This Wonder-Full World

Description

We can walk through a world that is dull and grey, or walk through a world filled with mystery and beauty. The difference isn't in the world -- it is in how we train our minds to perceive it. This video explains how our culture urges us into "dull-vision" and explains how we can reclaim "wonder-vision".

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Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods,loving life

Video Transcription

there's something about our culture that can rob us of one of our inherited birth rights as a human being that birthright is the ability to see this world as full of wonder and what our culture does is it teaches us a way of seeing the world where the world can start to appear dull our minds begin to go on to autopilot and we can go through life thinking that it's pretty much the same old same old every day today I would like to take you for a short walk just outside my front door and to share with you what the world looks like through my eyes and after that to share with you how any of us can cultivate this mindset where the world appears filled with Wonder it's not terribly difficult but it does take a little bit of practice and I'll tell you all about it today first let me show you a little bit of what I see out here look at this now this is something I could just walk over it's just ice but notice it's moving it's like it's like a slowly evolving art form shifting and changing

these are SAP sickles this is a box elder and there's little breaks and then there's these little teeny beautiful icicles that are actually SAP a box elder and box elders a maple so they have a little bit of sweetness in it it's not as sweet as as a sugar maple but they're really good look at the play of color these beautiful animals and when I see the play of color I'm looking at the water their way it sparkles and ripples the marvelous form of these creatures

there's everyday things like this Murdoch but might bother some of us the little hooks on the end they inspired velcro fact they were almost exactly like velcro somebody saw this and was inspired not bother check out these spikes through a little kids vision they're just wicked cool here's something that almost no one would pay attention to just an old dead leaf on the ground only worthy of walking by but look at that shave the veins that run through there bring nutrients to it when it was alive and the spots the coloring it's like a whole world is right here on this leaf

about this this is sumac it's just a stick that I could walk by but it's so soft like almost softer than any animals fur hiding in the branches little ball of feathers so full of life if you watch them fly through these branches they can fly and dodge between the branches faster than we could ever imagine they have a flickr focus it's so far beyond ours that their reactions are beyond superhuman and boy that sunflower seed must be good if you look up in the sky sky is blue and this is one of those wonderful things it seems like yeah duh of course it's blue but it's blue and the clouds this shape these clouds they will never be seen again what you're seeing right here and every time you look up at clouds it's completely unique will never be seen again and in the end there's this amazingness that we are on a planet out in the middle of outer space and there's things like this water that is frozen into a million little gem stones again the shapes that are molding and shaping in my hands these will never be seen again and there's a sensation there's the sensation of cold and I can hear the birds I can hear that truck going by out there on the freeway if you've been sitting and watching this you may notice that there's a whole host of sensations that have been going on just inside your body you don't even have to go outside so all this stuff going on that usually we're completely unaware of if you're sitting there's a sensation of your bot on a chair your eyes are blinking together there's that sensation that tactile sensation every time you breathe there's the musculature of your chest in your stomach working to make that breath happen

you're surrounded by sensations sounds feelings even the mental activity in our heads there's a cement world this universe of all these things going on all around us all the time dances everywhere dances of motion stillness of light and color sensations all this amazement just waiting for us in every moment

what's going on is that we have been taught by our culture a driving need almost for novelty all our commercials are movies all of our media even the way that we've structure at life it's it's always reaching for that new thing out there and because it provides things that are big and flashy and new well it starts to decondition our minds from noticing the everyday wonder around us the need for novelty that feeling of that need is really it's really a dissatisfaction with life and as long as we are we have that dissatisfaction kind of worming away inside of our minds life is just never going to feel right if we can recapture that wonder then not only are the everyday things around us amazing but we really cultivate it we're able to even see the flashy things of our media in a way that we appreciate them more than we would when our mind is always grasping grasping for novelty I don't want to get all conspiracy theory but you might notice how when our minds are grasping it makes for very productive workers it makes for good consumers because we are always trying to you know buy the next thing that's going to make us happy watch the next movie that's going to relieve us of our boring lives and go to work and work hard so that we can continue buying those things so this is not just about appreciating life

it also can start to get us out of that trap that our culture puts us in to do it we have to retrain our minds realize first of all if you're 20 years old your mind has probably been trained for 20 years into seeking out big flashing novelty now if we're mindful we can retrain our mind in a much shorter time but it's it's like trying to stop smoking cigarettes we have to get serious about it and say this is really something I want I really want to just love life and appreciate all these every moment things then we go out and we start looking for things just like you saw me doing today go out and and stop and you know look at that look at that snow and look at the sky and hear the birds and when we do that we start to retrain our minds and the more we do it the more we retrain it now if you start this up and you train yourself a little bit and then start jumping back into I'm gonna go watch transformers tonight you give myself that fix it's kind of like picking up the cigarette again when you're trying to quit so the other thing you can do to really make this work is to devote yourself to a week or a month and cut back your media consumption as much as you can even one hundred percent if you can what I mean is you know stop watching movies only use the internet for four basic basic things you know like checking your email if you have to for your business and take a break from that technology and instead every day go out and cultivate this wonder by looking around you opening up your senses smelling things tasting things looking at things hearing things feeling sensations there's this amazing amazing world just waiting for us waiting for you right out there it's awesome to explore it love to hear about your thoughts your comments or experiences in the comments as always thank you my friends