Somatic Healing: Going to Nature with an Open Heart – Episode 38

In this episode, Chris and Deb talk with Jonah Jensen.

Jonah is the founder of Earthways Journeys. His background in trauma work, energy medicine, and ancient healing is the well that he draws from to help others. Having graduated from The Colorado School of Energy Studies, The Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, and The Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts, as well as direct learning from elders, healers, and teachers across the globe, Jonah offers his skill, passion, and presence from his connection with the spirit of the natural world.

Jonah currently guides (private and group) Nature-Based Healing and Trauma Resolution trips in Taos, NM as well as Somatic Experiencing for Trauma Healing through Zoom. In addition, Jonah is currently teaching Depth Mindfulness with a focus on Somatic Wisdom and Biodynamics in the healing process.

Listen into all of the goodness he has to share about going to nature for healing and its guiding wisdom.

John Muir quote from this episode:
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity, and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life.” ~ John Muir, 1901

We close with:

“More

What a common human desire.

The desire for more money, more time, more achievements, more accolades, more possessions.

Jonah reminds us that by crossing the threshold between this desire for more and listening to nature with our whole heart, we may find that we already have enough if we only learn the subtle difference between taking and receiving.

Prepping for this episode with Jonah reminded me of a recent experience on the deck of a small, mountain cabin when a tiny hummingbird with a vibrant green body and magenta collar fluttered right to me, sticking his thin beak between the folds of my bright yellow Kindle cover as I read silently.

Right away I dismissed this as a chance encounter that would have happened to anyone, sitting exactly where I was, at that exact moment.

Jonah has me wondering if it was chance at all, because it was, after all, only me sitting there at exactly the right time, reading from the attractively colored cover. There was no one else. Looking at this from a more receptive point of view might allow me to find a lesson or guidance rather than coincidence.

What is that lesson?

I still can’t say I truly know. Perhaps nothing more than an illustration that we are not as separate as we may think–that the living energy that flows through humans is the same animating force that flows through all that is alive. That it, that we, are all connected. We are not alone.

Not such a small lesson after all.

If this is true–all life is connected by the same animating spirit–then maybe it’s also true that I already have enough, that I am enough. There’s no need for more.

All of which begs the questions:

• What do we do when we already have enough?
• Where do we go when we already have enough?

My hunch tells me, to much more conscious places, much more aligned with that aliveness that connects us all–human and otherwise.

May you cross that threshold today, friend, taking that intangible step in nature between more and listening with an open heart. May walking with nature in this way, receiving her lessons, begin to show you clearly what you have to learn about enough–that you have enough, you are enough. And in doing so, may you find so much more peace in the direction of receiving than there ever was in taking in the first place.

Much love to you, today and every day!