Coming home to your True Nature
In this piece, Faye Gould of True Nature explores how to reconnect with the part of us that exists beneath external pressures and inherited ideas of worth through reconnecting with your body, the natural world and authentically with others.
If you're looking for a community to do this in, The Women’s Fire is now open for those seeking a place of belonging and meaningful connection on the path back to their true nature. Right now, they have a summer offer, join the annual membership for just £200 and be part of something truly nourishing for the next 12 months.
There’s a quiet moment that arrives in many of our lives. Sometimes it follows a big experience, a loss, a retreat or a shift in identity. Other times, it builds slowly. An inner sense that something essential has been forgotten.
Not broken. Not missing. Just buried under years of effort, roles, and noise.
This is where the journey back to your true nature begins. Not as a lofty idea, but as a grounded, biological, relational return.
What Is Your 'True Nature'?
Your true nature isn’t a personality to perfect. It is the deeper, unconditioned self that exists underneath performance, striving and roles. In psychological terms, it’s what Carl Rogers, one of the founders of humanistic psychology, called the organismic self. This is the self that responds authentically to the world when not distorted by external demands or internalised conditions of worth.
We glimpse it in moments of presence. In nature. In the body. In spaces where we are allowed to just be.
Why It Feels So Distant
Modern life has conditioned many of us to live primarily in our heads. The constant pressure to be productive and the stress we carry often pull us away from truly feeling what’s happening inside us. Our nervous system can get stuck in survival mode, leaving us stuck in patterns of overthinking, constant alertness or emotional numbness.
This isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a clever way our body adapts to stress. However, this state often leads to a deep sense of disconnection, not just from ourselves, but from the natural world and the people around us.
The good news is that reconnecting is absolutely possible. It doesn’t require anything mysterious, just intentional steps to come back to your body and your surroundings.
The Science of Remembering
Our bodies are wired for connection.
Polyvagal Theory shows that when we feel safe, both inside ourselves and in the world around us, something shifts. Our breath deepens, our senses sharpen and we begin to settle. From this place, we’re able to show up with presence, creativity, and empathy.
Human connection plays a vital role in this process. Our nervous systems respond to each other in subtle ways, reshaping how we feel and how we relate. Being met with empathy and attunement doesn’t just feel good, it actually supports our internal healing.
And it’s not just people who support this reconnection. Time in nature also helps calm our internal noise. It invites us into a slower rhythm, one that reminds us we’re not separate from the living world, but part of it.
Remembering your true nature isn’t an abstract idea. It’s a return to something your body already knows.
Why It Matters
What we often name as personal struggle is more often the result of systemic pressures that disconnect us from our roots, our intuition, and our collective humanity.
In a culture shaped by colonisation, capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, disembodiment is not an accident. It is a survival strategy that has been conditioned into us over generations.
We are taught to value productivity over presence, performance over truth and appearance over aliveness. Emotional suppression is rewarded. In this landscape, inner work becomes not indulgence, but interruption. A refusal to be shaped solely by systems that do not serve life.
When we return to our true nature, everything shifts. We begin to relate rather than react. We choose from alignment instead of fear. We move through the world not to prove our worth, but to live it.
How to Reconnect with Your True Nature
You do not need to go off-grid or become someone new. Reconnection happens in simple, consistent ways. Here are grounded practices based on real research:
Restore Sensation Through Dance
When we move, we wake up parts of ourselves that have gone numb. You don’t need choreography or a set routine, just music, breath, and a willingness to listen to your body. Gentle swaying, circling your hips, or letting your feet move freely can begin to release what’s been held and help you reconnect to sensation. Dance becomes a way back to yourself.
Practice Attuned Listening
In relationships, try listening without planning your response and allow space for silence to unfold naturally. As Dr. Siegel notes in The Developing Mind, the feeling of being deeply heard is one of the most regulating and transformative human experiences and it’s through this kind of presence that trust, empathy and lasting connection are built.
Spend Time in Wildness
Even a short time in natural environments can create a noticeable shift in how you feel. You don't need a remote forest or hours of hiking. Just stepping outside, sitting under a tree, feeling the breeze on your skin, or noticing the sound of birdsong can begin to settle your system. Let your senses lead the way, sight, sound, touch and smell all offer quiet doorways back to presence.
Use Your Embodied Voice
Speak from the body by starting with a simple truth. First, place your hand on your head and say the words aloud. Then, move your hand to your heart and speak the same truth again, but slower, allowing yourself to feel the emotion behind the words. Finally, rest your hand on your lower abdomen and repeat the sentence once more, letting it rise from this deeper place. Notice how the tone, energy, and feeling shift with each layer.
This practice draws on the principles of embodied communication, as explored in Unbound by Kasia Urbaniak, who teaches how voice, presence and power change when we speak from within the body rather than the mind.
Join Us!
True Nature is a sister organisation of The Psychedelic Society and a platform for feminine and ecological empowerment that guides women to rediscover their wild authenticity and deepen their connection with the Earth. You can find out more about them at www.truenature.org.uk and find them on Instagram here.
If you're feeling the call to unearth a deeper part of yourself - you don't need to do it alone.
Over the past five years, we've skilfully crafted spaces for you to let go of all the to-do lists you are juggling, the plates you are spinning, and get close enough to yourself and others to remember.
These are not places to escape or relax only to return home to the same dynamics. They are connecting to the deep work of the soul and letting go of the emotional sludge that's been building up so that you can start to feel more alive again.
We have two retreats coming up and would love for you to join us!
