How To Expand Your Wilderness & Natural Living Skills

Nature can be beautiful and restorative, but it can also be harsh and unforgiving. People tend to take for granted that they are always within walking or driving distance of a convenience store or a hospital, or that they always have cell phone reception. However, this is not always the case. 

Would you know what to do if you were lost in the woods or got caught in a thunderstorm? These are just some of the wilderness skills that you need to be able to cope with emergency situations that may arise while you are enjoying the outdoors. Here are a few steps to help you learn natural living skills. 

Improving Sensory Awareness

Wilderness skills involve being present in the moment and aware of what is going on around you. You need to learn to heighten your awareness by consciously engaging all your senses. Like any other skill, it takes time and patience to master. You can practice during San Diego harbor activities or whenever you are outside. It might help to start your practice by finding a place where you can sit still outside instead of trying to practice while you are walking around. Start by trying to isolate each sense individually. For example, close your eyes and concentrate on identifying what you hear. Then open your eyes and identify everything within your range of vision. Take a deep breath and try to distinguish individual smells. When heightened awareness of each sense becomes second nature, you can start trying to increase your awareness while you are hiking. 

Living With Nature

The best way to understand nature and your place in it is to have experiences outdoors. This doesn’t mean that you have to go and live off the grid. You can have outdoor experiences taking the best hikes San Diego or camping outside in your own backyard. Outdoor experiences of any type are necessary for you to be able to apply the sensory awareness skills you have learned to real-life situations. 

Reflecting on What You Have Learned

Reflecting on your outdoor excursions after the fact can help you synthesize what you have learned and connect it to existing knowledge. This helps you to apply it more easily to new situations. There are several different ways to reflect. One way is to have a conversation about your experiences with someone else. Ideally, this person is someone who is more experienced in wilderness and natural living skills than you who can serve as a mentor and answer whatever questions you have. If you cannot find a mentor, another effective method of reflection is to write in a journal. Reliving your experiences and finding ways to describe them in words can yield insights of surprising depth. 

Take a Class

There are many programs available that will teach you natural living and wilderness skills. They may involve a mix of classroom education and work out in the field. You can probably find one tailored to a specific skill set that you would like to develop. 

When you learn wilderness skills, all your outdoor experiences are enhanced, including a sail on the yacht America San Diego, making it even more enjoyable.