How we identity is a lifelong process and involves deep exploration into our backgrounds, our history, our attachments, and our passions. The “Who am I?” questions are difficult to figure out at times and can be daunting. What do we look at when we explore what has made us who we are?
My career as a therapist has me asking these questions often to each client that comes through the door as I learn their story. Often when I look into the question of identity, I like to start with the beginning. Going back to childhood allows us to have a more holistic view of where our beliefs and interests began and it sheds some light on the attachments we have been building since early on in our existence.
Typically I find that a lot of us form attachments to our primary caregivers that we grew up with such as our parents/grandparents/guardians/close kin. Usually our first friendships, our family relationships, and our early hobbies help to shape our interests/passions in the future and give us a foundation of what we see as safe or healthy within relationships.
What we may be missing when we explore our foundation of who we are is the role that our environment plays in our identifying features. How nature and our relationship with the earth impact our beliefs and worldviews is an important element of our identity. Exploring this aspect of identity helps to give us a more holistic view of who we are and helps us to understand our Ecological self.
The attachment between human and mother earth can be just as impactful as the attachment from child to caregiver. This aspect of who we are is often overlooked by our modern society.
We have attachments to nature through food, touch, movement, and even the circadian rhythms we adopt from the moon cycles and seasons. Our biological design is shaped through our relationship with our surrounding natural environment so checking in with this connection can only teach us more about ourselves and deepen our sense of belonging as an animal being and an inhabitant of this earth.
Our connection with nature has been a part of our lives since the beginning of our existence as homosapiens. As society evolves and we spend more and more time indoors, we get further away from our innate connection and attachment to nature. This domestication of our wild selves may lead us to feel more detached, isolated, and lonely without being able to pinpoint why. Our sense of place is disrupted and we lack that deeper connection to something greater than ourselves when we lose the wild within us.
I invite you to explore this aspect of who you are and see what may shift in your perception of self.
Below I will list a few questions to help get this exploration started. I invite you to use these questions as journal prompts or just to hold them in your heart and your mind this week as you look deeper at what lights you up, and the intricacies of you as a holistic being in connection with our natural home.
Here are some questions to explore the health of your ecological self:
· What is your earliest memory of nature?
· What was it like growing up? Were you able to get your hands dirty, go out to see the stars, plant in the garden?
· Can you recall your first moment of feeling a sense of awe in nature?
· What was your geological landscape like around your house growing up? Perhaps draw a map to explore this deeper.
· Were there specific trees, flowers, plants that stand out to you from childhood?
· How did you first learn about your ancestors? Through school, family tradition, books?
· When and where do you feel safest in nature?
· When and where do you feel unsafe in nature?
· What is your relationship with time? Are you often in a hurry?
· Have you ever been lost in the natural world? What happened? Did you lose yourself intentionally?
· Have there been any losses or fears regarding the natural world?
· How does the loss of species and global warming impact you emotionally?
· How much intentional time do you spend in the outdoors? Is it enough? What do you do in the outdoors for recreation?
· Describe your relationship with nature from each decade of your life, and into your current experience. How has your relationship shifted or evolved?
These questions are just a few of so many more we could explore when it comes to deepening into your ecological self. Our connection with nature allows us to be a part of something greater and feel a sense of belonging and peace.
I invite you to continue to explore these concepts for yourself and please reach out if you have any questions or would like to learn more about nature reconnection wok to enhance your sense of identity and overall wellness.
Tune in to this video called Wild Wellness Wednesdays to hear more on this topic. Each week I post a new video exploring a new topic from a nature based and trauma informed lens.
You can see more Wild Wellness Wednesdays videos each week at:
https://instagram.com/wildsensetherapy.com