My name is Emmett Phil Coriat and I became a victim of this Nature dis-connection epidemic.
Based in Boston, as Partner for a leading Healthcare Advisory firm, I was closing 9-figure deals in the field of healthcare technologies and increasingly successful at it. Following a traditional dis-connected business mindset, I was focused on performance. Like a fish trying to live without water, and without knowing how to see water, I ignored the calling from my true home, Nature, allowing stress and burnout to build under the surface of my inner self. I had forgotten that time is a thief and that we are finite beings. Life reminded me brutally of that fact. I had to grieve both my parents in the span of 9 months (a truly symbolic time period in hindsight).
The tipping point came with the abrupt end of the toxic relationship I was in. The trick was done. My heart was broken and my brain felt fried.
I had gone from thrive to survive in less than a year.
And truthfully, I did not see it coming !
I crashed.
Reluctantly, I had no choice but to get off the treadmill.
Like a mother supercharged with unconditional love, Nature was patiently waiting with the deepest secret to my health, both physical and mental. After withdrawing far from all the aggression of the city on Land at the Quebec-Vermont border, I slowly realized that She, Nature, had answers. So many of them.
As a fish jumping back into the water, I jumped back into Nature, and She saved my life.
I spent a while in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where Kichwa people taught me about their concept of “health”, Sumak Kawsay, where relationship with Nature and Land is an integral part of true health.
I had focused my 30-year career on innovative medical technologies to improve human health, but had forgotten the Foundation of health that our colonized world is either ignoring or jeopardizing. Nature? Really ?
So through unbearable pain came an unimaginable letting go of old ways.
Deeply inspired by Nature, I was trained and certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy* as a Forest Bathing guide. I began to discover that restoring our connection with Nature allows us not only to reconnect to health, purpose and self, but also to others. Over an intensive training period of close to a year, I immersed myself in various types of Landscapes: from the Spanish Pyrenees to South East Asian jungles to land back home at the Quebec-Vermont border.
In China, from Taoist masters I learnt techniques to “merge” with Nature and feel through senses that I had never used before. This taught me to ask Nature for information and channel it through intuition. I became a certified Zhineng Qigong teacher.
In Heiltsuk Land in B.C., I got trained in tracking wild sea wolves. I realized that in tracking wild animals, we get a glimpse of the wild within us humans, and have an opportunity to learn in yet another way.
“Going slow to go fast”.
I finally experienced what it meant. Not only to respect and care for my physical and mental health, but equally importantly, to access the most powerful part of myself as a human and business leader: the Intuition springing forth from my true “nature”.
As my Nature immersion experiences unlocked my Intuition more and more reliably, I noticed impacts to my Creativity, Decision-making skills, and Adaptability in unexpected ways.
As if a new wellspring of intelligence accompanies me everywhere, my Leadership style has evolved, shifting the way i hold space with my Teams and Clients, to allow more co-creation to emerge, working through tense team dynamics. A new level of depth in listening and commitment permeates and shines through. And I was in humbling company: Steve Jobs, Richard Branson amongst others had spoken about the role of nature in their life.
And the beauty of these unexpected impacts was the spontaneous, effortless way they showed up. I committed myself to Nature’s deepest secret, and She provided me with the rest.
Now, after my crash, burn, and reconnection with Nature, I can no longer imagine the possibility of trying to make a decision alone, without Her, this very special advisor.
