Do you see the white triangle? This is an example of the brain making sense of a picture for itself, by filling the gaps. 
There is no white triangle - or is there?

Nature over there, me here? Is there an individual ME? Or is it the brain creating the illusion of an individual ME? 

When I talk about "SELF" I don't mean the "ME" that the brain creates. I mean the energy field that we are that is intimately linked to and in constant exchange with many other energy fields forming an overall pulsating, ever-changing, evolving, colourful field of life/death. 

So Nature/Self are just aspects of the same field. Through feeling Self, we are able to feel Nature. Through feeling Nature, we are able to feel Self. 
If we feel connected, it is all the same. 
(= If we are able to perceive this connection, not only with our minds, but with our whole body-mind-soul complex)
If our perception of connection is interrupted (read my other posts about Self connection), we might need to take some conscious steps to re-connect and to re-activate our connection channels.

Listen to the trees... 
I recently mentioned this in a talk to some permaculture students. "Well, trees don't talk. How do we do that?" one student said. The good news: Like every life form, trees do communicate = they send and receive energy. They might not speak English, and we might not speak Tree - however, we can learn to exchange and receive messages in a different way. 
Other life forms usually communicate in a very subtle way. They send energy waves, mind pictures, holographic images, feelings/e-motions (energy in motion) that aren't as strong as, for instance, words. The good news: once you are accustomed to perceive and translate the subtle impulses, you will be amazed by the simplicity and efficiency of this direct and clear form of communication. And it will also help you immensely with "inner-species communication" when dealing with your fellow humans. No more misunderstandings and assumptions. No more mis-interpretations and "false friends". 

How to start to learn this way of communication

1. Ideally, establish a relationship = get to know each other by meeting on a regular basis, to learn about individual qualities and personality traits. Especially if you are new to this form of communicating, it helps to perceive and get used to different ways of communication. 
   
2. Keep an open mind and heart, stay focused AND playful. When you are relaxed and not attached to the outcome, your body-mind-soul system is the most flexible and receptive.
   
3. Observe what happens, like a curious child. There might be images that pop up, thoughts, emotions, colours... You might feel drawn to a certain place, your attention and focus might shift to something you haven't noticed before in your surroundings... You might simply have a "very strong gut feeling" that tells you something (e.g. where to plant the tree, see below). You might "see" a story unfold in your mind's eye... Whatever it is - just let it be and observe it. With time, you will be able to clearly discern the impulses that come from your mind/imagination and those that come from other life forms. Be gentle and patient with yourself. Learning something new always takes a bit of time and practise.

Here an example:
If you plant trees, ask them where they want to be planted - you will be surprised by the guidance you will get! Be still and listen...
Listen to the land, the garden, listen to all the different life forms around you... 
Get in touch with them, connect with them and communicate with them. Establish a relationship. Be still and listen!
You will receive a message or an answer to your question - give yourself time to learn how to perceive it. 

Find your individual way. A lot of people naturally and intuitively communicate with their pets or with their plants while gardening, etc. They do it in a verbal or non-verbal way: some people sing while planting, tell their dog how their day went – whatever way you choose, make a connection, establish a relationship. Trust your "gut feeling" and follow it. 

Ask the next tree you want to plant: Where do you want to be? 

Then simply wait, be still and perceive what "comes up". Where does it “feel right”? It’s that particular feeling. The more you practice the "listening", the more you will actually perceive/receive, the more you will know. Instantly. With certainty. The knowing will come. It just happens. Trust the process. Like a child that is exercising its leg muscles, playfully and consistently, until it can finally walk and run. Exercise your "communication muscles", your "language skills" - just do it, again and again. You will become more and more confident, you will become clearer and clearer, you will know - and expand your perception of life. You will gain a valuable communication tool that you can use to connect with other earthlings, with your own species as well as with other species. 

Another valuable "side effect":
The budding relationship that you are establishing, will enable you to feel and live the connection, that is already there, and integrate it more and more into your doing and being. It will help you to balance all sorts of dis-traction, things that are and have been pulling us away from feeling the connection (these things/habits/life styles can be quite dominant, noisy and loud, and persistent). 
Do it with (your) children to nurture their natural innate ability to communicate in this way. Remember the last time a 3 year old shared with you what the cat just told him? Did you ban the story into the realms of a "vivid imagination"? When children (or adults, for that matter) do what people sometimes call daydreaming, they drift away and enter a different state of perception. Teachers and parents often try to bring them back and make them focus on the task at hand, or they simply interrupt them, unaware of what's happening. In many day care centres and schools, activities like daydreaming are rarely respected and uninterrupted, they are certainly not encouraged and nurtured. 
In this way, we condition our children (and have been conditioned ourselves) to not connect, to not keep their fluency in "connective energy language" and to not enter dream space...

