If you would rather skip the story and go directly to the tools, here is the booklet pdf with tools I chose to share from my experience and from the training. 

It all started

Two months before I heard about the training, I thought, “Hmm, this sounds interesting, but is this really for me?” Then the universe began guiding my path in different ways. I met an interesting man named Adrian, a teacher from Holland, in Bansko, Bulgaria (where we both chose to live). A few days later, we watched a documentary called Fantastic Fungi together at the Altspace coworking space.

This movie really brought me back to my strong connection with nature and so much awareness again about how connected we are with nature, and how nature is such a powerful vehicle of life, that to this day I stay humble in front of the immense intelligence of life. 

The next morning, during my yoga practice, as I calmly stayed in Shavasana, I had that beautiful goosebumps moment of connecting the dots between the systemic approach of constellations and the questions that came in. How can we bring models from nature into a systemic approach to find new ways to expand our awareness and inner knowing through nature?

And with those two magical moments of confirmation two months later, together with Adrian, we were on the plane from Sofia to Venice. Then we took a train to Trbovlje for the Naturalistic Intelligence Training. We stayed in a small hotel in the mountains that made me feel at home as if I were in the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria.

Day 1

As usual, day one consisted of sharing expectations of what we wanted and didn’t want in the training.

One of the funniest discoveries we made when we spoke about fears was that there was a participant who was afraid of sleeping with socks on. We had such a wonderful laugh during this group discussion, and it was even more amusing to imagine sleeping with someone who sleeps with socks on. Hahaha.

One of the fears I had was that I wouldn’t have the capacity to take time and space alone due to my engagement in group activities. So I had the perfect exploratory adventure and space to tune in and participate, but also spend time alone when I needed it. In the end, the training was so beautifully structured that we had more than enough time and space to reflect and reconnect with ourselves.

We were introduced to all the different intelligences listed by Gardner. It was truly powerful to see how I could measure my capabilities regarding each intelligence.

I invite you to create an 8-section wheel and reflect on each intelligence. On a scale of one to ten, how confident do you feel applying this intelligence in your life? You can also reflect with the following questions:

1.Is this my own super power? 

2.Is this an intelligence I would like to explore further and get to know more about? 

3.Is this an intelligence I feel good enough that I don’t want to develop further?

If you want to go deeper, you can explore with your team or even with your family. Make a team chart and put your charts together to discover the weak and strong points of your team. Here is our team chart of the small team we worked with. Each person has their color, and each piece of the pie represents different intelligence.

If you would like to go even further in the exploration, you can use the learning chart model to evaluate your level of competence in each intelligence. 

Unconsciously Incompetent I don’t know what I don’t know

Consciously Incompetent I know what I don’t know 

Consciously Competent I know what I know but still need to think how to 

Unconsciously Competent I know what I know I can do it even without thinking

The best part of the first day was when we had to exchange a small gift from our country with another participant. Thanks to my buddy, I had the opportunity to enjoy a Czech Kolonada—a sweet, crunchy dessert, a very simple, playful dessert to share with the whole group after dinner. And my buddy brought a little rose oil perfume from Bulgaria for his girlfriend.

Day 2

Today, we explored how we understand the term “naturalistic intelligence.” Each team had to present its interpretation to the rest of the group.

Then we went for a magic forest walk, exploring different questions: 

How do you connect to nature?

Favourite places in nature? 

What do you seek to receive from nature?

It was really interesting to become aware again that in moments when I am fully in tune with myself, I can walk on the streets in a city but still have the capacity to notice the little flowers, the trees, and connect to them. 

Then we had a wonderful challenge to get into groups of three, go for a walk and support each other into next three actions: 

Do something I have never done? 

Do something that’s a challenge for me? 

Do something I enjoy? 

Here is our trainer Jaka with our assignment for today. It was a truly powerful experience to observe his teaching approach and how he finds the middle path between structure and flow when holding space for group dynamics to emerge naturally. He also creates space for any friction to become visible and be addressed at the right moment.

The three of us—a Bulgarian, a Romanian, and a Pole—discussed our course of action as we walked and talked with the other two women.

We chose to start with joyful action first, which, for me, would be a challenge to start with the joyful activity rather than the one that would be a challenge. So here was my challenge: we chose to sing songs in the forest to ourselves and the forest. My soul was singing, and then came the challenges. So my challenge was kind of complete as I challenged myself to choose joy before the challenge, and here I am in a high state after singing.

