Prep (updated 2019)

 'In the early stages of learning to navigate naturally, time spent investigating puddles is rarely wasted. The key is always to think about the surroundings, to understand the sun's effect, getting to know its different arce in summer and winter, thinking about the shape of the surrounding ground, the wind and rain, and then trying to understand what can be deduced.' Tristan Gooley ( View on Amazon )

 'We stopped evolving and adapting when food was scarce and life was full of arduous physical activity. Hence, our bodies instruct us to eat everything we can lay our hands on and exert ourselves as little as possible. ..most diet and exercise advice is pointless. To move more and eat less is a direct contradiction of our genetically engineered impulses. Our forager ancestors would seek high-energy (meaning high-calorie, high-fat) foods that could be obtained at the lowest energy cost. They would eat or not depending on what they could find or kill, meaning mealtime was a fairly unpredictable thing. They would move when hungry (or when being pursued) and relax once fed - like wild animals today. Their movements would be sporadic, meaning short periods of intense activity (hunting, hauling, climbing, running) separated by long stretches of languid rest and play. There would be unpredictable intervals of low food intake... ..As far as our genes are concerned, this is still the way of the world.' Arthur De Vany ( View on Amazon )

 'I am sure many of you are familiar with the phrase "fight-or-flight response," which is common terminology used to describe the way in which we respond to threatening or dangerous situations. Unfortunately, this phrase is only two-thirds true and half-assed backward! In reality, the way animals, including humans, react to danger occurs in the following order: freeze, flight, fight. If the reaction really were fight or flight, most of us would be bruised, battered, and exhausted much of the time.' Joe Navarro ( View on Amazon )

 'When we go into a forest that has not been interfered with by man, our thinking mind will see only disorder and chaos all around us. I won't even be able to differentiate between life (good) and death (bad) anymore since everywhere new life grows out of rotting and decaying matter. Only if we are still enough inside and the noise of thinking subsides can we become aware that there is a hidden harmony here, a sacredness, a higher order in which everything has a perfect place and could not be other than what it is and the way it is.' Eckhart Tolle ( View on Amazon )

Full reading list 2019 (photo by Nick Hewling)

Selected reading list 2019 (photo by Nick Hewling)

Don't kneel, squat! (teaser 1)

Isn’t kneeling the most ridiculous body position to get yourself into? It’s a situation of extreme vulnerability which I doubt our pre-agricultural ancestors used other than to briefly pivot from lying to squatting and vice versa.

It’s a favourite strategy of those wishing to assert an authority they don’t naturally have to place their victim in a kneeling position, and those with no remaining self-respect will use it to beg. It has become common in the modern era to kneel in order to pray to a sky god and to give oral sex. (In the very recent past much effort has gone into making bed technology more comfortable for other sexual positions involving kneeling!)

The modified position of ‘sitting on one’s heals’ with or without the addition of a cushion is much favoured by mediators. Indeed tolerance of the pain involved in using it for countless hours is thought virtuous in and of itself! The most pathetic sight of all is the older (or overweight) person kneeling to do some practical task because they can no longer squat and then taking a long time to get on their feet afterwards.

My advice is to never stop squatting (many times a day) and if you have - start again. If it seems unnecessary in your daily living then throw out the vacuum cleaner in favour of the dustpan and brush. It was once a common site to see miners squat for long periods even when not at work!

If you want dramatic evidence of it’s virtues then squat to take a shit, you’ll be amazed how easy it is to empty your bowels quickly at a time and place of your own choosing.

The key to squatting for long periods is that it’s not a stationary position at all, you’re meant to be doing a task involving constant small movements, pivoting on the balls of the feet and adjusting your height. It’s a lot more flexible than kneeling.

In nature squatting not only facilitates all sorts of physical tasks it also allows you to hide to some degree, shelter better, make a more accurate assessment of odours (human or otherwise) and provokes an entirely different set of emotions from the supplication and submission of kneeling.

If a time comes when I can no longer squat, you have permission to shoot me! And when it comes to giving head, if your legs get tired or you fear for your balance, place your shield arm around the trunk of the tree she’s leaning against…

Author selfie!