Hold a space for it and allow your Self to enter and to dwell in it now...

As described in Being authentic - Part 1 there are many reasons to get to know and to consciously re-connect with our core being, with our nature. 

Children and animals are great "detectors" and indicators that tell us immediately if/when we are connected with our Selves and authentic - or not. The dramatically increasing rates of depression, disruptive behaviour, screen addiction, overall mental and physical imbalances amongst younger and younger children are signs for us to have a closer look at our Selves. 
A Swiss veterinary friend told me about increasing rates of depression and other "mental health and behavioural issues" amongst animals (he was referring to "pets", farm animals = animals in captivity). The popularity of animal communicators and "animal counselling" mirrors the effects of disconnection not only in humans but also in animals that live close to humans. 

Children and animals get hugely confused by humans that aren't authentic. They sense the "true nature" behind the scene - and struggle with the mixed messages they perceive. The teacher who thinks she has to reinforce a certain rule - but doesn't really believe in it herself... The parent who made a decision and thinks he has to "be consequent" and stick to it, despite of his doubts... 
All our mind-sets, beliefs, concepts, habits, thoughts, opinions are suddenly tested and questioned - not by us, but by our "little helpers": our children, students, animal friends! This can be quite challenging - believe me, I know what I am talking about ;) My children, students and animal friends often had a hard time to get through to my Self, past my strong mind-sets! 

Next time you encounter "disruptive behaviour", illness, or other challenges in your life, you might want to have a closer look and check if/how, deep down, there is conflict between one (or more) of your mind-sets and your Self. It might give you a pointer of how to become more "authentic" and "true to your Self". 
Again: Watch your children, students and animal friends - they are honest, clear and immediate mirrors of their environment and we can learn from them. 

The more authentic we become, the more in balance we are internally, the more in sync we are with our Selves, the clearer and less confusing our signals will be that we send out to the world, the more our actions will be aligned with our core being, the happier and healthier we will be and the more we will radiate balance out to the world, within/without.

Because so many keep asking, how can we communicate with another species, here is a brief overview of what you can do. Please feel free to contact us if you have specific questions :)

How to start...
Send “mind pictures” to the animal. Focus on the message you want to get across. If you want the animal to do something specific, visualise the “desired outcome”. 
If you want to know something, formulate a question in your mind (you can also talk loudly at the same time if it helps you to focus and set your intention). Important is here to visualise the question and have a clear intention. 
Don’t ask yes/no questions. For instance, if you want to know what's "wrong" with an animal, you could ask: Show me where you feel unwell – or: show me how you feel. 
Sometimes, it takes a bit of practise to be able to receive the answers. Don’t give up and keep practising. The more you do it, the better you will get at it and the clearer you will be able to discern your own thoughts/imagination from the replies that come from the animal. 

If you have already established a good relationship with another animal, you most likely will be “tuned into each other” and the animal will react to your thoughts immediately – now it’s up to you to become more "receptive" and to learn how to receive the answers :)

When Noa, my 12 year old son, goes for long walks with his dog friend Mout (Mout doesn't have a collar or lead or anything), they mostly communicate via thoughts/imaging. The other day Mout found a bone and ran after Noa with this big bone in his mouth. Noa didn’t want him to take it, as he had planned a longer walk. So he sent him a mind-picture of what he wanted him to do: carry the bone back to the house (about 2 kms away), leave the bone there, then come back to go for a walk. Mout ran off – did what he had been asked for and came back after a few minutes while Noa waited for him at the side of the walkway.

I have been communicating with animals in this way since I can remember. I find it very easy once I have established a relationship with an animal, but I also continue to experience direct communication with birds, ants, rabbits, dolphins and whales that I haven’t met before, in the wild.

“Pet owners”, animal trainers and animal researchers have many stories to tell about this kind of communication. Indigenous people and shamans use it for inner- and inter-species communication. I have also seen many species communicating with other species in this way, e.g. dogs with whales, horses with dogs, elephants with giraffes.
In my view, it is an ancient way of communicating in holographic images that is used by animals (incl. homo sapiens) since ancient times. They are fluent in this communication form. 
Everybody = every human can “do it”, too! We simply have to familiarise ourselves again with this way of communication, and practise our “receptive” and “listening” skills. 

Other species are very good at “reading our mind” and picking up our intention. It is us who have to practise our skills in order to pick up their replies or requests.

