The nature of beauty and difficult emotions

During coaching training yesterday I found emotions welling up.

We were reflecting on a plant (the silver squill) individually and what we were drawn to. We had to write I like the silver squill because… and provide three things that we were drawn to.

I wrote beauty, mystery, apparent fragility. We discussed this, what we felt and why we chose these words.

We flipped this to help explore our own nature. Changing the sentence to I like Alex because…

I became emotional when I used the word beauty. Clearly there was something important here for me.

Tabitha explained that it was common for men, in particular, to struggle with describing themselves as beautiful. I certainly found it very uncomfortable and emotional. I didn’t really know why.

I said that I would spend some time in nature to reflect on this.

A walk in nature sheds some light

I did wonder about beauty on my walk but I didn’t want to analyse this but wanted to use nature to sense a response.

I found myself in front of a favoured oak and naturally found myself reflecting on its beauty.

I thought that it wasn’t symmetrical so why was it beautiful? The word coherent appeared in my head. It’s a word that has been coming to me recently from some sources. I think it describes how everything is working towards the same goal. Perhaps it is seeing patterns and direction in something which is not structured in a rigid sense.

I realises that beauty was about seeing something aligned with and acting according to its nature.

I don’t know that this is necessarily true but it certainly make me feel more comfortable with describing myself as beautiful (or knowing how this could be true).

I am now left reflecting on whether I have got to the heart of this. I aim to consider sensing in nature to provide me with ongoing support and insight.