I spent last week down in the woods of Southern Oregon at a wild woman's retreat. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect or what it actually meant to these particular women to be wild but had vague ideas of running around naked in the woods and howling at the moon (which sounded awesome)....
Well, we did all sorts of wild things- but what I found to be the most powerful piece of our re-wilding was co-created by the whole group organically. It came from allowing ourselves to embody our own experiences fully while giving ourselves permission to be messy and feel all the feelings. We held space for each other's trauma, rage and grief. We witnessed each other's loneliness, despair and longing. We danced, we grieved, we embodied the fullness of this human experience. It was wild and beautiful.
I feel this is a huge piece of what has been missing from many of our lives and what has kept us as a culture so isolated and often feeling disconnected from ourselves. Many of us are taught to keep so all these parts of our humanness hidden because it's not socially acceptable for a variety of reasons. I feel this is part of the paradigm shift that is taking place now; we are returning to deeper human connection and this starts with ourselves.
So what does it mean to be wild in this day and age? To me it means to allow myself to fully feel everything that is moving through me- the grief, the rage, the silliness, the hopelessness, the frustration, the spontaneous joy. This being is wild by nature, feelings, emotions and thoughts constantly changing and moving through unapologetically, without regard for the external circumstances. To give myself full permission to feel it and express it it all without controlling or managing myself is to allow my wildness.
To feel all of it deeply, sinking my awareness into the experience of this body in this moment, feeling my bare feet on the earth and the sun warming my skin, I am a wild woman.
Wishing you peace, ease and the joy of your own wild being...