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Habitualizing Our Awareness Core Routines By
David Wilson We all have routines we go through
everyday - brushing our teeth, using the toilet, opening and closing the
refrigerator in search of food. The Akamba natives of Kenya have a saying
they tell their children, "Do not step on your own tracks for it means
death." At first glance we might discount
this saying as simple superstition. But, what does it really mean? The environment in which the Akamba
live is quite dangerous, with leopard, lion and other animals posing great
threats to anyone caught off guard. Predators take advantage of unaware prey
– they count on it. Those who don’t pay attention to the environment in which
they travel are open to falling into ruts. Stepping on our own footprints
over and over creates ruts. How many of us have driven home from work only to
arrive and not remember the journey? Or read a paragraph in a book and not
remember what it was about? Or be talking with someone and not really know
what they just told us? Death, in this sense, comes from not being aware, not
paying attention – not being alive. Tom Brown, who’s
Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School teaches hundreds and hundreds of
students each year, stresses the importance of awareness to living life more
fully – he has, in fact, dedicated his life to educating people in the skills
of tracking, wilderness awareness and survival. Jon Young, Tom Brown’s first
student and the only person to have been mentored the same way Tom was
mentored by his teacher, Stalking Wolf, started the
Wilderness Awareness School to continue training people to
connect with nature in a real way and to train people in the building of a
cultural basket that supports integral awareness development for all. One of the first things both teach
to become more aware is to look at the world differently. The second thing is
to slow down. The most important routine to training your awareness is to
have one place or spot that you visit regularly to sit and observe nature
unfold before you while you train your senses. It seems that most people today move
through life as if they have fist binoculars or blinders on their face – they
can’t see anything outside that which is right in front of them (or in their
way). The first step is to begin using your peripheral vision, both sideways
and up and down. One way to start practicing Owl Eyes is to sit still, focus
your vision on a distant object and just start exploring with only your
attention (not moving
your eyes). Owl Eyes is a way for us to begin consciously training our perceptual faculty to
allow more information in. Awareness is like a muscle – the more you train it
the stronger it becomes. And just like any trained skill, at some point it
becomes unconscious, and you just start seeing – noticing – things you never
noticed before. Jon Young speaks about how people on this path report seeing
more Red Tail Hawks in their area, as if somehow, a number of hawks just
moved in. And by extension, one trains their senses of hearing and smell the
same way, by consciously using
it. Slowing down does many things, not
the least of which is reducing stress in one’s life. We call it Fox Walking:
moving deliberately, slowly, and quietly. When done in conjunction with Owl
Eyes, it produces a relaxed alertness. Diligent practice enables one to
maintain this state of relaxed alertness and to produce it at will. If you
are a student of Tai Chi, or any other slow martial art you will recognize
the benefits immediately. Fox walking has the additional benefits of not
scaring animals away when outdoors and body toning because of the slow and
continuous movements. Having a Sit Spot or Nature Spot is
THE best routine for developing one’s (nature) awareness. Pick a convenient
place near your house that has a good deal of nature in it and stay there and
watch the world unfold for an hour (or more). Visit this place for 13 months
on a weekly or more schedule. Get to know that place very well: which way is
north? Which ways does the wind usually blow? What plants grow there and
when? What birds do you see or hear regularly? What does the sky look like 2
days before it rains? How do the animal tracks and trails in the area change
with the seasons? Keep a journal to record your observations and questions
and discoveries. You will be thankful you did. Additional routines
to practice: · Expressing gratitude and
thanksgiving for anything you are thankful for. · Journaling – stories, thoughts,
observations, meetings, feelings, inklings, dreams, coincidences, etc. · Wandering · Sharing your story (e.g., “…and then
the hawk dropped the rabbit and we ran over to it…”) · |