Check out Anna Breytenbachs videos and publications or Lawrence Anthony's story about his relationship with a herd of wild elephants in South Africa.

More links that might help to get you started:
How to practise your visualisation skills…
How to start to feel interconnected…

I recently overheard a mother saying to her 5 year old girl: “Don’t be angry, dear. That’s not good for you. Let’s talk about it.” The girl was angry, because she felt not heard by her teacher who had blamed and punished her for something and wouldn’t want to hear the whole story behind it. 
“Don’t be angry, this isn’t good for you” is a strong message and can easily translate into a mind-set that leads the girl away from her Self in the future (see Being authentic).

It seems to be a feature of the mind to categorise things and separate them into standardised boxes (e.g. “good” and “bad”). The challenge with “good”/”positive” and “bad”/”negative” is that it is quite subjective, depending on opinions, personal judgments, beliefs and values. That’s why I prefer to let my mind categorise into “life-affirming” and “life-destructive”.

Depending on cultural traditions, social environment, personal experiences, education, etc., people usually tend to have different mind-sets about “positive” and “negative”. Out of these mind-sets come fear and aversion against all things “negative”. We want to avoid “the negative stuff” at all cost, because our mind tells us it is bad = life-destructive. For instance, a lot of people are afraid of the dark or of deep water. These fears root in an ancient “mind-set” (already hardwired in our body system) that predators lurk in the dark of the night or in the depths of the ocean/lake. No matter how real the actual risk, our mind paints horrible images – and we follow suit. Other mind-sets might tell us that “anger is no good” as it might lead to aggressive behavior – towards ourselves/others. Spiritual teachings encourage us to “overcome our shadow and dwell in the eternal light of the divine”.

We have to be careful and discerning: what our mind declares as negative/bad/dark doesn’t necessarily have to be avoided. The night is an equally valid part of the night-day-cycle. Is night to be feared more than day? Are our so-called "shadow sides" worth less than our “sunny sides”?

Instead of letting our mind freely categorise, judge and control our life, can we embrace the kaleidoscope of all that is and assess the meaning of it for our life, in relation to our Self, in a neutral and more objective way? Can we learn to navigate through dark and light, night and day, anger and joy, male and female in a balanced way? Not by suppressing or overemphasize one over the other, but by acknowledging the value and the meaning of each in relation to our Self, embracing “all that is” with love - and thus become whole.

“Let’s initiate positive change” – “we reward positive behaviour and reprimand negative attitudes”
Usually, people differentiate between positive and negative “stuff” in their world. Usually, this differentiation depends on their beliefs, cultural setting, what’s socially accepted, their upbringing, experiences, etc.

I stopped using “positive” and “negative” and use “life-supportive” or “life-affirming” and “life-destructive” instead. Why? Because I see how often positive/negative triggers a judgmental attitude – we tend to categorise into positive/negative = good/bad, negative being bad, positive being good. But what’s positive in my world might not be the same in yours. Instead I ask myself: has this (behaviour/project/person/etc.) a life-supportive/life-affirming effect or does it hinder/block/destroy life? And if it destroys life in the short run (e.g. killing another life form), might it have a life-supportive effect in the long run? 

As you can imagine these kind of questions initiate a complex and “wholeistic” thought process that can help with decision-making and that is, in my view, much more efficient and “life-supportive” than following the often blurry positive/negative track ;)

Positive/negative easily triggers a judgment whereas life-affirming/life-destructive triggers an assessment.

Be authentic – be true to yourself! We hear this a lot and remind each other of how important it is.

But what does “being authentic” actually mean? 
In a dictionary you can find explanations like this: “of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine”. In existentialist philosophy authentic was described as: “relating to or denoting an emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive, and responsible mode of human life”. The word originates from authentes: autos meaning “self” plus hentes meaning “doer, being” – one who acts on one’s own authority.

Being authentic in this sense means: taking self-responsibility and being true to your Self.

Once upon a time being/living was identical with being authentic. Nowadays, people want to be “more authentic” and remind each other of how important it is to follow their inner truth. I see this “trend”, that has been noticeable since a few decades, as another sign for our increasing dis-connection from Self. 

I see the current cry for more authenticity as a cry for more connection to Self. It is a call to do a revision of our mind-sets, based on judgments, values, personal experiences, beliefs, cultural/social environment, etc., and an invitation to evaluate and discern what rings true to our Self, what resonates with our core being, with our nature.

