Posts tagged with "nature"

10 things I didn’t know….

Natural Change has happened.  To all of us participants and also in some respects within me. The project will make its report and will also live and grow in our testimonies. Yet there will be untold impacts, as yet invisible, person to person, seed to seed.

What has changed? Am I really any different? I haven’t become uber-environmentalist-world-peace activist.  But that wasn’t the purpose.

The purpose was to experience, learn, reflect and act.  Action learning that would help find the way over the value-action gap. It’s a bit of a bamboo and rope bridge at the moment.  No zip slide.

But 10 things I have learned, things I didn’t know about me:

1. I had a relationship with the earth.  How could I not know that?  Its always been there sustaining me but I just had never ‘felt’ it before.
2. I needed to become ’super-sensitised’ to nature. This sounds ridiculous.  What I mean is that I have a heightened awareness of nature I didn’t have before.  I see, and want to see, the detials, the intricacies, budding, lichens, colours, the birds, ’smell the roses’ I suppose, nothing earth shatteringly new.
3. I considered myself an outdoor person but actually I realise I have been consuming the experience and not relating to the environment.
4. That the natural world can converse with you and I would hear its voice one day.  (Hope you’re still with me)
5. That a good way to reconnect with my hidden intuitive and creative self would be through an immersion experience in nature.  I’m revisiting poetry, music and art in ways I have long laid down.
6. I need to practice presence.  This is about being less distracted by the tyranny of time, sorting out work life balance.
7. Being silent for a sustained time would lead to a crescendo of inner clarity.  Sounds pompous but I really mean it.  And I vouch for its effectiveness.
8. How much I need the bonds of community to really be me.
9. I can’t pursue an exclusively individual path anymore.
10. I really enjoy change!

Its seems clearer to me now than ever that the path of individualism is a congested motorway, strewn with diverting roadworks, but the community is a interchange of journeys and shared spaces.  The former is one buttress of the gap and the latter the other side.  We’ll get there, naturally, hopefully quicker than we realise.

Wake up and smell the ecological coffee

I found this diagram which chimes with the experiential learning on this project, and also happens to be grounded in some science too.

S L O W D O W N

 IF YOU WANT TO MAKE CHANGES:-

It’s really very straight forward.

Go solo

Look wide

Look close

And closer

and closer

Look up

Look down

Watch

Listen

 Wait

S    T    O   P

Earth

Water

Air

and fire

Death

Regeneration

Reflections

Looking out

Looking in

Friends

Know your onions!

Let it go

  and go your own way

 A  N  D     C  H  A  N  G  E

Most of us already appreciate the wisdom that can be gained from nature but this project has given me permission and also silence to the white noise that has helped me to sift out what matters. It’s pretty subtle. The first solo in Knoydart (read the first blogs if you are interested) the idea of being silent for 36 hours terrified me. This weekend the silence was easy even when I met randoms while I was out on my own. It was easier to hold my own space and not think about what others might be thinking about me.

It’s liberating.

That was the easy bit.

Now

Resources (ONE)

I have thousands (and I mean thousands) of references for material that supports the theories and practices that underpin the Natural Change approach. I’ve selected a few here and will post lots more in the next few weeks.

It’s that time, I feel, when we need to validate, contextualise and make sense of our experiences together. We’re not alone and we’re not mad! Human’s have been ‘doing Natural Change’, well, since we became human!

Nature is our home - makes sense to spend some time there!

Here’s the refs…

Abram, D. (1996). The spell of the sensuous: perception and language in a more-than-human world.
New York: Pantheon Books.

Beringer, A. (1999). “On adventure therapy and Earth healing.”
Australian Journal of Outdoor Education 4(1): 33-39.

Birrel, C. (2001). “A Deepening Relationship With Place.”
Australian Journal of Outdoor Education 6(1): 25 - 30.

Brookes, A. (1994). “Reading Between the Lines - Outdoor Experience as Environmental Text.”
Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance: 28 - 39.

