Moving Out and In

Written by: Gayle Bohlman, LCSW-C

The Winter of 2026 will be remembered as long and very, very cold. As I am writing we are coming out of weeks of below freezing temperatures and a landscape of frozen and immovable snow. Oh, we long for Spring! How will Spring emerge? It can be hard to find the way after being stuck and in the dark so long.

As it is possible to enjoy going outdoors again, I urge you to move out into natural settings: the woods, the forest, a path through nature. In Touching Enlightenment by Reginald Ray, he mentions how in the Buddhist tradition the forest “was regarded as a place beyond the reach of conventional culture…a place where the atmosphere was open and unobstructed.” The forest or the natural world have been considered ideal places for spiritual practice. In the stillness and quiet, in the places where primordial life is simply being and moving through all that surrounds you there is the possibility of getting in touch with your own being, your own needs, your own perspectives.  

The wilderness may invite us to feel connection to the movement of life in all its natural forms, and also help you to drop into your own wilderness. When we can contact our own mind and body without structure, expectations, or imposed limits the possibility of discovery and the emergence of your own true experience can be accessible. This true experience that is uniquely yours is needed by you and also by the world.

If we are to welcome what is new, what is original, what is true for you it is in exploring your own internal forest, the body and all that it holds. Beyond thinking there is the whole experiential world of sensing, feeling, perceiving and intuiting. What is wanting to emerge: the new, the light in the darkness, the hope and possibility that Spring brings can be discovered in your own internal felt sense in the body.

I hope you will finally step out to walk in the natural world and in going out find your way in.