You’re Not Meant to Think Your Way Through Everything - Sometimes You Have to Listen
There’s a moment that happens on a Medicine Walk (immersive counseling walk in nature) that’s hard to explain until you experience it.
It usually comes after the first phase - after the mind begins to quiet, after the body settles through intentional breathing, after the initial stream of thoughts starts to slow down.
That’s when something shifts.
You stop trying to figure things out…
and you start to listen.
I had that experience recently along Rehoboth Bay. I had moved into the second half of the walk - the part where the question has already been asked, clearly and intentionally.
And then, instead of forcing an answer, you wait.
Not passively.
But attentively.
Because one of the most overlooked skills today is not how to ask for guidance - but how to recognize it when it arrives.
Many people are used to a one-sided process. They make requests, say prayers, or mentally cycle through problems - and expect something to resolve internally, almost instantly.
But that’s not how it tends to work.
In nature-based traditions across the world, there’s an understanding that communication is reciprocal. You are not separate from the environment - you are part of a living system that responds.
Not always in words.
But in patterns.
In timing.
In observation.
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That day, my question was simple: how to better connect my work with the people who actually need it.
The response didn’t come as a sentence.
It came as a woodpecker.
Steady. Rhythmic. Precise.
If you’ve ever listened to one, you know - it’s not random. It keeps time. It’s deliberate. It doesn’t rush, and it doesn’t hesitate.
The message was clear:
Stay consistent.
Keep the rhythm.
Do the work without forcing the outcome.
And then there was something else - something I’ve seen many times in nature, but rarely considered in this context.
The male woodpecker will often create more than one nest. But it’s the female who decides where life will actually take place.
In other words, effort matters - but discernment determines the outcome.
Not every attempt becomes the foundation.
And that applies just as much to how we build our lives and our work.
This is part of what I teach through what I call a Medicine Walk - a structured way of engaging with your environment, your physiology, and your attention so that you can access a different quality of awareness.
It’s not abstract. It follows a process.
There are four key elements that need to be in place - what I refer to as “four on the floor.” When they’re aligned, something changes.
You move differently.
You think differently.
And you begin to experience a level of clarity that doesn’t come from force.
I call that state Finding The Force—not in a mystical sense, but as a practical way of describing what happens when your internal system becomes coherent and connected to something larger than your immediate thought patterns.
Modern research is beginning to point in this direction as well.
Work from institutions like University of California, Berkeley has explored how time in natural environments improves cognitive function, creativity, and emotional regulation. Studies associated with researchers like Joe Dispenza have also examined how focused attention, breathing, and mental rehearsal can shift brain states in measurable ways.
When people enter these more regulated, coherent states, a few consistent outcomes tend to show up:
- Increased clarity and problem-solving ability
- More frequent “aha” moments
- Stronger connection in relationships and teams
- A greater sense of direction and ease in decision-making
It’s the difference between operating at what feels like “dial-up”… and something closer to real-time processing.
But none of that happens without learning how to shift your attention.
Just like a phone needs to connect to a signal, your system needs to be tuned in to receive anything useful.
That’s the part most people skip.
They stay in their heads, trying to solve problems with the same level of thinking that created them.
A Medicine Walk interrupts that pattern.
It creates space for a different kind of input.
And once you experience that shift—even once—it becomes much easier to access again.
If you’re interested in experiencing a Medicine Walk for yourself:
I’ve created a simple introduction that shows you how to begin using this process in your own life.
You can find it at the link below, or reach out directly if you’d like to go deeper and work through it in a more guided way.
Because clarity isn’t something you chase.
It’s something you learn how to access.
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