Six questions to deepen your nature connection
Break free from the status quo and let these powerful questions lead you to a remarkable nature connection. A mystic inspired framework to forest therapy, nature meditation, and guided mindfulness.
These questions about nature connection are for you if:
- You don’t understand why everyone seems to love hiking.
- You venture to beautiful natural places—like a waterfall—only to turn around after five minutes without much fulfillment.
- You are experiencing heartache and can’t seem to find a way through.
- Your life feels too frenetic, and reading books, journaling, or meditating seems impossible, even when your instincts tell you to do it.
- You already enjoy the great outdoors but are curious about new ways to augment your traditions.
Table of Contents: Questions to help with forest therapy, nature meditation, and guided mindfulness.
How can a deeper connection with nature help you?
Communing with nature has abundant rewards that humans sense on a primal level. For example, the marvel of sunset seems to cast a spell, if only fleeting, of understanding we’re interdependent with something more significant.
And even in the chaos of modern life, we each hold a sleeper cell of DNA—remnants of our hunter-gatherer biology from 30,000 years ago—waiting to deliver the benefits of reuniting with the land:
- Enjoy a sense of belonging from feeling a part of nature’s interdependence.
- Reinforce confidence in your resiliency in daily life. Nature is constantly changing, so you can handle what you face.
- Engage with a sense of purpose and meaning. Because everything in nature has a purpose.
A growing body of research points to the beneficial effects of exposure to the natural world on health, reducing stress, and promoting healing. Some studies further clarify that immersive natural experiences are essential to producing lasting benefits such as lower blood pressure, higher concentration, and improved mental health.
Nature is also omnipresent, making it the perfect partner in a lasting relationship. The park down the street, the landscape around your home, or even the fir trees along the highway are examples of nature’s intelligence, allowing you to connect everywhere you look.
While you might already have ideas and traditions about enjoying nature, asking these questions opens you to a robust exchange with the Natural World in ways that make your experiences in the outdoors more meaningful.
Mystic developed, tested, and approved!
These questions were developed over my lifetime as I used curiosity to lead myself and others through nature. I once thought everyone saw the same magical things I did in the organic world—but they don’t. We are all built differently, and I feel a calling to help others experience nature’s intelligence in the transformative ways I’ve known since I was six.
My in-person work helping people connect via forest therapy, nature meditation retreats, and guided mindfulness coaching has opened my eyes to the immense potential for transformation in this process. Asking thoughtful questions is safe, reliable, and effective through every experience I lead, helping people explore their wild nature on the way to healing, wellness, and awakening.
Use this question framework to find more fulfillment in nature and yourself.
What is nature’s intelligence?
You know it when you feel it. Nature’s intelligence is your connection to a technicolor sunset or the comfort of flowers on a challenging day. It can be a divine-like awareness that everything will be okay. Nature’s intelligence is unexplainable in ordinary human language because it encompasses many different planes of intuition and consciousness while inspiring creative and wise parts of you to “wake up.” That’s why you’ve probably heard phrases like, “I need to walk to clear my head.” Another way to look at this “waking up” is learning to see yourself more clearly—what impedes, supports, and transforms you.
Question 1: How can you opt into nature’s intelligence?
Like knocking on your neighbor’s door, opting into nature is about saying “yes” to the land and entering with respect and humility. In the same way, you might remove shoes when arriving at a house party or bring food or a gift; this approach is similar to beginning well in nature.
Just like you wouldn’t feed your friend’s dog, leave orange peels on the living room floor, or take a prized possession without permission, check your attitude at the door to nature. Do you enter with awareness to be a good steward of the land? This can even apply to creating media. Do you snap a picture to “conquer” the waterfall, or is there thought into acknowledging the nature spirits around you when taking a selfie?
Every part of the planet has land spirits with a story. From geological ups and downs to human development, the topography around you has a very alive spirit. Get curious about the arc of history, and ask yourself how you can respectfully add to the story—if only for a few hours of hiking. You’ll feel a more profound sense of connection and belonging. Do this work beforehand so you can remain present on the land.
