In our fast-paced world, with so many voices vying for our attention via social media, the immediacy of 21st century technology and its impact on our privacy, the demands on our time from every quarter, it’s natural to want to escape.
And, according to the former park naturalist for the St. Johns County Department of Recreation and Parks, people are finding that escape in the outdoors.
“Now that we’re so far away from nature, we’re realizing that coming back to the natural world is beneficial health- and mental-wise,” says AyoLane Halusky, owner of and lead guide for Earth Kinship.
According to Halusky, spending even 10 minutes in nature can greatly reduce cortisol levels and improve creativity.
Halusky has witnessed the positive effects of exploring nature his whole life. When he was young, his father started the Earth Stewardship Conference where people gathered to talk about healing the Earth. The name was later changed to Earth Kinship, which participants felt better reflected the conference’s focus.
Halusky would return to that name when he launched his current ecotourism business.
After earning his bachelor of arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design, he went to work in outdoor settings, leading youths in Outward Bound on wilderness trips. Later, he spent a decade teaching at the University of Florida’s IFAS Extension where he grew its eco adventures to new levels. He added kayak trips, rock climbing and whitewater rafting. By the time Halusky left that job, the number of students served each semester grew from 100 to about 5,000.
That’s when he came to St. Johns County and took the park naturalist job. Ten years later, he has started a new chapter: Earth Kinship.
Halusky, who is American Canoe Association-certified and a Florida Master Naturalist, offers several different experiences in nature, which can be found at his website, earthkinship.us. There are kayak and hiking tours, naturalist training and paddle training, and forest bathing, which for the uninitiated is not bathing but, rather, guided meditation in the woods.
“I have some certified forest bathers who work with me,” Halusky said.
He would like to add some tipi talks or chats around the fire and bring in some local historians to discuss important historical figures who don’t always get the attention they deserve: Stetson Kennedy, William Bartram and Denys Rolle, to name a few.
“There’s so much out there that, without a naturalist and an historian point of view coming together as one, you’re not getting the full story,” he said.
One element he has added to several of his kayak trips involves everyone finding a spot out of sight of everyone else and sitting quietly for 10 minutes. At first, participants won’t hear any birds or other animals around them.
“When you put a human in the woods, it’s like throwing a stone in a pond,” Halusky said. A person’s very presence silences nature.
But after about 10 minutes, the birds and other animals, no longer sensing a threat, make their presence known again.
When the kayakers return, Halusky asks them to describe their experiences.
“The majority of the time I hear, ‘relaxed’ or ‘my awareness is heightened,’” he said. “Sometimes people laugh and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize how loud cars were.’”
While he recognizes the value of other kayak tour companies in the St. Augustine area, Halusky offers something different; he takes people to “secret spots” that only the locals know about.
“We go to many, many locations,” he said, “and we dive deep, deep, deep into the natural world.”
To learn more, go to earthkinship.us.
