Life Challenges

Creative Ways to Transform Challenges:
Connecting to the Healing Forces of Nature

Nature as Teacher James A. Swan, Ph.D

Note: Before you begin, find a comfortable place to sit or lie down and give yourself 15 to 20 minutes to take this journey.

This is a journey in search of a nature healer who is especially suited for you. Begin by seeing yourself walking down a path through a field, at the end of which is a hill, surrounded by a forest. The path continues into the forest and around the hill. Notice how you negotiate the hill. Do you go to the lefi or right, or even climb over the top? When you get to the other side of the hill, you will find a building that is the temple of your nature healer. Note its shape and architecture.

When you come to the temple, before entering make an offering of some food beside the trail, honoring the spirits of nature who are working with you. You may also want to say a prayer. When you enter the temple, you will find your guide to nature healing. Introduce yourself and tell the guide why you are there.

Now the guide will take you down into a sacred mine. Together you go down, down into the earth, until you reach a place where you come to a sacred gem or minera. Examine the healing stone. You may want to ask the guide how to use it.

After you have become familiar with the healing stone, bring it back up to the surface with you. Ask your guide about the stone and how it can help you. Say good-bye to your guide, and then exit from the temple. Walk back on the path until you come back into the field again. Then let go of the scene and return to your experience of the room and your body. You can return to the healing temple again anytime you like, to ask your guide other questions about health and healing.

From Nature as Teacher and Healer: How to Reawaken Your Connection with Nature, by James A. Swan, Ph.D., Villard Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, NY, 1992, 2: pp. 193-4.

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