by Janet Weisberg
Our collective journey to rediscover the wholeness of our nature requires an intimate direct sensory connection with nature. It’s the single most important cooperative action we are asked to engage in at this moment to reestablish appropriate optimism for the future. Our role as a species is to remember, connect, and reclaim our biological gift of 54 senses, making possible conscious connections and deep experiences of feeling wholly alive with and on Earth.
Opportunities were and continue to be offered that let Earth teach what has been temporarily forgotten: WE (an inclusive term referring to all lifeforms) are connected and dependent on the balance inherent in our natural systems. Without this, life is constantly trying to reboot to its original intention: systemic equilibrium.
Several past participants have shared their personal NatureConnect experiences as follows.
Growing up on a farm and living my life mostly in nature, I thought I was pretty savvy about my nature-centered relationships. That was until I took the NatureConnect course. The experiential exercises deepened my understanding of being an equal with all life. Knowing we’re destroying our eco-systems but not sure how to change the old patterns of thinking and being, I learned to listen deeply and learn from nature —and as part of nature I have the power to change my ways and influence others. I now see nature as a Source and not a resource to use without being in a mutually supportive consensus process with all life. The course jolted me into a new realm of consciousness that makes me constantly mindful and grateful. It has helped me to find a greater sense of inner and outer peace and healing. My hope is that people of all ages will be able to experience these exercises and learn from Mother Earth. Namaste!!!
Ann Smith – Circle Connection Founder
Two years ago, I was searching for a sense of belonging and reconnection. I crossed paths with Janet Weisberg, who lovingly said she could teach me valuable lessons for reconnecting with Mother Nature, and therefore, myself. I was intrigued, and said ‘YES PLEASE!’ We met weekly by a lake and natural preserve, where I was guided through various nature connection activities, while having the space and time I needed in order to truly and deeply feel my way through them. Janet is truly a gifted teacher who guides with gentle strength! Awakening my 54 senses through this process was profoundly life changing! I felt more deeply connected to my family, friends and strangers alike. I felt a true sense of belonging and reconnection! Not only did I begin to feel whole, as I did as a young child, I am also inspired to bring this type of experiential learning to children.
With Love and Gratitude,
Shelly Cariot – Mother and “ReWild the Child” Entrepreneur
There is something very special about doing NatureConnect activities in a group. For me, the processing part was KEY — after all, we are all in this together. The activities always seemed so simple upon first glance, but then there was something so profound that sprang from the simplicity of it that always astonished me. Like tapping into an inner wisdom that had been dormant. Like communicating with nature and trusting its wisdom. Like actually taking the moment to connect with what was around me instead of walking through it like it was simply some beauty to be observed. Janet’s guidance and connection made the experience even that much more valuable, because she is so deeply rooted in this way of living, and it shows by the way she walks this Earth. Moving forward, I am going to work with tuning into the 54 senses one by one. If there is any further study I can do, I would love to continue!!! Thank you SO much for offering this incredible experience to me at such a pivotal time!
Renee Walsh – LMT
When I first read about the opportunity for a class to connect/reconnect with nature in Natural Awakenings, I knew it was something that I wanted to attend and the moment I first met Janet, I knew it was going to be a great experience. The level at which it became possible to commune with nature seemed to be a reawakening of an ability that had always been there but had become dormant. It just made sense. The web that connects us is pervasive. When I say ‘us’ I mean the totality of nature, plant, animal, air, water, earth, everything. The different exercises brought back our ability to ‘see’ the world around us in a participatory way. Nature became more directly a part of us instead of something that was ‘over there’. A natural experience could be as simple as sitting in my house with a potted plant. To this day I look at all things in nature a different way. Everyone and everything is connected and we all play a part in this ride we call life. That annoying guy down the block is a part of our lives. It’s not up to us to find out what that part is but the awareness that we are connected will always be there.
Kevin Pio – Engineer
Following and practicing twelve years of Permaculture Principles, my walk was altered each week by what I like to call Project Home with Janet. Initially I wasn’t sure what I would learn as I already knew each plant by name, why I planted them, where they would flourish, and I could give them what they needed to thrive. Little did I know what was to come. Each week the exercises took us on a journey into a world of empowerment, truth, reconciliation, gratefulness, appreciation, gratitude and thankfulness. Then a very strange thing happened when initiating the nature connect activities. The small farm vegetables, fruit trees and yes even the spearmint in the herb coil shared they knew when I was on my way. Spearmint got my attention and I sat down and listened. “Today has come to have you sit with us! It’s our turn to care for and talk with you. We hear your songs and yes we are overjoyed when the weekday schedule includes weeding around our necks or making room for adding new arrivals that are welcomed. We are all so refreshed by the shower you give us at the end of the day. Thank you for loving us the way you do and introducing/teaching others how to observe and obtain a yield authentically. We are particularly overjoyed at the vision and purpose we have together; fresh crisp local food for all according to needs.”
