Increasing Your Awareness and Enhancing Your Senses in the Woods

Description

An inspirational/instructional video on cultivating heightened awareness and senses while out in nature. Powerful awareness and a clear, untroubled mind is your ancestral birthright!

Visit http://rewildu.com/classes/ for unique educational opportunities in rewilding, wilderness skills, mindfulness, martial arts, primal fitness, homesteading, and more.

Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods,Survival Skills (TV Genre),wilderness awareness,enhancing your senses,nature

Video Transcription

there's plenty of talk out there about the best bushcraft knife sleeping bag tent bug out bag fire starter all these gear items you can have all the gear in the world and still succumb to panic and frustration when the going gets tough but something that's often neglected and overlooked are the two most important bushcraft or survival items that we have at our disposal those are our body and our mind today we'll be talking about honing your mind just as we care for a knife or a sword blade the practice of mindfulness helps us to look at our mind and find out where it's tarnished where it needs sharpening where it's holding rust awareness is so key in the woods or in any natural environment it's what we use to be able to be aware of natural rhythms the alarm cries of animals knowing which direction the wind is coming from being aware of weather patterns changing it's also what allows us to enjoy our time in nature if we're distracted songs going through our heads or we are off in another world worrying about bills that have to be paid or that argument we had with somebody yesterday we can't really be present for our time in nature

most of us have minds that are very ill conditioned they're constantly distracted and very disoriented this isn't really our fault we live in a culture that bombards us with constant temptations to fill our minds with all these offerings that not only make our minds weaker but more dependent on those offerings so fairly soon we find ourselves bored or feeling uncomfortable if we don't have a TV playing or the radio going or a cell phone at our side so we develop a psychological dependence on these things and every time we tune into those devices we create more distraction more disorientation in our minds the fact is that all of us can condition our minds in a positive way develop more awareness guess what it's free unlike buying that great piece of gear all of us can very easily start to recondition our minds to or natural way of being so when we get outside we're not only more aware of our surroundings but we get more joy and appreciation from our time in nature so are you ready to begin a journey towards being stress-free untrust rated full of vibrant light and awareness all right let's go I'm gonna give some pointers tips and exercises that we can use today this is popularly called mindfulness our most powerful tool for cultivating mindfulness is simply time in nature every moment we spend in nature quiets our thinking mind expands our awareness and opens our senses conversely time spent in Civilization trying to always stay in touch with everybody and everything is the perfect recipe we're starting to develop more dependence on all these things not saying that you have to get rid of your cell phone but let's make sure that we are using our devices our devices aren't using us if we're uncomfortable if we're away from our cell phone or our iPad for more than a few hours what is that saying might be an indication that there's an addiction going on there an addiction where the mind feels that it requires that kind of distraction an input in order to feel comfortable so a first step is starting to reclaim our mindfulness is becoming aware of the devices we use and how much our mind depends on television radio iPad for its comfort level and we start to reduce our usage and use those things in a mindful way you'll start to make more room in our minds for heightened awareness

to sharpen that blade of your mind further there's an ancient practice called meditation a lot of people are sour to meditation because they believe it's this sort of navel-gazing process of zoning out or something meditation in the mindfulness sense is not about turning off our minds but instead about opening up our awareness becoming aware of everything that's coming into our senses so an easy mindfulness meditation practice is to be in your car and instead of turning on the radio or thinking about all the places that you need to go have that radio off focus your gaze ahead and become fully aware of everything in your peripheral vision just become visually aware not only will this make for a safer driving experience because you're not zoning out anymore but every minute that you spend doing that hones your mind develops more sharpness more sensory awareness you can practice this mindfulness meditation in the woods or anywhere else all you have to do stop what you're doing for a moment and tune into your senses here I can feel my butt sitting on the metal seat I can feel the pressure of the clothing on my skin I can feel and hear the experience of breathing as my muscles expand and contract as the air moves in and out of my mouth there's crows chickadee