Although many have tried to explain it over the millennia, nature’s intelligence remains a mystery. Because of this, ask yourself, “Am I open to the magical, mystical, and inexplicable? Do I trust that I do not need to create human words to validate my relationship with the Natural World?”
Asking these types of questions leads you toward feeling that you’re part of the experience in nature rather than a spectator. The more thoughtful the questions, the more you’ll engage your experience of feeling the web of interdependence around you.
Questions to customize to your experience:
- How can I show myself and nature that I belong here?
- How can I mindfully create media with the spirits of the land?
- Am I choosing to be part of the land rather than a spectator?
- What is the most intriguing part of this land story?
- Can I suspend conventional thought to open up to the magic of this experience?
Question 2: How can you cultivate intention?
Springing nicely from opting into nature, curiosity about aligning your heart, mind, and spirit—or feelings, thoughts, and intuition—with the organic world will pay huge dividends. Ask yourself, “How can I connect my wild nature with nature’s intelligence?”
This step is a “plugging in” of sorts. Imagine a two-way conduit from your brain, heart, and gut into a tree standing before you, enabling information to flow freely back and forth in an alternating current.
Another way to look at this is to ask the natural world for assistance—whether that be an authentic connection for wellness, healing heartache, or facing awakening questions like “What steps do I take to find a new job?” The natural world is unbiased and unconditionally supportive. It is an excellent place to offer your authentic feelings, thoughts, and instincts.
While this might seem like a lot of taking without giving back, remember that when you ground in the land or work to heal yourself, you add goodness to the collective. You’re more likely to manage emotions to make decisions from a place of grounding and self-clarity, which has ripple effects on your loved ones, community, and the planet.
Questions to customize to your experience:
- Why am I engaging in this nature experience?
- What do I need most in this moment—healing, wellness, or awakening?
- How can the land support me with guidance and information? What does this mean to me?
- Am I willing to look at my wild nature? Why or why not?
- How can this experience impact my daily life?
Question 3: How do you remain present?
Once you’ve opted into the land and have the conduits hooked up for free-flowing information to and from nature’s intelligence, it’s important to keep present to monitor the guidance and information flowing to and fro.
It’s like working on an assembly line in quality control and looking away from the conveyor belt while defective parts glide by. Wisdom flows, but you must be present to monitor it. This includes removing distortive feelings, thoughts, instincts—or fear—from focus.
Fear is a typical culprit that distracts you from being present in nature and from your own nature. While this might sound negative and scary, remember that you always have a light and dark side within you. By facing your fears, you actually empower yourself to navigate through them.
Evaluate your fears while in nature and ask yourself, “Can I remain mindful of these potential distractions while allowing myself to focus on a deeper connection to nature?” Create a plan for returning to focus, such as carrying a rock in your pocket for grounding.
Helpful hints for keeping present in nature:
- Begin your experience by making a friend in nature, like a particular leaf or flower. Imprint this in your mind as a helper and refer back when you need grounding.
- Imagine distractions as a spring in your mind that you can slowly unravel to a place where there is no longer tension. Then, let them fall out of focus.
- Allow fears to flow through your consciousness like clouds in the sky—drifting away.
Question 3: How do you remain present?
Ponder these six fears that arise frequently when people explore the wilderness of their own lives. Do any of these resonate with you? If one makes you feel defensive, ask yourself why. What do you notice when reading about fear? These golden insights provide reinforcement going into nature, so keep curious.
1. Fear of stillness.
This can also be a fear of silence, such as a pregnant pause in a conversation. Fear of stillness can lead to engaging in external distractions like media, technology, and talking while in nature.
2. Fear of brain inaction.
Also known as the monkey brain, this is the need for your mind to keep spooling at a pace that isn’t sustainable but perceived to be required.