Jan Etzel – Certified PDC, Fermentor, Farm to Table Events Coordinator
Being a person of science, I know that everything is made of molecules which produce energy or vibrations. Rocks included! In Janet’s Nature Connect classes I went out to feel the vibrations. We normally ignore these subtle vibrations of less obvious beings, instead paying attention to moving objects: ants, birds, fish etc. Following the guidance suggested, I sat by a plant, asking if I could be there and share the shade of the tree then asked the tree if I was welcome to join the community of plant and tree. The vibrations were subtle and this time welcoming. Participating in Janet’s class allowed me to tap into senses that I do not usually use to feel the earth around me.
Thank you,
Dianne Powell – R.D. American Board Anti-Aging Health Practitioner, Public Speaker: Health, Wellness & Mindfulness
The process inherent in Nature Connect activities has deeply and profoundly influenced the way I view nature and my place in it. Reading about nature’s benefits alone could not give the depth of understanding that I gained through the interactive experiences and discussions. I now know that I am a part of this web string, I am interconnected and incorporated in nature. I am more in tune to its beauty, peace, and natural attractions. Each of the activities helped show me how to trust nature’s intelligence as my own. Most importantly, I have a deeper sense of respect for nature and a sense of responsibility that I respond to in ways that strengthen my consciousness and hopefully that of the people around me. I realized that nature knows something special about life, so that collectively, the web of life is an intercommunicating super intelligence, attraction or love, a global brain.
Nora Morris – Educator, RYT Yoga Professional and Nature Activist
NatureConnect activities are community experiences, offered in a communal setting for collective support and integration. At the first gathering I felt welcomed by all the other participants and was excited to come back for more! There are many NatureConnect lessons that I utilize (both professionally and personally). I’m a yoga instructor for both children and adults with special needs. We talk about connection in every class and practice connection through several sensory activities related to nature. (Internal connection, community connection, environmental connection.) Personally, during times of anxiety, trauma, and stress, I take my shoes off and stand outside in the grass. I plug myself in and connect. These activities offer everyone the opportunity for personal healing, environmental awareness, and has allowed me to build healthier relationships with those around me.
Salima Silverman – Assistant Director House of Gaia Non-Profit
NatureConnect activities are experienced by activating two things: a non-verbal way of knowing and the felt sense which stimulated emotions helping me remember. We are ONE with nature and whatever we do to nature we do to ourselves. Nature becomes a mirror of life. It was quite revealing to experience a silent, sincere connection allowing non-verbal communication with trees, plants, bodies of water, animal and insect life around me. Activating senses in nature created a bridge to my essential being, bypassing the ego self. The resulting emotions were of a higher vibration because of the shutting down of the usual logical, rational mind-works. Everything that came into my awareness was registered in a way that united or created integration. It created a sense of loving connection to all that IS.
Respectfully,
Ivette M. Gómez, LMHC, Holistic Counselor, Hypnotherapist and Yoga Instructor
What is life but a dance, a co-mingling, an act of making love as to articulate music. The instrumentals of nature are all around and can be seen if one were to simply lift the veil, if one were to simply sit in a quiet place atop mother earth and listen for the extent of a moment. In that moment one learns of eternity, one loses sense of self to gain sense of truth, to gain lucidity of self-worth. Not to worry, you shall return, but, fortunately not as you left. You will return with extrasensory acuity as to your relationship with thou, whether thou be an old craning oak gathering the sun up high or the blue beyond those woody limbs and blooms and biological communities of life traversing the intricate crevices of bark and the green veins of porous breathing leaves. Wherever thou may reside or if thou was perceived as all encompassing or even the seemingly inert paved road, one will return with an incurable smile, a sense of wonder and of profundity via union and, if one continues down this path, the only path there is, one will realize aloneness to be an impossibility thus attaining wisdom. With this wisdom the others will come as they will be invited and with this, communities of earth revering children will prosper. Janet Weisberg and others are the few who possess this knowledge though possession to the extent of forming communities to live while alive with their teachings to enable development, communion, and understanding. Join us and become yourself, we give thy consent, may thou be empowered to live and love awakened.
Jonah Ciccarelli– Founder of “The Outcaste Project”
ABOUT JANET WEISBERG
My life’s path and purpose are to speak the truths we’ve forgotten – the truths of who we are, why we are here now, and how we need to accomplish real change together – and to offer opportunities that let Earth teach and bring communities together to learn and share.
For more information, please visit www.53senses.com or contact Janet Weisberg at janet@53senses.com or at (239) 280-8229.