Project Mindfully Outdoors

The call starts out like the wings of a dragonfly (promo)

On September 12th Project Mindfully Outdoors returns with all new episodes. After flowing the call for a solo trek into Mother Nature's fields of wisdom. Mike has returned to our camp of healing and is ready to share with you all that he has learned. 
This season is brought to with the help of
Tru Wild
Fresh Cap
Kryptec
Bushnell
and many more
Vistit our website to learn more   
See you September 12th 

The adventure begins a new

On September 12th the adventure begins a new. As we take things to the next level in the field and our everyday lives. Being refreshed and geared up I can't wait to share with you what Mother Nature has taught me. Subscribe today.
To learn more
A special thanks to our partners
52 Hike Challenge
TruWild
Freshcap
Bushnell
BackCountry Fuel Box
Skratch Labs 

198.Our mentors come from the past

 As you walk down the path of life, it's important to remember that you're going to need to seek outinspiration. And one of the best places to look for that inspiration. Inspiration lays in the pages of history,since, after all, we are born to live out a story. It's. One that is filled with ups and downs, beautiful arcs,devastating tragedies. Just like the way that any book or movie is laid out. And where the historic circlefigures of the past come into play is the fact that they too have faced each and every one of thosebeautiful highs and devastating lows. They've overcome all the different obstacles that we will have toface in our lifetime.  And therefore, it makes it such an amazing thing that these records, these storiesand all these different writings have survived the test of time and now lay at the palm of our hand in somany different forms. Because it gives us the opportunity city to look at each and every one of thesepeople and learn from their beautiful triumphs.  As well as taking note of their devastating mistakes.Through all of that, there's this sense of building our roadmap and the things that we are able to do tobecome much clearer to us. It's like the power ends up back in our very own hands.  For me,  itbecame, at the very beginning of my journey, turned back the hands of time, and I started to call on allthese different ancient figures. And it's still something that plays a very vital role in my journey today, because I'm able to bond and connect with these figures and they hold an important part in how I planand I predict the things that I'm going to be up against. But when I explored this avenue, when I firstwalked down this path of looking into history, For motivation and ideas.  I came across  themeditations by Marcus Aurelius and some writings by other stoics, but as I've mentioned before, thrownat me in really my darkest day in a very random interview that I heard on a podcast just like this. And theeffect that they've had on my life and teaching me and showing me the things that were inside that Inever knew were there, came just based off the simple understanding of the logic within the questionsthat they asked or the philosophy of the mindset that they developed, the way that they walked throughand they navigated life and all the different challenges. And it's been my privilege to introduce producethem to you through this podcast.  And there are so many different apps. And it's just a matter of thestory or the human being that came before us that we connect with that were able to embody theteachings. You know, like I said, for me, it was great. Even great stoic minds like Marcus, Aurelius,Seneca and Epictetus, even Cato and many others, the list goes on and on. Those were the ones that gotme through my darkest hours and brought me back from the brink of darkness. And they, too, can doso for you. It's a matter of just picking up a book, turning on an audiobook, and listening, being open andreceptive to the ideas and the teachings that they left behind. Because it is a model  when you're inthose moments where you feel like you're just laying down, waiting for death to grip you easily. There's asimple phrase, sentence, line, anything within some of those writings that have been passed down thatwill make you realize it's time to stop and stand up and redefine what's going on around you.  Toredefine yourself is where the wisdom and the power comes from. And that's what these charactersthroughout history shed a light on.  My practice grew. So did my reach, because the project neededto evolve, not only for myself, but as I began Project Mindfully Outdoors. And that's really what all ofthis sort of stuff is an ongoing project within each and every one of us. So where the base for me, was theprint possible? Stoics it then expanded to the philosophies of the men and women of the Americanfrontier.  The ones that built what we know and what we call home, because that home 1s was builtupon the backwoods. Heroes such as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Elda Leopole, Fred Bear,Sitting Bowl those are just to name a few. And I mentioned these names because it's a way to introduceyou, to get you to pick up some of their writings and begin conversation for yourself. Because we've allgot to look places, we've got to look inward, we've got to look outward. And we've got to also rememberto look backwards and remember those beautiful triumphs, those devastating mistakes, and learn how tofind a medium. And it's through those sort of philosophy based practices that we find that medium andwe learn how to shape ourselves in a way  that cohabitates both our mind and our body, just like thewind across the land. And these are the reasons that all these names and all these philosophies are such adeep root within our camp. Because we're here to explore how the land has been shaped in the historythat's made it and how we can apply that to ourselves, to shape ourselves in order to make us.Links
Catfish Sumo
Related article
Learn more
Reserve your copy of Understanding conservation of self

197. Dale Walsh on paradigm shift

On this episode Dale Walsh returns to the campfire to explore making the shift in paradigm 

196. The eagle

 
There seems to this underling theme about how these deeply rooted heal journeys are born. A scenario that is surround by some sort of life changing event. It’s one that leaves us looking for form of shelter. After hunkering down some where to weather the storm. It’s when the winds never stop blowing,and the rains never stop falling. Where the cracks of thunder shake the hills around us, and the lighting strikes the ground next our feet over and over.
 
