Small-group sessions held in the yurt and on the surrounding land at The Gentle Wild. Each gathering invites you to slow down, pay attention, and explore one natural sense through observation, quiet creativity, and reflection.

Limited to 6 seats to preserve the contemplative integrity of the experience.

Book Your First Exploration

Natural Sense Exploration — Single Session

 A small-group, guided nature-based creativity experience.

Session Details

Wednesday, May 6 | 7:00–8:00 PM

$60

Location: The Gentle Wild yurt, Alberta
Group Size: Limited to 6 seats
Duration: Approximately 1 hour
Art Materials: Provided
Experience Level: No previous art or nature practice experience required

A gentle way in

Natural Sense Explorations are small-group guided sessions that invite a deeper relationship with the living world.

Each session explores one natural sense through time on the land, creative response, and reflective conversation in the yurt.

This is not a traditional art class.
There is nothing to master, and no pressure to perform.

No art experience is required. Curiosity is enough.

What happens during a session

  • 🌿 Arriving & Grounding

    We begin with a brief transition into the space, settling attention and arriving into the environment.

  • 🌿 Guided Observation

    You’ll be invited to notice specific aspects of the natural world, light, sound, texture, movement, or atmosphere.

  • 🌿 Creative Response

    Pair text with an image to focus on your chosen product, collection, or blog post. Add details on availability, style, or even provide a review.

  • 🌿 Integration

    Time to sit, walk, or rest with the experience. Optional sharing is always invitational, never required.
Tray with coffee and cookies in a cozy room with a fireplace

Imagine arriving at the yurt

A narrow path leads through meadow grasses and pine. The yurt sits quietly among the trees, a small circle of warmth and light within the landscape.

Inside, chairs gather around a central table. Art materials are waiting. Tea is poured.
Outside, the land stretches into forest and sky.

Here, the pace softens.

Together, we step outside, exploring the natural world through observation, creativity, and quiet curiosity, and noticing how our senses connect us to the living Earth.

Who This Is For

These gatherings may resonate with you if you:

  • feel nourished by time in nature
  • enjoy creativity without pressure or performance
  • are curious about perception and lived experience
  • appreciate reflective conversation in small groups
  • want a more intentional way to engage with the natural world

You do not need to think of yourself as an artist to take part.

Over time, participants often notice…

  • 🌿 A quieter, more settled state of attention

  • 🌿 Increased awareness of subtle sensory experiences

  • 🌿 A deeper sense of connection to the natural world

  • 🌿 New ways of engaging creatively without pressure

The First Step

It is not necessary to understand the larger journey before you begin.
You are welcome to start with a single Sense Exploration and simply experience the work for yourself.


Each first-step session includes:

  • one guided natural sense exploration
  • time on the land
  • creative reflection in the yurt
  • all materials included


$60 per session


Perfect for those who want to begin gently and see whether the work speaks to them.

What this is not

Natural Sense Explorations are not traditional art classes. They are not therapy, and there is no expectation to interpret or explain your experience. This is a guided, creative field practice in attention, perception, and relationship with the natural world.

What is included

Art materials are provided for each session. Gatherings take place both outdoors and inside the yurt. Tea and a calm, welcoming setting are part of the experience.

Group size

Sessions are intentionally small, typically limited to six participants, to support a quiet and attentive atmosphere.

Ways to join

You may join a single session, book a private experience, or continue over time through a longer exploration path.

There's a larger journey, if you wish to continue

Natural Sense Explorations are inspired byThe Elemental Art of Nature Immersionand a larger body of work exploring the many ways humans experience the natural world. The current page describes this as a 54 Natural Sense Journey, with each session exploring one natural sense through guided observation, creative response, and time on the land.

You do not need to take in the full framework all at once.

For some, one session is complete in itself.
For others, a single exploration becomes the beginning of a longer path.

  • The Gentle Wild Sense Wheel with nature scenes and text on a white background

    54 Natural Senses. A living language of perception shaped through your relationship with the natural world.

    If you choose to continue, the experience opens into a circular path inspired by the elements, the form of the yurt, and your lived relationship with the natural world.

     

    At the centre is you, the living observer, connected to all things.

     

    From there, the journey unfolds through Earth (north), Air (east), Fire (south), and Water (west), held within the wider presence of Father Sky above and Mother Earth below.

     

    Along this path, you’ll encounter a broader field of perception, what I'll refer to as the 54 Natural Senses, inspired by the work of Dr. Michael J. Cohen. These are natural ways of sensing, gathering information, and relating to the world around you, extending beyond the commonly named five senses.

     

    You don’t need to take it all in at once.
    Most people begin with a single exploration, and continue only as they feel naturally drawn.

Begin with a single exploration. Complete the circle as you are naturally drawn.

Book Your Sense Exploration

Most sessions follow the weekly rhythm, with occasional immersion weekends scheduled throughout the season.

Seasonal Rhythms

Spring — Air

A season of awakening attention, curiosity, and perception.

Spring explorations focus on the senses of awareness, curiosity, and perception.

As the landscape wakes, participants explore subtle shifts in atmosphere, sound, and movement — learning to notice how attention opens to the living world.

Typical themes explored may include:

• awareness of space and proximity
• hearing and resonance
• temperature and seasonal change
• community and belonging

Summer — Fire

A season of movement, vitality, and creative expression.

Summer explorations focus on movement, vitality, and creative expression.

As daylight expands and the land becomes active with life, participants explore senses connected to time, consciousness, mobility, and awareness of place.

Summer sessions may explore:

• the sense of time
• movement and mobility
• awareness of place and navigation
• dreaming, meditation, and altered states of perception

Summer encourages creative engagement with the world.

Autumn — Water

A season of reflection, relationship, and emotional depth.

Autumn explorations turn toward relationship, emotion, and reflection.

As the landscape shifts toward harvest and transformation, participants explore senses connected with beauty, gravity, biological rhythms, and connection with others.

Autumn themes may include:

• aesthetic awareness
• balance and gravity
• biological time
• humility and ethical awareness

Autumn sessions invite participants to reflect on their relationship with the natural world.

Winter — Earth

A season of grounding, intuition, and inner awareness.

Winter explorations move inward, focusing on grounding, intuition, and deep observation.

In the quieter months, participants explore senses connected with form, touch, language, and transformation.

Winter sessions may explore:

• sight and light
• touch and texture
• intuition and subconscious awareness
• transformation and metamorphosis

Winter invites deep listening and grounded presence.

Exploration Paths

  • Single Sense Exploration

    A gentle first step into the work.

    • One guided exploration
    • Time on the land
    • Creative response in the yurt
    • Materials included

    $60

  • The Exploration Path

    A small journey through several natural senses.

    • Six explorations
    • Scheduled over time
    • A deeper developing practice

    $330

  • The Seasonal Journey

    A fuller immersion into perception and awareness through nature.

    • Twelve guided explorations
    • Completed over the season
    • A deeper rhythm of practice

    $600

Facilitator

Sherri Phibbs is the founder of The Gentle Wild, an experiential learning facilitator, bestselling author, and nature-based practitioner whose work explores the meeting place between perception, creativity, and meaningful lived experience.

Her background includes study in eco-psychology, expressive arts, animal-assisted work, and equine-assisted learning.

Through The Gentle Wild, she creates experiences that invite participants into deeper attention, quiet reflection, and a lived relationship with the natural world.

Allow the wilderness without to balance the wilderness within.