There is a foreign land where structure, goals / outcomes, reward / punishment, measurement / return, personal development and laser-focus give way to less precise things like spontaneity, irreverence, beauty, surprise and playfulness.
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3 excellent books to read, to explore a nature-inspired mindset
by 
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Tags: adventure, bushcraft, expedition, nature connection, wolf pack
Life-changing decisions
by Chris
Posted in Change, Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Change, Insights from the Outdoors
I was recently on a podcast, which was billed as “How to make a life-changing decision”.
Big stuff like Purpose and Meaning… but how in practice do we even approach and explore these concepts?
If you’re interested in having a look at where we went with it, then here’s a link:
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/bigdecisions
The David Whyte poem that features towards the end is called “
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So many Global Issues – how can one person respond to them all?
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Whether we like it or not, we are all being called on to bring visibility to how we act, and, through those actions, to the systems we are promoting. When on a highway to destruction, it’s a good idea to step off it… but it’s not so easy. Where to go instead?
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Buds: a winter nature connection hack
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
A lot of people seem to want to experience better “nature connection”, perhaps in order to feel a little less stressed or insane, or because they are worried about climate catastrophe. Quite right; this is a good urge. But it’s just as usual to be too busy to act on it much;
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Less appy, more happy
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
This is a poem I wrote when I replaced my smartphone for an old-skool phone a few years ago after a moment of clarity, when I was out for a nice jog, of how ridiculous and sad it was that I was beholden to an irritating little machine rather than just enjoying the joggy feeling.
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Tags: adventure, digital detox, freedom, odyssey, outdoors, smartphone, wolf pack, youth programme
All-male events
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Are single-sex groups a healthy thing? And how helpful is it to use male language and imagery with groups of young men?
In a culture that often carries unpleasant whiffs of male-centredness and male-identification (and where many believe that oppression of women is the very nature of the system),
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Tags: adventure, boys, bushcraft, expedition, fire, odyssey, risk, rites of passage, wolf pack, young men, youth programme
When the wind blows
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
It is winter, the dormant season for plants (above ground at least) – it’s the time to plant your trees. What I find interesting is that if you plant your healthy young sapling and help it to stay upright with a big stout stake and strong straps, then it is unlikely that it will grow into a mature tree;
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Tags: adventure, boys, bushcraft, expedition, manhood, odyssey, risk, rites of passage, wolf pack, young men, youth programme
The woods and the womb
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
This is something I find I hear a lot:
“Wow – you own a wood! Are you going to build a cabin?’
I own a wood. It is great. It is sunny, rainy or cloudy in the daytime, dark in the nighttime if there aren’t any moonbeams,
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Tags: adventure, boys, bushcraft, expedition, fire, risk, rites of passage, wolf pack, young men, youth programme
Surviving the mainstream’s extremes
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Here’s a second pattern that I’ve noticed during my time as a bushcraft instructor:
“My son isn’t keen on the outdoors – he’s just not the gnarly ‘survival’ type”
Machismo did not die after the 1980s, it just got clever. One trick it performed was to elevate itself into pseudo-aspirational but unattainable places.
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Tags: adventure, boys, bushcraft, expedition, fire, masculinity, risk, wolf pack, young men, youth programme
Little consolation from the console
by Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
Chris
Posted in Insights from the Outdoors
I have spent a lot of time in the outdoors with adults and kids, often with teenage lads on a string of 3-day outings together, in undomesticated environments like woods, moors and rivers. One lad recently pointed out to me that, out of the last 18 months, cumulatively he had spent an entire month with me,
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Tags: adventure, boys, bushcraft, expedition, fire, risk, wolf pack, young men, youth programme
