year (or any, really), a beautiful practice here is to harness the energy of your own gratitude. Have everyone around your table feel a deep sense of gratitude for all the abundance you enjoy. Then imagine this abundance spreading to all beings. Visualize, with all the energy and focus you can harness, a world in which all people are fed. This practice might seem small, but it's a little bit of collective magic that really does spread blessings upon the ethers.
To contribute to our collective reconciliation around the traumas inflicted on native populations and the land here, learn about the traditional foods of the ancestors where you live. See if you can incorporate and celebrate these foods into a menu with your own traditional dishes. Set the intention that as your body harmonizes these foods, so harmony and reconciliation build in our collective. Focus on shifting guilt and judgment to love and visions of a better future for all who walk this land.

Please know, these practices aren’t meant to replace the very real-world actions needed to reconcile and heal a horrific legacy of colonization. Nor do they replace the self-healing and resourcing necessary to navigate complicated family legacies. (And for goodness sake, if hunger pulls on your heart be sure to donate to local food banks!)
My intention here is to help transform the underlying energy of our collective traumas so that we can create greater leaps in healing in the physical plane. Just as we tend our own well-being in mind, body, and spirit, we can tend our collective well-being through multiple modes and layers of healing.

An Invitation

This Thanksgiving, take some time to reflect on the many lineages that make up your ancestry. Feel into where healing is needed. Feel into where celebration is called for. And enjoy the sacred dimensions of the wild convergence that is you.