We recently connected with Kat Novotna and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kat thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share an anecdote or story from your schooling/training that you feel illustrates what the overall experience was like?

The best thing about being trained as a certified EcoNIDRA™ teacher is that the training itself is an immersion into this deeply relaxing practice that resets your own nervous system and helps you reconnect with your inner nature and the rest of our planet.

To become a skilled EcoNIDRA teacher or guide who is embodying the inner peace, nature connection and kindness that this practice brings about, one needs to know the territory, as every good guide does. If you have experienced yourself how your physical, mental and emotional health and well-being change if you learn to rest deeply and regularly, if you’ve seen how this effects your life, work and relationships, then you can give this gift to others and help truly reconnect people with themselves and the Earth.

I remember when I first stared with this practice, doing an EcoNIDRA session every day. I was looking forward to that moment for myself so much! The sessions became moments of freedom when I was freed from my thoughts, my to-do-lists, the tension in my forehead and shoulders, the fatigue, I went so deep that I was literally free from myself, my ego and the person, free from my life situation. I got up relaxed and yet energized for the rest of the day, feeling refreshed, connected and more positive about my life. As if the Earth journey that you take in EcoNIDRA really was a beautiful vacation, in less than an hour per day!

Kat, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Kat and I’m a Forest Therapy guide at heart. After reconnecting deeply with nature through my heart and learning to relax so that I have the capacity to receive inspiration and the profound messages directly from nature, I discovered a way that I can give back. I literally reconnected with my inner nature that showed me my life’s purpose, my joy and passion: to help people reconnect with nature, with themselves and with others. As a result of that, as a solution to some health challenges that I was experiencing, and inspired by dragonflies, I created the deeply relaxing practice of EcoNIDRA, a blend of the ancient yoga nidra practice (yogic sleep) and forest bathing.

It turns out, EcoNIDRA is an extremely accessible and enjoyable practice that helps people deal with stress, fatigue, their mood and focus, as well as a whole range of physical, mental and emotional challenges. Its elements of partnership with nature, reciprocity, sensory immersion and kindness open hearts and make us remember that we are never alone, we are part of something much greater. The Certified EcoNIDRA Teacher training has already nourished and supported hundreds of people around the world to reset their own nervous system, to experience what it is like to live and work when you’re really relaxed, and to spread their mission of helping humans and nature reconnect, heal and unite again.

EcoNIDRA is a sister practice to other restorative, reconnecting and nature-based practices, like Shinrin-yoku (aka Forest bathing or Forest Therapy), yoga nidra, restorative & yin yoga, kundalini yoga, sound healing, vision quests & vision fasts, reiki, nature-based arts, various breath techniques, cold exposure and more. What makes EcoNIDRA a great companion to all these practices is its great accessibility. It is practiced in the Shavasana pose, lying on your back, wherever you are and can have a bit of privacy. You can join a session outdoors in nature, indoors in yoga studios, wellness resorts, spas & saunas, retreat centers, plant shops, at festivals, but also from the comfort of your home with an online session or a session recorded by one of the certified EcoNIDRA teachers. Within something between 20 and 50 minutes, you can very deeply and effectively relax your nervous system and brain waves, and experience effects that are being compared to 3-4 hours of sleep. You don’t have to be physically fit or mobile to do this, you don’t have to have quick access to large nature areas to experience and maintain a very deep reconnection with nature on daily basis.

EcoNIDRA can help you with your energy levels, stress reduction, mood and sense of wellbeing and your overall vitality, focus, creativity and clarity of mind. It can improve your sleep, digestion and a large variety of physical and mental health symptoms. People practicing EcoNIDRA range from busy professionals, leaders and entrepreneurs, athletes, homestay moms, those experiencing burn-out, grief and great life transitions, highly sensitive people, women dealing with hormonal changes and fatigue, people in addiction recovery, recovery from long Covid, Lyme disease, cancer and surgery, and so many more.

I wish everyone could experience how your life, work, relationships and perception of yourself in the world can change once you have a tool that helps you get back to (your inner) nature on daily basis. Not as another thing on your to-do-list, but as something that is so delicious and rewarding that you want to do it every single day to keep that gentle but lasting state of calm and heart-felt presence. It comes from the embodied experience of the rest of nature always being with you. Nature always has your back.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Something I had to unlearn is the tendency to focus on my mission in the world so much that it affected my own wellbeing, energy levels and relationships. I can be very passionate about helping others, and about using all my skills, creativity, time and dedication to help other people and the planet.

But as many change makers, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and ambitious professionals know, it is very easy to be trapped in those hard-working, over-achieving and perfectionism patterns that created the old world, with all the poor mental and physical health conditions and interpersonal conflicts we’re experiencing now. If we want to create a new world, we cannot create it with the same patterns that got us struggling in the first place.

And so, at a certain point, I realized that if I want to have a positive contribution in this world, I really have to start with myself and do what I ‘preach’. In my case, this means living and working with the same spaciousness that you experience while forest bathing or in an EcoNIDRA session. That way, anything I create, every single task or interaction come from a very different place. They come from the heart, from the connection with deeper intelligence, and they have a very different quality than anything done in rush, stress and under (time) pressure.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

All people I’ve ever admired were people who were embodying the qualities they were talking about. Those people who are a living example of how a human being can live if they truly live what their heart desires. That sparkle in someone’s eyes when they do what their true calling is, that calmness and kindness of someone who spends many days of a year with nature. The aliveness and embodied joy of a dancer expressing their entire essence through their body movement. That is the best reputation I can imagine.

In my case, people often share that they can feel the inner peace, nature connection and the heart-felt presence when we interact. That is the authentic state of being and working that I enjoy the most, so it’s heart-warming to hear that it seems to radiate and nicely ‘contagious’.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://econidra.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waybackhome_kat
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/econidra
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-novotna-723b71166
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@econidraofficial6530