Journey 1

I want to know nature

Slow down, open your senses and get to know the place you live: who lives there, what they are saying and the stories they leave behind. Start with a sit spot close to home and return to it.

Books & Wilding activity guide collections

Practice Keys for this journey

Choose a way in.

Uncover nature's language31 Wilding activity guides

Track & ask questions70 Wilding activity guides

Imitate nature58 Wilding activity guides

Value nature12 Wilding activity guides

Awaken your mind's eye17 Wilding activity guides

Tell your story7 Wilding activity guides

Enjoy your sit spot12 Wilding activity guides

Wander5 Wilding activity guides

Imaginatively journal21 Wilding activity guides

Dive into field guides144 Wilding activity guides

Open your senses122 Wilding activity guides

Map & navigate naturally32 Wilding activity guides

Search all the Wilding activity guides →

From the Wilding Rucksack

Books & Wilding activity guide collections

Wilding: Wisdom for a Wilder LifeThe heart of the Rucksack: why connecting with nature matters, the Wilding model, the 15 Practice Keys and the three journeys, with every Guide linked by QR code.The core book →

Wild AwakeSlow down, wake up your senses and find a sit spot you return to.Book + 126 Wilding activity guides →

The Invisible WildA garden mystery to solve: follow tracks, signs and bird alarms, from tuning in your senses to telling the story of who has been here.Book + 72 Wilding activity guides →

Wild WiseMeet your neighbours: plants, trees, birds and insects, the hazards and the helpers, and the web that ties them together.Book + 116 Wilding activity guides →

Safety, and where the Wilding activity guides come from

Look after yourself and others. Outdoor activities carry real risks: fire, tools, water, weather, heights, plants, fungi, animals and getting lost. Every Wilding activity guide includes safety notes, but you are responsible for your own safety and for anyone in your care. Supervise children closely, get the landowner's permission, follow the Countryside Code, never eat anything you cannot identify with complete certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe. If in doubt, leave it out.

With gratitude to the lineage. Wilding and its Practice Keys are inspired by the work of Jon Young and colleagues: the core routines of nature connection in the 8 Shields approach, also known as Coyote Mentoring, shared in Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas & McGown). Many of the Wilding activity guides grew from those routines.

These ways of noticing and belonging are far older than any book. They grow from the knowledge of Indigenous and land-based peoples around the world, who have lived in close relationship with the land for thousands of years and have kept that knowledge alive, often in the face of great loss. Jon Young describes 8 Shields as built on patterns of nature connection he found in Indigenous cultures around the world, and on what his mentors taught him, including the teachings passed down through Tom Brown Jr. from Grandfather Stalking Wolf. Our own ancestors in these islands once knew the land in this way too.

I offer Wilding with deep respect and thanks to all of them. It does not claim or copy any culture's ceremonies or sacred practices. It is a UK way of carrying forward simple, shared human ways of paying attention, giving thanks and belonging to a place. — Jay