Nature Connection and Somatic Reflection Circle
- Tanya Galibus
- May 17
- 11 min read
Apr 11, 2026 • 30 mins
SPEAKERS
Michael, Sarah, Manuel, Dimitri, Francisca, Tanya
This meeting centered on participants sharing deeply personal experiences of connecting with
nature, their bodies, and emotions through somatic practices and mindful presence. Several speakers
described how the session helped them process recent life challenges, emotional blockages, and
physical pain, leading to a sense of release, grounding, and reconnection with themselves and their
surroundings. The group reflected on the contrast between modern life’s pressures and the more
natural, multisensory, and communal ways of being, drawing parallels to pre-industrial or ancestral
lifestyles. Themes of gratitude, the healing power of nature, the importance of observation, and the
value of shared experience emerged strongly. The conversation also touched on the impact humans
have on nature, feelings of shame and responsibility, and the significance of attention and open
awareness in fostering well-being and connection.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
nature connection, somatic practice, breath work, emotional release, inner child, memory, multisensory
experience, open attention, carrier bag theory, human impact, observation, gratitude, community, healing,
mindful presence
Photo by Francisca
Michael
I don't know if I was in Continuum, but I was in a place that felt very much like home. A place of touching and being touched back by everything around me. Inside out, outside in. A place that opens up a lot of yawning and crying from it. Like a river of fluidity that's like physical but then also has an effect once there. The river is flowing from my eyes and beyond. I really appreciated the grounding of the cave breath when I found moments where I started to appreciate as a form of judgment. But judgment in the form of appreciation. Starting to make a sense story or a memory, all with good vibes, but still noticing those moments and going back into that enchantment that the breath could give to ground and release from the voice. So appreciating that I'm not the voice. I'm aware of the voice. I love the voice. So happy to be around the edges of it.
Tanya
Edges of voice. I believe I resonate with this somehow.
Michael
Oh yeah. Also this observation, like this is a really weird experience but at the same time it's also the most normal thing I've ever done. And I could imagine that most of human history was more like that than like what we think it is. So that kind of deep, somatic, more than human, pre human vibe is a place worth listening to and remembering.
Photo by Francisca
Sarah
I am really grateful for this moment that we took. Because I was living a period where I had to adapt myself to new work circumstances and emotion and a lot of questioning about myself. And I had no real time. I could not give me time to do something else than adapt myself to this situation. And I could not. I didn't allow myself or I was really in impossibility to do it. I was focused on my objective. It's like nothing else was able to be in my mind. Like it's too much. Everything is too much. And I was not in the possibility to calm down and take time. And so I'm happy about this experience because I have the impression I finally can go over this period and get back a bit more to myself and a bit more to what maybe I used to be before this. I used to have more time and more need of nature and yeah more imagination. And also I had a lot of pain, physical pain so mixed all together I didn't know what to do.
And here I could take the time just to get back to me, get back to nature, to how I conceive a bit life and pleasure. And I needed not to move. I didn't move at all. I stayed there and I feel attracted by the minerality of this stone. I don't know why. I just felt good to be on the stone. Yes. So I stayed there and I applied what I knew about this cycle of breathing, alternating the breaths. And all came back what I experienced already with you. Like the first time, the first time I tried this practice and it felt very good. I felt that my body was responding and I say, whoa, what's happening? I was so blocked before and there I say, okay. Then it is telling me something. So I was focusing, of course. Like I have to liberate my hips. Well, I don't have, but just that's where the pain is. And so I somehow liberate something. And then I wanted to cry. So I. I really had a big emotion.
It's like it was stuck there. So I guess it's positive that I could liberate that. And yeah, the sounds, every time it's liberating me. And after three layers, I felt it was over. I felt I was done. I felt I had to wake up. Like I was
sometimes in contact with the view of the trees because I was lying on the stone. So, I was still some time in contact with the trees and the noise of the area. But yeah, I heard a lot of birds. And when it finished, it's like all birds became very loud at the same time. Whoa. Funny. And I smelled also the flowers coming from there. I didn't before. So yeah, it was wonderful. And then when I had to wake up, I started to move and rearrange and my imagination. There is more space in my head now. And I don't know if my pain will be gone, but at the same time I feel more free in my head and it's already something. And I felt a lot of feeling good. I don't know if it will last a long time. And I think I stayed here because I need connection. I don't want to be alone. So maybe there's a reason that's my feedback.
