Wild Human

Category: Uncategorized

  • OptOutside: An Antidote to Black Friday

    OptOutside: An Antidote to Black Friday

    When 80% of us in the UK and more than 50% of the world live in towns and cities, we’re losing our contact and our connection with nature.

    This affects our health and wellbeing – studies show how much we need nature for our mental, physical and emotional health, like this one from Stanford University – and by spending very little time in natural and wild spaces, we don’t see what’s happening.

    We don’t see the loss of species, disappearing habitats, the leeching of the soil, or the poisoning of our air and water.

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  • What I’ve Learned from Wild Swimming in the Sea near Hove

    What I’ve Learned from Wild Swimming in the Sea near Hove

    This year I decided I need to swim more.

    I run and do yoga, but my low back is hurting, and lots of people say swimming is good for that.

    My work is changing too, and because of that I’m looking more closely at how much I spend.

    To save paying £4.25 every time to swim at my local pool, the King Alfred, after 10 years of living in Hove I finally wake up to an open secret: the sea’s at the bottom of the road, and it’s free. 

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  • How I Find Some Backbone on a Medicine Walk

    How I Find Some Backbone on a Medicine Walk

    Today we sit inside the willow dome, instead of our usual spot outside by the fire. I notice I’m feeling uncomfortable.

    I like having full view of the plants and the sky, and today, even though it’s not totally blocking everything out, I’m feeling hemmed in by the structure.

    I say this. It’s not universal. “I prefer the womb-like feeling of being in an enclosed space,” someone else says.

    It’s funny because I’ve been thinking a lot about structure this past week. I’m working on a presentation for work, and have been wrestling with getting all my thoughts and ideas organised into the right framework.

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  • Finding a Deeper Connection to Nature in the Dark

    Finding a Deeper Connection to Nature in the Dark

    The other day I get up at 6am and drive to some woods near Lewes with Alistair Duncan, to check them out as a potential new venue for School of the Wild.

    It’s properly dark as we set off, and it’s only just getting light when we get to the woods.

    The orange glow of the rising sun on the horizon slowly filters through the forest, lighting up the tops of the trees, and making the purple, gold and red of the early morning sky turn blue.

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  • How a Fox Hunt Gave Me a Lesson in Nature’s Sixth Sense

    How a Fox Hunt Gave Me a Lesson in Nature’s Sixth Sense

    “I have a bad feeling about this,” says Sharon, as we watch ten horse riders and twenty hounds run about excitedly across the valley. “It’s supposed to be a drag hunt, but that feels like they might have got something,” she says.

    I’m standing in a field on the edge of Mile Oak Farm with Sharon Clifton a silver haired psychotherapist and Equine Assisted Learning Facilitator from Spirit Horse Works. It’s a grey, damp morning, and the ground is wet and muddy beneath our feet.

    We watch as the pack of hounds disappear into the gorse bushes on the hill opposite. Their barks drift over. The hunt leader, in red jacket, blows his horn several times.

    Both of us hope they haven’t found a fox.

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  • 10 Ways to Celebrate the Winter Solstice, and Why You Should

    10 Ways to Celebrate the Winter Solstice, and Why You Should

    “This is your new sun,” says Alistair in appropriately hushed tones as he hands us each a lit candle. We take one and sit down, quietly reflecting on what we just experienced.

    Picture

    We’re sitting in the dark surrounded by trees, on wild land between Brighton and the South Downs. There’s a stillness in the air.  In the distance, an owl hoots then a horse neighs, reminding us we’re not alone out here. 

    It’s December 21st, a few days before Christmas, and we’re coming to the end of School of the Wild’s ‘embodied’ winter solstice ritual.

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  • How Eating Nettle Seeds Can Help With Stress

    How Eating Nettle Seeds Can Help With Stress

    Nettles are a superfood, and nettle seeds can help with stress. Here’s how to use them, or you could find out more at one of School of the Wild’s outdoor team building programmes. 

    It’s September and we’re at our workshop on Wild Food and Medicine, led by bushcraft and woodcraft teacher Jonathon Huet.

    We’re a large group, and as we wander along the forest paths, Jonathon points out plants that are good to eat or can be used as medicine, like chickweed, elderberries and the like. I’m at the back, chatting to herbalist Lucinda Warner who tells me that nettle seeds are good for adrenal stress.

    I’m keen to hear more, as I’ve been feeling pretty stressed out lately…

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  • 20 Things I Learned on a Wild Food Walk

    20 Things I Learned on a Wild Food Walk

    Last weekend I went on a Wild Medicine, Wild Food walk with ethnobotanist and leading UK forager, Robin Harford, and top medical herbalist Alex Laird. The theme from the day was clear: nature is designed to help us thrive and function.

    Here’s what I learned about the wild plants we came across: what they’re good for and how to eat them:

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  • What to Forage For in December

    What to Forage For in December

    As we descend into winter, there are gradually less and less wild plants you can find to eat. However, this doesn’t mean that nature’s larder is totally empty. Here are 5 things you can forage for in December:

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