What can a forest teach us about resilience ?
by Rachel Musson
There’s a tiny natural spring a short walk from where I live. I walk past it on my morning walk through the woods, and always take a moment every day to stand beside it and watch the water running out of the rocks and down the hillside. Some days – like this morning – the water is literally gushing down through the trees; on others there’s barely a trickle. But the water is always there, no matter how fast or slow it is flowing. Standing beside it each morning, surrounded by the many different trees in that part of the woods, never fails to fill me with strength.
I draw a huge amount of inspiration for how I live and work from the wider natural world, in particular from trees. I am not ashamed to call myself a tree-lover (heck, I’ve even got a tree tattooed onto my ankle!) and the more I learn about how extraordinary trees are, the more I love them. What I’ve learned over recent years is that, as well as enabling us all to breathe (pretty supportive, thanks!) they have an awful lot to teach us about resilience.
🌳They are flexible. Whilst they may seem solid, they have the capacity to be extraordinarily supple. Whilst they have mighty strong trunks, it is their deep roots tethering them to the ground which allows their branches to sway in the wind and for them to be ‘bending not breaking’ - a vital part of any resilient structure.
🌳They are endless optimists. They have the ability to adapt and respond to their contexts, shifting where or how they grow to always keep moving towards the light. However, it’s all of the invisible stuff happening under the ground that excites me the most…
🌳They are deeply connected to one another. Any tree growing in a forest isn’t standing alone: it is deeply interconnected with the other trees around it through a hidden network of fungi in the soil – known as the mycelium. Deep in the soil through their entangled roots, this vast underground network of fungi literally enables trees to talk to each other! The fungi pass messages and nutrients between trees to help each other grow and survive. In return the trees give the fungi a ready supply of sugars and fats to keep them resourced.
This beautiful reciprocity is all part of a symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi called the mycorrhizal network (known as Wood Wide Web). It is the relationships within a forest – the hidden or invisible connections – that enable the resilience of each individual tree and of the entire community, because when one tree is struggling, the entire community is able to support.
NB: I love this short video of what happened to the oak trees on St Charles Street when Hurricane Katrina hit in … It is such a powerful demonstration of the ‘stronger together’ narrative of resilience, but also how the strength of each individual tree allowed it to bend rather than break.
I think a lot about my own ‘hidden network’ of support and how I am tethered to them. As well as my relationships with family and dear friends, I have actively joined communities to feel part of something much bigger than myself. I’m part of two community choirs, I am in the Bio-Leadership Fellowship, I’m part of several online communities working towards systems change in education. It is being part of something much bigger than myself that allows my own inner-courage to be strengthened, as I recognise and experience that, no matter how tough life is, I’m never alone. I can root myself into my own sense of self, but it is the entangled roots that allow me to grow.
Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient.
~ Dr. Steve Maraboli
Resilience is the latest buzzword in a long history of buzzwords, and yet it is perhaps something we all need to be turning towards, resourcing ourselves to keep on keeping on in the face of seemingly endless challenges of life in this modern world. So many of us are living in a perpetual onslaught of challenge, of complexity, of overwhelm. Turn on the news and we’re bombarded with symptom after symptom of a world in crisis. Yet the depth of courage and resilience of the human spirit never fails to amaze and inspire me. Day after day, we get out of bed each morning, finding the inner strength and capacity to keep turning towards the light. What I’ve learned over the years is that this inner strength is something we can actively cultivate so that our trunks become as sturdy as the oak-tree.
Every morning, I go for a walk in the woods, it started as a practice and now is an ingrained habit. Strange as it may sound, this is something I’ve learned that actively strengthens me and my own sense of resilience. It’s something that I find deeply nourishing, which enables me to begin each day with a greater sense of ballast and ease, as I’m left feeling much more tethered to myself and my inner resourcing as well as feeling more connected to the wider world. We know that being in nature – even for a very short time – does wonders for the nervous system (check out how tree-like the ‘vagus nerve’ is - the longest nerve within the human body which massively impacts our capacity to function well each day).
But it’s more than that. It is the daily practice of walking in nature, of being present, of noticing, of starting the day with calm that helps to‘ resource me, allowing my thoughts to clear, my nervous system to settle and my inner voice to become ever louder and be more active in the world
These times we’re currently navigating are really tough. No matter where we are in the world, we’re facing a barrage of stress and overwhelm, challenge and complexity. Having the capacity to weather the storms as they keep on coming is one of the most profoundly important capacities, we can learn to strengthen in our lives to develop a deeper form of resilience, and from this have the courage and capacity to act.
Speaking from both my own lived experience (coupled with over ten years depth research into this space), I can appreciate how our own sense of inner-growth strengthens the more we connect with our authentic selves. The more aware I become of my own needs (and act to nourish them) the more resourced I feel. The more resourced I feel, the more strength and capacity I have to connect with others. The more I connect with folks around me (locally and globally), the more resilient I become. The more resilient I become, the stronger I feel. The stronger I feel, the more capacity I have to be engaged and active in the world.
It’s weird, but that little spring I visit each morning reminds me constantly of the strength I’ve always got flowing within me – sometimes raging, sometimes trickling but always there. And the trees around me remind me that no matter how lonesome I’m feeling as I walk this path towards an unknown horizon, I’m never, ever alone.