Cheryl Cook

24/12/2025

20/12/2025

At this time of year, I choose to step back and be away from facebook.

Not because I don’t care, but because I care deeply about my health, my clarity, and the integrity of the work I offer.

My work is about real, life-changing support.

It’s for professionals and those who are ready to take responsibility for their lives, their wellbeing, their relationships, and their path forward.

I’ve learned that I cannot be truly present for others if I abandon myself.

My health is my foundation without it, I have no life, no work, and no capacity to serve in the way I’m here to serve.

The quieter weeks invite reflection, rest, and self-connection.

This pause is intentional.

It’s part of how I honour my work, my boundaries, and my own humanity.

Thank you for understanding, and for respecting this space.

Enjoy the holiday season everyone.

Cheryl x

20/12/2025

Today in the Northern hemeshere for me marks the ending of the 9 year cycle having worked with the snake all year shedding everything that isnt for me i begin to ground into my presence.

2026 is the year of the Horse, of coming back to the beginning of the number 1, our inner authority.

Grounding exercise to meet our inner femanine/masculine.

When we work with sheep medicine, we are invited into a deeper understanding of the inner Divine Feminine and the inner Masculine psyche within our being. We are invited into presence.

This practice reveals how we are truly showing up in the present moment on that day, at that time, and in that particular season of our life.

Through any stage in life we can see ourselves as a reflection of the land to understand more about why men or women in our lives in close relationships or working environments are showing up in unhelpful ways keeping us in repeated patterns of behaviour with those of the same or opposite s*x.

The hedgerow is a mirrored reflection of an aspect of us in men or women and just one of the arches we pass through.

It is a threshold, not a destination. It demonstrates its natural resistance, how it protects itself, how it is armoured, how it when we stumble into a hedgerow, it will push back very quickly and sharply, its branches will puncture the skin, or rip our clothes.

When we show up in this way as a very unfriendly aspect of ourselves, no matter how much we hide from ourselves, we will push away continually, that element of ourselves will keep attracting those qualities in others on the external world until we learnt to soften those edges internally.

This teaching reminds us that for many people men and women alike there can be a tendency to identify with external archetypes such as the goddess, the queen, the priest, the princess, the witch, or the wise one.

Yet when we work with the wisdom of the sheep and the land, we are guided away from seeking ourselves in the external world.

Instead, we are brought inward.

Sheep medicine teaches us to soften, to listen, and to attune to what is already present within us. The land becomes a mirror, not something to conquer or perform upon, but something that reflects our inner balance, our vulnerability, and our natural state of belonging.

Through this practice, we remember that wisdom is not something we step into from the outside it is something we uncover by returning home to ourselves from the inside.

I teach people how to identify their deepest fears in nature, how to see their landscape arcytype and how to transform them in tangible logical ways no matter the roots of our beginnings.

To ground is to learn to stay with ourselves.

Cheryl x

20/12/2025

NEVER CONFUSE ACCESS WITH LEVERAGE.

A Wolf Was Feeding On A Fresh Kill — Blood On His Teeth, Belly Full, Dominant And Unthreatened. Then A Small Bone Lodged In His Throat.

Pain Took Him Instantly.The Same Wolf Who Moments Earlier Ruled The Clearing Now Ran In Panic, Gagging, Groaning, Desperate.

He Begged Every Animal He Met For Help.
They Refused.

They Knew What He Was When He Was Whole.
They Understood That Saving A Predator Does Not Turn Him Into A Friend.

Finally, The Crane Stopped.

The Wolf Promised Anything.
Reward. Protection. Gratitude.

The Crane, Mistaking Distress For Dependency, Believed Him.

She Placed Her Head Inside The Wolf’s Mouth — Into The Jaws That Had Just Killed — And With Her Long Beak Removed The Bone.

The Wolf Was Saved. Then He Smiled.

When The Crane Asked For The Promised Reward, The Wolf Barely Looked At Her.

“Be Satisfied,” He Said. “You Put Your Head Inside A Wolf’s Mouth And Took It Out Alive. That Is Reward Enough.” And He Walked Away.

This Is Not A Story About Ingratitude. It Is A Story About Power.

The Crane Confused Need With Obligation.
The Wolf Confused Survival With Mercy — And Correctly So.

Here Is The Law Most People Learn Too Late:

Helping Someone In A Moment Of Weakness Does Not Give You Power Over Them Once Their Strength Returns.

Gratitude Is A Feeling. Leverage Is A Structure.

The Wolf Never Promised Fairness.
The Crane Assumed It.

This Is Why Wise Men Do Not Rely On Thanks, Praise, Or Verbal Promises. They Secure Position Before They Provide Relief.

If You Help Someone More Powerful Than You, One Of Three Things Must Be True:

Your Contribution Is Public.
Your Role Is Indispensable.
Or Their Victory Becomes Inseparable From You.

Otherwise, Once The Bone Is Removed, You Become Irrelevant.

Power Respects Utility, Not Kindness. And Never Mistake Being Needed In A Crisis For Being Protected After It.