Later, I supported one of the other ladies, helping her scream and express her anger. I also felt that I always wanted to be kind, and even if I have anger within, I wouldn’t express it loudly but would try to cover it up. In a way, my anger is unseen and neutralized internally. Of course, this can be a super powerful skill, being able to come to a state of neutrality toward triggering situations, but still, I felt my inner permission when I was screaming in the forest, breaking some trees that had fallen on the ground. That reminded me that we cannot be whole if we do not allow ourselves to experience all emotions, have the whole spectrum of the experience, and give ourselves compassion and kindness, especially when we are in a low state. At some point, we should consciously choose to be in a higher vibration after a bout of lower emotion.

In the afternoon, we were invited to take a walk on our own, find an object in nature, and have a conversation with it. As I went for the walk, I had to make a work call, and I was a bit annoyed that I had to make the call during these 45 minutes specifically designated for connecting with a special object in nature. So I walked, and the moment I felt ready, I stopped. Internally, I was having a bit of a judgmental inner conversation about why I was distracting myself from the training. And as I called my colleague, while we were talking, I noticed a magical little plant growing right in front of three others. This little plant, whatever it was, was standing there beautifully, at the same time fragile and fully protected by the tree, yet also like a queen on its natural throne in the forest.

Five minutes later I ended the conversation and saw how sometimes even actions that seem like distraction can be our guiding light, as the plant showed itself, while I was talking on the phone. 

Then I started to write and channel a conversation between me and the plant. Here is part of it.

Then we gathered back and we were asked to write that story again, but every time the plant was speaking I had to replace it with I or me. 

And wow, for many people, this was such a powerful shift, as they would read the story to themselves in a new way, as a powerful and empowering reflection, finding hidden gems in the story they had just rewritten.

The evening of this day was quite intense, as we had the international night. To make it more interesting, we were supposed to present our countries without PowerPoint. Anything else that was more playful was welcome. We started with a beer tasting from the Czech Republic and experienced the liberation of Portugal.

We had the chorizo baked in a special dish. We also watched an improv play showing the confusion of “yes” and “no” head gestures in Bulgaria that always confuses foreigners, as in Bulgaria we do the opposite head movements. A nod up and down is a no. A head shake from left to right is a yes. Haha. And there was a funny quiz that Adrian and I won for Romania. The unexpected question was: guess what is the heaviest building in Europe? Not any other building but the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest.

I had a Romanian roommate, and we talked about our grandmothers. It was interesting to observe how similar the attitudes toward life are in the older generations in Eastern Europe. Our grandparents were wired to work, and resting was not something they could easily do. It was as if they were conditioned not to deserve rest. The times they lived in were completely different from current society. Any activity that is only for the joy of it is perceived as a waste of time, so rest is not seen as a normal necessity. Work is the only activity perceived as having high value. It was a really deep conversation that we had. It was so beautiful to explore those societal stereotypes and see how they manifest in our own families.

Day 3

That was the day, the peak of our training. We already knew that today was the day we would experience a mini-vision quest. What a challenging and adventurous day it would be!

As I knew a bit about the vision quest tradition, as friends of mine were organizing vision quests in Bulgaria, I dreamed of going to one. But since it included 4-13 days of no water and food in the forest, I had no idea if I could sustain myself on my own for so long in nature. But here was my biggest gift, a dream come true, through this training, a mini vision quest. We had the afternoon from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. We had to go on our own to any place in nature and stand still to receive the gifts of nature and come back to the hotel when we felt the process was over, at the latest around 9.

I started the day with a fruit breakfast, as I felt it was a ceremonial way to step into today’s vision quest. Therefore, I chose to eat only fruits today. As the lunch break approached, I felt compelled to begin the vision quest earlier than the planned 3 p.m. So, I spoke to the trainer, and prepared myself with a raincoat, something to sit on, water, and some sweets, just in case. I had clarity about my intention, and at 1 p.m., I embarked on the journey of my first mini-vision quest. I walked alone in the forest to find a place that felt right to spend the next few hours until it got dark.

So here I was, with complete freedom and responsibility, walking toward a place I had yet to discover, exploring and guided by my own intuition in collaboration with nature. I wondered, “Do I need a space with a view similar to this one or a more secluded one?”, and none of them was the answer—a space with a short-distance view toward a little meadow in the middle of the forest, next to a beautiful, big, double-trunk tree. The rain started, so I had to make some sort of shelter so I wouldn’t get fully wet. I immersed myself in nature and observed how the wind played a piano in the meadow with all the plants. As their leaves moved slowly up and down, it seemed as if a fairy was touching them one by one, and they played their dance in harmony through the wind.

A few moments later, I thought, “Oh, if there were a thunderstorm, I shouldn’t be close to any big trees.” I even asked myself, “Could I die if a tree falls on me, and nobody knows where I am?” But then, somehow, as I talked to the weather, I manifested a small island of no rain around me while I observed the rain on the meadow 50 meters away from me.

