<div style="display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: flex-start; width: 100%; gap: 40px; background-color: white; padding: 60px 20px; box-sizing: border-box;"> <div style="flex: 1 1 300px;"> <h2 style="margin: 0 0 15px 0; color: black; font-size: 3.700em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2;"> Weaving a nest to support your spiritual journey </h2> <p style="margin: 0; color: #444; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5;"> Nature Connected Coaching, Tools and Resources for beings who want to re-engage and connect enthusiastically with the rest of the world. </p> <img src="site_logo.png" alt="Site Logo"> </div> <img src="eggs-unhatched.jpeg" alt="Placeholder Mountain Landscape" style="flex: 1 1 300px; width: 100%; max-height: 770px; object-fit: cover; border-radius: 8px; margin: 0; "> </div> <div class="story-section-cream"> <div class="story-text"> <h1>Hi, I'm Guillermo 👋</h1> <p> I'd like to share a story about the birth of this site: <br><br> I had just finished a Vision Quest Retreat, and while I was mingling with other participants I suddenly experienced a profound awakening. I'm glad it did, but boy did I not prepare myself adequately. I had to drive a rental back to the airport the same day, and then take a plane ride back to my home in Canada. I felt dazed and sensitive to everything around me. I'm not even sure how I made it home! I make sure to give myself an extra day before going home from a retreat from now on! <br><br> Anyway, I had planned 3 days of rest before returning to work. In hindsight, I needed more like one month. When I went to work I felt an intense desire to get out of there. <br><br> Three years later my life is looking different. I have a different job, I have new hobbies, and I keep different company around. I love spending time in nature. I'm much happier than before, but it didn't come overnight. I had to pick up different tools from different teachers. I had to learn how to self-regulate and how to listen to my body. Awakening beckons us to change our lifestyle. <br><br> One winter day at the beach I felt a strong urge to enter freezing cold Pacific Ocean waters. I'm not sure why, but I'm glad I listened and that I was able to muster the courage because when I came out of the water I felt something I had not felt in decades. It was the feeling of being Home. <br><br> Everything began at <a href="The Sit Spot.md" class="internal-link">the Sit Spot</a>. It was here that I slowly learned to trust that small yet still voice. </p> </div> <div class="story-images"> <img src="me.jpg" alt="Guillermo" class="image-back"> </div> </div> <img src="me_wide.jpg" alt="Guillermo" class="image-front"> <div class="story-section-white"> <div class="story-text"> <h1>Bring Retreat Home...</h1> <p> Since my awakening I've been to different kinds of retreat spaces. They always leave me feeling recharged, my heart feeling full, and I am enthusiastic for life's challenges ahead. Whenever I leave, I wonder: <strong> Wouldn't it be useful if I could somehow recharge myself like this on a daily basis?</strong> What is it about spending time outside in nature far from the city on a hike or climbing or swimming that is healing. <br> <br> Curiously, the one thing in common about most retreats is that that they are close to nature. <strong>Nature itself is healing.</strong> You don't have to believe me, everyone has felt the wonderful joy of playing in the park as a little kid. Go outside right now and just bask in your regular outdoor activity and feel for what makes a good time, whatever that means for you. <br> <br> The healing potential of a retreat-setting, because it relies on the green space of the earth, is accessible to anyone that wants and needs it, and thank goodness it is just about anywhere. Even in the busy city. The land itself, the earth, believe it or not, provides a map to our re-connection and we can follow her to discover what we would like to become. She is there waiting for anyone willing to receive her. Let her deepen your awakening into to our own spirit of being alive, and together arrive to more peace, love, joy, and purpose. Whatever these mean for you! <br> <br> Here in this site I offer time-tested wisdom on how to drink from the great mother's breast, right in your own back yard. </p> </div> </div> <img src="main_middle.jpg" alt="Placeholder Mountain Landscape" style="width: 100%; height: 350px; display: block; object-fit: cover; object-position: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; margin: 0;"> <div class="story-section-cream"> <div class="story-text"> <h1>A 300,000 year-old Lineage...</h1> <p> When it comes to forming Connection, healing connection, there is no wiser place to look than to the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert. <br><br> This is the place where humans were born and evolved for roughly 300,000 years before spreading around the earth. Out of a necessity for survival, the cultivation of connection to the land and each other through story-telling was their way of life. In other words, forming Connections is in our genetic make-up since we all share a common ancestors with them. We are hard-wired for that connection to happen. "If we can re-awaken our capacity for connection the way nature had intended," says Mentor Jon Young, founder of the 8 Shield principles "we become super-natural human beings". <br><br> This is simply about re-awakening a capacity for deep human connection that is already there dormant within you. Learn how to connect with yourself, with others and land. </p> </div> </div> <div class="story-section-white"> <div class="story-text"> <h1 >"An Affinity towards Nature..."