Why Nature is Healing with Way-Makers Founder Mike Brcic

Yeah, well, I can totally see myself how nature can be connecting and healing.

I went from being like the ultimate prissy butt to someone that loves to get out and hike.

I've met a lot of friends through a paddleboard meetup group because I like to get on my paddleboard.

And it is just so rejuvenating.

It's grounding, stress relief, getting outside.

I just can't stress how important it is.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and I think, you know, one of the things we do is we help people develop a real relationship to the natural world.

And, you know, lots of people spend time outdoors, you know, having fun, doing fun things outside, but it's a very different experience when you go into the natural world and you go into these profound wilderness, you know, places around the world we take people to, and you go into them with intention.

And often that means...

You know, when we were in Iceland, we did these beautiful hikes and we would usually start these hikes with an hour or two walking in silence and just walking through these vast, beautiful, incredible landscapes just in silence.

And, you know, for a lot of people, the first time they'd ever done anything like that.

And then we, you know, we would take them to this beautiful viewpoint.

We say, just sit here for 20 minutes and just quietly sit and take this in and you don't need to do anything.

Just need to sit here.

And what happens is your whole nervous system starts to regulate and slow down, become calm, and you start to develop not only this relationship with the wilderness, but this relationship with yourself, with your inner life.

And for most people, they spend...

most of their days sort of running away from that inner life because that inner life can feel chaotic.

It can feel, you know, busy, difficult, whatever.

They don't want to, they don't want to sit with those feelings.

So whatever numbing or, you know, distraction they can think of, whether it's drugs or sex or work or whatever, it's just go, go, go, because I don't want to listen to that inner voice.

And when we actually take people into these places and basically force them to sit and develop a relationship with that inner voice, they discover it's not so scary, right? That there's actually some real wisdom to be found internally through these places.

I can't tell you how many people, when we were in Iceland a few weeks ago, There were several people that told me they hadn't felt that level of peace in 30 years, you know, just sitting on top of a mountain in this beautiful wild landscape.

And it's incredible just, you know, the stories that have been coming up from the people who are attending that event, the changes that they have experienced.

you know, enacted in their lives since.