Rewilding: You weren’t once wild; you still are somewhere, somehow

(This short piece is an introduction to the concept of Rewilding for humans; increasingly popular words with the prefix “re”, and a brief prompt.)

Not too many years ago, I wrote a thesis for my Counseling Psychology Master's entitled Elemental Rewilding: Restoration and Reconnection to Self. You might see this term a LOT these days - rewilding. Nine years ago, when I began this journey of the deepest inquiry I had ever engaged in was when I first truly encountered this word as well as this…practice? Words often fail this primordial, lifelong engagement. I realized its depths and lineage was like that of the deepest sea - I could never know of all its origins and the history of its pioneers. I could and would swim my whole life to its rich extent though. Now? The word punctuates a great deal of recovery and self-help talk that wafts its way to me, though humans are magnets and this has been a supreme focus of mine. I do believe concepts and all-encompassing revolutions of well-being reach crescendoes because the epoch demands them. In other words, sometimes the word shoe just fits.

Rewilding is weighty, it's timeless, it's our birthright. The concept of rewilding originates as an application to the natural world and is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as: “The planned reintroduction of a plant or animal species and especially a keystone species or apex predator into a habitat from which it has disappeared (as from hunting or habitat destruction) in an effort to increase biodiversity and restore the health of an ecosystem”. Well, spoiler alert, humans are THE apex predators of Mother Earth, and in many ways we have vacated ourselves and monocropped our souls, spirit and the ground we tread on.

What I keep refining in my own process of remembering, Elemental Rewilding, continues to keep coming back to five focuses I see like coals we throw in the cauldron of our life, stoking the effervescent elixir of more embodiment, more vitality, more truth: participation in rich communities; stewardship of the natural world and Earth reverence; tapping into the ancient, organismic intelligence of our own bodies; passionate creative outlets and self-expression; and sharing our stories without filtration. These are the (free!) tickets I see bring the most peace and acceptance to this whole humaning endeavor - in myself, people I've had the pleasure to facilitate for and by taking in a lot of voices and stories en masse. I fall off of at least one or two of these often, and it costs my overall health dearly every time.

For so long, many words with the prefix “re” have flowed to me: rebecoming, reclaiming, returning, regenerating, revitalizing, recovery even rewinding. I love these words and the concepts they’re cradling, as they all seem to share DNA of suggesting all life comes into this world knowing – full of intuition, instinct and innocence. As external forces mold and shape life, a forgetting takes hold for humans, and we must go “back” or move through the cycle “again” to remember, and these are the definitions of this prefix.

Might you have a “re” word for 2025/2026?

What's Your 'Re' Word? Traumas, cultural constructs, and the chaos of the world might have cloaked your wild, but what if that which bound you was your cocoon not your cage. Domestication can be an illusion, a temporary state.

Our imaginations can help set us free. Our communities can help us rewild together. Our beliefs are often what we’re taught, but our knowing is feral. Like wildflowers – we might get mowed down or plucked, but we’re hardwired to regenerate and reach towards the light.

-What images and daydreams do you see when you let yourself dream?

-What have you always innately known about yourself but periodically or consistently forget?

-What direction would that lead you if you amplified that? How can you amble there -soulfully, surrendering?

-What wild instinct would serve you to explore right now with all that is transpiring in the world and your inner ecosystem?