School of the Wild
  • Home
  • About
  • Leaders
  • Teams
  • Journal
  • Testimonials
  • Contact

Fieldwork

Team Building Away Days, Outdoor Events, & Stories From the Wild

How a Dose of Nature Can Be a Powerful Antidote to the News

11/7/2016

 
Sit Spot. School of the Wild
It's been a tough few weeks in the UK… but if you’re looking for a way to feel better about it all, a sit spot can help.

I first came across the idea of a sit spot on a Meetup walk run by Mark Sears - just before he landed a job as head of The Wild Network.

Mark led us up Hollingbury Hill to a spot near the fort and quietly told me he'd been going there every day to sit for half an hour, for a year, come rain or shine.

He'd got to know the birds and the plants, and it'd helped him to find some calm, and decompress after hectic days. 

It's an idea that I read more about in Jon Young's excellent book What the Robin Knows.

If you haven't heard of it, a sit spot is somewhere you go regularly on your own to sit quietly and look, listen, smell and feel the surrounding landscape.

It could be in your back garden, or a park, or somewhere a bit wilder.

​
If you do this regularly, you get to know the place over different seasons and build a relationship with it... and feel better about everything!

Mine is in Stanmer Park, but according to the Wilderness Awareness School, there are only two basic requirements that every sit spot should have:
  1. It needs to be close to your house and
  2. you need to feel safe when you're there. ​
​
If you haven't tried a sit spot or 'soaked' in nature this way, it really does make a difference

​It’s great if your sit spot is wild, has water, has lots of wildlife, a view, and a whole host of other things… but these are not essential. The best sit spot is the one that you go to!

If you haven't tried a sit spot or 'soaked' in nature this way, it really does make a difference - even science is rediscovering that nature has the power to heal us in mind, body and spirit.

Time spent sitting quietly in your garden or a park for a few minutes like this can make the difference between a tough day and a great day because the sit spot connects your senses with nature.

And that helps you relax and get the energy you need, which benefits your outlook, your relationships, your family, and your work.

If you make some time for a sit spot, you'll carry the peace of nature with you wherever you go.
​
By the way, it can help to practice owl vision while you’re sitting there (if you don’t know what that is - come on one of our courses!)

Footnote
I published this article on Medium, and Karen posted the following comment in response, which I totally agree with so am re-posting it here:
​

"If everyone participated in this simple practice, not only would it reconnect us to nature — and to ourselves — but, by learning to see with these new eyes, one of the by-products would undoubtedly be to come to deeper insight and understanding of some of the complex problems we’re facing as a world community. And from there, I believe it could help us to re-imagine solutions for much of what ails us. At the very least, it would calm everyone down enough to have more productive, civil conversations."

​If you have anything to add, please post it below!



Comments are closed.
    Nigel Berman, School of the Wild

    Author & Curator

    Nigel Berman is the founder of School of the Wild.

    Blog HOme

    Categories

    All
    Art In Nature
    Away Days
    Birds
    Black Friday
    Brighton
    Bushcraft
    Campfire Conversations
    Camp Fire Cooking
    Case Study
    Ceremony
    Climate Change
    Courses
    Ecology
    Eco Psychology
    Embodiment
    Environment
    Film
    Fire
    Foraging
    Headspace
    Health
    Horses
    Inner Journey
    Land Art
    Leadership
    Man's Effect
    Medicine Walk
    Mindfulness
    Natural Navigation
    Nature
    Nature Connection
    Networking
    Night Walk
    Organisations In Nature
    Outdoor Events
    Outdoors
    Plants As Medicine
    Poetry
    Quotes
    Rewilding
    Ritual
    Sadness
    School Of The Wild
    Sensory Awareness
    Shamanic
    Shop
    Sit Spot
    Solstice
    South Downs
    Survival
    Sussex
    Talk
    Team Building In Nature
    The Wild
    Trees
    T-Shirt
    Video
    Walkshop
    Whittling
    Whittlng
    Wild Cocktails
    Wild Food
    Wild Swimming
    Wine

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015

    RSS Feed

Individuals

  • Classes​

Organisations

  • ​Team Building
  • For Leaders
  • Away Days
  • ​Why Nature
  • Guest Speaker
Picture
Picture

About Us

  • About 
  • Our Story
  • Blog​
  • ​Fieldwork​
  • Team

Support

  • Contact Us
  • ​FAQs
  • Reading List
  • Privacy ​
Picture
Picture

Sign up for News from the Wild:

By subscribing you agree to us sending you occasional emails with info about our services. Unsubscribe at any time. Read our privacy policy
School of the Wild
​c/o ONCA, 14 St George's Place,
Brighton BN1 4GB
Tel: 07764 404992
​email: info@schoolofthewild.com
© COPYRIGHT 2015-2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About
  • Leaders
  • Teams
  • Journal
  • Testimonials
  • Contact