We recently connected with Rebecca Wildbear and have shared our conversation below.

Rebecca, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

Teaching and practicing yoga in nature in Costa Rica opened me and others to incredible experiences. We could attune to our bodies and hearts and the songs of insects and animals, the crashing of waves, the toucan screeching in the morning, squirrel monkeys swinging through the canopy in the afternoon, and the ylang-ylang tree offering its scent at dusk. Responses to nature arose through the spontaneous movements of our bodies. We connected intimately with ourselves and nature.

For most of my life, I have guided people in nature. I created a set of practices called Wild Yoga that meld health and well-being with spiritual insight, Earth stewardship, and cultural transformation. These practices help people connect to the natural world and live from their souls while addressing environmental activism. Wild Yoga marries the healing powers of yoga with reverence for nature while cultivating curiosity to explore dreams and the mysteries of life and to grow our capacity to live in reciprocity with the Earth. Today, asana is synonymous with yoga, but asana is only one component. Moving our bodies and bringing them into the shape of particular poses is valuable. Yet, the more profound purpose of yoga has always been to become more fully ourselves, deepen our awareness of and relationship to the world, and inspire our actions.

I’m also excited to have completed a book that includes many of these practices, making them available to everyone. I am the author of Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration, & Advocacy for the Earth. I created Wild Yoga to connect people with the Earth and their souls by encouraging them to explore their dreams, listen to their bodies, and relate to rivers, trees, and animals as conscious beings. Through nature-centered, soul-inspired practices, I help people deepen their imaginative listening, stretch their awareness, and offer their creativity to the world. I have led Wild Yoga programs since 2007 and with Animas Valley Institute. You can learn more about me online at www.rebeccawildbear.com.

There’s nothing more fulfilling than guiding individuals to live in a sacred relationship with the Earth and uncovering the mythic elements of their life stories. As well as offering classes and programs, I enjoy offering soul-guiding sessions, where people can explore what emerges in their body, heart, and imagination at the threshold of their consciousness.

Rebecca, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I help people deepen their connection with themselves and the Earth – to relate to animals, plants, mountains, and rivers as conscious beings. I invite people to awaken to the wisdom of their bodies, listen to the mysteries within their dreams, and discover their soul’s purpose. Since our wellness and planet are linked, I meld the journey of our souls with active listening to the Earth for what she needs. I encourage people to engage with the sacred through their bodies and listen to the mystery within.

I love the natural world and dreams and want to share this love with others. I care about the world and the Earth’s well-being and want to offer my creative gifts to the planet and future generations. I love yoga asana and other practices of listening deeply to the body. I experience heart and soul as the most beautiful elements of humans, and I love helping to bring them more alive.

I created the practice of Wild Yoga to align us with Earth and soul and enhance our capacity to listen to our bodies, dreams, and nature. I want to guide us into becoming healthy and vital members of the Earth community. I’m proud to have created a set of practices that meld health and well-being with spiritual insight, Earth stewardship, and cultural transformation. These practices help people connect to the natural world and live from their souls while addressing environmental activism. I’m also excited to have completed a book that includes many of these practices, making them more available to everyone.

In my book Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth, I share stories about my soul journey. I teach others to connect to their souls and be attuned to the Earth’s imagination through my writing. By listening to their bodies, dreams, and nature, I help people live in a sacred relationship with the Earth and discover the mythic elements of their lives.

I enjoy helping people live in a sacred relationship with the Earth and discover the mythic elements of their life stories. I help people to track what arises in their body, heart, and imagination and at the edge of their consciousness. Through group immersions in person and online and one-on-one sessions, I help people cultivate wholeness, heal, and live their soul’s purpose by listening to their bodies, dreams, and the natural world. My clients learn to access their deep imaginations, create self-designed ceremonies, and track the mythic aspects of their souls. Rooted in my lifelong love of nature, I guide others into an intimate relationship with the Wild. I teach people how to listen to the Mysteries within the Earth, Dreamtime, and their wild Nature. I support them as they embrace and offer their gifts in creative service to the world.