Bucke, R. M. (1956). Cosmic consciousness: a study in the evolution of the human mind. New York: Dutton.

Capra, F. (1997). The Web of Life: A new Synthesis of Mind and Matter.
London: HarperCollins.

Chawla, L. (1998). “Significant life experiences revisited: a review of research on sources of environmental sensitivity.”
Environmental Education Research 4(4): 369-382.

Clinebell, H. (1996). Ecotherapy: healing ourselves, healing the earth; a guide to ecologically grounded personality theory, spirituality, therapy, and education.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Cobb, E. (1977). The ecology of imagination in childhood.
New York: Columbia University Press.

Cooper, G. (1994)”The Role of Outdoor Education in Education for the 21st Century.”
Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Leadership 11(2): 9 - 12.

Cooper, G. (1996). “Assessing the Value of Outdoor and Environmental Education Programmes Provided by Residential Centres.”
Environmental Education Research 23.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. and I. S. Csikszentmihalyi (1988). Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness.
New York: Cambridge University Press.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. and I. S. Csikszentmihalyi (1990). Adventure and the Flow Experience. Adventure Education. J. Miles and S. Priest.
PA: Venture Publications.

Deikman, A. J. (2000). A functional approach to mysticism.
Cognitive models and spiritual maps: Interdisciplinary explorations of religious experience. J. Andresen and R. K. C. Forman.
San Francisco: University of California

Duenkel, N. and H. Scott (1994). “Ecotourism’s Hidden Potential: Altering Perceptions of Reality.”
Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance: 40 - 47.

Eliade, M. (1964). Shamanism : archaic techniques of ecstasy.
New York: Bollingen Foundation; distributed by Pantheon Books.

Ellis, M. J. (1973). Why people play.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall.

Ewert, A. (1989). Outdoor adventure pursuits and self-concept: Foundations theories and models.
Columbus, Ohio: Publishing Horizons Inc.

Fox, W. (1990). Toward a transpersonal ecology: developing new foundations for environmentalism.
Boston: Shambhala.

Greenway, R. (1996). “Wilderness Experience and Ecopsychology.”
International Journal of Wilderness 2(1): 26-30.

Haluza-Delay, R. (2001). “Nothing here to care about: Participant constructions of nature following a 12-day wilderness program.”
Journal of Environmental Education 32(4)

Harper, S. (1995). The Way of the Wilderness.
Ecopsychology: restoring the earth, healing the mind.
San Francisco: Sierra Club

Henderson, R. (1999). The Place of Deep Ecology and Ecopsychology in Adventure Education. Adventure Programming. J. Miles and S. Priest.
PA: Venture Publications.

Herbert, J. T. (1998). “Therapeutic effects of participating in an adventure therapy program.” Rehabilitation Counselling Bulletin 41(3) Mar 1998

James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience.
USA: Longmans, Green & Co.

Kanner, A. and M. Gomes (1995). The all-consuming self.
Ecopsychology: restoring the earth, healing the mind. T. Roszak, M. E. Gomes and A. D. Kanner.
San Francisco: Sierra Club: 77-91.

Kaplan, R. and J. F. Talbot (1983). Psychological benefits of a wilderness experience. Behavior and the natural environment. I. Altman and W. J. F.
New York: Plenum.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning : experience as the source of learning and development.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall.

Martin, P. (1999). Critical Outdoor Education and Nature as Friend. Adventure Education. J. Miles and S. Priest.
PA: Venture.

Maslow, A. H. (1959). “Cognition of Being in Peak Experiences.”
Journal of Genetic Psychology 94: 43 - 66.

Maslow, A. H. (1962). “Lessons from the Peak Experiences.”
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 2: 9-18.

Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being.
Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.

Maslow, A. H. (1970). Religions, Value & Peak Experiences.
New York: Viking Press.

Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: a guide to Transformative and Emancipatory Learning.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Miles, J. (1995). Wilderness as Healing Place.
The Theory of Experiential Education. Warren, Sakofs and Hunt.
Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.

Mortlock, C. (1984). The Adventure Alternative.
Milnthorpe, UK: Cicerone Press.

