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WHAT IS THE ‘WILD WONDER EXERCISE’?

A practical start to luxuriating in our wild lives...

This practice is about returning to a safe space: being held by the world around us and loving it, equally, in our turn.

Our world can sometimes seem strange. We can forget that we aren’t alone.

Every day (sometimes every few hours) I fall back in love with our world through this practice. I renew my relationship with all of the other life forms around me (animal & botanical) and start again, from an anchor of love, for all the world around me and for myself and my place in it.

WILD WONDER EXERCISE...

1. Choose a life form (a tree, a flower, your dog or cat, or even just a picture of any other person/being/species).

 

2. Allow all of the words and names given to that life form to float out of your head, starting with the most specific and leading up to the most vague. For example... If you’re looking at a Bluebell or a Thistle, allow the word ‘Bluebell’ or ‘Thistle’ to float away and then you are left with ‘flower’; allow ‘flower’ to float away and then perhaps you are left with ‘plant’; allow any possible description (however generalised) to fade from your mind until your mind can think of no more names...

3. Now, that ‘Bluebell’ or ‘Thistle’ will come alive for you. You will see that ‘Bluebell’ or ‘Thistle’ as a miracle of existence. You will realise that you know nothing truly about that ‘Bluebell’ or ‘Thistle’ in front of you or truly how 'it' came into existence, to share this wonderful moment with you.

 

(HELPFUL NOTES THAT CAN HELP YOU THROUGH THE WONDER EXERCISE)

- You can’t force it.

- As you love yourself and you’re kind and patient with yourself, it unfolds outwards, from within you, to live in wonder with this other being.

 

- Let the words drop away (Bluebell, Flower, Botanical, Plant...)

- Accept any frustration and tightness that may be in your chest: as you love yourself for being exactly as you are, right now, you will find yourself with suddenly fresh eyes.

- Let all of the busyness of the world slowly drain from your mind: be present first and foremost, for as long as it takes until you relax.

- You can start with something that you already find extraordinary (that might help) like a flower or an animal.

- Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not so easy.... Just love yourself for exactly how you’re feeling right now and allow yourself to feel whatever capacity for wonder rises up out of you today.... Whatever you feel is the perfect amount for that present moment. Every day will be different: relish it, enjoy it.

- We are all alive to live in wonder at this minute and that is something to celebrate.

*[EXTRACT FROM THE HANDBOOK]

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