Hi y'all.
Here’s to you: the last blog before the summer.
So, what are you up to in the next couple of months? You can get some inspiration from the article on how to Re-Wild yourself. I was very inspired by it (and am now walking barefoot around the house most of the time).
Anyway, I wish you a wonderful summer, and as always, I’m very much looking forward to seeing you again in the next season - the first send-out is September 5.
Until then - Majken xx
P.S. If you have any questions or comments, please email me.
Artist swaps her head with everyday objects
The artist Anna Vasof has swopped her head with everyday objects. She’s a doorbell that gets pushed hard by an insisting index finger, a hammer that pulls out a nail (ooouch!), and a teabag that is pulled up and down some steaming hot water. So funny. At first, anyway. But as new scenes keeps coming, I'm also moved at a deeper level. The happenings in the video becomes a mirror to myself, my life and, not least, all the stuff I surround myself with. I start to look at my own home and ask myself: what have I bought lately? Why? Do I need it? (I probably don’t. Not all of it, anyway) Can I act differently when it comes to ‘stuff’? And how?
Re-Wild yourself
What to do this summer? Perhaps you want to rewild yourself? Re-Wild. Great word. Love it.
So, earlier in the year, I found myself sitting in a rocky armchair under a pitch-black sky in the company of two of my friends. It was an unusually quiet evening. The moon was up, and hundreds of stars twinkled from above. To keep ourselves warm, we’d lit a bonfire and crawled under some blankets. And then we just sat there, side by side, without saying a word. It was magic.
Although I’ve lived in the big city for many years, I enjoy being out in nature. Actually, it’s more than that. I have a need to go out and truly feel the outdoors when I haven’t been able to for a while.
In the article “How to rewild yourself,” Jessica Carew Kraft, author of “Why We Need to Be Wild - One Woman's Quest for Ancient Human Answers to 21st Century Problems”, writes about how to find health and happiness by embracing your wild nature. (Apart from writing books, Kraft is also a naturalist and wild food forager in the Sierra Foothills in northern California).
“Have you ever felt that parts of your life work against your natural instincts?” Kraft starts out by asking, “Perhaps you commute to work in heavy traffic when you’d rather be walking. [..] Maybe you fear that spending more than 90 per cent of your time indoors and nine hours a day looking at screens of various sizes isn’t setting you up to live your best life.”
I almost get a cramp in my neck from nodding while reading Kraft’s words. Next, the inevitable question pops up: What do you do if you want to live a life that combines modern life with the life of a nomadic hunter-gatherer - which is how human beings have lived for thousands of years?
I continue reading, and I go through several observations Kraft has listed, which prove her message: there’s a big gap between how we evolved to live and how we now live. For example:
The most basic activity of human life is providing ourselves with food, clothing, shelter, and fire—yet today, most of us are out of touch with these acts. It’s rare that anyone builds their own shelter; only the privileged few can afford to make their own clothing, and if you ask yourself when was the last time you ate food that you’d grown yourself, well, if you ever did do it, you’d probably have to look back a very long time.
Also, the way of organising our lives on a social level has changed a lot since our hunter-gatherer days. Most of us who live in Western countries have lost the support of the multigenerational family. Now, we isolate ourselves in seperate homes and pay for the care we need. Also, we used “to achieve community healing through storytelling, dancing and ritual,” Kraft says. Today, we self-medicate, shop, or spend time on various internet platforms.
So, how can you be more wild without giving up on modern life altogether? What do you do specifically? Kraft has a list of key points:
Spend more time outside. Too much time inside has many adverse effects on human physiology, so look for ways to get outside – from coffee on the patio to working by a pond.
Integrate more movement into your day. As well as spending most of their time outside, ancestral humans were also far more active than most people today. Look for opportunities to get moving, from cooking by hand to taking the stairs.
Spend extended time in wild settings. Beyond spending more time outside, look for opportunities to be in nature. It doesn’t have to be a wilderness – even a small patch of green can reduce your stress levels.
Positively stress your body with some discomfort. Positive stress is known as hormesis and it brings many physical and mental benefits. Try, for instance, fasting or cold-water immersion.
Go barefoot. Opting for minimal footwear when possible will improve the musculature of your legs and feet and reinvigorate your skin.
Aim for autonomy in small social groups. We evolved to interact in small, trusted groups. Prioritise socialising with people whom you truly trust and respect, and deliberately reduce the size of your online social networks.
Eat wild foods, learn to forage them yourself. Learning to source some wild foods from your local environment is a fun and beneficial way to spend time in nature.
book_historia
Miniature books from the 18- and 1900s, old Valentine cards with hidden messages, vintage bookcovers, and calligraphy from the 1700s performed at a - very - high level. I highly encourage you to visit this amazing pink-haired book historian and see all the behind-the-scenes posts from the special collections at the Winterthur Library.
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‘On History and Writing’ is a blog post from me to you in which I share historically rooted real-life stories from around the world - told in exciting and creative ways - along with thoughts that circle the creative process of writing non-fiction texts. I post an email once every fortnight. If you're not already a subscriber, you are welcome to join the list. Thanks for reading! Majken xx
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