To re-establish “authenticity”, our connection to Self, can sometimes be tricky as the mind interferes and keeps bombarding us with thoughts and instructions of how to be and what to do. In order to successfully re-connect, we need to

1. be able to discern what comes from our mind and what comes from Self/nature, and
2. we need to keep the mind in check and only keep the “mind-sets” that are in sync with our Self, that serve (our) true nature.
   

How did we lose our “authenticity”? 
Our mind plays a huge role in this. Modern day industrialised societies focus on the mind and its qualities. We are trained and encouraged to use our mind and intellect for most tasks at hand. The mind is constantly running the show: we think up concepts, programs, schedules, to-do-lists… We internalise concepts, programs, beliefs, opinions, values, etc. - and the mind creates different categories and “mind-sets”, often installed in us by others, initiated by extrinsic factors, and perpetualised by our mind throughout our lives. Some of these “mind-sets” literally became hardwired into our body system and are passed on from generation to generation (e.g. the fear of darkness).

Cultural, social, spiritual concepts, conventions and traditions – we are permanently bombarded with images and templates of “how to be…”: how to be successful, how to be socially, culturally accepted, how to be “the good guy”, how to do “the right thing”…

Interestingly, internalising and following these external factors and images didn’t lead us to a happier and healthier life. Why not? Because we lost the connection to our Self/nature in the process. Instead of connecting with the life-supporting energy field within/without us, we are distracted by our minds that tell us what to do and how to be. 
Are you constantly thinking about “stuff”, are your thoughts spinning around how to create a “good life” for your Self and your loved ones? Is your head full of “things to do” and “ways to be”? Our minds never stop to create templates and guidelines for “a good life” (or "a bad life" for that matter): you have to exercise at least … times a week to be fit and healthy, you have to get a degree in order to be successful, success is measured by financial wealth, children have to go to school if they want to succeed in life… the list of “mind-sets” is ever-changing and goes on and on.

The mind is a powerful and creative tool. But like with any tool: if we don’t control it, if we do not use it purposefully and consciously, it can also be counterproductive. In order to use the mind wisely and appropriately, we need to do some “quality control”. Instead of blindly following and internalising the mind’s abundance of thoughts and images, we need to revise and review them. We need to “check in”, evaluate and test, if these templates and mind-sets resonate with our core being, with our nature. If we don't do this, we disconnect and deviate from ourselves and lose our “authenticity”.

Another factor that affects our “connection channels” is nutrition. There is a lot of information out there and I am sure you are already well informed. However, it is sometimes good to remind ourselves of the importance to stay connected to a healthy flow of energy on all levels. 
A lot of people hugely depend on supermarkets to source their food. They eat a lot of highly processed food. And even the “healthy” options on the shelves aren’t giving them the life energy they’d need to function in an optimal way: vegetables and fruit in supermarkets have often traveled a long way, are treated to extend their shelf-life, are harvested when not fully ripened, come from monocultures growing on depleted soil, etc. = they do not contain the nutritional value of a plant growing in a healthy, naturally balanced environment. 
Another often underestimated and well-hidden factor in supermarket and processed food is sugar: producers use sugar in almost every processed product, even in the “healthy” and organic ones - check out in how many organic products on the market you'll find "organic cane sugar", agave syrup or other commonly used "healthy" sugar options. They all add up in your body and affect your body-mind-soul energy balance. We are literally clogging all our systems with the food we eat. 
I know from my own experience as a “sugar addict” and “nutri freak” who has experimented with lots of different diets how much our eating affects our ability to connect. “Sweet cravings” are hardwired in our brain: to look for sweets was beneficial for survival when we still lived in caves. However, like with a lot of other things, we way overdo it in current mainstream society. Nowadays, sugar & sweet treats are widely available (and sugar consumption is actively promoted). We imprint our children and ourselves on sugar, install sugary habits and use it in quantities that are simply life-destructing. We numb our Selves and compensate the destructive effects of sugar-eating by… eating more sugar. Sugar = quick high. 

"Tired, overworked, depressed, challenged? Have a sweet treat and you’ll feel better instantly."

I believe that a lack of (self-) love and (self-) connection triggers the over-consumption of sugary products. This means that it is easier to overcome (sugar) cravings and to open connection channels on the body-mind-soul level if we focus on establishing and maintaining a close relationship and connection to ourselves. 

Nature helps me to do this and has a recalibrating effect. I found that it helps me immensely to resist the omnipresent sweet temptation when I am a) slowing down, and b) immerse my Self in nature. I have observed this effect not only on my Self, but on many people. 

By the way: Damon Gameau just released a good movie about the effect of sugar on the body – watch it, even if you know already a lot about this topic (That Sugar Film).