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Writer's pictureSpirited Adventures

Natural and Psychological Space



ReBoot ● ReWild ● ReInspire ● ReConnect ● ReEnergize


Welcome to the Inner Adventure. A series where Dr Ken Jennings and Lutz Otto, come together to explore, in a rich integration of perspectives, learning's and stories what happens when nature, ecology, adventure and psychology meet.


The two have repeatedly seen how time in nature can positively change, enrich and have a profound impact on lives. In this episode we work through how the "SPACE" created by wilderness or nature settings can, at different levels, impact us. We talk through:


🦋 Referencing the research backed benefits of time in nature that we discussed in series 1.


🦋 Nature affords us space to rest, re-calibrate, learn, create new thinking and unconditionally hear our own wisdom, whilst we enjoy the environment and the creatures that inhabit it.


🦋 Space in nature at 4 levels ● Big wilderness spaces (savanna, mountains, grasslands, forests, desert, oceans and sky) ● Nature in natural areas ● Nature in urban areas ● Nature in cities.


🦋 Intentionally moving into "space" to connect with what is around you.


🦋 When moving through nature, we connect to that space on both an environmental (external stimulus experience) and a psychological level (internal experience).


🦋 Different natural settings (savanna, mountains, grasslands, forests, desert, oceans and sky) impact different people differently and over time our perspectives of spaces we might know well can change.


🦋 Three different types of time spent time in nature:

  1. Un-facilitated time spent in nature where we, should we be open to it, obtain the natural benefits which nature unconditionally gives us [qualitative and quantitative supported] [psychologically positive].

  2. Where we intentionally work in these environments, understanding the aforementioned, with the objective of wanting to work towards an outcome with a specific set of tools or through a facilitator [psychologically positive].

  3. Where we choose to spend time in nature to not deal with, or to run away from something, and thus creating a bubble of denial or a different reality [psychologically negative].

🦋 Moving towards an ecological psychological/ mental space [Dr Ken Jennings Model]. The hypotheses that time in nature can assist us shift from very linear thinking, to becoming more ecosystemic in our thinking as we open up to multiple perspectives and diversity.


🦋 The transitional period we find ourselves in, is seeing us shift from meta or linear thinking to increased circular thinking and so forth. In essence this is shifting from fixed thinking, black or white thinking, to grey thinking with an open or expansive mindset.


🦋 Feeling reverence and respect, at a spiritual level, when in spaces of vastness. Ecological thinking sees us stop thinking of the world as a thing we have power over.


🦋 Shifting from the need to know everything to the questioning world.



🐾 Dr Ken Jennings is an internationally respected psychologist, executive coach, lover of wilderness and nature photographer. 🌐 www.zanendaba.com

🐾 Lutz Otto is a specialist wilderness and walking safari guide, adventurer, conservationist and business consultant. 🌐 www.spiritedadventures.co.za




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