</h1> <p> Once thing I've noticed amongst most people I have met that have experienced a profound awakening is that they all retreat back into nature. Each in their own way. There is some part of us, a deep part of us, that when we become awake to that part, we feel its longing to return to our roots - a longing to return back to our species normal- as opposed to our modern normal. <br> <br> However, it can become a bit of a tug-of-war between who we are becoming, and what we may refer to as our ego-driven self. An awakening can be celebrated as part of a series of experiences which mark a sign post during a long and beautiful unfolding into who you are becoming. If the awakening was deep and profound, it may not be a bad idea to consider the following common experiences which may or may not occur ahead: <br> <br> <h3>"I feel very tender and sensitive to spaces and everyone around me... "</h3> <br> <br> Its understandable! The places we used to love to visit are no longer desire-able, and the people we used to spend time with do not replenish us the same way. Our workplace may be a little more unbearable than before. This is probably the most common all-around experience as waking up begins to mature. My greatest respite from being overly sensitive is spending time in nature. Lots and lots of time in nature. Thankfully, there are also retreat spaces of different kinds that are available all over the world and they are filled with people and teachers who can help. Such places allow the nervous system to learn how to function in a safe setting before returning to the world. Thankfully, it is also possible to learn to modulate how sensitive you want to be which can be useful (especially when travelling on a plane). This is also a wonderful starting point for re-engaging with the rest of the world, and this is where my coaching comes in. We can tap into your own resourcefulness to find ways to keep the body-mind feeling grounded and resourced, ready to accept all the different sensations, even the uncomfortable ones. <br> <br> <h3>"I'm slowly disengaging from my world..."</h3> <br><br> Super common! We are changing into a new person. We are less ego-driven. It can be concerning to our friends and family when they see that we are seemingly becoming distant. Fear not! This is the beginning of finding novelty in our ordinary everyday experiences. If you feel a need to engage with your ordinary life, go to work, tend to your responsibilities then I can help with that! There are so many wonderful tools and resources available at your disposal. <br><br> <h3>"I can't spend time with my friends the way I used to be able to..."</h3> <br> <br> This one hit close to home. I think my biggest fear here was being abandoned and dying alone. One day after years of nature-connection practices, I expanded my capacity to meet my intimate and affectionate needs all by my lonesome. This was wonderful for myself and for others. I was no longer delegating my needs to other people. Today I am able to love my friends more than before because I do not depend on them to satisfy me in any particular way. I can let them be just the way they are. My needs are taken care of, and so another good advantage of these connective practices is that I am now more picky with whom I spend my time with. I bring the calm energy of nature with me, in my body, and I share that to others. We can tap into your own resourcefulness for finding ways to re-engage with other people. <br> <br> <h3>"I can't seem to go back to my wonderful blissful experience..."</h3> <br><br> Unfortunately, it is the seeking energy itself which keeps the joyful and blissful experiences of being alive at bay. Sometimes all we can do is ride out whatever is happening. However, we can learn to enjoy every experience which life has to offer, desirable and non-desire-able ones. If we can change our attitude, and learn to be a friend with all of our humanity -even the unwelcome bits- then we begin to cultivate compassion. This cultivated compassion, in turn, we feel it in our bodies, and we are able to give that to others around us. <br><br> <h3>"I feel many strong emotions lately, I don't know how to handle them..."</h3> <br> <br> I'm grateful for a friend who told me that her teacher tells every single one of his students to see therapist or a counsellor in tandem with their awakening journey. For that reason I too seek help of a fellow mentor and sometimes a counsellor. Awakening has a tendency to "pop the cork" on some our long-held unresolved issues. It is not a bad idea to consider seeing one on a regular basis. Spiritual practise and Religious practices are not a substitute for therapy, but they somehow revolve around each other, and even complement each other. For instance, I go through periods of meditation, and then I stop for a while, and then I do therapy work, and then I resume meditation when it feels right. Sometimes both lightly. My coaching enhances this process by creating safety for the nervous system. Natural spaces such as beaches, parks and wilderness can work as a co-regulator for your nervous system. The feeling and perception of safety is paramount when doing deepening one's spiritual practice. The feeling of home, safety and orientation is exactly the feeling I help people tap into as a nature-connected coach. <br> <br> <h3>"I find it hard to relate with others the way I used to..."