Mortlock, C. (2001). Beyond Adventure.
Milnthorpe, UK: Cicerone Press.

Naess, A. (1989). “Ecosophy and Gestalt Ontology.”
The Trumpeter 5(4).

Orr, D. (1992). Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Palmer, J. A. (1992). “Life Experiences of Environmental Educators.”
Environmental Education Research 41.

Palmer, J. A., J. Suggate, et al. (1998). “An overview of significant influences and formative experiences on the development of adult’s environmental awareness in nine countries.” Environmental Education Research 4(4): 445-464.

Pirsig, R. (1974). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
London: The Bodley Head.

Roszak, T. (1992). The Voice of the Earth: an Exploration of Ecopsychology.
Grand Rapids: Phanes.

Roszak, T., M. E. Gomes, et al., Eds. (1995). Ecopsychology: restoring the earth, healing the mind.
San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Sessions, G. (1995). Deep ecology for the twenty-first century.
Boston: Shambhala

Stringer, L. and L. McAvoy (1995). The Need for Something Different: Spirituality and wilderness adventure.
The Theory of Experiential Education. Warren, Sakofs and Hunt.
Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing.

Tanner, T. (1980). “Significant life experiences: a new research area in environmental education.”
Journal of Environmental Education 11(4): 20-24.

Watts, A. W. (1990). The Way of Zen.
New York: Arkana/ Penguin.

I am NOT a tree hugger!

But I am embracing nature……..

Funny I remember a session from our time in Glen Tilt in the trees near the house.  We all did the ‘tree breathing’ exercise - you’ll find this in the research/taster section of the site.  It was really quite lovely and certainly  reconnected me to a sense of interdependence and mutual exchange with nature.

Amazing coats of lichen that I’d never seen.  I asked about this and why we didnt see this on urban trees, the answer seemed to be related to air quality, funny that.  What else are we missing?  What else can we retrieve?

Gandhi’s Platform

This week a colleague and I visited the Scottish Parliament for a WWF Footprinting event. Here many celebrated all the hard work that was being done to reduce our country’s footprint and there were many fine examples of how people were living in a more sustainable way. So much great work is being done yet, we still have a long way to go and there are many obstacles to overcome.

As I travelled by train to Edinburgh, I recalled an event from the life of Gandhi. This event he later described as his most humbling, creative and  productive moment.

Gandhi had bought a first class train ticket by post to travel through South Africa. He sat on the train unaware of the apartheid law which forbade anyone other than a white person from sitting in the first class compartment. The train guard was called and he demanded Gandhi occupy the seats set aside for other ethnic groups. Gandhi refused to move and was thrown off the train at the next stop. He spent the night alone on the train platform. He thought about the injustice of apartheid and became determined to challenge the system that demeaned people because of their race or colour. On his return to India, Gandhi wishing to end British involvement in his country, immersed himself in nature and travelled around India studying the landscape and the people.These events triggered the birth of the human rights, peaceful protest movement and the rest is an amazing historical story which did so much good for humanity.  Great change cannot happen without knowledge of the environment, your place and the place of others within it. Gandhi built teams of change around this philosophy and his work is still ongoing in his absence.

I think we have all experienced the Gandhi platform - Ouch!!  I guess our efforts to bring about change are also much more basic.                      

The Natural Change Project has given us all that the opportunity to “get off” and break away from our hectic lifestyles. It has enabled us to stop, think, reflect and gather our ideas on sustainable lifestyles and attitudes. Our isolation days put us on the Gandhi platform. Immersing ourselves in nature has stimulated our thoughts, creativity and drive to protect. We have to respect ourselves and others, but also our beautiful world. Nature has been our teacher and has enabled us all to believe we can make a difference.

Perhaps we all have to jump off the busy and sometimes hectic train of life from time to time. Spend time on the platform contemplating and making sense of our individual journeys. However, we all have to be clear what the purpose of our journey is and travel together to find the most effective route to take in our quest for living in a more sustainable way. We cannot do this alone as Gandhi also found out.

