In today’s blog I’m sharing a new tool from the Landscaping Your Life coaching and problem solving toolkit that helps you get that sense of being in the right place at the right time back.

The premise behind the technique being - if you can get that sense of place and connection back you’ll feel more able to make the right choices about what to do about a situation you’re grappling with.

Before that though - happy equinox and rewilding day and, if you’re reading this later in the week, happy international day of forests too.

Wow - that’s a lot of patterns from nature that we can apply to our lives. Which I’m sure you already know is the premise behind the Landscaping Your Life process – where instead of going over and over the story, content and data of the situation (and potentially getting more overwhelmed and stressed) we use metaphor to help us see the patterns of behaviour that are holding us back and even use it to realign those patterns too.

If you’re struggling with a situation in your life patterns from equinox might, therefore, be inviting you to think about

• Finding balance between two things (with equal night/day)
• Crossing the line (like the sun crosses the equator today) - this drawing a line in the sand podcast episode may provide some insight on this
• Resetting your inner compass (because sunrise is due east today)

Or the patterns from the forests inviting you to think about

• Letting go of what no longer serves you (like their leaves)
• Sending ideas out into the world with the help of others not trying to do it on your own (like the wind or animals take their seeds)
• Grounding yourself (like the tree’s roots)

Or the patterns of rewilding inviting you to think about

• Putting back what has been stripped from your life (like the trees have been stripped from many mountains here in the Scotland)
• Not having to go straight for the goal but allowing a little meandering (like the rivers)
• Having a fall back position (like the flood plains offer)

On Friday last week, and as a corporate partner for SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, I attended a Rewilding Nation event where they showed the film Why not Scotland? Inviting us to consider that if across mainland Europe nature is making a dramatic comeback – could Scotland be next (See link to find other dates to see the film or to get in touch to have your own showing locally).

As I watched the story of Flo as she visits many European countries doing great things to rewild their landscapes I had a insight about our own inner landscapes.

After all for 24 years this month I’ve been inviting people to pick a landscape that depicts the current situation they’re grappling with or feeling unresourceful about, and then asked them to make changes to that imagined landscape in order to feel more resourceful.

To do this I have generally allowed the landscaper to determine the changes they make – even if I have made some suggestions based on observable and known patterns in nature.

The film, however, inspired me to think about

What happens if our inner landscapes need rewilding for us to feel more resourceful?

I’ve trialled it a few times since then and have been blown away with the insight that has emerged.

And today on LinkedIn for Rewilding day that’s what I’m going to be demonstrating during a number of LinkedIn lives.

The process being:

• Think of a situation you’d like insight about (and then put it to the back of your mind)
• Think of a landscape that represents that situation
• Make changes to the landscape
• Rewild that landscape
• Move about the landscape
• Check you’re feeling more resourceful
• Return to thinking about the situation
• Notice what you notice
• What action comes to mind, and when will you take it

Here's an example of before and after images I pulled together to try to demonstrate the likely difference between the two.

You’ll find out more about the Landscaping Your Life process in my book Can’t see the wood for the trees – landscaping your life to get back on track and also on my Landscaping Your Life with Alison Smith podcast (Spotify/Apple).

Landscaping Your Life coaching sessions often take place outside in nature (even if I’m at the other end of the phone if we can’t be together) and usually last 1-2 hours and are often all that’s needed to get you back on track. More intensive sessions for a day or more can be arranged if you’re wanting a total life rewilding session and sessions to capitalise on the transformative energy of Easter are still available.

I’m also looking for volunteers to be guests on my new podcast The words we live by as we explore the benefits and the unintended consequences of sayings we live by – such as, you’ve got to be in it to win it, no pain no gain, fake it till you make it, you can’t have your cake and eat it and so on. Again I’ve seen some great shifts in thinking having trailed this with a few people over recent months and can’t wait to share it more broadly via the podcast.

I'd love to hear from you alison@alisonsmith.co +44(0)7770 538159