It felt surreal. But here I was, in silence, hearing my thoughts and the sounds of nature even more deeply. I heard something moving a few meters away from me. I looked down under my raincoat and saw a little, sweet mouse hiding from the rain under a plant.

The rain finally stopped. My mind got busy as I started to wonder how I would know when the process had ended. Would I wait until it got dark? I played this question over in my head, and then I realized I could only relax and trust that I would know when it ended, so I could get back peacefully.

I had a question as my intention, so I was hoping for an answer. So I just relaxed and let go of the need to know anything either about when it would end or about the answers I was seeking. So I just relaxed.

I stayed still, listening to the birds and the trees. I expected to get bored, but I didn’t. At some point, I felt like taking a few pictures of the drops on my raincoat.

As I was taking the pictures, the magic moment arrived, and the answer I was seeking came to me vividly. A few hours later, I felt the process had come to a close, and the vision quest was over. I walked back to the hotel, still fully immersed in nature and processing what I had experienced. Later, we gathered around the bonfire to share our experiences of the vision quest journey and the gifts we had received from nature.

We ended the day with a beautiful poem from the book Essentials by David Whyte.

Day 4

We started the day by giving back to nature by gathering garbage in the area where we were staying. It all seemed super clean. I even wondered what garbage we would find since the area was so clean, but we went on a path further down and found some bottles and nylon. It felt really powerful to actually spend time giving back to nature, even with such a small action of gathering things that other humans had thrown there. I have engaged in such garbage-gathering activities before, but I somehow always saw it as a response that came too late for human beings who are not capable of refraining from throwing things in nature. Instead of gathering the garbage, I always asked myself why we don’t find a way to engage with other human beings and create a culture of taking care of nature. Now that we did it as an act of giving back to nature, I didn’t have any resistance to the activity.

Then we had a session and discussion about different leadership styles when working with youngsters, and the ways in which we can approach group activities as facilitators.

One of the questions that came to me was questioning my own style of leading workshops and how much I am willing to give in to flow and how much structure I want to create around it.

So, from extreme chaos to extreme order, the interesting thing for me was that on both ends of this spectrum, the response in the audience is the same: they may fall into apathy, anxiety, or resistance.

Based on the leadership styles we discussed, I led a workshop during the technology open space technology afternoon. This is a model to create a conference that fosters open discussion, where every participant can suggest their own talk, discussion, or workshop. Here is more information about it and the general roles and rules.

In the afternoon, I ran a systemic constellation workshop where each participant could explore their most natural way to facilitate and experience their leadership style. The entire playground was the field of exploration, with papers that only had numbers, so no one knew what they were exploring. They could only connect and feel through their bodies. Later, of course, after they all finished their intuitive exploration, I revealed what each area represented.

There were powerful moments after the sharing, where people who felt very structured and inclined to order had felt really great and attracted to an area where there was more chaos than order. Reflecting back on their lives, they thought about how to find ways to bring more freedom and flow even in a 1-2 hour window each week, so they could develop the habit of allowing themselves to listen more to their inner calling and taking action from within at the moment, without having a plan or expectation of the outcome for that one hour.

The other session I attended was an open discussion about work-life balance, where I shared that I would like to replace the word “balance” as we need to be in between things and balance them out to find a way to bring harmony into our lives without putting work and life on different sides of the equation.

The afternoon concluded with a wonderful TEDx video and discussion about different leadership styles through the lens of orchestra conductors.

The evening during dinner was filled with so much laughter as we somehow got to discussing different cultures and attitudes toward sex. But not just by talking—we were expressing orgasmic sounds and how they would be different. We laughed and laughed; we couldn’t stop laughing.

The evening passed as we had another bonfire night in the forest next to the hotel. We played story games where a person says they have a story in their head and you need to guess it. Then we were only allowed to ask questions, and their response was either yes or no. We asked so many questions about boats, diving, princesses, family, and a witch. At some point, I wondered how the storyteller had so many details in their head. Even when they said no to the same thing, they had said yes to a few questions back. So I was utterly confused but even more passionate about discovering the whole story. I doubted how they could remember so many things in their story and already have so many details. And guess what? The reality was that we were building the story with our questions. Their role in the game was to answer “Yes, Yes, No” repetitively until we figured out there was something wrong with their answers and discovered how they were tricking us into building the story.

We laughed a lot at our own minds trying to solve the challenge in the story about the divers who were influenced by the witch and victimized the prince on the boat. Hahaha.

