Intimacy with Nature: Daily Practices for Wild Connection

How to soften your armor, listen to the land, and weave yourself back into relationship

Photo by Anastasiia Malai on Unsplash

When I think about intimacy, I don’t just mean romance. I mean the daily practice of letting the world in. Too often, I skim across the surface of my days, armored and efficient, while the living earth is whispering invitations all around me.

Nature teaches me how to soften into relationship. A breeze lifts my hair, a crow caws just when I’m thinking of my mother, a woodpecker knocks. These are not random occurrences. They are gestures of connection. When I meet them with attention, I feel myself woven back into belonging.

Intimacy grows through practice, and it begins with noticing. Here are a few ways to build intimacy with the land, and in turn, with yourself:

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Practices for Intimacy with Nature

• Sit Spot — Choose one place outdoors to visit regularly. Stay still for 15 minutes. Let the world come to you.

• Barefoot Grounding — Place your feet directly on soil, stone, or grass. Feel the exchange of weight, warmth, and energy.

• Offer & Receive — Leave a small gift (a song, a strand of hair, a bit of water). Notice what the land gives back.

• Name Five Things — Out loud, name five living beings around you. Speak to them as kin.

• Follow a Thread — Let your curiosity guide you: a birdcall, a scent, a flash of color. Follow until it reveals a story.

• Wild Ritual — Making a small ritual: light a candle, place a leaf or stone beside it, and honor one moment of intimacy you shared with the land that day.

These practices are simple, but like the acorn woodpeckers, they build a cache of nourishment over time. Intimacy with the wild reminds us we are never truly alone, and that love can take many forms.

I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.

~Joseph Campbell

Ways to Connect

The Understory – begins October, 2025 - virtual
The Understory is a live, weekly, ever-changing 20 minute creative practice, designed to help you connect with each other and feed your inner artist. Free to all annual subscribers. Recordings will be emailed to members who are unable to attend live.

The Artist’s Way Online Cohort
Weekly written check-ins + monthly Zoom gatherings (currently in progress). Become a paid subscriber to join us. Next Zoom: Sept 6.

Creativity Retreat – Sunday, October 19, 10:00 AM–4:00 PM (In person, So Cal)
Creativity isn’t a gift. It’s a rebellion. A rebellion against the idea that you have to fit into a box. Against the pressure to be perfect, polished, and “finished.” This retreat is for the wild-hearted, the ones who feel the stirrings of something inside them that’s ready to break free. A light lunch will be served. [Click here to register.]

In-Person Yoga - Yoga at the Maloof, Rancho Cucamonga – free, every Friday at noon. Yoga on Tap at Claremont Craft Ales – 2nd & 4th Sundays, 11:30–12:30

The Forager Wildlife Retreat – November 2025 (San Bernardino Mountains)
Four spots remain. Paid subscribers can reply to this email for location details and schedule.

Small group retreats- for team building, and/or yoga/meditation/survival training -email: booking@michelledowd.org

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Thank you for being on this journey with me. I am grateful for the gift of your presence. Walking this path, knowing so many of you are walking it too, gives me hope. May we recognize our interbeing, with one another and the anima mundi, supporting each other in growth and recovery, like a mycelial network.