Wild Mind : Nature Journaling
Begin:
To begin, drop your conciousness into your wildness, into that part of you that is most alive, sensate, full of wonder and curiosity, and open. Find a journal, a few pens or pencils, of a few colors even, and your wandering shoes. Step outside and an take a short walk on the land near you (a park or your backyard is fine here) and find a wild being to connect with. Much as we did with the Wild Body practice, ask for permission to sit with and connect with this wild being, introducing yourself and your intentions.
Practice:
Rather than using your body to explore this being, use your wild perception, your eyes, your recognition of patterns, your curiousity, questions- why? how? I wonder if?
Take out your journal and explore this being in all the facets you can, draw it, color it, describe it with your words as best you can, as if to someone who has never seen this wild being before, describe its gifts and its quirks, describe its environment. You might ask it to tell you its life story, and write it down. You may find yourself drawn to writing a haiku, ode or a love letter to this wild being. Use your creative gifts to explore, discover and deepen with this wild being.
Complete:
Make sure to leave a gift, offering or some form of gratitude for this wild being who shared themselves with you and inspired you today. Share your discoveries, realizations, images, haikus or questions with a friend, or in our group/on Instagram.
Share your image and reflections our FB group or on Instagram and tag #sacredwildweek!
Egocentrism is the problem, then, not Egos. Egocentric people are agents for themselves only (and perhaps also for their immediate families), without awareness of or tending of the social and natural environments that sustain their lives. Their consciousness is Ego-centered. A person with a healthy, mature Ego, in contrast, is ecocentric; she understands herself as, first and foremost, an agent for (the health of) her ecosystem (and second, as an agent for the health of her human community, which dwells within that ecosystem; and third, as an agent for her immediate family and self). Spiritual practice helps mature our Egos. Faced with the assertion that the goal of spiritual practice is to eliminate the Ego, the East facet of the Self might respond with a hearty laugh and the blended perspectives of the Trickster, Fool, and Sage, as, for example, expressed by Jay Leeming: Trying to get rid of your ego Is like trying to get rid of your garbage can. No one believes you are serious. The more you shout at the garbage man The more your neighbors remember your name.6 Rather than attempting to jettison the Ego, a sensible person draws on the resources of her East Self to cultivate her relationship to innocence, wisdom, humor, and the great, transpersonal, and universal mysteries of life.”
-Bill Plotkin, Wild Mind
Sacred Wildness 