The Forest - Stronger Together

"This is because a tree can only be as strong as the forest that surrounds it".

Peter Wolleben - "The Hidden Life of Trees"

The forest is stronger together, than divided. We are so often encouraged to inhabit our individuality, uniqueness and lean into the qualities that set us apart. All of this is essential in promoting healthy growth, a sense of authority and independence in our pathways

It is also important to acknowledge that within our uniqueness, we are also entangled - much like a forest - and interdependent on our collective social, physiological and emotional wealth.

The structure of a forest encourages diversity and variation but also collaborates and co-creates in order to strengthen, protect and cultivate the health of all the trees concerned, without discrimination. Within the forest, there is a deep culture of sharing resources ( food, light, water, news) between roots, other eco-systems, micro habitats and within the mycellium network.

We can borrow so much from the forest in our relationships and how we connect with both ourselves and one another. By celebrating our uniqueness, whilst, in tandem, building, developing and depending on our communities, we can enrich our growth and better protect our sense of balance and overall health - including those around us.

When thinking of the forest we can lean into a sense of sharing; connecting with our needs; listening to the needs of others; protecting our energy reserves and deploying a reciprocal system of give and take.

Through this practice of working with the forest, we learn to rely on our communication, our commonality and develop kinder responses within our nervous system - by accepting micro adjustments to our collective climate - and working together to participate together in the act of living.

Life is varied, complex, internal and collective. By taking inspiration from trees and learning not to see ourselves as self-regulating islands but as a multi-layered collective - we might better locate boundaries in our relationships; create more honest, fair-minded and compassionate communication; and learn to trust the help that may be at hand should it be required.

The forest teaches us so much about balance, collective sharing and protecting our energy. If only we can borrow a little more wisdom from the trees and how they regulate variety, cultivate growth and support each other.

A tree's trunk grows larger rings with time. With age it becomes sturdier, rounder and perhaps more grounded. The timelines of trees will outlive us all but perhaps we emulate their sense of growing wiser, kinder, harder, stronger and easier with time. The gifts of age.

The old mythologies would often encourage sources of wisdom as being found in the forest or in the wild. It is often in the wilderness that we find ourselves and where so many have been drawn to, on their journeys through this wonderful world.

Listen to your body - it never lies. Listen to the collective wisdom of those around you. And cultivate your balance, alongside your community, and grow in the direction that best nurtures and supports you.