Here’s something we can all agree on: nature is healing. My guest on this episode of About Your Mother, Scott Schumaker, speaks from firsthand experience about nature’s healing power. He explores this topic and more on his podcast Love, Loss, and Hallucinations.
After retiring as a professional athlete, Scott lost his identity, and his marriage was on the rocks. Listen as he shares his journey in nature to rebuild his life and rediscover his inner emotional life.
From High School Swimmer to Professional Triathlete
Scott credits his parents with throwing him into virtually every sport growing up. Swimming stuck, and he dreamed of competing in college and beyond. Unfortunately, he faced burnout in high school and went in a different direction.
The time off led him to find triathlons, and a new, unexpected love story began. Scott’s newfound love of triathlons in the late 80s, when it was still a relatively new sport, turned into a career when he went pro.
After competing in triathlons for over a decade, Scott confronted a familiar feeling: burnout. At 30, after over 100 triathlons, he realized he wasn’t excited to race anymore and needed something new to do with his life.
Finding a New Identity Outside of Sports
Scott found his identity in sports for most of his life, so when he finally stopped racing, he felt lost. That unmoored feeling led to a depressive period in which his marriage suffered.
When he and his wife separated and Scott began seeking therapy, he realized that he didn’t know how to process his emotions. One reason he loved solo sports is that he only had to rely on himself. He didn’t know how to ask others for help or open up to them.
Therapy helped, but it wasn’t enough, so Scott decided to go on a Vision Quest, a four-day trip into the wilderness without food and with only a tarp for shelter. The experience is designed to put your mind and body into an altered state where you can confront old wounds on a deeper level than you could in real life (even without plant medicine).
Scott’s Next Chapter as a Nature Connected Coach
After his vision quest experience, Scott and his wife reunited, and he began a new career as a Nature Connected Coach. Similar to a life coach, Scott helps people achieve their goals with nature as a facilitator. His coaching helps clients reach a deeper level of their soul than they’ve accessed before.
Scott’s Experiences With Plant Medicine
Although his vision quest did not include plant medicine, Scott has since tried various plant medicines and had revelatory experiences.
His first experience was a five-night ayahuasca ceremony in Peru when he was 36. He still regards one of those nights as the hardest nights of his life because it was so grueling. Since then, he’s also taken peyote and wachuma, which he says are more straightforward experiences and less metaphorical than ayahuasca.
In his experience, the most difficult part of any plant medicine journey is surrendering enough to have the best experience possible. Even though he’s experienced this now, his ego still resists the ceremonies. However, he’s had amazing revelations and visions that have changed his life and relationships for the better.
Connecting With Trees to Discover the Interconnectedness of the World
On each medicinal journey, Scott realizes that everything on earth, including people and nature, is interconnected. He’s long used trees to represent this idea.
Trees have strong root systems that run deep into the ground, but they also stand tall and reach the heavens. Like trees, Scott believes humans should go deep into their darkest corners to thrive and grow upward. The journey is hard and uncomfortable, but it always produces something good.
Scott’s Newest Chapter as a Published Author
From a young age, Scott always wanted to be a writer. He has a journalism degree and loved writing and editing magazines. He wrote Henry’s Big Star Adventure, and his memoir will be published soon. I’ve read it; the book is phenomenal.
Looking back on his emotional journey, Scott realizes that the pull to writing was to go deeper into his inner life and learn about himself. His memoir highlights a different side of masculinity, where men can learn to connect with their emotional lives.
Scott’s memoir will be published soon, and you can find updates on his website.
Resources Mentioned
- Super Soul Sunday with Oprah
- Carl Jung
- Mark Allen
- The Wild Trees by Richard Preston
- A World Appears by Michael Pollan
- Strangers by Belle Burden