As the water begins to climb and is threatening to wash us we away. We are faced with a decision. Do we just accept this is our fate? To be washed away by the midnight storm. Or do we crawl towards higher grown? Saying to ourselves we must push yourself to adapt and find a new way to survive. Knowing that it’s in facing the storm that we can find survival and work towards the life we truly desire.
 
I think that Lakota story or rebirth articulates not only how we find ourselves when that catastrophic life storm hits, but also how to befriend ourselves and offer ourselves the strength and grace not to give up.
 
In the story, Mother Nature pits the people of the land against not only the worst winter imaginable. But as spring is ushered in with buckets and buckets of rain, this on top of all the melting snow. Making for a combination that floods the land, so much so that leave them and all of the animals reaching for higher and higher ground.
 
As the lack of food and conditions take their toll on the tribe more and more people begin to die. Until there is only one woman left. As the stormed finally begin to give way she is overtaken by grief after realizing that everyone including her family were gone.
 
She found herself drained of the lust for life, just waiting until death would claim her too. That is until one day when she was visit by an Eagle. Who not only nursed her back to health but also inspired her to carry on with her life.
 
It was the friendship that had been built between the Eagle and this young woman that caused the Eagle to grow feeling of compassion. Which caused him explore how he could contribute more than fish and firewood to this the woman’s species. The Eagles grandfather gave him a choice to make. He could remain an eagle soaring hight through the sky, or become human himself and give to both woman and some much more.
 
It was a decision that eagle did not make haste-fully. After leaving the woman a few days. He returned to her, stepping out from behind a rock. Now a human man Eagle and the young woman brought forth generation after generation of children who would always look towards the eagle for strength, wisdom, and so much more.
 
How I feel this serves has an aid for us is really important. Because of the symbolism the eagle provides us. It take finding strength and courage to persevere when things are at their worse. When it feels like you just can’t go on any longer. There’s a force around you that is offering that space to lean into. It’s where that energy can come from to kick start the courage that is hiding inside all of us.
 
While for the woman of story it took bravery to lean into her initial fear of the Eagle to accept his help. While the story dose not talk about her feelings about the reality she had lost once she found her new stride. I can only imagine she held on to and honored those memories of her old reality.
 
The the best way I find bring this story in your journey is this way, a disaster that caught you off guard is simple fate and circumstances offering you a gift. That gift is revive your wounded soul. It’s rebirth comes from the environment in which you are standing. Allow the fear your feeling to be the tool in which dig the hole to plant the center root that will feed your soul.
 
If you scared even still just blink your eyes because the courage you’ll need to draw upon is all around you. It when you couple that courage with the will heal great things are born. Never forget the footsteps that have you here. Pay homage to that past for it is now the just sand underneath your feet. Your feet will plant themselves firmly as you continue to grow.
 
 
Todays Links 
Catfish Sumo
Project Mindfully Outdoors
Related article
Reserve a copy of Under conservation of self

195. D. Neal Elliott on finding the higher path

Returning back to base camp for a chance to sit down with author D.Neil Elliot for episode 196 I was really looking forward to the magic we were about to make.
That is become D and myself have had to dance in the same darkness in order to get to our respective places in life. What makes this conversation so special is how it highlights two different avenues to get to the same place.
D is a much more mechanically based guy. Who really focuses on the nuts and bolts of how things work. Meaning if theirs anyone that going really crawl into that manhole of the darkness it’s D. While is down there he going figure out the most deepest complex aspects of what’s going on.
What I love about his approach is that it he can explain the deeper points of the connection and transform.
 
Links 
D. Neal Elliott
Cat Sumo
Fresh Cap (promo code PROJECTMINDFULLYOUTDOORS10)
Project Mindfully Outdoors

194. Prescription

On a cold December morning is it to cold to hit the woods to stalk a whitetail. Of course that answer varies depending on who you. The same rings true about everything in the world around us. Along with any task in life the view on it with be different for each of us.
That’s because life is made of perceptions. Which are nothing more than decisions that we make. Yet where this becomes so complicated is because they are influenced by so many different factors. Everything how we were razed to our live experiences all play a roll.
Because they all shape who and what we are. Then when you factor in our value system it becomes a huge mixing bowl we have do our best to sort through in real time. All of which happens through the day in a matter of seconds. So when someone saids they are set in their ways. That’s where it comes from. Good or bad they have become so used to that same pattern of split second decision making they don’t believe anything within that process can change.
But, it can change and be adaptive as you change and grow. Since after all this all about a process of being more aware and in tune. It’s about the learning process to be understanding of yourself and surrounds just as much as the healing
 
Links
Catfish Sumo
Project Mindfully Outdoors

193. Wagon wheels

 
It wasn’t long ago that man lived in way that dependent upon the land for their survival. It was in those days their world was much much smaller, even simpler too. It took no extra thought to live. Family, honor, connection to the land, all of these things went hand and hand with survival.
 
