When Nature Becomes Your Teacher: How I Found Real Truth in a World of Masks

Jun 8

The child who questioned everything discovers the path to authentic living through natural mentorship

What happens when a child sees through society's illusions but has no one to explain what they're seeing? This is my story of finding real guidance in the most unexpected place.

The Early Awakening

From my earliest memories, something felt... off.

While my siblings eventually left home and my parents provided for me physically, I found myself essentially raising myself emotionally and spiritually. My father's approach was clear: become independent, rely on no one. His mission succeeded—perhaps too well. But what he didn't teach me was how to navigate a world that seemed fundamentally dishonest.

I was that child constantly questioning reality, watching people say one thing and do another, seeing the gap between what society preached and what it practiced. The disconnect created a persistent anxiety, an innate knowing that whispered, "Something's not right here."

Finding My True Mentor

When human mentorship failed me, I turned to the most honest teacher I could find: Mother Nature herself.

She became my guide, my security, my source of truth in a world of contradictions. While others learned social rules and cultural expectations, I learned the authentic patterns of the natural world—patterns that actually made sense, that had integrity, and aligned with something deeper than social performance.

This wasn't rebellion for rebellion's sake. This was a desperate search for something real.

The Breakthrough at 14

Life shifted when I discovered natural therapies at fourteen, after my father was given a health scare. Suddenly, the fragmented pieces of my understanding gathered a little more integration.

Mind, spirit, and body weren't separate entities
Thoughts, emotions, food, water, and breath were all interconnected
True health meant alignment across all these dimensions

This became my gateway into holistic health—not through textbooks or teachers, but through direct experience and intuitive knowing that I had to dig deep to uncover.

Learning True Autonomy

My father's version of independence was incomplete: "Do everything yourself. Need no one. You're a whole person."

But there was no instruction manual, no explanation of what healthy autonomy actually looked like.

Through my journey with natural healing, I discovered the difference between destructive independence and authentic autonomy:

Destructive Independence: "I can do everything myself. I don't need anyone."

True Autonomy: "No one's coming to save me. I got myself into this situation, and by taking full responsibility—without blame—I can create real change in my mental and physical health."

I know the truth, and the difference but my inner knowing hasn’t fully embodied this yet.

The Gift of Questioning Everything

Looking back, I realise my childhood of questioning wasn't a burden—it was preparation.

In a world increasingly filled with cultural masks and societal illusions, the ability to see through surface appearances and connect with authentic truth has become my greatest asset. What felt like isolation then has become the foundation for helping others navigate their path to genuine wellness.

The anxiety I felt wasn't something wrong with me—it was my inner wisdom recognising that something was wrong with the world I was being asked to accept as normal.

Your Path to Authenticity

If you've ever felt like you're living in a world of masks, if you've questioned why things don't add up, if you've felt that persistent sense that "something's not right"—you're not alone, and you're not crazy.

Sometimes the greatest teachers aren't found in classrooms or boardrooms. Sometimes they're found in the quiet wisdom of nature, in your intuitive knowing, and in the courage to trust what you see even when no one else seems to see it.

The path to authentic living isn't always comfortable, but it's always true. And in a world hungry for real connection and genuine healing, that truth becomes your gift to others.

What was your first glimpse that things weren't quite as they seemed? I'd love to hear about your moments of awakening in the comments below.

Leanne de Groot

My contribution is a union of nutrition, mindfulness, meditation, breathwork & movement intertwined with behaviour change and how it impacts a life worth living.

As a health and fitness professional, I want to shift the paradigm toward one of self-love and self-care instead of an aesthetic insecurity-based industry. Let’s move away from the trail of being overweight, body shape dissatisfaction, the daily dose of pharmaceutical and social drugs, persistent envy, unhappiness, anxiety, depression, and a life full of pressure to keep up, skip steps, and rush.

Living without awareness and intention creates pressures that we are not doing, we are not moving fast enough, as bosses, workers, weekend warriors, friends, lovers, parents, siblings, or grandparents. We have to be able and willing to step outside the pull of unhealthy and unhealthful cultural norms and make the critical space to do our meaningful thinking.

The first thing I need people to take in is if they are going to work with me or read my work because for me this re-frames the core of moving through all obstacles we have around stress, rush, health, weight, etc … The very blantant truth is that living under the guise of society’s expectations - is not living.

We have been fed a narrative that stepping outside or away from norms is the wrong way to exist and this narrative furthers unhappiness, unhealthiness, pressure, and a life that is too fast to enjoy.

Wherever we are, this is life—it’s happening right now, and I’ve decided that I am not going to rush through it and I invite you to join me today …

https://www.bodyfuel.org