The 15 Practice Keys

Each Practice Key is a simple, repeatable way of spending time with nature. Some will call to you straight away; others will make sense later. There is no right order.

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Practice Key

Live wilder

Live a little wilder, warmer and more at home outdoors.

A wooden-handled knife and fire steel resting on a leather sheath among beech leaves

Live Wilder is about practical skills that help you feel at home outside: shelter, tools, fire, food and natural materials. A piece of wood, a simple shelter or a shared meal can teach you about species, weather, materials and your own judgement. It's close in spirit to friluftsliv, the Scandinavian idea of making simple time outdoors part of ordinary life.

You don't need a campfire or a knife to start. Safety comes first, and some skills need a proper instructor. Carry one question into anything you make: what did this teach me about the place and the things I worked with?

Try this week

Rig a coat or sheet to keep a bag dry.
Notice which way the wind and the rain are coming from.
Brew a mug of tea outdoors.

Explore 214 Live wilder activity guides Back to the Practice Keys

Safety, and where the 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 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. The Wilding Practice Keys and many of the activities in the activity guides have been adapted from the core routines of nature connection in the 8 Shields approach (Coyote Mentoring), mapped by Jon Young and shared in Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas & McGown).

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