a cat over there the wind all of the sensory information it's constantly around us JEP are so distracted with our thinking mind that we don't pay attention to it and that's why a lot of people can go out into the woods and walk right by somebody that's sitting 10 feet away or they won't see that owl sitting right in that tree they won't hear the sound of a Jay that says hey there's a fox over there the mist tracks very evident tracks of a bear walking right across the ground in front of them edible medicinal plants go right by because we're in here thinking about did I get everything I needed at the grocery can't remember I think I forgot the milk this mindfulness meditation doesn't only have to be practiced when you're sitting quietly in fact with my students one of the most challenging and fun ways that we practice it is running through the woods as fast as we can you're moving over the environment up and down hills bouncing across logs vaulting crawling under things this entire time trying to be mentally aware often when we are performing martial arts running through the woods like that or immersed in a task we have an opportunity to enter that the zone this place of heightened awareness where we're moving we're performing and yet at the same time we here crow we feel when we're aware of our pulse and our beating heart we can feel our muscle moving under our flash there's a vitality in life that we experience when we have this level of awareness this is our birthright all of us I've had the chance to work with people who have been labeled by our culture as manic-depressive an ADHD anxiety disorder when we have a label like that attached to us we can feel like something's wrong but often those are actually symptoms of a mind that may be healthier than the average civilized mind because the average civilized mind that we're using as a marker to categorize these disorders is a mind that is exceedingly distracted exceedingly stressed exceedingly frustrated exceedingly unhealthy when I'm out with somebody who has ADHD when they get off their medications and get out into the woods and spend some time in that natural environment they're actually more functional than the average person they have a heightened awareness and an ability to engage in a task like trying to get a bow-drill fire started even though according to their diagnosis they shouldn't be able to focus on something like that but when it has meaning when it's not just do this because I've told you you're doing it because you are going to have fire things change what we're talking about here is tapping in to an intelligence that all of us does so if you want to develop some heightened awareness more mindfulness here's what I would recommend number one tune in and become aware of your use of technology

how often are using technology in a way that is just feeling as feeding a sense of I need to tune in if it feels like addiction it feels like you're uncomfortable without it then it's a really good sign that it's not doing your mind any favors by lessening our use and lessening our dependence on those devices we make a first great step toward reclaiming our natural mind number two start to develop a practice of mindfulness meditation anytime that you are sitting expand your senses up feel what you're actually feeling in a tactile sense smell what do you smell what do you taste here become aware of the full symphony of sounds that are around you if you're in a quieter area like I am here your horizon your auditory horizon expands for miles visually allow yourself to take in the full visual picture I'm not just seeing this in front of me I can see this entire range around me we have a very expansive range of vision most of us but we're only aware of that little bit because that's what we've been culturally taught

start to pay attention to what's out here and your vision will expand so that you'll be walking or driving you won't even have to turn your head and you'll see the deer on the side of the road and you'll know whether it's poised to jump out finally

experiment with mindfulness meditation in an active sense so when you're hiking when you're out backpacking and you're lighting a fire when you're climbing a tree

when you're setting up a tent practicing during a knife use those moments to stop and tune in and become aware of what you're doing any time that you cut your mind off in la-la land thinking about this thinking about that take that as a moment as a bell ringing and saying tune back in what's actually going on around

you

you are not going to lose your ability to think reason that your things out remember you don't have to worry about that you will still be able to compose list to figure out what you should say to the boss tomorrow and to remember what's on that grocery list we're very very practiced at those things so developing more mindfulness doesn't mean leaving those things behind just means that you can use your thinking mind as a tool

tune in use that thinking tool and then set it aside and come back to awareness awareness pays off on so many levels in the woods you'll have way more fun you will see and experience more people will think you're psychic or something because you're so aware in the woods in your regular life and your relationships chips with people when you approach a conversation let's say with awareness with listening instead of sitting there and thinking what you're gonna say next you will take in aspects of body language aspects of what the person's really trying to say that you would completely miss if you were busy in your own head with your own dialogue thus you will become a more effective communicator a more effective listener a better friend again this is our natural birthright don't let it be taken away by cultural forces that just would love to have you dependent upon their devices so that you keep buying them in buying them instead use those things selectively allow your natural awareness to blossom you will be amazed at how amazing life is when you come at it with awareness thanks for watching