LIFE

Rewilding My Soul

Requested by my readers. Let me explain about rewilding my soul.

Recently, I wrote a story about how I became a marketeer for Gaia. It’s fun to promote something I feel so passionately about.

One of my readers, Jenine Bsharah Baines replied:

“I want to rewild my soul, too! You’re my role model! Thanks so much.” — Jenine Bsharah Baines

Well, I get that reaction more often.

Rewilding my soul. What does it even mean?

Well, for me it meant getting rid of tenseness. Getting rid of the fear in my body so I can live a life worth living. Daring to be completely me. And feeling in my bones that I’m alive.

I guess I had to change my life to even recognize that I was not wild at all. I’ve never been so much of a wild woman. And to be honest, I still am not. But I have rewilded my soul for sure.

Got her out of her box, her chains, and set her free.

And wow, how liberating that feels!

How Wolves Change Rivers

Rewilding is a subject that’s written about by many. In this blog by Claire Dunn on Wellbeing Australia, she writes about a TED-talk that showed how introducing wolves in Yellowstone National Park in the USA changed the complete ecosystem.

The deer did not dare to go to certain areas in the park anymore and the plants there got a chance to mature. Whole areas were regenerated. In the end, even the course of the river changed.

“Only those who love nature, and connect with their own innate wildness, will create and caretake wild landscapes. Rewilding of the land, it seems, also requires a rewilding of the human soul.” — blog by Claire Dunn

Rewilding is often referred to as bushcraft, learning wilderness survival skills. But it is so much more than that. Our brains are just not wired to be limited. We get bored. We get stuck. And reconnecting to nature is a good way to heal the wiring of our brains again.

“We were all once wild,” says Trew, “only starting to farm 10,000 years ago, compared to hunting and gathering for between 200,000 and 300,000 years. Part of rewilding is recognising that in our genes, our bodies and bones, we come into the world with certain expectations.” — blog by Claire Dunn

Rewilding will revive the hunter-gatherer in us. But rewilding our minds and our souls goes even much further. It will make us fully human again. Ready to take up our modest and very influential spot within the planet’s ecosystems. Ready to be wise stewards of the earth and connect deeply to people and other species.

“Cultivating a “wild mind” is also the mission of American depth psychologist and wilderness guide Bill Plotkin. “To have a wild mind is to have a whole mind. People with wild minds are those who have cultivated and embodied their innate human wholeness — the full rainbow spectrum of capacities, talents and sensibilities that constellate our evolutionary birthright,” says Plotkin.” — blog by Claire Dunn

Here’s the video about the wolves changing rivers in Yellowstone.

Wild Woman Archetype

So, what does rewilding my soul means for me?

Many years ago, I was writing a book (it was never published, it wasn’t good enough) and I used a quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estés as an intro.

I have to quote it in Dutch, my mother-tongue. And then translate it myself into English again. I tried but cannot find the original English quote.

“Een wilde vrouw is robuust, boordevol levenskracht, levengevend, bewust van haar lijf, inventief, loyaal en creatief. De wilde natuur is intuïtie, de scherpe luisteraar, het trouwe hart, innerlijke aanschouwing, je eigen cycli vinden, ontdekken wat bij je hoort, met waardigheid vooruitgaan en zo bewust blijven als mogelijk is. De wilde natuur vergroot de vrouwelijkheid en het vermogen zich zelfverzekerd in de buitenwereld te bewegen.” — ”De ontembare vrouw als archetype in mythen en verhalen”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Brecht, 9e druk, 1999)

In English, it would be something like this:

A wild woman is robust, full of vitality, life-giving, aware of her body, inventive, loyal, and creative. The wild nature is intuition, the keen listener, the faithful heart, inner contemplation, finding your own cycles, discovering what fits you, continue with dignity, and remain as conscious as possible. The wild nature enhances femininity and the ability to move confidently in the outside world.

Sorry, Clarissa, if the quote is not completely correct in translation.

Apparently, the wish of being a wild woman already resided in me back then. Although I could not see myself as one. I was a serious woman. Tense. Bookish. Driven to perfection. I had a big sense of responsibility. And although I could definitely laugh about myself, I was far from wild.

I don’t think the young women who want to discover their wild souls, want to relate to this description.

But still, that was me.

So How Did I Change?

First of all, it was no quick fix. I had to go through a personal collapse to come to the realization that I couldn’t go on the way I did. But I had no clue how to change.

I had help from a coach. But if I look back on it, I think I can give a few general steps on how I did it.

• It was a conscious decision that I wanted to live my best life, learn to dare, and learn to fail. And most of all loosen up.
• I learned how to use my body to feel and express emotions and release them
• I learned how to meditate, and to use my breath to clean my body of thoughts and emotions
• I connected to nature big time. Spent time in the woods and near the lake listening to birdsong, feel the trees breathing, and hear Gaia’s heartbeat
• I swam in natural water, danced wildly with a tree, and laughed out loud. No reason. Just because
• I embraced my fears, felt them physically in my body, and stretched the edges of my comfort zone ever wider

And now I’m still learning. Stretching into the unknown. And I don’t think the learning process will ever stop. We’ll grow until we die, I guess.

So now, I’m surfing the waves.

Metaphorically surfing the waves of change, I must confess. Haha. I’m not daring enough (yet) to surf the real waves of our mighty oceans. But what is not, may come…

I recognize my former self in this quote:

“When a woman is frozen of feeling, when she can no longer feel herself, when her blood, her passion, no longer reach the extremities of her psyche, when she is desperate; then a fantasy life is far more pleasurable than anything else she can set her sights upon. Her little match lights, because they have no wood to burn, instead burn up the psyche as though it were a big dry log. The psyche begins to play tricks on itself; it lives now in the fantasy fire of all yearning fulfilled. This kind of fantasizing is like a lie: If you tell it often enough, you begin to believe it.”

― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

And now I recognize myself in this quote:

“Go out in the woods, go out. If you don’t go out in the woods nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.”

― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

Wild Woman in Landscapes

A wild woman. I would wish it for every girl and woman to find her true self like this.

And although I did many things that got me where I am today, one thing I want to mention in this respect. I did an online landscape meditation program with Mary Reynolds Thompson.

The desert woman gave me fire.

“I am enough” — Mary in her Wild Soul Mandala

The forest woman gave me inspiration.

“I am the mysterie” — Mary in her Wild Soul Mandala

The oceans and rivers woman helped me flow.

“I am wholly alive” — Mary in her Wild Soul Mandala

The mountain woman gave me daring.

“I am my highest self” — Mary in her Wild Soul Mandala

The grasslands woman made me courageous enough to be seen.

“I am the body of the Earth” — Mary in her Wild Soul Mandala

You might want to check her out. She also wrote mighty interesting books ‘Embrace your inner wild’ and ‘Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness’ and has free videos on YouTube.

She’s a wise woman.

Well, Jenine, we all need role models. Clarissa and Mary are definitely some of my role models. I hope you will be inspired to go on our own path and maybe somewhere in the future write about how you became a wild soul woman yourself.

Tag me and I’ll be happily reading about your journey.

Happy discovering! Happy living!

And if you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Or somewhere in the world, surfing the waves of change…

Further Reading

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© Désirée Driesenaar