What is a Good Life? #97
Rekindling Our Wild Nature with Diarmuid Lyng
On the 97th episode of What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Diarmuid Lyng. Diarmuid is co-owner of Wild Irish Retreats and Nature of Man. He is a former Wexford hurling captain and a host on Newstalk's flagship sports programme 'Off the Ball'. With Wild Irish Retreats he is part of a team that is focused on the rejuvenation of the Irish language in relation to nature reconnection. With Nature of Man he runs retreats and online programmes with men that creates a space for them to do their own internal spiritual work. He also takes teams/groups of all kinds to the woods for overnight camps that focus on connection; to self, teammate and place.
In this enlivening conversation, Diarmuid shares with us his unfolding path of purpose. We explore experiences of being truly listened to, of generosity of spirit, receiving love and developing self-acceptance. All throughout the conversation Diarmuid is pointing to a greater connection with the moment, people, and nature, and we note the significance of consciously leaving space for more aliveness and wildness in our lives.
This whole conversation is a wonderful invitation to reconnect with ourselves, nature, and the living, breathing, pulsing experience of life.
The weekly clip from the podcast (6 mins), my weekly reflection (3 mins), the full podcast (71 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip from the Podcast
2. My weekly reflection
I am convinced we have lost connection to something very powerful within us—something that can be deeply informative in understanding what makes us feel at home in our lives and, indeed, on this planet.
In all our pursuits of decorum and civility, we have created a domesticated version of humanity that has lost touch with its nature, its wildness, and the very aliveness within us.
We have become such a neurotic, disconnected, and self-critical version of ourselves that, instead of concerning ourselves with the felt experience of our lives, we focus more on how it might be perceived by others or the story we can tell from it.
We become obsessed with appearances, conforming to milestones that ignore our own internal rhythms. Our natural development, needs, and wants are sidelined. And so, we compare incessantly.
When we have lost our internal point of reference, what else is there to do but compare externally?
Then we take pride in how well we perform this decorum. The ability to look neat, orderly, perhaps even stylish; to be knowledgeable on certain topics deemed admirable or cultural. A stain on an outfit might be seen as cause for embarrassment. Flatulence is considered shameful, animalistic, beneath us.
We do so many things to pretend that we are distant from and above nature, yet it is clear that we are suffering for it. We are suffering because we want to fight the natural order.
We want to pretend we can take out an insurance policy to mitigate the uncertainty of life. We want to believe that we are in control of our environment and in control of ourselves.
When you look at the world around you, do you truly sense that we are in control? Or that our efforts to control are fruitful? Is this the outcome of a rational and sophisticated species?
A species that depends on oxygen for its survival, yet is attacking its primary sources of it with great efficiency—polluting our oceans with plastic and culling our forests.
Do you really think we are as intelligent as our stories and self-promotion make us out to be?
The more space for silence and observation that exists within our lives, the more most of these stories and manipulations of who we think we are begin to fall away.
It is not a superpower to be cultivated, nor a case of developing some extraordinary consciousness, enlightenment, or transformation. It is simply that they fall away.
It is as if, to maintain the delusions of our current culture, an absence of time and space to observe, to feel, and to notice is required.
When we allow for that space—free from the noise and messaging of the crowd—we can begin to appreciate how much we have obstructed our own nature. We can start to recognise what is truly needed within us.
In the silence of these spaces, there are no persuasions or arguments for the mind to cling to, to distract us from, or to deny the felt experience of our lives. There is no denying the calls to our own nature or to adventure we are experiencing.
There is no denying that there is a specific and unique note within you—that only you can play, and that only you can know is being played or not.
And there is little denying the wildness of this life and world, which is so unpredictable that we’d be better off aligning with it than fighting it—better off paying attention to this very moment than focusing on how we can get ahead of it.
What’s more, we realise we can trust this wildness and this nature, both within and without. While the order we seek to impose may yield greater predictability in the short term, it is also the very thing that sets the parameters of our cage. If life feels predictable, it’s likely because you’ve restricted its scope and flow rather than mastered it.
It is what drains the life from our lives, from our sense of belonging, of being enough, and of connection.
What leaves me wonderfully optimistic about life, still, is that this is all waiting to be noticed at any moment—nothing to be cultivated or created, but merely noticed once more. Silence isn’t something we do or create; it’s something we uncover.
It is less about telling life your important ideas, and more about simply listening—because the great unfolding of life knows and holds far more than we ever could.
3. Full Episode - Rekindling Our Wild Nature with Diarmuid Lyng - What is a Good Life? #97
Click here for Apple and Amazon
4. This week’s Questions
Is there a wildness in you that is seeking expression? What might it be trying to say or do?
What part of your life is suffering most from overly focussing on the future?
About Me
I am a coach, podcast host, and writer, based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I started this project in 2021, for which I’ve now interviewed over 200 people. I’m not looking to prescribe universal answers, more that the guests’ lines of inquiry, musings, experiences, and curiosities spark your own inquiry into what the question means to you. I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience and more meaningful conversations.
If you would like to work with me to explore your own lines of self-inquiry, take part in my weekly free silent conversations, discuss experiences I create to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your teams, or you simply want to get in touch, here’s my email and LinkedIn.