Gratitude And Greed Do Not Coexist.

Plan Accordingly.

19/12/2025

As an ancestral chain breaker breaking many patterns learnt from my parents and ancestors back to live life on my terms not of the crowd or someone elses beliefs. When you do this people without understanding think you are without intelligence they call you names like weirdo, thick, dim and stupid, they believe you think you are superior to other people when I truth all that is happening is I am making friends with myself, knowing myself better, walking my talk, making my mind and body peaceful by continually moving through the darkest disowned parts of myself to the joy that awaits for those with courage to step over the threshold of fear.

Stand tall never let anyone clip your wings or dim your light, do the work you came to earth to do then go home.

Stop battling with people and yourself.

Cheryl x

19/12/2025

Winters warming smile, Listen to the Land

You are moving into a new phase. Many options appear open, but not all are for you.

Slow down.

Feel into what truly nourishes you.

Do not trade your wholeness for speed or approval.

Return to what is natural, grounded, and native to your soul.

From there, your next step will be clear.

People have celebrated the change of seasons since the beginning of memory because the seasons arrive as visible miracles.

They announce themselves without asking permission through shifting light, cooling air, returning birds, falling leaves.

The seasons are life speaking out loud.

Ancient people depended on them for survival, nourishment, and orientation, so they listened closely. Mythologies formed where attention was placed, and attention was placed on what could be seen, felt, and shared by all.

Life itself, though, is quieter.

To celebrate life every day requires presence. It asks us to notice breath, sensation, emotion, impermanence. It asks us to feel joy without clinging and pain without turning away.

Many people were never taught to live this way. They were taught to endure, to produce, to keep moving.

Life became something to get through rather than something to honor.

The seasons made celebration permissible.
They created natural pauses times to stop working, to gather, to grieve, to hope again.

Ritual gave people structure for reverence. Without ritual, life blurs into obligation, and gratitude gets postponed for “someday.”

Pain also plays a role.

When living hurts, people often disconnect from life itself.

It can feel safer to celebrate the turning of the year than to sit with the vulnerability of being alive.

Seasons do not ask us to face our wounds. Life does.

What has been forgotten is that the seasons were never meant to be separate from us.

Ancient cultures did not divide nature and self. Spring was not just something happening in the fields it was the heart thawing.

Summer was not only heat it was vitality and fullness in the body.

Autumn was release, and winter was descent, rest, and trust.

The seasons were mirrors, not spectacles.

Spring teaches renewal after despair.

Summer teaches abundance without apology.

Autumn teaches letting go with grace.

Winter teaches stillness and faith in the unseen.

When people stop celebrating life daily, it is often because they were never shown how to see their own existence as sacred ground.

Yet every breath is a quiet solstice.
Every morning is a small rebirth.
Every night is a descent worthy of reverence.

Life does not need a festival to be holy it needs attention.

And those who remember this feel it instinctively. they sense that life itself is the ceremony, that honoring it even briefly, even imperfectly is a radical act of love.

Celebrating the seasons was never meant to replace celebrating life.

It was meant to teach us how.

I teach people how to live through nature's intelligence through embodied practice to create the life unloved.

Cheryl x

15/12/2025

What a beautiful day.

Yes, it’s raining.

My little space is saturated there are puddles forming, the roof is leaking, I am very much living in the real world.

And yet, nature is always informing us about our health.

Rain reminds us of the elixir of life.

Water makes up over 70% of our bodies. It nourishes, cleanses, restores.

Just as the earth needs saturation, so do we.

We take care of our vehicles with water. Why not our bodies?

This is a reminder to prioritise our health over external noise.

To nourish ourselves deeply physically, emotionally, and mentally especially through these winter months.

Nature is speaking again.

She’s asking us to soften, to hydrate, to replenish, and to remember what truly sustains life.

What we observe in nature often mirrors what occurs within the human nervous system.

Rain represents regulation. When the environment is saturated, the earth slows, absorbs, and redistributes water in order to sustain life. The human body functions in much the same way and this internal hydration directly affects neural conductivity, emotional regulation, and stress response.

From a nervous system perspective, adequate hydration supports parasympathetic activation the branch responsible for rest, digestion, and emotional settling.

Dehydration, even at mild levels, has been shown to correlate with increased cortisol, heightened irritability, cognitive fatigue, and emotional dysregulation.

Water-rich foods such as cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, and kiwi contribute not only to cellular hydration but to electrolyte balance, which supports neurotransmitter function and mood stability. In this way, nourishment becomes a form of nervous system care.

Seasonally, during winter months when external conditions are darker and more constrictive, the nervous system requires greater internal support. Hydration during these periods aids circulation, reduces inflammatory stress, and supports emotional resilience.

Nature reminds us that saturation is not excess instead a preparation.
Just as the earth absorbs rain to maintain equilibrium, the human nervous system relies on consistent hydration to regulate emotional wellbeing, cognitive clarity, and physiological balance.

Water is not merely a biological necessity it is a regulatory agent. Prioritising hydration is a foundational intervention for supporting emotional health and nervous system stability.

