Natural Navigation

Throughout our human development, the process of navigating the world has shaped who we are. Whether attempting to cross oceans, vast tracts of woods, or even just over the next hill, those who couldn’t find their way home did not survive. We build locational information into the names of our continents (South America), regions (Middle East), countries (North Korea), states (South Dakota), and cities (East St. Louis, West Covina, North Hollywood). While the way we display direction in maps is arbitrary (why should north be toward the top of the page and south toward the bottom?), the directions themselves are absolutely real—as real as the sunrise and sunset.

This drive to know and navigate our world hasn’t lessened in modern times. What has changed is that instead of being guided by the natural signposts of the sun, moon, and stars, most of us wander our world guided by an app on our phone. While GPS is extremely useful and efficient, the end result is that we end up simply following a dot on a screen with no spatial connection to our actual location.

With our awareness directed away from the embodied sense of knowing where we are, our connection to the natural world and to ourselves also falters. This does not have to be the case though. It’s possible to use both modern and ancient technologies. One living culture today gives us an astounding example of how.

The Pormpuraaw community of Queensland, Australia, like many speakers of aboriginal languages, use cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) extensively in everyday life.¹ In fact, this directional awareness is in their greeting custom, showing how even a five-year-old child can be profoundly aware of themselves in time and space. Where we may say “Hello, how are you?” casually to an acquaintance on the street, someone from Pormpuraaw would say “What direction are you going?” Amazingly, their response is not some arbitrary answer such as left or right but an accurate combination of eighty-plus options to describe where they are indeed going. They may say, for example, “I am going north, northeast in the middle distance, how about you?” They do this seemingly without calculations, even in buildings without windows. They use these directional references for everyday things like alerting you to a bug crawling on your body, saying something like, “There is an ant on your southwest leg.”

While we may not aspire to always be able to point to true north, what might we reclaim in our lives by taking in a deeper sense of our direction in life—being more mindful and intentional about where we are going? We are all natural navigators, a gift from our ancestors, but most of us have stopped listening to that still, wordless voice within. If we quiet the mind and practice, though, we can once again learn to be in wise relation with ourselves and our surroundings—something that the world desperately needs. Look at the trees: they will tell you which way the sun rises and sets. Listen to the chorus of the birds and the whisper of your intuition, and they will tell you how to find your way home.

Try: Go for a walk in the woods or a park with the mindset of a natural navigator.² At the beginning of your walk, take note of where your home base is. This is your anchor point to which you will return. Notice where and what in the natural lay of the land seems to be pointing toward this home base: the slope of a hill, a landmark on the horizon, the way the trees are subtly leaning, the direction of flow in a stream. In a city, perhaps you can locate the sound of a highway or the direction of traffic in relation to your anchor point.

As you walk, pay close attention to how the world is always showing you the way home. Each time you make a turn or move away from some known landmark, allow yourself to imagine that you can soar above the land you travel, like a hawk above the trees and buildings, open to all that is below. What do the roads and land look like from above?

As you continue walking, look back often and notice how things look different when seen in this way, too. Take in where you have come from and where you are going. Let the feel of the sun and wind register on your skin, and take note of where they are coming from. Let all of your senses help generate a mental map of the roads, rivers, buildings, or hills behind and before you.

When you are ready, turn back home, following as best you can on the path you have traveled. If you lose your way, simply pause and allow yourself a moment to take in your new surroundings. Listen, look, and feel out into the world around you and see if some of the landmarks from your mental map return to you. If nothing ahead of you feels familiar, you can always backtrack a little and return to the last place you felt confident about your way.

In the beginning it is wise to practice this in places you are already familiar with and in ways where you do not fear truly becoming lost. Find your own edges and be safe. Ultimately, the practice of natural navigation can be a powerful tool to help you with present moment awareness. Rather than being lost in thought as you move through your day, you bring your attention to the moment and to the environment in which you find yourself.