Going Wild in Devon

I recently had the great pleasure of working with a great group of people down in Devon. As part of a training workshop we spent a day exploring the possibilities of Wilderness therapy in a beautiful piece of woodland on the River Dart.

For most of the day I was able to shadow the facilitator and add my comments and observations when I felt I had something useful to contribute. I did, though, have the privilege of leading the group through an awareness exercise while sitting on the earth beneath the trees. I’ve led groups through such exercises before and have participated in similar exercises many times, but usually sitting on chairs in a stuffy, airless, centrally heated conference room, sitting. Climate control in the woods consists of zipping my coat higher and pulling my woolly hat lower!

As I talked the group through the exercise, I realised how much I enjoyed the richness of the experience. In a room I would be likely to concentrate on my thoughts, emotions, heartbeat, breathing, bodily sensations quite easily. I would be aware of my backside on the chair and my feet on the carpeted floor. I would hear perhaps the gurgling of the radiator (or someone’s stomach!) or the whirring of a fan. But out in the woods as I closed my eyes and talked the group through the exercise, I could feel the breeze on my cheek, the soil and leaves under my body, I could feel the earth with my fingers. And as we went deeper, I heard a woodpecker start up somewhere, not too far away, in the trees. I experienced this as a poignant and very special moment. Poignant because of the richness of the experience for me as a facilitator and special because it reaffirmed by belief in the potential of nature to enhance our awareness.

For me the awareness exercise will normally enhance my awareness of my whole self. When I participate in this exercise in a conference room I become more aware of how my body holds information about my emotions, how my feelings effect my physiological reactions and how much more my existence can be than just thoughts. This can be an affirming and sometimes quite a powerful experience. In the woods, I felt this whole awareness and I also felt this in relation to my surroundings in a way that I rarely, if ever, feel when I’m doing this work indoors.

The thing that I’ve found most interesting is that this more “holistic” awareness results in me being much more present. My feelings, thoughts and physical experience have become more integrated. Since I have been exploring this awareness in the outdoors, I have been much more able to integrate my experience of the world around me with my internal world. Is it a coincidence, I wonder, that I find myself looking up at the rooftops and upper floors of buildings when I walk through London, taking an interest in more than just the pavement and the gaps between the other pedestrians? Perhaps. Since I’ve been paying attention to myself and the natural environment I’ve been noticing much more about my relationship with urban environment.