</h3> <br> <br> Awakening can sometimes feel like a wrench in our relationships. Its understandable. After having spend years on my own development, my parents are still able to unsettle me somehow. Its like all of my hard work goes out the window whenever I go visit them. And how I wish to desperately want to share what I know with them, wishfully thinking that perhaps they may see some growth and well-being like I did. It took a while to discover that this relational strategy only created a subtle kind of resentment from me to them. After a lot of hard-work, my attitude for them has changed, and I no longer wish to change them in any way. I can love them better. They still trigger me in subtle and annoying ways, but now I welcome those triggers with open-arms if they arrive because I see those interactions as opportunities to expand on my capacity to love them but also other people. Two of the tools I can offer as a coach is to help you self-regulate and resource so that you can show up to your relationships with more patience, kindness and compassion for others, and second we can explore ways for you to be able to expand your capacity to connect with others. <br> <br> <h3>"I need to go to work but its very uncomfortable to do so..."</h3> <br> <br> With any ideas I share on here, I never want to insinuate that I hold the one and only solution for a specific problem. This is not what coaching is all about. Rather, coaching is about helping the client come up with their own solution or strategy for what they bring to the session. So take this story as a caveat. <br><br> Earlier in my life I went to school for Engineering for five years and then went into the industry for three years. After that, I just couldn't take it anymore. I left the life of sitting on a computer 8-hrs a day, and started trying out different kinds of work. Throughout the years I re-applied for a job within my trade, but every time I began down that path, it became unbearable, and even painfully obvious to me that this type of work did not suit me long-term. I cared not for the money, nor for the pride of contributing myself in this way. Yet, I somehow find a strange intuition deep inside that 8 years spend down this road did not bare empty fruit. Somehow, I do not feel regret at having gone through that, nor do I feel regret about taking a leap of faith and seeing where an adventure would take me. <br><br> We can use coaching as a way to unlock a pathway for you, whether that means a change in work, or perhaps a change in attitude and environment for the current work. </p> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: #f9f7f2; padding: 60px 20px; text-align: center; color: #333; text-align: left; "> <div style="max-width: 800px; margin: 0 auto; padding: 0 20px; padding-top:3%; padding-bottom:3%;"> <h1 style="margin: 0 0 0 0; color: black; text-align: left; font-weight: bold;"> My Offerings... </h1> <p style="font-size: 1.00em; max-width: 800px; margin: 0 auto; line-height: 1.6;"> <br> 1:1 Coaching On lifestyle-changes that support a spiritual life. <br> Tools To Work on your own and with others. <br> Resources and Writings to help inspire you to keep at it! <br> Community of Like-minded People (coming soon!) <br> <br> <a href="Work with me!.md" class="internal-link" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; font-weight: 500;">Work with me...</a> </p> </div> </div> <div class="credential-section-white"> <div class="story-text"> <p > The Nature Connection principles that inform my coaching, and the tools I offer to my own clients come from the school of The Earth-Based Institute, which is an ICF Level 2-accredited training organisation based in Colorado. They also passed on to me the lineage of a Lipan-Apache elder named Stalking Wolf as taught by Tom Brown Jr. with regards to the Nature Connection Elements. The school draws on Somatic practices based on the work of Peter A. Levine, taught to me by Katie Asmus, MA, LPC, BPA, Gestalt Therapy and Partsworks Principles based on the work of Dr. Roger Strachan, taught by Derek Schmidt, MA, LPC, and Grief Instruction by Julie Thomas, MA, LPC. </p> </div> <div class="story-images-logo"> <img src="icf-lv2.jpg" alt="ICF Level 2 Accredited Education" class="image-back"> <img src="ebi.png" alt="Earth Based Institute" class="image-back"> <img src="ncc.png" alt="Nature Connected Coach" class="image-back"> </div> </div> <img src="main_bottom.jpg" alt="Placeholder Mountain Landscape" style="width: 100%; height: 350px; display: block; object-fit: cover; object-position: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; margin: 0;"> <!-- Bottom Bar--> <div style="width: 100%; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: center; gap: 20px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 15px; padding-right:20%; padding-left:20%;"> <!-- Logo (stays on the left) --> <div style="flex-shrink: 0;"> <img src="site_logo.png" alt="Colourful Zen Circle" style="max-width: 200px; height: auto; display: block;"> </div> <!-- Links (The "Margin-Left: Auto" trick pushes this group to the right) --> <div style="display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 15px 20px; align-items: center; margin-left: auto;"> <a href="Work with me!.md" class="internal-link" style="text-decoration: none; color: black; white-space: nowrap;">Work with me</a> <a href="Community!.md" class="internal-link" style="text-decoration: none; color: black; white-space: nowrap;">Community</a> <a href="Resources.md" class="internal-link" style="text-decoration: none; color: black; white-space: nowrap;">Resources</a> <a href="Blog.md" class="internal-link" style="text-decoration: none; color: black; white-space: nowrap;">Writings</a> <a href="About.md" class="internal-link" style="text-decoration: none; color: black; white-space: nowrap;">About</a> </div> </div>