When was the last time you got shiny eyes? When you felt so excited by what just happened that you couldn’t wait to share it with others? When you felt gloriously lucky to be alive?

It seems to me that as we get older, the less we experience moments of genuine wonderment. But one place I saw lots of shiny eyes a couple of months ago, was on our Mindful Safari trip to South Africa. The eyes were those of people from their teens through to their seventies. Some had visited Africa many times. Others were newcomers. But each one of us felt the same awe, incredulity, and amazing privilege to encounter some of the world’s most magnificent wild animals, up close and personal, in their own territory.

A leopard feeding off its prey in the uppermost branches of a tree, in the cool of the evening. Sitting in the Land Rover, taking this all in, and/or filming it on our preferred devices, we almost held our collective breaths, hardly able to believe what we were seeing. And getting back home, there was a lot of laughter and excited chatter over the fire as people swapped notes about what they saw, smelled and touched out in the bush.

The fact that we started each day with a guided meditation, and have other mindfulness activities throughout the day, is a great advantage when game-viewing. Whether as a novice meditator, or a seasoned yogi, we are all coming to this in the same spirit of curiosity. And kindness. In fact, ‘Be Kind’ is our one and only rule.

Those who are single, and don’t want to miss out on travel, appreciate being able to eat, meditate, and take game drives as part of a group – but also having the chance to unwind and enjoy some personal space back in our rooms in the early afternoons – siesta time!

What is it about being on Mindful Safari that it so special?

For most of the 10,000 years since the last Ice Age, whether as hunter gatherers or farmers, our lives have depended on the natural world. Understanding the subtle signals of other animals, the cycle of the seasons and the growth of crops were an assumed part of human survival. Compare this to what passes for a completely normal day today: 8 hours in an office, shop or industrial park, an hour or two commuting by car or train, more hours spent on TV/social media/gaming.  In a matter of just a few hundred years – the blinking of an eye in evolutionary terms – most of us have moved from creatures engrained in the very fabric of nature, to beings so profoundly disengaged that we mostly have no idea about the origins of the food we eat, clothes we wear or homes we live in.

Of course the industrial and information revolutions have delivered massive benefits.  But our rapid, collective alienation from nature and shift to our current way of life has come at a price.  A yearning to recapture elements of our more natural past are implicit in many green initiatives with their emphasis on organic, raw and whole foods, local produce, natural fibres and so on.  A wish to find balance for our hyper-agitated lifestyles is helping propel the growing interest in mindfulness and meditation.

When we practise mindfulness in nature:

1. We come back to our senses – what neuroscientists call ‘direct’ mode, as opposed to the ‘narrative’ mode when we are focused on our own inner narrative. In familiar environments like our home, office, car or public transport, we are much likelier to be focused on our thoughts, slipping onto autopilot to perform routine tasks.  But moving into a natural setting we are much more likely to be tuned into what we can see, hear, smell and feel.  Sure we may get caught up in our thoughts again, but something will happen – a gust of wind, a spray of sea – and we are returned to the here and now.
2. We are powerfully reminded of our connection to nature. Abiding in nature, the restrictive, separate self we often assume ourselves to be in everyday life, falls away from our focus.  The truth is that we are part of nature, as it is of us – only most of the time we are so distracted we don’t recognise the basic reality of our inter-connectedness.
3. Focusing on what is happening around us, we are put back in touch with the rhythm of the natural world. Instead of the schedule, deadlines and imperatives of our 8 – 5 life, we observe the birds, animals, insects and plants operating according to the timeless principles of our own primordial past.
4. When this happens, we find it easier simply to let go and be in the present. All else in the natural world is operating in this moment, here and now.  The observable, natural world isn’t based on ideas like ‘I’ll be happy when …’ or ‘I wish it was Friday!’  There is only this moment, now, whatever it may be.  When we are in nature, it’s easier to feel a part of the ever-changing present.
5. It’s also easier to feel more alive. If we’re not dulled by the conflicting demands and imperatives of our work and families, or caught up in thought about the future and the past, when we can focus vividly on what is here and now, we quite naturally come to recognise the extraordinary world in which we live.  Things may not have changed, but we see them through new eyes.  There is a vitality and freshness to our subjective experience.
6. Our awareness of the fragility of so many life forms, how their very survival hangs, moment by moment, in the balance, quite naturally awakens our compassion. Instead of focusing on the problems we personally may be facing, we cannot but become aware of the far greater existential challenges faced by other beings with whom we share the world.
7. In so doing, we come to recognise our own extremely good fortune. With a very much broadened perspective, we return to our own lives with a fresh appreciation and feeling of gratitude for the great many things we take for granted.

Mindful Safari 2016

Join me on Mindful Safari in 2016 – and let’s get your eyes shiny! There is just one room left on this year’s safari and it is being offered at the special price of $2,990 per person.

If you’re interested, please contact Barbara Tuner, our travel manager as soon as possible. You’ll find her contact details, along with dates and prices at: http://www.davidmichie.com/safari.html

My grateful thanks to Claudia Schnell of Claudia Schnell Safaris for the photo on this page, who, along with her partner Robin, are our hosts on Mindful Safari: http://www.claudiaschnell.de/claudiaschnellse.html.

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David Michie

David Michie is the bestselling author of Buddhism for Busy People, Hurry Up and Meditate and Enlightenment to Go. All have been published internationally and are being translated into many languages. He has also written four thrillers, most recently The Magician of Lhasa, to bring the profoundly life-enhancing perspectives of Tibetan Buddhism to a wider audience of fiction readers. David was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, educated at Rhodes University, South Africa, and lived in London for ten years. He is married and is based in Perth, Australia.

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