Embodied Nature Practices to Reset Your Nervous System and Stop Running on Autopilot
Come Home to Yourself!
If your thoughts feel tangled and your energy scattered, that’s normal in a world that rewards speed, distraction, and endless striving. This isn’t just stress — it’s disconnection. From your body. Your breath. Your inner rhythm.
The shift isn’t about doing more — it’s about remembering who’s steering the ship. Not the to-do list. Not ChatGPT. Not the inner critic. But the part of you that can pause, notice, and choose with clarity.
This is not magic. It’s presence. Nothing to fix. Just to come back to. Quietly. Clearly. Step by step.
Did You Know Where I Come From?
Maybe you’ve seen me walking. Maybe you’ve read something I’ve written. Maybe this is your first time here.
Either way — let me start from the roots.
I Wasn’t Always the Walking Guru
There was a time I felt like a headless chicken.
That metaphor hit me hard when my stepson died 15 years ago. My own children — then 14 and 16 — found him while on vacation with their father in Israel. There are no words for that. I felt like my head was ripped off. The shock flooded everything.
But the chaos didn’t begin there.
I grew up with loss, silence, and a heart that felt everything. My father died by suicide when I was six. The truth was hidden to “protect me,” but silence only isolated me.
Not long after, someone I’d chosen as a role model — almost a father figure — crossed a line. It wasn’t just that moment. It was the confusion, the betrayal, the inability to speak, and the deep rupture that followed.
I didn’t feel safe to tell the truth — not because anyone forbade me, but because there was no space that felt safe. My mother, overwhelmed with three small children, was at her limit and couldn’t fully hold me.
So I held it all in. Tried to smile. Met the needs. Learned to manage — not to show how I felt. Like many sensitive children, I carried the belief that something was wrong with me, that the world might collapse — and maybe it was my fault.
As an Adult, I Did All the Things
Business. Success. Burnout. Cancer. Divorce. I ticked all the boxes but was still running.
I studied with yoga masters in remote India, Jesuits in Switzerland, shamans in Peru, physical fitness experts in the US, hypnotherapists in Germany. The real shift came slowly — reclaiming my nervous system and inner leadership.
One day, a quiet instinct led me to the Amazon for three months. No Wi-Fi. Nineteen ceremonies with 3rd-generation shamans I still stay in touch with. People from around the world seeking relief.
Funny — I don’t even smoke. I didn’t go for enlightenment. I went to experience something ancient, beyond words.
I saw the filters I’d carried all my life — how beliefs shaped how I saw myself, the world, safety, truth.
Headless Chicken became the title of my book — not just about ayahuasca journeys but the deeper stories beneath them. How we create meaning from chaos, how unspoken assumptions become the lens through which we see life, and how that lens can crack open.
It wasn’t about healing childhood wounds. It was about reclaiming the reins.
Not pushing away fear but learning to hold it — so it doesn’t hold you.
This Is What I Offer Now
Not a fix. Not a program.
Presence. Clarity. The ground beneath your feet.
Where Do You Come From?
Everyone has a story. It’s not just what happened, but how you experienced it, whether you had someone to hold space for your feelings, to ask questions, to be safe.
You’re not stuck in your past — you’re beyond it.
Every chapter you’ve lived adds depth and wisdom.
Often, it’s not just the hard things that shape us, but the absence of someone holding space for our pain.
You are not your patterns. Not your thoughts.
You are the torch — shining new light, seeing clearly, non-judgmentally.
Give yourself the break from autopilot. It’s not that hard. It takes courage. And it can be surprisingly joyful.
Embodied Presence: Beyond Fight, Flight, or Shutdown
When we’re always reacting, rushing, overthinking — we lose access to clarity. But returning is simple. Not always easy, but simple.
It’s not about fixing. It’s about reconnecting.
Not becoming someone else — but remembering who’s underneath the noise.
These aren’t hacks. They’re invitations to shift from autopilot into aliveness.
Five Ways to Return to Yourself
Try these grounded, subtle practices — meet yourself where you are.
- The Torch Breath: Inhale 3 seconds, hold 3, exhale 3 — repeat 3 times. Feel: “Who’s steering me now? Tension? Or the deeper me?”
- The Elevator Drop: Close your eyes. Let your attention drop from your head to chest, belly, pelvis. Land at your base. Feel gravity: You’re here now.
- Gaze & Ground: Find something green — a tree, a leaf. Rest your eyes. Feel your feet on the ground. Whisper inside: “I exist. I belong. I don’t need to perform.”
- Rewrite the Script: Think of a past moment that still hurts. Write it again — from future you. What did it teach? What part of you grew stronger? Rewriting isn’t denial. It’s reclamation.
- Seaweed Sway: Stand and gently sway like seaweed underwater. No music. Just breath. Just space. Movement for feeling, not fitness.
Walking as a Way Back to Yourself
Why I founded The Walking Guru 25 years ago:
Change doesn’t start with thinking harder or doing more. It starts by grounding in your own experience — nature, movement, presence.
I use walking coaching, improvisation, songs, real talk — aliveness, not performance.
Shared experience, not self-improvement.
What I Offer Today
No online programs or fixed systems.
Presence, one step at a time.
- Walking Coaching Sessions: Walk and talk in nature — breathe, ground, gain clarity. These are embodied experiences, not therapy or performance. Light, playful, or deeply touching. Personal, never a fixed program. Once, twice a week, or as needed.
- 1:1 Intensives: Custom walking + coaching retreats. Next opening: November, Mallorca. On request only.
- Unboxed & Unbottled: Interactive storytelling events. Improvisation, music, body awareness, authentic connection. For companies and groups. Door-openers to shift from overfunctioning to grounded creativity, flow, and fun.
Interested?
Reply to this email or DM me on Instagram @walkingguru.
Not Your Average Self-Help List
This path isn’t about fixing what’s “wrong” or replaying old stories.
It’s about stepping into your power — learning to be your own safe place, the rider who guides instead of reacts.
You’re not broken. You’re not your past.
Who else but you can hold the reins?
Choose presence, power, and calm.
With presence and feet on the earth,
Manuela Stoerzer
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The Walking Guru
Http://ManuelaStoerzer.com
http://thewalkingguru.org
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