Step
Four

Develop
Your Skills

Evidence shows we originated on Earth and lived in Nature for most of human history, so our bodies, senses, and minds were up to the task. While they haven’t changed much since then, how we live has changed. Now, most of us feel out of place, disengaged, and unconfident in the natural world. With our modern lives, the question is:

CAN WE FEEL AT HOME IN NATURE?

This step helps you hone four abilities you already have, then apply them to each of Earth’s nine realms. Using these old skills will revive feelings of comfort and confidence when you’re outdoors.

ADAPTED FOR NATURE

Human evolution shaped us to thrive in Nature. We’ve repurposed a lot of the old skills for modern living, but with training they can remember how to handle the outdoors. They’ll help you step into the big and little natural dramas, sense, know, and understand what’s going on, and feel the elation of belonging.

Have you developed your skills like this?

How To
Do It

Find the
Mani Stones

Collect micro-lessons on sharpening your skills and applying them to Earth’s realms. Traditionally, carved mani stones have been placed along paths to share wisdom and prayer. Expand on that custom to develop your senses, curiosity, imagination, and reverence for being in Nature. Your mission is to practice the mani stones’ 52 lessons over time until they become a habit.

DOUBTS & EPIPHANIES


If you doubt you need to work on these nontraditional outdoor skills, you won’t find the motivation and emotion to take your relationship with Nature to the higher level. If you do, you’ll soon come to realize:

YOU WERE BORN TO BE IN NATURE AND IT FEELS GOOD TO BE BACK.

The
Market

Help With
This Step

Awaken your abilities with one of these items that shows you the stones, but doesn’t weigh you down with them. Each one presents the same 52 stones and their messages, but delivers them differently. Select one that’s convenient for you to take outside.

DIRECTIONS


When you receive them, look the stones over to find those with messages that directly address your senses, curiosity, imagination, and reverence. Focus on them first to awaken, redirect, and flex these abilities. The rest of the stones are dedicated to applying the abilities to Nature through Earth’s nine realms. When you go outside, take a few of these stones with you to guide putting your abilities to work.

Take It
Outside

Use What
You Learn

Remind yourself daily that you’re a creature of Nature. Strengthen the conviction by practicing one or two of the teachings whenever you’re outside, and discover how much more you notice and engage with what’s around you. Using other resources like apps and guidebooks can help, but use them to supplement, not replace, your own skills.

MAKE PROGRESS

Go for a walk with your stones. Pick one, read it, reflect, and do what it says. Walk a distance, select another, and repeat. Do this often when you’re outdoors until the lessons become so familiar you do it automatically. The point is to perceive more, dig deeper, and involve different parts of your body and brain in the experience of Nature. Once you start, you’ll find it’s a self-reinforcing process that engages and integrates you more with the natural world. Keep it up while you move on to the last step.

Step five

Photo Art on this website includes adaptations from “A Long Dead Star” from ESA, Hubble, and NASA, by Y Chu; “The Blue Marble from NASA; “Twin Blue Marbles” from NASA; and Earth photo by Reid Wiseman from the International Space Station, Expedition 40.