rewilding the senses
Bringing the human soul back into conscious relationship with nature.
Rewilding The Senses leverages the power of story to illustrate truths about ourselves, our culture, and propel us toward self-actualization.
“Absolutely beautiful, moving, and inspirational presentation. I rediscovered a part of myself that I had lost.”
Colorado State University Professor
Overtime, life’s pains and the overwhelming plights vying for our attention unconsciously drive us to deaden our senses. We’ve constructed impenetrable cocoons around us where nothing can get in or out, and, thereby, disconnected ourselves from the world that enlivens us. When this happens, we lose a vital source of wellness, we diminish our quality of life, and leave behind a natural world in crisis. The more we feel, the more alive we feel. Our senses add vibrancy and energy to our experiences. They work to connect us to the world around us.
Our own psyches suffer as the world suffers, because, as depth and archetypal psychologist James Hillman recognized, “the soul of the individual can never advance beyond the soul of the world, because they are inseparable.” But sometimes, when we least expect it, the Earth invites us back into Her embrace.
On a trail ride one day, I wound through the forest, immersed in the beauty and serenity of nature. Until I noticed the trees begin to thin and the forest sounds fade. I brought my bike to an abrupt stop as I came face to face with a six-lane highway. A movement at the edge of the road seized my attention. A gravely bleeding land tortoise was painfully struggling to crawl out of traffic. I dropped my bike, warily stepped to the edge of passing traffic, picked up the struggling animal, and carried her to safety. I spent the next several hour sitting on the ground with her, making calls to get her help.
Onlookers gasped at the sight of the wound and quickly rode off. Over and over, I asked for help in getting her home. Their answers struck hard, without empathy, as they replied “she’s going to die anyway, just throw her into the woods.” I didn’t know how to answer such delusion. Every minute felt like an eternity as precious seconds slowly snatched at the tortoise’s life.
With one eye focused on the suffering, and one eye peering through the shadowy limbo that twisted within me, I had a choice. I could wake up tomorrow and move on with my life. Or, consciously, peer into the darkness, and ask myself: What am I called to do as the powerful forces of chaos challenge us for the soul of our natural world?
MIT’s senior lecturer, Otto Scharmer states, “We can’t change a system unless we change consciousness. And we can’t change consciousness unless we make the system sense and see itself.” Returning attention to our sensory world induces a profound awareness of interdependence, and we begin to operate from a new consciousness. Our sensory modalities expand our ways of knowing and raise critical consciousness—we’re bringing our full selves to the table. We experience ourselves as less and less separate from the web of life, restoring holistic well-being, not only to individuals, but also to our planet.
At iRewild, we’re doing research on the importance of Rewilding The Senses. How can we cultivate the soil of our unconscious, at the root cause level, to unlock the sensitivity and awareness of our ecological consciousness to create a more reciprocal relationship with the earthly web of relations between the human psyche, society, and our natural world?
This presentation’s transformative power allows its participants to:
● see the world differently,
● learn how to reawaken their senses, and
● thereby, once again experience the richness of our world and life itself.
Have you numbed your senses? What can you do today to start healing the divide between your own psyche, society, and the Earth? We cannot all dive full time into saving endangered species or reducing the whole world’s carbon emissions, but we can, each of us, take action at our own homes, in our own communities, and in our social media circles, to heal the relationship between humanity and nature, one step, one small change, one plant, one animal at a time.
What people are saying:
“Your presentation was the most beautiful of all the presentations over the last 4 days.”
“Your work is so important for our world.”
Ida Covi, M.A., is an Eco-psychologist working to transform the thinking of future-oriented people. She is the CEO of iRewild, a thought leadership institute, the founder of Oneness.Life, an interest-free, recycling micro-loan program serving women in a remote area of Haiti, and the past CEO and Board Director of Radius Steel, an industrial manufacturer. Earlier in her career, she held C-level positions in the venture capital and investment banking sector, and has served on several environmental and humanitarian-oriented non-profit boards. Ida is the author of ReachingBeyond and numerous business and personal development articles. See more . . .
Ms. Covi continues to pursue her passion for research and thought leadership in ecological consciousness with a focus towards recreating a more reciprocal relationship between the human psyche, society, and our natural world.