“A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick”. – Brene Brown

Connection. Me too.

Humans are pack creatures. Throughout history and entombed in mythology, it has been a human imperative to pass down stories, to connect. The point is not to be absorbed by one’s communities without focusing on a relationship with ourselves, too.

“The less healthy our families, communities, societies, and ecosystems, the more wounded and fragmented we tend to be individually”, says psychologist, wilderness guide and author of Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche and. In contrast, Plotkin invoked the alchemy of the world and the impact on psychic wellness as he opined, “We cannot experience our own magic without experiencing the world’s. Each requires the other. Conversely, the world becomes disenchanted when we no longer feel and act on our deep and innate belonging to it”.

In addition to engaging with the world creatively, returning to one’s authentic nature involves finding one’s way to one’s indigenous—or naturally occurring—community. One of my favorite books, Florence Williams’ The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative was not just about “the nature fix”; it was also about what can be redeemed when people’s individual Natures convene outside together. “The average person looks at their phone 150 times a day. The average teen sends 3,000 text messages a month”. This is not natural, as she noted, because “we’re wired to have social connection, to sit around the campfire, face-to-face. Social connection is like sugar”. However, social isolation is often experienced by the most technologically connected of people as digital connections do not provide the gestalt of a relationship. As Plotkin questioned, “What on Earth would our relationships be like if we couldn’t sense social vibes, read the emotional field, or discern the bodily states of our friends and family?”. Sadly, we’ve been finding out for years now…

Stay tuned for the Substack launch where I’ll share more Community Engagement resources, research, musings and community offerings!

Why Rewilding - the Research Behind the 5 Elements