3. Fear of not knowing.
This is the family of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and wanting to control the narrative. Sometimes, I see people stopping their momentum to look up the type of tree on an app or survey the map to see how much further the waterfall is. Safety realities, like wild animals, can also emerge as a fear of not knowing. In this case, engage nature in a beautiful city park or arboretum until you feel more comfortable in the great outdoors.
4. Fear of the present.
Time travel is a regular occurrence with people I guide into the wilderness of their own lives. Are you pondering your next hike? Or remember how a different hike was better? You’re time traveling, distracting yourself from the present medicine of nature.
5. Fear of not being good enough.
This is the family of competition and conquering nature. For example, focusing on reaching the waterfall for a photo op to say to the world, “We did it = we conquered it,” distracts from potential messages from nature’s intelligence along the path. Sometimes, this shows up when pursuing the perfect flower, viewpoint, or anything using the word “perfect.”
6. Fear of the self.
Since nature is a powerful ally that helps you see your wild nature more clearly, it might be scary to see yourself more clearly. This is because “waking up” exposes the darker parts of your personality—or shadow. Acknowledging success can be part of this fear because of deep-rooted cultural beliefs about “when the other shoe is going to drop and take this all away.”
Question 4: What is your natural pace?
Imagine the flora and fauna of any location as a collection of wise guides and loved ones. They cheer you on and have lots to share about your greater good—maybe even vital knowledge for healing, wellness, and awakening. Or your ancestors, who want you to succeed. In this case, what pace is required to slow down enough to take in all the helpful wisdom?
Nature is neither stagnant nor rushed, so this is about deepening into your natural pace. The average human heart rate on the low end is one beat per second, which is a natural pace. Try taking one step for each (resting) heartbeat and see how that feels. Or imagine introducing yourself to each plant or tree on a trail with the same amount of pause and thought as you might at a social gathering.
Questions to customize to your experience:
- Is this pace providing land spirits a chance to connect with me?
- Do I need to reach the trail’s end? Why or why not?
- How can I use my surroundings to help adjust my gait?
- Am I letting external cues (like other hikers) influence my pace?
- Does my outside speed match my inner rhythm, and vice versa?
Question 5: What do you notice?
This question is the culmination of the other four. By this point, if you’ve opted into nature, aligned your heart, mind, and spirit, focused on the now, and synched up with your natural pace, you’re well-aligned to interact with nature’s intelligence. Ask yourself questions about the experience.
Engaging land spirits requires attention to bodily sensations, instincts, feelings, and thoughts about the natural surroundings. For example, you may keep looking at the birds flying above or notice a particular plant among the collage of life. In these moments, you can trust anything is possible and ask the land spirits for clarity. Remember, guidance and information may take various forms, so keep your senses open.
Ask questions about nature and your own nature, and be open to what comes next.
When working with people in forest therapy sessions, I often hear them say, “This sounds really strange, but the tree just told me…” You must refrain from judging your experience through the lens of modern-day culture, which, as mentioned, cannot explain nature’s intelligence in tangible human ways.
Questions to customize to your experience:
- What do my senses take in—colors, sounds, textures, smells?
- How does my body feel right now?
- How does aligning my feelings, thoughts, and instincts impact this experience?
- Is anything transpiring between nature’s intelligence and me?
- Do I have any questions to ask the land? Am I open to information and guidance at this moment?
Question 6: How do you reflect & integrate into daily life?
Using this framework to deepen your connection to nature is a regular practice that becomes more familiar as you remember and incorporate all the components of your experience.
Ask questions that reflect your exchange with the land and make notes immediately. Since many people are delayed processors, return to your awareness before bed or when awake the following day.
Finally, consider incorporating the guidance and information from your nature immersion into daily life. How can you implement minor, tangible, and realistic alterations?
Questions to customize to your experience:
- What part of my time on the land surprised me?
- What themes felt present? How might they relate to daily life?
- Did any fears arise? Am I left with more questions?
- Should I do/try/engage in something different next time? Why?
- What are three things I’ll integrate from nature’s intelligence today?
Break from the status quo.
There’s more to your nature.
Let me help you find it.
