The rising of a new year brings a freshness to how one approaches life – even if for just a few days post the first day of the year. It is the renewal process, like spring, that enables one to bury the past and move into a clean space with new ideas and energy, and with new hope that things can be different .
Over New Year I read Cheryl  Strayed’s new book ‘Wild’ and wept and rejoiced through her writing of her journey of 100 days alone walking the Pacific Crest Trail in Western USA. Her need for catharsis and finding herself through battered feet and a sense of connectedness to the small things in her path, and the bigger things such as the stars, in the wider sense of the world, resonated deeply.  It is a book that inspires with a rawness of writing that truly reflects wildness  within and without– honest, humbling,  enlightening and not always kind, but challenging.
One of the things I took away was when she talks of fear – and how it is only the story we tell ourselves that makes us frightened. She deals with her fear by telling a different story to herself, in order to have a new narrative that does not include assumptions around things that were scary. For so many people,  being in wild nature alone can be scary. And yet, through her book, we realise that if can overcome the resistance in our own psychological cage of our minds that makes us fearful, and we can experience a very special connection, not only to the natural world, but to ourselves as well. Often the fear about being alone in the outdoors can be of oneself and not nature itself. (Particularly here in the UK there is not much dangerous out there. Africa is a bit different if you are in the wilds.) By being ‘out’ we can hide behind nothing else and the journeys confront us with our fear of our own strengths or weaknesses, or our mind chatter, that  is often not kind to ourselves. Just walking a bit, listening and looking, can take us away from this and into the present, resting our minds and emotions.
Putting new intentions for 2013 in place – mine is to spend more time alone in nature.  Our work at the Wilderness Foundation promotes this all the time, and yet, I often find myself still stuck behind my desk all day, when a quiet 20 minutes solo walk on our wonderful farmland site would be easy.  What stops me may be the fear of not keeping up with a relentless workload.  The crazy thing is I know that time in nature  makes us far more effective and far more productive, and this is backed by recent evidence showing how being in nature makes us more creative as well.
Facing our fears, taking on new challenges, living with ourselves more peacefully, listening to our heartbeat because it is quiet, linking what we say with what we do, feeling connected and a sense of belonging to others and nature, and being full of wonder, joy and peace, and more creative seem pretty good outcomes for 2013, for the cost of a free walk.  Imagine how much nicer the world would be if we all tried it.
See link to Sunday Times article…http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/non_fiction/article1190430.ece
Jo Roberts CEO