The practices of Wild Yoga and my life’s work are a prayer for the healing and restoration of forests, mountains, oceans, and rivers through awakening and nurturing our inherent wild nature. They are all about listening to forces we usually don’t hear, what I sometimes call the archetypically feminine aspects of our psyche and the world: nature connection, creativity, ferocity, mystery, and vision. They invite us to expand our perception and cultivate our capacity to perceive animals and plants, soils and rivers, as alive and conscious beings with whom we can relate. To listen to our body, the more-than-human world, and dreams. To connect with our soul’s purpose. By enhancing our ability to receive the messages of our body, nature, soul, and dreams, they can guide us to become vital members of the Earth community.

My love of nature calls me to act. Through writing and guiding, I advocate for radical change to bring humanity into an ethical relationship with the land, air, and water. The Earth and future generations of all species need people to protect the last remaining forests, prairies, oceans, and other ecosystems.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have made ecological revolution a part of my Wild Yoga practice. To help people understand that the planet’s well-being is central to our health. “To be effective, spiritual practices, personal growth platforms, and activists need to lead to a responsible tending of the greater Earth community, helping us protect lands and species.” Most people miss the scientific and mystical reality that the Earth is not just a lifeless rock but alive and intelligent. Her forests, prairies, and wetlands are her organs, while soil and water serve as her skin and blood. Yet, this profound truth often eludes us, a symptom of a perceptual disorder. Our dominant culture’s educational and mental health care systems, along with many spiritual practices, inadvertently steer us towards coping and conforming within the system rather than fostering a deep connection and inspiring change.
Humans can’t heal separately from their environment. Wild yoga empowers people to change culturally and socially by helping them connect to the Earth and their wild nature. So, they can grow into mature adults with visionary capacities, listen to the land and their dreams for guidance about living in sync with Earth, feel what is happening to our planet, and develop the inner resources to fight back.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most enjoyable aspect of a creative life is being close to my muse and living a muse-directed life. Our inner beloved is aligned with our muse, who shapes how we perceive the world and inspires how we offer ourselves. When we live a muse-directed life, we court our muse to receive visions for how to tend the world and act on what we receive. We follow the mystery of our longing. Moving toward what we love, we are vulnerable to hurt, disappointment, or betrayal. We are willing to fail and may feel like we are. Courting requires being open to the constant reshaping of our lives. In courting, we humbly and eloquently approach and give ourselves to what we love, not fully understanding what we seek. We are surprised as the muse emerges in inconceivable forms in dreams, encounters, or through our wild imaginations. Whether writing or guiding, what I say does not come from me. My words and the way I show up come from my muse. Being with the muse feels like being with a stimulating and captivating lover. Our muse is the source of our most profound creativity. The muse is a visionary who can see a larger story than the one we are living. Our part in the creative union is to listen and act on what is revealed. When I embody what the muse asks, more comes. As the conversation goes back and forth, I am guided in a life of creative service. A muse-directed life is about how we relate to everything, not only our art. By listening and acting on what we hear, we participate in the ongoing creation of life. Our muse can help us bring down systems of power that cause harm and co-create with the living planet if we believe in what we are given.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rebeccawildbear.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildbearyoga
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.wildbear/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccawildbear
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RWildbear1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rebeccawildbear4994
• Other: Watch my TEDx talk – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWp9LiZwdMQ Join my Substack Newsletter – https://rebeccawildbear.substack.com/p/in-the-land-of-the-gods Buy my book – https://www.newworldlibrary.com/Yoga/WILD-YOGA Check out my Wild Yoga programs – https://www.rebeccawildbear.com/programs I’m also a guide with Animas Valley Institute – www.animas.org

Image Credits
The photographers were Chelsey Chapman, Allison Ragsdale, and Kelly Miranda MacNiven. Doug VanHouten created the collage I posted.