We all need the platform of nature to catch the train and make the journey of change together.

Autumn dog walk

Now, when I take my dog for her walk along the usual pathway route on the Kelvin Walkway, I make sure I don’t miss all the little details. So much outdoor stuff. Where once there was: mud, grass, trees. There are now so many autumn berries; hawthorn, elder, cotoneaster, alder buckthorn and blackberries. So many trees, shrubs, I must learn them. My illiteracy of nature in my locality has really surprised me.

So I have been making a gallery of images to try and capture the wonderlets of autumn just minutes from my home. Revelling in the aesthetic is all very well and as I have been doing this I realised the dog’s view may be different. Although the level sensory appreciation available to dogs is denied us (probably just as well!) it struck me that what dogs see may be besmirched by our lack of regard for the environment. Here are some of the dog’s findings.

Fear of boredom?

As I’ve been describing the natural change process in Knoydart to people, inevitably the focus becomes the solo dawn till dusk experience (described so beautifully and personally in these blogs). 

“All that time alone in a small area?”  

 ”No-one took a book to read?” 

“I’d find it really difficult staying in one place for that long”. 

Those who have done a solo, including myself, claim it is an incredible, unique and unforgettable experience.  I think it’s something to do with having “unstructured” time, alone in nature.  Dawn till dusk at this time of year only lasts about 13 hours and we have decades of “time” in our lifetimes, yet the solo is usually the first experience of this kind where we give ourselves permission to just be, alone, in natural surroundings, without mountains to climb, “things to do” or any other distractions.  We face our fear of boredom and find it to be a shallow myth.  Instead, our mind is set free to roam and wander, to appreciate and reflect upon the things it needs and wants to. 

My daily life is usually so crammed with things to do at such a fast pace that every hour is congested, compartmentalised and severely rationed.  Sure this is modern Western life for most of us, but there is an unsettling feeling that such a pace somehow lacks an appreciation for life itself, certainly a wonder at detail or any time to “care” for anything.   And there is an almost pathological fear that we might get bored or be inefficient in our “use” of time.

In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved or freed or educated.  But in our century they want to be entertained.  The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom.  A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do.                                    Michael Crichton, Timeline

And yet that is exactly what the solo experience seems to turn on its head with such profound effect!  

Does anyone have any ideas on why solo wilderness experiences are so  affecting?  If you have done a solo I’d be really interested to hear how the experience affected you personally. 

The most amazing thing

Woke up with a horrible ugly sty in my eye this morning. But once outside I enjoyed the smell of the sea and grass, the subtleties of the autumn colours and the light on the beach. And then we broke the silence and listened to each other’s stories. And every story told a story about their encounter with nature. And every single one was unique.

And it sounds clichéd, but the most amazing thing was that these stories about nature gave us permission to share who we are with the group as if we’d been together for a very long time. And that was a gift to give and a privilege to receive.

So what happens next? What are the answers? Well, I don’t even know what the questions are yet. But this is only a few days into a 6 month experience. So you’ll just have to slow down, be patient and wait and see what story unfolds. Just like I will.

Rites of Passage

What we lack as adults today in western society is a form of rites of passage with a focus into ourselves, our ecological selves, our role in the world, what it means to be human and all the responsibility that entails.

Yet scratch the surface of the “modern consumer” and in evolutionary terms our instinctual, “primitive” or indigenous selves (which may be at least partially defined as living in harmony with nature, co-existing in community, without greed or plain “sustainable”) lie just below our skin.

I think the scratching of this surface by creating a modern, relevant, rites of passage in community and then passing that on, forms the backbone of this project.

The process is perhaps, necessarily, culturally specific in its approach but the themes that emerge will likely be universal human themes. My intention is that this approach, these thoughts, ideas, journeys and experiences in all their diversity are freely available through this website. The hope is that by reading the personal journals in the blogs and witnessing a process unfurl, you might find something that chimes with you, that you identify with and that in some form, at some time, you might want to take forward.