As with many words in the English language the word “wild” has nuances and different meanings. I want to clarify what I mean by wild since it is a key component of rewilding.
Rewilding is a spiritual experience. It is a metaphor Angus and I use to describe the experience of waking up from the taming of our conditioning that results in naturally experiencing greater inner freedom and peace of mind from experientially knowing the essence of who we are. This essence is formless. It is spiritual. It is untouched by anything in the world of form. Rewilding is about coming back to our natural state of that spiritual essence that has feelings of love, peace, joy, and contentment associated with it, but they aren’t it. They are qualities of experience that are hallmarks that let us know we are consciously aware of our nature.
This kind of wild is not the wild of being out of control or crazy. It is not the wild of debauchery. It is not the wild of turbulent agitation. It is not the wild of barbarian behavior.
And even though we use the metaphor of wild to point to our untamed true nature, rewilding does embrace all of ourselves, not just the concept of being a spiritual being. Rewilding means we see the value in accepting who we are in this moment exactly as we are.
Previously I thought spiritual exploration and awakening was all about embracing the qualities of compassion, love, empathy, kindness, generosity, and peace within myself. I thought that the awakening process would have me leave behind the parts of myself that I didn’t like and believed were not spiritual. I lived in a dichotomy of good and bad, spiritual and human, divine and profane.
But when oneness prevails nothing can be separate. Dichotomies fall apart. The parts of myself that I judge and see as weak are all part of that oneness.
This is where the spiritual nature of rewilding diverges from self-help and self-improvement. Rewilding is not about changing ourselves to transform the parts of ourselves we don’t like. It is about rewilding ourselves back to our natural state so we break free from our judgments about what is. Do we feel more peace and love as a result of this. Yes, sometimes, but not always. Rewilding opens us up to the full range of the human experience. The aliveness of who we are. This includes all of our emotional experience, not just the emotions we like.
It is in the embracing and making room for all of ourselves that greater health, vitality and aliveness prevails. We may not find this fits with our conditioned preferences, but it is healthy. Just like a rewilded garden or landscape may not look the most beautiful based on our definitions of beauty, the aliveness, resilience, and diversity are what matter. Not our concepts and ideas of how we should be.
I am on the journey of rewilding with you. I still have conditioning that judges my shyness, my intellectualization, my people pleasing, my skin picking, my anger, my lack of organization, my capacity to over do and on and on and on. Judgements galore. I am not free from them. But I feel the continued greater freedom to be with myself as I am warts and all.
I feel the invitation to continue to let go of self-management and to be kind and loving with myself. I am a sensitive being. I can feel quite shy and there are plenty of times when I want to be alone reading a book or watching a movie to escape reality rather than waking up to reality. I don’t see myself as a leader or special.
And in spite of my conditioning and insecurities, I find myself writing blog posts like this, recording videos, teaching classes, speaking at conferences, and working with people. This is not about me. This is the by-product of the rewilding happening.
Like the honey bee seeks nectar and pollination is the by-product, me being drawn to the nectar of my soul allows magical by-products to unfold. Rewilding points me to the wholeness of it all. My shy timid conditioning and struggle to be authentic and own my strength and integrate my anger has no power to tame my true nature. The parts of myself I don’t like or my blindspots don’t need to be improved or fixed. They are part of the beauty of who I am like the knots on the trunk of a tree. My personality has gnarly parts and they are a part of the mosaic of true nature being expressed through me.
Nothing is separate from the aliveness. Not you or me. Remember who you are and know that all of you is part of the unfolding of the innate intelligence within. Let yourself be wild and free exactly as you are!
If you would like to listen to the Rewilding Love Podcast, it comes out in serial format. Start with Episode 1 for context. Click here to listen. And, if you would like to dive deeper into the understanding I share along with additional support please check out the Rewilding Community.
Rohini Ross is co-founder of “The Rewilders.” Listen to her podcast, with her partner Angus Ross, Rewilding Love. They believe too many good relationships fall apart because couples give up thinking their relationship problems can’t be solved. In this season of the Rewilding Love Podcast, Rohini and Angus help a couple on the brink of divorce due to conflict. Angus and Rohini also co-facilitate a private couples’ intensives retreat program that rewilds relationships back to their natural state of love. Rohini is also the author of the ebook Marriage, and she and Angus are co-founders of The 29-Day Rewilding Experience and The Rewilding Community. You can follow Rohini on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about her work and subscribe to her blog visit: TheRewilders.org.