• Some Indigenous Nations view rocks as being not only one of the oldest natural elements, but their Elders and storytellers. This activity is based on a teaching gifted to Jaclyn Angotti by Karlee Fellner, who received it from mistahaya. From Fellner's thesis* "Returning to our medicines : decolonizing and indigenizing mental health services to better serve Indigenous communities in urban spaces", we are introduced to mistahaya: "St’at’imc from Tsalalh, or the Seton Lake Band in BC. As a counselling psychologist, his areas of interest include Indigenous concepts of well-being and/or mental health; effectively synthesizing Indigenous and mainstream healing approaches; inner resilience activities that sustain Indigenous men; Indigenous Research Methodologies and Somatic Transformation" (p. xi).
• Ask your kids… who are their Elders in their lives? Who do they go to when they are worried or anxious about something? Who is the first person they turn to for help?
• Retrieve one rock from a nearby water body for each person, and give them some time to speak with the rock whether in their minds or out loud. Give them time to build relationship with the spirit of the rock. Our relatives in the natural world communicate with us. We can hear what they have to say if we open our senses and our hearts. It may be a word or an image. See what comes up.
• This rock for the time being serves as their Elder! An Elder that they can confide in and share their worries. Again, there shouldn’t be any pressure for participants to share their worries out loud unless they would like to. Rocks are our oldest ancestors in the natural world. They are our grandmothers and grandfathers. We can give our anxieties and worries to them. They are older and stronger than us. They were here long before us and will be here long after us. They can hold our pain.
• Once they have shared with the rock their worries… return the rock back to the water and let the water wash away their worries!

*Original teaching from mistahaya as found in Fellner's thesis: “I was just reading something too, particularly in urban environments, about the importance of getting out on the land. To remind people that underneath all this concrete and steel the land's still there. The power of the land is still there. Just because it's covered up doesn't mean it's gone. And also to remember that the power of the land will stay strong or revitalize when we acknowledge it and connect with it. Sometimes to help people get started you can offer them little things too. Like I have this rock that was gifted to me by a friend and it's from the Crazy Horse memorial carved next to Mt Rushmore in the states. Lately I've just been giving that to clients to hang onto when they feel like they're carrying a lot. I tell them, "you can give your anxiety and your worries to that rock because the rock's older and stronger than we are, it'll be here long after we're gone. You can take it." I've found that's been quite useful for clients. Or just giving them little worry rocks to hang on to then taking responsibility for brushing them off, whether it's with cedar or water or sage or smudging the rock after, carry their worries away. It doesn't have to be complicated or complex. Not everything requires a full day ceremony” (p. 285-286)

• Very similar to everything in nature, all things exist in cycles and as their worries get washed away by the lake or the river or the pond, their worries blend into the ecosystem and recycle into the plants, animals, insects, and all the elements within the water.
• Note that it is important not to keep the rock worry but to bring it back to the water and have the worries washed away!
• How did you feel when your worries were washed away?
• Do you feel a change in your emotions after this activity?
• How else do you think nature can help you feel better?