Field Notes on Inner Weather
I write about inner states as they are actually felt, not through clinical labels, but through sustained attention to what captures awareness over time.Rather than naming emotions, I track shifts in rhythm, texture, clarity, noise, and quiet. The work is reflective, fragmentary, and ecological.
The Practice
For nearly thirty years, I have practiced recognizing inner states through fragmentary writing.What began as necessity, learning to understand my own cyclical patterns without pathology, became a method. I stay with experience long enough for it to imprint, then write from those imprints.The writing itself, its rhythm, density, and imagery, reveals the state that produced it. Over time, patterns emerge. Inner weather becomes legible.
Why Place Matters
I went to nature because sustained attention to living process interrupts recursive thought.In relationship with place, sound, light, season, and weather, inner states can be recognized directly, without interpretation or diagnosis. Attention widens. Subtle change becomes perceptible.This ecological orientation remains central to the work.This work is also shaped through ongoing conversation with other practitioners in applied ecopsychology and eco-arts. These exchanges help situate the practice within a shared field and keep it responsive rather than isolated.
What This Research Makes Possible
By reading patterns across fragments, I learned to recognize inner states with enough precision to design life around natural rhythms rather than constantly working against them.This work treats fluctuation as information, not pathology.
Field Notes
Field Notes is a public research log.Impressions are gathered throughout the week and shaped into a weekly reflective piece. Subscribers support sustained attention as a research practice, longitudinal observation of inner weather, writing that preserves nuance rather than categorization, and the conditions necessary for careful work.
About
I hold a PhD in Applied Ecopsychology.I write from the Pacific Northwest.
© 2026 Kathleen Donchak
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