Day 5

Last but truly amazing day, we ventured into the forest to create Land Art in nature with whatever materials we found there. We were all immersed in creating our pieces of land art while considering the three aspects of ourselves, society, and nature, and interpreting their presence in our art. After an hour of being fully present in nature and creating land art, we went on a gallery walk in the forest where each artist had the opportunity to share, or not, something about their land art. It was beautiful to see and observe how different we are in our artistic expressions when we have complete freedom to create whatever we want. Adrian, as usual, went wild. He said his land art was alive because when you get closer, it moves. Guess what the special ingredient in his art was—a piece of sh*t. He did it to make it come alive through the flies that would be attracted to it and fly away as an observer gets closer.

Here are a few pictures from our land art creations.

The best part of the closing was writing a letter to ourselves. I have been to a few different seminars where the organizers actually send us the paper letter six months after the seminar. Reading these letters has always been a magical moment for me. Here is the link to the site, if you are in a period of transformation and want to send a future letter to yourself: https://www.futureme.org/.

In the afternoon, we went for a three-hour hike to the closest peak, which was 914 meters high. When we reached it, I laughed. How come the peak seemed so low (in my perception)? But no matter the height, the view was beautiful, reminding me of my hometown in Bulgaria.

On the way to the peak, we had quite deep conversations about leadership and facilitation, different teaching methods, and approaches to empowering interactions with young individuals. For instance, Anja from Croatia used capoeira as a vehicle to engage kids not only in movement practice but also in nurturing interactions where they helped and supported each other. Similarly, but in a different way, Adrian used improv theater in school to empower kids to perform on stage with or without a plan and become comfortable with the idea that they cannot truly fail during an improvised show.

On the way back to our hotel, we had an arrangement from the previous day to meet the local grandma, Vika, who would open the church for us and also play the organ in the church.

It was the most magical ending to the day. Grandma Vika was an elderly lady, yet she possessed an incredibly high energy, brimming with joy, laughter, and an undeniable passion for life. Despite recovering from a severe illness, her attitude towards life remained remarkably optimistic. She diligently took care of the church, tended to an entire garden filled with vegetables, and managed her household. Although her English was limited, we could still perceive the beauty in our limited linguistic interactions, which nonetheless conveyed a profound connection. She even generously gifted us with special herbs to make tea at home.

The last evening was extremely joyful as we had a bonfire evening coming up with quite unexpected stories as we built a story, one after another, with characters from other stories and participants from the training. [It was] too spicy to share, but extremely joyful to build a story in a circle, one after another, where each person had the power to completely change the scene with a plot twist.

Departure Day

Time to go home, on the train to Zagreb first, and then on a flight to Sofia, to reflect back and integrate a week of transformational experiences of exchange with another 22 beings from all over Europe. I am always amazed at the end of such an intensive week, at how many beautiful connections are created, how culturally expanded I am with experiences of other cultures through conversations and learning interactions, and how I understand even more about human beings from a variety of different perspectives.

Here is a photo of how we met again on our day of departure from Zagreb with Anja. There are people we meet that we know are not coincidentally in our lives. We hadn’t seen each other for a day, and we both felt we hadn’t seen each other for ages. This is just another example showing how when I allow myself to follow my inner voice of truth and join the training, all serendipities and miracles come along with my decision to follow what feels aligned.

Thank you, Aspira, for bringing us back to nature, for creating that space of growth, sharing in such a playful and powerfully transforming way together with the gifts of nature. Full of gratitude. Thank you, Vesna, Katka, Luka, and Jaka for bringing your gifts into creating such an experience full of wonders.

Thank you, Bistra, for running the Zarika Association, thank you for bringing me onto the team, and nudging me to participate in this training.

Full of gratitude to myself for allowing myself to participate with all my gifts as best as I could and give back to the community while sharing different tools for facilitation, running constellation workshops, and intuitive decision sessions with participants.

If you haven’t heard of the Erasmus+ training for youth workers, teachers, facilitators, and youth exchange projects for young people, you can look for topics that interest you here.

Just a reminder, let’s not take life so seriously. Let’s have fun being on this beautiful planet Earth. Everything is temporary—emotions, thoughts, creations—as happened with my land art and the painting that was given to the fire on the last bonfire evening. So it has all the elements of life and all participants’ expressions.

Here is my land art, the two photos were taken just an hour away. 

So, let’s not attach to what we create but create to cultivate our state of aliveness in every moment of life.

And as an ending, this is my first long-form written experience reflection.

Thank you for reading until the end.

I end with a question: What kind of project would allow you to feel more alive and create space for you to express your aliveness freely?

As a facilitator, I love tools that allow me to provide enough structure and engage with audiences in a way that creates space for everyone to hear more from within rather than from the person on stage.

As a small additional gift: Naturalistic Intelligence Booklet (PDF) with explanations of the different tools and methods I chose to share with you.

With Love and Miracles coming your way,

Mariana Ivanova