Video by Fransisca
Tanya
Thanks for sharing. I really like this.
Manuel
Okay, so if you allow me, here is my talking stick, my piece of wood. Okay, first of all, let's talk about this wood. Something I found, maybe extraordinary about some parts of nature. This piece of wood is dead and yet it smells really good. Because, you know, usually we don't exactly associate death with a good smell, but somehow it comes to some parts of nature, the one that we absolutely need. Which means Trees and most green stuff. I don't know, very simple. But we don't really think about it or not about it this way. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to say.
Tanya
But for what you say, it also made me think about that.
Manuel
No, what I wanted to say is, oddly enough, off to me, instead of making new memories, it was a trip down memory, memory lane. A lot, A lot of memories flowing, overflowing from my childhood and. A renewed, deep connection to my inner child. Because, yeah, I. I have been lacking in that department. I would say that connection with my inner child is very much broken. And this made me realize that, yeah, it actually might be my best shot at reconnecting. Just being in nature. Just be, not do something, not be something, not whatever, not try to instill something, but just be, to absorb.
So when I was a kid, we used to hug and climb trees a lot. By a lot, I mean basically every day. And I don't know, it felt like an absolutely normal relationship. Like something that everyone does in the world. And I later realized that it's absolutely not the case. So I guess I was very fortunate on this front.
But I also realized that this forest or this little part is so different in a way from where I grew up. Which, you know, we also. You had like woods and forests around, but the trees were completely different. What do I mean by that? Here I realized that a lot of branches feel extremely young and brittle.
Well, where I grew up, we had trees. That branches could feel like trees, basically. And what happens is that that's also why we could climb. By climbing, I don't mean like two, five meters, I mean thirty meters. As a child, yeah, we are crazy. But we all made it alive. And that's why I'm talking about memory lane. Because I realized that I had so many nests, I could just. I'm not kidding you, I could spend hours on a tree. So not like hugging a tree, but actually somewhere hanging on a tree. Because the benches were so good, so big that it was actually comfortable. We could make a bed or just a chair or armchair. And obviously I didn't realize that at the time, but it does feel like a luxury, like something that we don't get to experience easily, I would say, because even here I couldn't experience. Experience it if I wanted to.
Tanya (pointing to Donderberg):
If you go there, you might find something. There will be those trees that you cannot just resist. When you stand, you are like, ah, I want to climb. I cannot just, how to say, resist climbing.
Manuel:
Okay, that's lovely. For me, the theme would be reconnection. Something I absolutely need even to move forward with my life because I feel stuck on a daily basis and feel like this has been forgotten and. But, yeah, it's very simple to get back to it. Yeah, I just have to do it. So that's also what leads me to gratefulness, because I'm grateful that you actually allowed this to happen. Because I know myself, I just can't do it myself. I need a little push. Not like being forced to do something, but just, oh, hey, let's do something. See what happens. And then that's exactly what I need. So thank you.
Video by Fransisca
Tanya
Thank you. Somehow we need to do it together. Somehow there is very different quality doing it together.
Although we were physically in different places, right?
Dimitri
For me, it feels a little bit like there are two themes because it's a very wide and multisensorial experience. But I totally agree with what you all said. It heals. It's something that we were used to do. It doesn't feel normal anymore. That's actually, let's say, pre capitalist. For me. It was really a history of. Yeah. Smelling, feeling, touching. I felt that the touch was pretty present for me because I was in a place where there were a lot of young trees. So it's also realizing that this nature is all the time going and going and going. All those layers are on top and they all. How do you say, deborde...
Manuel
overflow over here.
Dimitri
There's an overflow of life everywhere. And yeah. Regarding the elements, the earth is healing, trees healing. The wind is healing. There's a change of state with this. My mind was a lot present. So, yeah, the breathing kept me into this focus. I mean, the attention for me to make was a bit like, okay, do I put attention on my mind and on the thoughts that I have, or do I put attention on ability to. How do you call that? Like the new little tree. Not the Brussels, but they are Brussels.
