Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ian. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ian, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
It took a winding journey and a lot of failures to find my purpose. It’s also not easy to describe. After getting out of the military in 2018, I did a lot of soul-searching, wandering, working at dead-end jobs, and inner healing work with therapists and mentors. It’s been a long and sometimes-difficult road that I couldn’t have mapped out. This healing and growth hasn’t happened linearly or in a nice, methodical fashion. It’s been messy and difficult at times, and full of setbacks. But there have also been so many beautiful moments and wonderful people I’ve met. Thousands of little insights and learnings have coalesced into a picture of holistic and integrative wellness, leading to more resilience and growth. And my journey isn’t over.
Part of my purpose is to share my journey and gifts with others and explore ways that I can support their own journey of healing and growth. I facilitate a variety of workshops and somatic offerings that provide safe, connective, and playful environments where people can do their own deep work. The methods and modalities I use vary and will continue to expand. Some core elements in all of my offerings always include mindfulness, fostering body-mind connection, safe community, nature connection, creative expression, play, slowing down, and self-compassion. Another part of my purpose is to continue my own inner work and healing for expansion into my fullest potential. This leads into the spiritual world, and highlights the importance of healing in order to remove blockages to our growth.
I believe that from a more expanded space resulting from deep inner work, people naturally have greater access to innovation, creativity, enjoyment of life, and can engage in healthy community reciprocally as an individual healthy in mind, body, emotions, and soul.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
In my current offerings, I lead group sessions in gentle Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Forest Bathing, and introspective men’s support groups.
Each of these provide an integrative, whole-person, experience that lends itself to curiosity, acceptance, and self-compassion while engaging with whatever is arising in the moment. The training programs that I have been though, as well as my Masters degree, as well as my own journey, allow my approaches to be highly trauma-sensitive and tailored to the level of the group. This helps me feel out how the group is doing and make minute changes as needed.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think some of the qualities or aspects that have been important for my journey have been: a personal degree of tenacity, leaning into caring relationships, and Nature herself. Even when sometimes very difficult, I keep trying. Hard times will pass. It’s so important to reach out for help; we we’re not meant to do it all alone. Nature is very supportive and fosters healing, when approached intentionally.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
Many things help me, as self-care, when I’m overwhelmed: going for a walk, spending time in Nature, doing some yoga, doing a short calm breathing practice, asking a friend if we can chat over coffee, listening to music I like, journaling about what is happening, different spiritual practices, working out, asking for a hug, somatic exercises like stomping or shaking or dancing, letting it out by crying or something expressive. Especially important is to notice older patterns which are not helpful and making the hard choice to do something more beneficial. Just don’t isolate or do the same old thing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sacredlistening.earth/
- Instagram: @ian.napper
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iannapper/
Image Credits
Ian Napper, Matt Haroldsen
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