Communicating with Trees

“Every human generates a personal energetic field. Like radio antennae, we send and receive electromagnetic signals to and from the world around us. Spiritual systems and healing practices have long recognized the presence of this energy and have worked with it to promote well-being and healing.” 1.

Maureen and I met in the Master’s Degree Program at the Academy of Intuition Medicine®, or AIM®. The Master Certification in Intuition Medicine® is a two year program which studies specific energy systems in the physical body. In the three prerequisite courses we take, one of the very first things we’re taught is grounding. Much like in electrical systems, “a strong grounding connection provides a stable base from which to operate in the world. It creates a feeling of safety, centered awareness, clarity and self assurance.”  2.

Several weeks ago, I was sitting at the dinner table with my two daughters, ages 7 and 9. It was just the 3 of us. I haven’t talked to them too much about what I’m learning at the Academy but bits and pieces have come out, in doses they can handle and when they are interested. As we were sitting there, my older daughter asked “so how can people see energy anyway?” I told her that some people can see energy in colors but not everyone. And some people can see with their eyes and others see inside their mind. She then asked how she can know what color her energy is. I told her she could see it for herself if she’d like me to show her how. She agreed and I walked her through a brief exercise to affirm her energy bubble and then invoke her life force energy. I used language that I thought would resonate with her. She was excited to report that she did see a color and that her energy was a specific light yellow and found something in the house that was most similar to the color that came up for her.

That was pretty awesome to share with my 9 year old and could have been the end of it but then I decided to offer one more thing. My daughter has BIG energy and she often has a hard time calming herself or reigning in her energy. So I added that another helpful thing people can do is to put both feet on the ground and imagine we are sending a tree or roots down from the base of our spine and the bottom of our feet, and have the roots drop deep into the center of the earth which can feel calming. She responded quickly, “oh yeah, I do that” and then continued, “my roots can go very deep, but not ALL the way to the center of the earth because my roots can’t go through lava and there is hard lava in the very center of the earth.” She spoke in a very matter-of-fact tone and I just sat there internally awe-struck, but keeping it cool as I was interested to hear more. She kept sharing. She told me that when her roots go into the earth, they can connect with other roots and that’s how she communicates with plants/trees (WOW!) and said, “you know, mommy, a lot of information is transmitted through roots.”  She told me that she can communicate with almost any plant or tree except potted plants…for those, she needs to touch the soil. She also lamented that she’s tried this with animals and unfortunately it only works with plants and trees. But that her roots can travel far, anywhere on the earth, and that she has “met trees in the rainforest” before.

I asked her what the plants and trees communicate to her. She shared that they are proud of what they produce, that our backyard buckeye wanted to show off its blossoms. Sometimes they share other information about themselves. And that the ivy was frustrating because it’s stubborn and always refuses to communicate with her. She shared that at a recent birthday party in a park, some boys were trying to rip a small branch from a tree and “it wasn’t going well” and she said she could tell the tree was in pain and could hear it screaming “in her head.” Her lip quivered while she was recounting this, as if she were going to cry.

While strawberry picking a couple weeks later with the family, we all kept admiring the beautiful strawberries as we picked them. Then I remembered our conversation and asked Fiona if she was getting any messages from the strawberry plants, particularly since what they produce (strawberries) are so beautiful. She responded, “I haven’t really been paying attention, I’ve been more focused on picking. Also, it’s harder to drop my roots with shoes on.” This statement was perfectly aligned with a movie I had seen just a few days before about how the soles of shoes can inhibit our grounding and connection to the earth. (My daughter had not been with me when I saw the movie.)

Wow, wow, wow. Some minor energy tools and language and all this comes out of my sweet, sensitive 9 year old’s mouth. What a gift that I was able to have this beautiful experience with my daughter and gain insight into how she interacts with the world around her. I am grateful I can share this language and support her in honoring this part of her experience. I am inspired and in awe and know I have so much to learn from her.

For more on the healing and the anti-inflammatory impact of grounding, watch the hour-long movie The Earthing: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12927426/

1,2. Francesca McCartney, Body of Health (New World Library, 2005)