My work is aimed at professionals who work with the mind and those who are dedicated to sustainable transformation in their own lives.

Be the change you wish to see in the world let nature be your guide to wholesome living.

Cheryl x

14/12/2025

When the Body Is Afraid to Be Nourished

A Nervous System Perspective on Eating Disorders, Grief, and Recovery

Eating disorder recovery is often approached through the lens of behaviour, cognition, weight restoration, or symptom reduction. Yet from the perspective of the nervous system, eating disorders are not fundamentally about food, body image, or control. They are about safety and survival.

In my lived experience of recovery from a lifelong eating disorder, and through many years of supporting others in theirs, I have come to understand eating disorders as adaptive responses intelligent strategies developed by the body in response to overwhelming experiences, particularly grief, loss, and perceived threat to life.

The Body Learns Through Survival.

For me, the origin of disordered eating behaviours formed early in childhood in the presence of death. As a young child, I witnessed the rapid illness, decline, and death of my nana a woman whose love deeply nourished my nervous system. During those times of watching her die, my body learned something precise and enduring.

That staying alive required restraint.
That appetite must quiet itself.
That the body must not ask for more while life was being taken away.

In grief, my nervous system associated needing less with hurting less. Food and desire became dangerous not because of weight or appearance, but because nourishment signalled continuation life moving forward while someone beloved was gone.

This pattern embedded itself somatically. Each subsequent loss in adulthood reactivated the same nervous system coding.
Following the deaths of family members in recent years, my body entered a profound shutdown. I lost three stone in weight not through conscious restriction, but through a collapse of the system itself.

Yet, something changed.

This time, despite the weight loss, I found myself eating consistently responding to what my body asked for without weight gain. This paradox revealed an essential truth weight is not the cause, but the indicator, of how the nervous system is functioning.

Eating Disorders as Somatic Memory

From a nervous system perspective, eating disorders often arise not from pathology, but from unresolved grief stored in the body.

Grief that cannot move often lives in the gut.
The diaphragm learns to suspend breath mid-cry.
The throat tightens.
The stomach learns to wait.

In my body, reducing food intake brought emotional relief. Stillness, emptiness, and restraint regulated my nervous system during loss. Over time, these responses became automatic somatic memory repeating itself whenever life asked me to move forward, begin something new, or feel hope again.

Nourishment, paradoxically, became a threat.
Eating signalled life outlasting death, and my nervous system prepared once more for helplessness and loss.

This is not resistance.
It is the bodys way of protection.

Understanding the Nervous System States.

Clinically, this pattern often reflects dorsal vagal shutdown a state of immobilisation where the body conserves energy in response to perceived overwhelm.

In this state

Appetite disappears

Desire collapses

Curiosity and future orientation fade

Eating feels unsafe, not psychologically, but physiologically.

Attempts to “push” recovery through willpower, urgency, or behavioural compliance often backfire, reinforcing threat rather than safety.

In my own system, two dominant internal voices emerged over time.

1. The Watchful Voice
Observant, restrained, practical.
This voice developed while witnessing death.
It allowed articulation without engagement speaking truth without reaching into life.

2. The Urgent Voice.

Determined, insightful, panicked. “I will recover now.” This voice surged with clarity, but moved faster than safety.

Each time it led, collapse followed.

Between these two states was a third voice the one that made recovery possible.

3. I call this third voice The Bridge.

It does not demand eating.
It does not force meaning or permanence.
It invites nourishment gently one bite, one sensation, one moment of contact.

This voice says to the body I am here. I am listening.
Through repetition, reliability, and kindness not discipline the nervous system begins to soften.
The gut learns it can be filled and survive. The throat learns it can open and swallow without danger.
Hunger for living becomes less threatening.

A warmer voice emerges one that eats with companionship rather than urgency. It does not promise healing it offers continuity of life.

Recovery as Nervous System Re-Education

From this perspective, recovery is not about conquering fear of food.
It is about teaching the nervous system that nourishment does not mean abandonment, loss, or another death.

That life can be entered and paused.
That eating does not require forgetting the dead.
That love can return to the body.

The body does not need discipline.
It needs reliability, consistency, and kindness.
It needs the unconditional devotion that grief once removed.

For psychologists and professionals working with the mind, this perspective invites a shift.

Weight change is not the problem it is information

“Non-compliance” may be nervous system protection.

Shame, pressure, and judgment increase threat to life.

Recovery requires a pacing that the body trusts.

Berating someone for their weight, blaming their eating or not eating, or framing recovery as willpower reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how the nervous system communicates.

These approaches compound stress and deepen dysregulation.
What is often labelled “untreatable” becomes treatable when approached through the body’s wisdom and nature’s intelligence.

We are not here to force ourselves or our clients/patients into recovery.

We are here to include the body in life at a pace it can trust.

The true healing voice does not rush.
It stays.

In staying, it teaches the body that living and being nourished by life and love can be safe again.

For all training and speaking events do take a walk over the bridge to my website.

Cheryl x