When Everything Is Moving, Let Nature Lead: Lessons for a Year of Change

I can't imagine a more important time to be partnering with nature than now. 

Next month we enter the Year of the Fire Horse. Expect a year or fast-paced, fiery action and rapid shifts. Many of us are feeling both excited and unsettled. Personally I'm looking forward to it after the dissolving, shedding year of the Wood Snake where it was a bit challenging to get much forward momentum. 

I heard someone describe 2025 as like being on the starting blocks waiting for the gun to go off - there was anticipation and a few false starts. 2026 is the time to bolt. 

You might feel extra passionate with a spirit of exploration. 

This means it will be a time for decisions based on clean instinct and intentionality. Having vision will be rewarded - it's a fertile time for new ideas. It will be extra important to stay grounded and keep listening to deeper intuition and guidance. Also not to be too stuck in our ways. A lot of change means need to be open to reinvention. Some things will need to go to make space for the new things starting. 

In times like this, it’s easy to push harder, move faster, and look outward for certainty. But nature invites a different kind of intelligence - one that helps us stay grounded, listen more deeply, release what has completed its season, and create from a place of clarity rather than reactivity.

The Partnering with Nature approach is all about forming an alive relationship with nature and experiencing oneself as an extension of nature. It can be a practical, embodied way of meeting change. This includes things like working with nature to shift our present state of being, connect with truth and inspiration and allowing our minds to be informed by the generative web of life.

In 2026, a year of rapid, dynamic change and trajectory setting initiations, partnering with nature is incredibly important. Not just to cope with change, but to move through it with intention, wisdom and heart. Here are a few ideas:

1. Re-establish Foundations

Use grounding practices in nature to help re-establish your foundations, especially after what might have been a time of a lot of back-and-forth or endings. Archimedes said something along the lines of, "Give me but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth." This applies to physics (fulcrum and lever) and also our psychology. Having a sense of centreness and rootedness means we are better able to take action in the world. And this year will be all about action!

2. Re-orient to what really matters to you, now.

With a lot of change around, there's a good chance that priorities have shifted and new things want to be born. In nature we can find the space and stillness to really listen to ourselves - studies show that mental chatter quiets, rumination decreases and we have less self-focussed thoughts. The boundary of ourselves softens. This gives us more ability to think clearly, relationally and strategically. 

Intentionality is extra-important in environments of dynamic change so trajectories are set consciously not chaotically. A Nature Quest is great for this, but it doesn't have to be such a deep dive. Simply create some undistracted time outside, find a sense of spaciousness (panoramic vision or listening meditations are great for this) and tune in for bit in between the action of the year.

3. Letting go with grace

Nature never clings to what has completed its season. Leaves fall. Rivers change course. Tides recede as surely as they return. There is a continual rhythm of arrival and departure, growth and release.

For us, letting go is often harder. We can sense when something is no longer aligned whether it be a role, a routine, a way of seeing ourselves... and yet often still try to hold on, just in case. But in nature, space is not empty; it is preparatory. The outflow creates room for the next inflow.

In a year of change and action, nature reminds us that not everything is meant to be carried forward. Some things must be laid down so that energy, creativity, and new directions can emerge. Letting go with grace doesn’t mean giving up. It means trusting that release is part of renewal.

When we spend time in natural places, we are constantly shown this truth. We watch waves erase old patterns in the sand. We see dead wood becoming nourishment for new growth. Nature models a deep confidence in cycles and gently invites us to trust them too.

4. Being ok with the in-between spaces

"It's darkest before the dawn" is true, and metaphorically true. Often the biggest sense of nothingness is right before something new is seeded and born. So, it's likely this year there'll be times of waiting. And instead of filling it with fluff or purposeless scrolling busyness, consider it an opportunity to rest, reset and centre. Nature helps us understand that everything happens in its right time; waiting is not wasted, it is part of the creative process.

Spending time in nature gently trains us to stay with what is, rather than escaping it. When we sit under a tree, watch clouds drift, or listen to birds without needing to “do” anything, we practise being present with simplicity and uncertainty. Perhaps use meditation in nature to immerse in peace.

5. Rooting in what is real

Periods of rapid change can be destabilising. Add to that the accelerating influence of technology with algorithms shaping attention, artificial realities, constant stimulation... it becomes harder to know what is truly solid, trustworthy, and real.

Humans are extraordinarily creative. But our individuated minds, especially when amplified by powerful technologies, can also create systems that drift far from the patterns that sustain life. We can break natural patterns rhythms and of rest, relationship, nourishment, and reciprocity, often without fully understanding the long-term consequences.

Nature, by contrast, operates with deep integrity. Energy flows in cycles. Waste becomes food. Balance is restored through feedback loops. There is no shortcut that doesn’t eventually require correction. This is Natural Law, and we can't escape it.

When we spend time in natural environments, we are immersing ourselves in systems that have been refining themselves for billions of years. Our nervous systems, bodies, and intuitions recalibrate to these rhythms whether we consciously intend them to or not.

In times when information is abundant but wisdom feels scarce, nature becomes an anchor. A place where we can sense, not just think, what is aligned. A reminder that while human systems may accelerate and fragment, the deeper laws of life remain steady beneath it all.

6. Creating from love

When change is in the air, we are always creating. Through our decisions, our conversations, our leadership, our silence, and our attention, we are continually shaping what comes next.

And what we create is deeply influenced by the state we are creating from.

If we are operating from fear, urgency, or reactivity, we tend to build systems of control, competition, and protection. If we are rooted in presence, connection, and care, we are more likely to move toward collaboration, regeneration, and long-term wellbeing.

Nature is a powerful regulator of our inner state. Time in natural settings reduces stress hormones, calms the nervous system, and increases our capacity for empathy and perspective. Quite literally, nature helps shift us from survival mode into a more relational, creative mode of being.

This matters not just for personal wellbeing, but for collective outcomes.

In a year where many people may be making big choices about work, community, leadership, activism, and how they want to contribute, as well as in their personal lives, tending to our inner state is not a luxury. It is a responsibility.

Nature supports us to return to ourselves, to soften the grip of fear, and to reconnect with what brings genuine joy, meaning, and aliveness. From that place, action becomes less about fighting against and more about building toward.

When we partner with nature, we are remembering who we want to be as we step into change. This is more than just coping or surviving through this year, it is about thriving, playing your role and being with the planet needs right now.

A 5-10 Minute Grounding Practice for Uncertain Moments

When you feel caught between letting go and not yet knowing what’s next, try this simple nature-based reset.

Find a natural place — a park, garden, beach, riverbank, or even just by a tree in your backyard.

1. Stand or sit with your feet on the ground. Barefoot is best.
   Let your weight drop down. Feel what is holding you. Tune into the senses - feel the sand/grass, hear the wind and the birds, smell what is in the air, let your eyes soften and take in the bigger field.

2. Place one hand on your belly and one on your heart.
   Take five slow breaths, slightly longer on the exhale. Let your body melt and settle with each breath, until you feel relaxed and present in the here and now.

3. Look for three examples of natural cycles around you.
   Something growing.
   Something decaying or resting.
   Something moving (wind, water, clouds, leaves).

4. Quietly reflect on this question:
   What might I be in the middle of, rather than stuck in? Let the answer come to you, rather than overthinking it.

5. Before leaving, choose one small word to carry with you.
   It could be something like trust, patience, courage, softness, or clarity.

You don’t need to solve anything in this moment.
Just let your nervous system remember that change is natural and that you are supported by something much larger than your current uncertainty.