Wild Awake cover

Know nature · ebook & activity guide collection

Wild Awake

I need to find my place

Slow down, wake up your senses and find a sit spot you return to.

A day of noticing, wondering and belonging: unplug, open your senses, find your sit spot and begin to know one place.

The ebook
39 Wilding activity guides as printable PDFs
Templates and charts the activity guides need

Coming soon. Jay is giving this book and its activity guides a final proofread before they go on sale as downloads. Ask to be told when they're ready.

Safety first. Outdoor activities carry real risks. Each activity guide has safety notes, but you are responsible for yourself and anyone in your care. Supervise children, get permission, never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe.

Prefer to learn it outside? See course dates →

The activity guides in this collection

Create culture

Ways of being together

Returning natural objects to their homeCreate culture

Exploring nature connectedness

Nature connectedness indexCreate culture

Making time to know nature & live wilder

Wild timeCreate culture

UnplugCreate culture

Shared practices and traditions

Grounding stonesCreate culture

Creative connections

Poetry inspired by natureCreate culture

Uncover nature's language

The five voices of birds

Sensing bird languageUncover nature's language

Imitate nature

Animal forms and movement

Animal yogaImitate nature

Spirit

Deer walkingImitate nature

Value nature

Living with gratitude

Wild tea gratitudeValue nature

Tell your story

Sharing the storyTell your story

Enjoy your sit spot

Sit spotEnjoy your sit spot

Indoor sit spotEnjoy your sit spot

Wander

Lynx radarWander

Be a touristWander

Imaginatively journal

Types of nature journal

Sit spot journalImaginatively journal

Sunset watchImaginatively journal

Dive into field guides

Exploring herbaceous plants

Pot plantDive into field guides

Exploring trees and woody plants

Meet a new tree neighbourDive into field guides

Open your senses

Arriving & becoming present

ReminderOpen your senses

The present momentOpen your senses

Wide angled vision

Owl eyesOpen your senses

Nature’s danceOpen your senses

Noticing shape & pattern

The green wallOpen your senses

Focused listening

Deer earsOpen your senses

Tree songsOpen your senses

Peripheral listening

I can hearOpen your senses

Using touch

Barefoot walkingOpen your senses

Awaken your sense of smell

Scent of placeOpen your senses

Awaken your sense of taste

Mindful chewingOpen your senses

Sensory meditation and mindfulness

Sense meditationOpen your senses

The sacred silenceOpen your senses

Combining the senses

More than oneOpen your senses

Map & navigate naturally

Mapping your place

Map your sit spotMap & navigate naturally

Sound mapMap & navigate naturally

Natural navigation

Seasonal sun trackingMap & navigate naturally

Seasonal sunset & sunriseMap & navigate naturally

Moon phaseMap & navigate naturally

Venturing further

Preparing for your visit

Discover a wild spaceVenturing further

← Back to the Wilding Rucksack

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