Have you ever found your mind so scattered—jumping restlessly from one task to the next, unable to settle—that you wonder if you’ll ever feel focused again? For those of us living with ADHD or simply swept up in the chaos of modern life, the world can feel like a relentless tumble of thoughts, lists, and unfinished intentions. Is it possible that the wild, untamed world, even the small garden outside your window holds a remedy?
Scrambling Minds Meet the Stillness of the Wild
Years ago, I guided a young woman called Jo on safari. We were in Hwange National Park and startled a group of birds named ‘the shlegebefaz by the locals (the red billed wood hoopoes), which means, ‘laughing women’ because of their cackles, chatter and banter when talking to each other. Jo smiles and shared that her mind sometimes sounds like “this flock of animated birds—never landing, always chattering to her, and always darting from branch to branch.” She’d been recently diagnosed with ADHD and had tried every planner, app, and technique to rest her splayed attention. But it wasn’t until we sat quietly on a sluggish, brown river bend watching the slow, graceful moments of some bull elephants she whispered, “This is the first time all week my brain has stopped shouting for attention.”
What Does Nature Offer a Restless Mind?
Emerging research in ecopsychology suggests that time in natural settings—especially wild, biodiverse places—can settle our nervous systems in ways city parks and screens cannot. For those whose attention feels life-and-death urgent, nature offers a tranquil, non-judgmental space to reset. The sights, sounds, and scents of the bush ironically stimulate and soothe your senses all at the same time. You are drawn out-of-your head into a sensual awareness, away from racing thoughts and into the living present.
Lessons from the Wild: Presence, Rhythm, and Permission to Pause
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