Tracks and curiosity...

A big wilderness hello! Thank you so so much for reading. I hope this post helps support your wild heart, wherever you are.

 I’ve been thinking a lot about curiosity these last couple of months and how it can quite literally save our minds, hearts, and even lives in some cases.

During this, I have also been surrounded by (and following) quite a bit of wild animal tracks. It has combined into some interesting discoveries I am excited to share with you. Some discoveries around the lessons the wild creatures out here have to teach us about curiosity and how it can help us be explosively happy and healthy, like we deserve to be, like we are meant to be.

Annnnd maybe some curiosity will find some space around what your own tracks are showing right now and if there is some room to lean further into more freedom in your own life.

So, lets go!

My recent curiosity about curiosity was spurred when one of the crews I work with was coming out of the bush at the end of the day on a trail I had been on by myself earlier that day. They got to camp and were all standing around laughing about my tracks. They were wondering what the heck I was doing because I seemed to be zigzagging all over the place. Over to this tree, off in the woods over there, through the snow over here, what was I doing?!  I just smiled and said there were a lot of interesting things around and I didn’t think much more about it… until… I started to pay more attention to all of the animal tracks I had been following around in the wild here.

I realized that animal tracks also rarely go in straight lines.

So! For a few months, I paid a lot more attention to this specifically. During this time, I also paid close attention to the human tracks, and how people moved in more populated areas. I realized that as humans we are, currently, “straight-liners”. Point A to point B, goal in mind, efficiency to get there, no time, let’s go!

We straight-line a little bit less in community situations, but the bulk of our commuting is straight, with as little deviation as possible and very little time to pause and take in anything enroute.

 But….

 Wild animals on the other hand, usually only do the straight-liner if they are:

  a.    Running from danger.

b.    Going across an exposed possibly dangerous area.

c.    Hunting something.

 … Hello fight and flight brain, how are you doing?...

However! when animals are NOT worried about their life being in danger (the majority of their day it turns out) when they are not pumping that adrenaline state that we live in most of the time, guess what?

 They zig zag allllll over the place, checking this out, smelling that, digging here, playing with their friend there, stopping here and there to clean a paw and take in the lake view (like my fox friend a few months ago).

They are present and curious and alive to what’s alive around them….

 …like you deserve to be.

When I realized this, and I also realized it had taken me a good chunk of time in the wild this year before I brought my own nervous system back down to the curiosity level, I dug in even more.

I started to follow the tracks of curiosity more often, I started to allow myself to get curious about EVERYTHING around me, on purpose. The more any stress tried to creep into my body and mind that day the more curious I got to what was alive around me.

Different trees, roots, plants, kinds of snow, how was the wild changing, why were the animals going this way or that, what was the story to read in their tracks, how did the wild feel that day, why, how, when, where…. Listen, listen, listen…

I stopped assuming that I understood what was surrounding me and let it again become a playground to explore.

 A playground to listen to.

 A playground with a lot of answers.

And… more and more uninhibited joy began to explode through…

 I started to forget about time completely more often.

More and more of that backpack of worry started to fall off and get lost in the snow-bank somewhere.

Some parts of that I decided not to ever go pick up again.

I really would love for you to get to have more of this in your life as well.

Weirdly enough the sky doesn’t fall in when we remember to stop and take those moments to get curious.

I was never late for work, I always finished what was needed for the day, if anything I finished more.

There’s a funny thing that happens when we give ourselves the time and space to get curious about our environment. Whether that’s the wilderness or a local park, or the bird that just landed outside your window, or just where you are right now, in this moment.

We edge towards presence.

Our nervous systems begin to flirt with the idea of relaxing a tad, the creativity that has been pounding at the door of our hearts shoves a foot through that fight and flight door that keeps it out, the fear, the sadness, the guilt, whatever it is, has a moment to catch a breath of fresh air and leans into safety.

And…

Your brain cannot be in fight/flight and curiosity at the same time.
(I’ll explain in a different post why, but for now, just trust me on this one.)

There is an incredible abundance of studies around the multi-layered health benefits of mindfulness practices, coupled with an equal stack of them on the benefits of time spent in nature. Hello, forest bathing, equine therapy, meditation retreats, doctor prescribed hiking, let’s go. I love it.

With the amount of stimulation we are constantly exposed to, with living in a world where we are now available to everyone we know all of the time… and the surprisingly large amount of people we don’t know (please stop scam calling and threatening me in Mandarin, thanks).

Well, presence doesn’t hold much of a chance in the line-up for your (undivided) attention. But we need it to have a chance in order to do more than survive. We need it in order to get the chance to soak in peace and joy like we deserve to be, as you deserve to be. Right now.

You deserve to have the space to get to be alive to what’s alive around you.  

So, if one of the many other avenues to presence, connecting with the wild, and connecting with yourself isn’t currently accessible to you, or if today is just one hell of a stress-ball struggle, I have a hack for you. Well, me and the furballs in this remote forest have a life-hack for you.

Get Curious.

Get RIDICULOUSLY CURIOUS.

I mean weird side glances from people passing by curious. (They are just jealous, they’re going to go home and examine the leaves in their yard now trying to figure out what the heck was so fascinating, because we all secretly crave to allow ourselves to be fully alive).

Please, give yourself a moment of permission in that space. Let what’s around you bring you the joy it is trying to.

I’ll say it again, because it’s important to know.

Your brain cannot be in fight and flight and curiosity at the same time.

Start at whatever level you need to. You can pick up the backpack of worry after your self-permitted allotted amount of curiosity time (if you want to).

Touch what’s around you in nature (safety in mind of course, no, do not pet the grizzly bear, eat the red mushroom, or walk on thin ice, okay? You laugh, I’ve guided for years, it happens).

Do you understand what’s around you, truly?

Did you know that trees have a pulse for example? How does one bark feel compared to another one? Why is that bird following you around, is he thinking about eating your eyeballs?

How would you walk if you pretended that everything around you was reaching out to touch you? (maybe creeped out, maybe more connected). What if it was all trying to give you something? Does what’s around you have different personalities?

Is there something you want to create right now? Is there something in your immediate surroundings that is calling for your attention?

What has been going on recently in this little natural space? How has it been changing? How is it changing right now?... like you.

What do your tracks look like right now?

Your nervous system deserves a break, you deserve to trust and follow what brings you alive, and, you deserve to be comic levels of curious.

Thanks so much again for reading, and I hope this little message from me and the wild furballs out here adds some light to your day, and helps support your wild heart, wherever you are.

Huge love from the wild,

Alida