Of course they had their temptations even then there was no perfect world. Just a collective all working hand and hand. Working in a collective towards a common goal. Making the best of world had to off. It was a case of when you tapped into the those values that nature rewarded you. Fall of the horse and take your time to get back up and risk being rolled by your own wagon.
 
While the shape of world has definitely changed since then. Where dirt covered paths once navigated by horses. Now are paved roads driven by cars. Where it was once an adventure of journey just to deliver news to a neighbor, as been replaced by cellphones and emails. Taking near seconds instead of hours or days.
 
It’s within these drastic shifts and improvements to make life so efficient, that so much got lost in translation. The connection with ourselves and the land became different. It feels like a little bit more each day both of those connections get a little more forgotten.
 
These an old Native American story about a giant. Who walked a land that was so perfectly taylored to his needs had he only been mind of it. It was hunger that in the end consumed him from the inside out. As he fed growing hunger day in and day out without allowing the land time to recover. In the end the land gave out. Being no longer to feed and sustain the giant he died from that very hunger that drove him to forget about that connection to both land and self.
 
It’s such a beautiful story that can help remind us to be aware of our mindset. The story opens a window of thinking about how we get so caught up in our own needs. Because all those things we are chasing, they take something away from us. It’s a trade of really. Since all of those needs rob us the energy we could be devoting to living our values. The needs they quickly become how we find definition of who we. Sure it starts slowly at first. In fact so slowly that most of the time on the day we wake up feeling our definition of self being feed by acquiring those needs. We look back to realize we never even felt the shift happening.
 
Then comes that day where we fell off the horse and took our time standing back up. Since the fall took from us our breath. The wagon has rolled over us. Leaving not only working to catch are breath, but covered in tire tracks too. Realizing life has not only grounded us but left us out wack too.
 
The moral of all this is this, it all boils down to a decision. In a world where we are constantly pushed and pulled you must be mindful of the values and platform you have built to stand upon.
 
Links
Catfish Sumo
Project Mindfully Outdoors
 

192.Wild meditation

Meditation in the wild can one of most solid ways to build you practice. Just the surrounds their self serve as an invitation to tap in the stillness and peace. Wether it’s sitting along the riverbank just watching the current flow, or sitting up against a tree has the grass rustles in the wind. There’s nothing more calming. Than Mother Nature herself
Connecting to a world where the hours of the clock have no value to the matter at hand. There is not hustle or bustle, no deadlines to meet, or task that must be complete.
In seeing and feeling nature in all its forms and freedoms how can you help but not get lost within its beauty, it’s sheer power.
No matter where you are nature is just a footstep or two away from you at any given moment. Along the riverbank is where I am sitting writing this at this very moment. Which is only fitting because it’s out here where it all came to me.
It was just a few years ago for me when nature truly exposed me to her gifts. It’s still difficult to think that it’s been that long. Yet thats the truth, and to reflect upon how far I am come on this journey. One that I surrendered and begun to allow natural to lead.
Still it’s here sitting on this same rock where nature showed me there was so much more to life than to dwell in its darkness. And this is my hope for you as well. That by walking into her safe hands you too can feel the her pull to help you move along and further the distance between those wounds and yourself.
Give it a try, go out just the intention of just to be and connect with the land. It will build into the meditation that will fuel your progress.
 
Links 
True Wild
Project Mindfully Outdoors

191.Sarah Ariaudo on how accessible meditation is

Meditation is one of those words ether turns you on, or it turns you. For myself and my guest in episode 191 Sarah Ariaudo shared the latter of that initial response. While I simply laughed of my counselor’s suggestion. Sarah invited someone to jump off a bridge.
I think it’s a very common response because the stereotypical view of meditation, is something that we can’t see working into our lives. Or another idea that comes to mind is sitting in French specking restaurant trying to order a cheeseburger in English. I can only imagine the eye rolling of the waitress as she try’s to understand what your saying.
Of course become her job duties she is going to try to catch on to what your saying. Which is where again both Sarah and I found a common ground. We both knew that the skills of meditation could be useful in our lives. Which meant we had to work our way through the idea of how we could work it into our worlds.
Which is what makes this conversation such an important one. Because inside of it are two different angles of understanding how we were already doing the mechanics of meditation in our daily lives. From there we discovered how we branch those smaller skills and practices into this much wider aspect that encompassed the over way we live our practices.
I really think you will enjoy this eye opening voyage into just how much the practices of meditation is already a part of your life. While picking up may tools and ideas on how expand your practice.
 
Links
Sarah Ariaudo
Fresh Cap (promo code PROJECTMINDFULLYOUTDOORS10)
52 Hikes Challenge
Project Mindfully Outdoors