Spiritual Practice: Wound Walk

​As we carry a lot of anxiety and a variety of different stresses these days due to Covid-19, this spiritual practice in nature may be therapeutic. Do it whenever works in your routine, but consider doing it before Easter, perhaps on Good Friday, a day of grief and lament. 

Wound Walk (adapted from "Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche" by Bill Plotkin)

• Before you start, take a bit of time to ground yourself - take some deep breaths, release any tension your body is holding, and find a  place of prayerful calm within.
• Go for a walk, and look for something in nature that looks or feels wounded. For example, a scar on a tree, a pile of garbage, a bulldozed lot, a polluted stream, an area where an invasive species has taken over... (Or, if you can't get out, look for an image online.)
• Allow the wound you find in nature to evoke an empathetic response of sorrow or compassion in you. 
• Sit in that place, and open your senses to it. Touch it, if you can. Speak (aloud or silently) what you observe; bear witness to the wound. Imagine what may have caused it. Pay attention to your emotions.
• Now recall a past or present wound you are carrying - physical, psychological, social, or spiritual. Speak your story (aloud or silently) to this thing or place you are with. Or, think of speaking to the Divine Presence who is also with you, listening. Do not attempt to suppress any painful emotions - allow yourself to release them.
• Sit together, and when ready, start to ask questions of healing and resilience. What resources can you access to begin to find healing? In what way might your wound be of service to your future resilience? Do not worry about coming to answers, but open yourself to insights or revelations that may come.
• Close your time with a word of gratitude or prayer.
• Consider taking time to journal about your experience.

​- Wendy Janzen