Following The Track Of Your Life and Creative Process in The Digital Age
Boyd Varty’s podcast series, 40 days and 40 nights, is the most impactful content I’ve experienced this year. In it, Boyd explores the archetype of the mystic in nature, how consciousness changes outside of the structures of modern life, and what it means to be wild.
In this episode we discuss:
We discuss:
Boyd’s top lesson from living in a treehouse in the wild for 40 days
How to create space for a different system of intelligence to unfold
Being a conduit for nature’s wisdom
Boyd’s content creation process
Taking notes as a way to connect to the Divine
Restoring the land
Being a creator and an artist in the digital age
The vital part of the famous Joseph Campbell quote that’s often left out
The power of discipline
Letting go of societal norms to step into your wild nature
Going beyond the playbook of “success”
Feeling alive and expansive as an indicator of moving closer to your purpose
Boyd walks us through the 4-step process that’s been the most profound teacher in his life
How to question and reframe your limiting beliefs
Podcast as an opportunity to broadcast your frequency
Boyd’s personal approach to boundaries with Instagram
Discovering The Track Of Your Life With Boyd Varty
Born and raised at Londolozi Game Reserve in the South African wilderness in a family of conservationists, Boyd Varty grew up with lions, leopards, snakes, and elephants, speaking the local language and learning how humans and nature can naturally and beautifully co-exist. Boyd is a wildlife and literacy activist and a lion tracker, life coach, storyteller, and author. On today’s podcast, he joins Katherine Twells to talk about how you can discover the track of your life and find your authentic path. He also shares some deep insights that can guide us, especially as we navigate these uncertain times.
Boyd Varty lives on a game reserve in South Africa near Kruger National Park. After his family began returning the land to its wild state, it awakened something wild in him, too
Boyd Varty is a lion tracker by trade, for a no-hunt safari operation in South Africa. Through his work out there in the bush, tracking the most dangerous animals, as well as his work as a shaman, he has an immense amount of wisdom to share to put you on the track of your life. He’s come face-to-face with lions, been partially eaten by a crocodile, and assisted in healing countless people in medicinal ceremony. Boyd is an undiscovered force for good in this world and he has some great stories and a beautiful message that can help people track their life path.
It’s hard for me to contain my excitement for this week’s episode.
Having spent 5 days in July 2019 in the South African bush with Boyd Varty, our guest for this week, I knew the conversation would resonate with so many.
Boyd is literally a lion tracker. He also has the unique gift of translating the lessons learned on the Londolozi Game Reserve into deep wisdom that resonates with those of us that are thousands of miles away.
In this episode, we discuss the importance of decision-making through presence, how to foster “track awareness”, and discovering that all we need is already within us. Boyd’s gift of storytelling is on full display as he shares tales that made my heart race a little faster and stoked my excitement for my next trip to Londolozi.
One thing I’ve learned from the current COVID-19 situation is that with all the uncertainty and challenges, I truly believe that this is an opportunity to question the pace with which I’ve been approaching my daily life. With that in mind, there are few guides (if any) that I would rather have as a companion than my South African brother Boyd Varty.
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Show Notes:
8:28 – Tracking as a tool for development
16:00- The comparison concept
17:18 – The meaning of Ubuntu
20:07 – How to start REAL dinner party talk
22:21 – Separating what you want from the noise
30:05 – Byron Katie’s meditation technique
35:48 – Your wild side vs. social side
42:13 – How to handle the unknown
48:32 – Boyd and his family’s traumatic experiences
1:01:30 – The authentic track
1:09:14 – Embodying different roles
1:12:33 – My slow path to love completely
1:17:30 – Fully connecting with family
1:24:17 – Teasing the trauma out
1:31:14 – The path of the tracker
1:41:09 – Your track should scare you a bit
1:42:28 – Attuning to tracking through presence
1:46:48 – Redefining your relationship with time
1:48:56 – The paradox – is this your doing?
1:51:57 – Yoga is not about the positions
1:56:35 – Track Your Life Retreat
2:13:53 – More presence, less conditioned response
If you’ve ever felt you’ve lost your way, then do we have the Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life, show for you!
Today I’ll be talking with Boyd Varty, master life coach author, and TED speaker, who runs retreats that merge tracking, coaching and storytelling at the Londolozi Gme Reserve in South Africa, and the author of my favorite book of 2019, The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life!
And that’s just what I want to talk with him about, about going deep inside, finding your wilder-self, and rediscovering your gift, your purpose, and your mission.
What does Lion Tracking have to do with your life? Apparently, a LOT!!! This is my favorite BOOK of the year, and perhaps my favorite INTERVIEW of the year as well!!! Boyd Varty on the Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life!!!
Varty is a fourth-generation custodian of the Londolozi Game Reserve. Unlike his ancestors, he’s never hunted a lion. Now he just tracks them for eco-tourism. I ask him:
What would his lion-hunting ancestors say about his conservation efforts?
Does he think that hunting helps or hurts animal conservation?
What does having a “sit spot” mean and how can it help you?
How exactly does a male lion’s mane protect the lion?
Born into a family of conservationists and trackers in South Africa, Boyd Varty began learning the art of tracking lions at a young age. Not for hunting, but rather as a devotion. And, eventually, as a scout for guides to bring guests into the wilderness in search of seeing animals, most often lions, in a protected environment. Through the process, learning to connect deeply with the land and natural environment, he discovered how to see and follow threads that often took hours, if not days, to lead to a majestic and wild end. But, when it came to his own life, he found himself shut down after trauma, operating on autopilot until a chance encounter with Martha Beck changed everything and opened his eyes to the possibility of using his skills as a tracker to find his way back into a life of meaning, joy and connection. Now, a storyteller, coach, tracker, activist, founder of the Good Work Foundation and the author of The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life, he’s on a mission to help others find their own paths to healing, wholeness and wildness or, in his words, to “Track Your Life.”
Boyd Varty is a lion tracker, wildlife and literary activist and the co-founder of the Good Work Foundation. He is the author of Cathedral of the Wild and The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life.
He has worked intensively over the past 7 years in ceremonial spaces as an apprentice to a Peruvian shaman while generating his own system of coaching called “track your life” which draws lessons from the ancient art form of tracking and his psychology degree from the University of South Africa to help people find more meaning, purpose and motivation.
As a speaker and trainer, he has taught his system all over the world and has been featured in the New York Times and CBC.
Boyd’s families land
Re-generating the land
The story of the mother leopard
Restoring their relationship with the natural world
Humanity needing to shift to support the natural world
The ancient art form of tracking
Why a high level of presence in one art form can transfer to all areas of life
Taking on the archetype of the tracker
The art of going without “knowing”
Knowing as the discipline of aliveness
Why knowing the next step with keep you in the same place
Tuning yourself into the information that is there
You start to generate your internal tracks of success – developing inner track awareness
Developing that feeling of aliveness or feeling of expansion
Discipline of attention
Distilling infinite possibility down to the next step
Why you need to be consistently willing to make small changes
The trackers version of “flow state” the “follow state”
Making micro adjustments that the moment is asking for
What you can be sure of is you will lose the ‘track” or the ‘path’
Losing the path is a part of returning to it
Never track alone
Why people will see you their fears
The story of the Bull Elephant
Opening yourself to encounters you couldn’t even imagine
The work of Joseph Campbell
The path is a the reward
Engaged by the process of living
Relating to others rather than comparing
Going back to a more natural way of being
Questioning your own thoughts and beliefs and limitations
Living this way requires a warriors heart
Stripping all the layers of what you were told to be or should be and simply be your self
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If you’ve ever felt you’ve lost your way, then do we have the Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life, show for you!
