This post was inspired by the book Women who run with the wolves (more about it at the end of part 3), where the author writes mostly about the power of women, but since I believe we are equally powerful (just in different ways mostly), I’m writing this in general. It goes for each and every individual on this planet. We all have a wild part inside of us. Wild in a good way, naturally.
I planned to publish all this in one post, but then realised it’s just too long and I couldn’t shorten it more that I already have. So the directions towards the path to live in line with our wild nature will be posted in three parts, giving you a few days to think about it in between. 😉
Wild nature promises to revive us, as long as we work with it. It helps us to live a full and responsible life. Letting our wild nature flourish, means to be healthy and a healthy person is brave, full of energy, has fierce vitality, is ingenious, devoted and exploratory. Do not expect from a person who lives in line with the inner wild nature to be consistent, as his/her power is precisely in adapting to change, renewal, in deep instinctive life and creative fire. To be clear, wild nature doesn’t change; its cycles change, it adjusts, but in its core it stays the same. Consistency is not reflected in uniformity, but in creative life, with rapid insights, flexibility and skill.
A touch of the wild nature calls us not to limit our conversations to people, our most graceful moves to the dance floor, ears only to man-made instruments, eyes only to what is considered beauty, our bodies to acceptable feelings, thoughts to things we all agree about. All this brings a keen eye, a flame of a passionate life, a hint to speak of what we know, the courage to bear what we see without withdrawing our view, it brings a scent of the wild soul. When we are connected to instinctive oneself, with soul of the natural and wild, only then we ask ourselves: »What do I really want?« »What am I looking forward to?« And the answer is usually instantaneous.
In contrary to general belief we can be wild and generous, silent and valuable at the same time. We can protect our territory, clearly impose limits, but still be available, warm and accessible. Living in line with our wild nature, new cycles of creativity and work are established, we are no longer pray, we live by the laws of nature which gives us the power to grow and develop. Evening fatigue at the end of the day is a consequence of satisfactory work and effort, not of confinement in a narrow frame of mind, work or relationship. Once we start living this way, we don’t expect anything, nor do we demand or desire. No insult binds us to itself anymore, we’re free.
Spontaneity is key. Spontaneity is not hastiness and does not exclude wisdom. It respects the limits. Wild are those who dare, who create and also destroy. Wild nature says yes to bravery, but no to thoughtlessness and has just the right measure of enchantment.
Despite all its power, wild nature is also very fragile and therefore always at risk to be abused, so it needs to be guarded well. Keep our eyes out for predators (that lie inside and outside of us) and resist in time. Secure our creative life. Let no man, woman, partner, friend, religion, job or grumpy voice make us starve for it. Surround ourselves with people who support us, keep us warm, confirm and praise our creativity. Ideas need to be trasferred to a place where they receive support. It is important to have a specific room for everything we perceive and hear in our wild life. We can write diaries, dance, paint, sing… Let there be traces of everything we have experienced and which we find important, because it is.
There’s a door to the wild notions of personhood, it is hard to find and rare, but it’s always there. If you have a deep scar, you have a door, if you love the skyes and water, you have a door, if you long for a deeper, healthier, fuller life, you have a door. Our art, words, lifestyle, thoughts or ideas may get or have been injured, so cut through the confusion and continue. There’s that door, a new path. Go, crawl if we have to, stop talking and torturing ourselves. Go. We just have to try and find it; by reading books, walking through the woods, by a river or a stream, observing the nights skies, house cleaning, welcoming the sunrise, playing music, praying, being a friend, drying our hair in the sun, gardening, noticing beauty… The list can go on and on. Going to our place, which we can call home, where also our wild nature resides, takes skill. But an answer to the question »Where is home?« may require some research. The way to do it? It is our job, our moral duty to express what we see, hear, feel and live. Express it by dancing, singing, drawing, just living out what we have received with a sudden realization, from a dream or with our travels.
When we find ourselves in situatuons that bring us down, we have to ask ourselves: »What’s behind this?«, »What is not as it is shown?«, »What do I know deep inside me that I would maybe rather not know?« These questions are keys to start bringing ourselves back in case we fall or are held back. Discontent is good as it represents a door to an important and reviving change. No matter how much we think and do in a positive way, there’s always a part in our thoughts (the predator) that sometimes, more or less frequently, tells us we aren’t good enough or that we won’t succeed in whatever we are doing. What do we do about this? Catch these thoughts and fragment them, don’t lock them in or run away from them. By catching them, they are disabled from growing and before they could hurt us or anyone in our proximity. When we reject this so called predator and refuse to host it, it loses it’s power as it cannot work without our help. Just let it be, somewhere in the nothingness, as we cannot erase it. It will come forth every so often, but when it does, we already know what to do with it and where to put it. We can also use its energy, reshape it and use elsewhere, to achieve our goals. This is in fact a feature of the wild nature – it uses the negative energy that inevetably forms through everyday life, reshapes it and uses it for its (i.e. our) own good. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid, but being afraid to overcome our fears is a problem. When we stick with our intuition and have deep confidence, then we change our stance form »whatever happens, happens« to »let me see everything there is to see«. We can never get rid of fear, so we can overcome it and/or use its energy for good.
Till next time!
Click here for part 2.