Going Outside to Go Inside

Last week, I had the pleasure of working on an Outdoor Education program for Year 10 girls in the Snowy Mountains. Over the course of a week, the co-instructor and I had many interesting exchanges with the girls, generally around their adaptation to cold, being in nature and resilience to change.

Gazing Over the Wolgan Valley, Wollemi National Park, Blue Mountains

As an Outdoor Educator, I love helping people learn to be comfortable and enjoy themselves outdoors. And sometimes this is hard.

Being in nature for many, can be an uncomfortable and threatening experience, one to be endured rather than to be happily immersed in. Fear of the unknown, uncomfortable surfaces, animals and insects, darkness, uneven terrain, physical effort, danger, unregulated temperatures, exposure to the elements and isolation leave people afraid of their basic survival and happiness. 

Glossy outdoor shops, full to the brim with clever gear and clothing are fantastic resources for helping us be comfortable and safe in the wild. But, in order to be comfortable in nature requires more than just having a wardrobe full of the latest technical merino.

How do we feel at home in nature, rather than endure the experience? How do we break down the barrier between ourselves and the wild?

Ralph Waldo Emerson cleverly said, The world is all outside; it has no inside.

 

We are part of nature and nature is part of us, there is no difference. It is easy to lose sight or this, and see nature is a place to visit, a land apart from us, something to move through, to temporarily survive, rather than the world we live in.  

But everywhere is outside.

On my week in the mountain, the magic moment came, when the students learned how to live in, rather than endure nature. And all it took was just being, just sitting on some grass, in the sun, talking. This doesn't require great effort, or facilitation and interpretation. It just requires us to relax and nature will do the rest.

Great benefits can come from remembering to stop, to be still, to just live in nature. When we get to the lookout, look, stop. Lay in the sun. Listen to the creek. Watch the stars. Smell the flower. Admire the tree. Sit and gaze at the bird drinking water. Fall asleep in the shade. Feel the sand between your toes.

A special person once passed on an ancient saying: The entire sky is your birthright. 

Nature can be the stage for our epic challenges and personal triumphs but it is also our home.