Michael
Brussels sprouts here.
Dimitri
Yeah, what you were saying makes me think a lot about other parts of the world or maybe some. Some parts here that are more countryside or people that are not obliged to produce every day to wake up that you can see that they might have a lot of activities and experience that are basically just going with the flow of life, not with the flow of the company or the industry or whatever. So like just going for two hours on the rock and just observing, listening. So it's a bit contrasting. Oh yeah. It brings us. The other reality.
Tanya
Thank you. In Continuum we have like a whole story about, let's say for us attention is a very big topic. For me personally, I'm really a researcher of attention. And in Continuum we call it open attention. What it means it's not that focused. That's why I didn't like. You're not obliged to focus on one thing and the possibility for attention to roll, to deconcentrate, loosen. That creates a lot of possibilities. Like you said, multi sensorial going with the flow. I personally think it's possible when we have loose attention. Like if I decide I'm going with the flow, I am going with the flow.... Probably not today. And also about the time. So one of things that inspired me for this in general, this project is the carrier bag theory of evolution. It's an essay by Ursula le Guin. What she tells that in old times people when they were foraging, basically they had to spend just fourteen hours a week to get their food and get food for the family, for the small ones and the rest was free. So they really had much more time to sit on the stone and for the art. Basically that's why we have this stone age art.
Dimitri
Something that I realize also, I go, I touch a little bit, I feel around and then suddenly there is a branch a little bit and so there is a fear. Wow, what is this? But actually we live in a world where there is almost no threat anymore. I mean the threats are in the abstract far reach. We don't even wear weapons. But if you look at prehistoric pre civilization time, you had a lot of threats. Yes, of course, you had a lot of time to think, integrate and feel, et cetera. But you also have to organize and maybe be more close to the element, but also to the human around. Because you have all had to develop connecting places too. Community, family.
I mean I was in South America. You cannot just go to jungle. That's a different kind of forest. Don't hug a tree. There are like thousands of ants, maybe snake.
Everyone:
Yeah..
Dimitri
Or you can go but maybe you can go but be very easy, very kind because you know that the snake will not. Will not attack you unless you attack.
Video by Francisca
Michael
I did have a bee. I had a bee come land on me. It was nice to just be like, you're not going to sting me.
Video by Fransisca
Tanya
When I'm in this state there is always some bumble bee coming. This bumblebee that came here, here now, it also came to me when I was there. Like I always have some kind of bee around me when I do this. I don't know why this practice. Even the sound EEE for me is a bit of like a bee attractor, let's say. So I. I have a lot of connection to the bees. Francisca, would you like to share something?
Francisca
Yeah, but it's just. It's good to hear what's your journey inside. Because I just see a shell, you know, like a shell of something. But inside there's much more things happening that we don't know. So it was good to be in an observer side. I don't know because there's also this thing of judgment in this world and it was good to just be in my own like observing and then hearing you. It's beautiful.
So we should observe more or I should observe more.
Photo by Fransisca
Tanya
For me it was maybe something like I was a bit inside and outside now because I was holding this kind of field, I was observing the field or or not going too deep in my story. Because I would like to follow the bee and he was there. I would go away somewhere. Yeah, and something that is present is this placket. Actually I took it away from this already dead tree and it made me think about these numbers and I'm like, okay, the tree is dead, let me at least remove it. And so I removed it. Although for example, on this tree I was a lot on this tree and then I noticed this plaquette and then I thought maybe I should remove it. And I was just like, oh, maybe I'm doing something forbidden. So I've been. This place makes me reflect a lot about the traces that we live as humans. And also like I've been coming to this place a lot to observe how the nature is, how modern human is.
How nature is by itself without, let's say, impact of humans. And, I really have a lot of shame to be human, like, in general. And also, I'm staying with this shame a bit unwittingly. There is a lot of impact and there is always impact that happens because of us. So, yeah, just that. And then I just took away this bracket. And by the way, it's ten and six, two two. So I cannot mention the mathematical. So, you know, ten is six plus two plus two.
Video by Francisca
Video by Francisca
Photo by Sarah
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