If fun increases, learning is often lost and if it’s all about learning, it’s often not fun anymore. At TrueNature Learning and Development, we use experiential learning platforms, sometimes it’s in the wilderness and other times it’s in human process labs.
Exploration and effort are to develop skills lying dormant side us. Here we experience the beauty of nature, both within and outside.
Exclusive TrueNature activities include:
Night solo: Spending an entire night (safely, of course) all alone in the jungle with no accessories, whatsoever.
Barefoot hike: Hiking barefoot in the night without a flashlight with your group.
Mud pit: Gathering points by retrieving items in a pit of muck and mud slush.
Sunrise hike and meditation: Silent, short hike up a hillock followed by placing yourself in a spot away from others and wait to watch the sunrise.
Human process labs: Reflective workshops usually done indoors to become aware of our emotions and to call out feelings.
Himalayan leadership module: A 4-part program spread over a year with the final part consisting of 12 days in the Himalayas.
Coaching and counselling: On Goal Framing, Purpose Discoveries, Awareness to Action.
In the wilderness and adventure campsites, we also get to know a little bit about the others as well. This makes it working with others a lot easier as we discover others in an all new, pleasantly surprising way. Our activities tend to push your emotional boundaries and mostly skirt around fear and anger.
Growing in the outskirts of the Bangalore, reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, that stayed with me. In my twenties, I would always end up hiking or climbing during every weekend. It was then I decided that I liked the outdoors and wanted to do some sort of work in it, though I didn’t know what or how.
I got lucky to chance upon NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School, USA) where I learnt my outdoors skills. NOLS goes beyond outdoors skills. They taught me leadership, teamwork, management and how to dive deeply into self.
I began gathering skills by working in Hong Kong, USA and all over India in children’s camps and Org. Development programs.
I also got advanced certificates in mountaineering, outdoor education, wilderness medicine and first aid. I have led expeditions to the Himalayas, climbed the Rockies and rescue pythons in Krishnagiri.
All our equipment is procured from acclaimed and insured manufacturers. We log our equipment and check on their durability regularly. As passionate wilderness explorers ourselves, we continue to go out climbing, camping, and hiking as much as we can during the week and weekends.
In 2013, TrueNature was born. At TrueNature, we explore the wilderness outside and within. This is done by using a format called David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, where you do a new outdoors activity or game with others, followed by reflection of how the activity went. As facilitators from TrueNature, we curate the behavioural observations of the group using Group Dynamics Concepts. The activities are fun, and reflections offer learning.
At TrueNature, we are five of us, each with a unique skill. Presently, we are a service organisation and customise programs according to client requirements.
The frequency of the programs is determined by clients approaching us. We are coming up new modules open to all. They are centred around Personal Growth and Leadership Development. These are for grown-ups who wish to explore themselves. Soon, we wish to offer open programs for children as well. Children from the ages of 9 and above can attend these programs. Currently, we work with schools.
Being an entrepreneur is a difficult, more so for me who is an HR graduate and hopelessly passionate. Marketing does not come under my preferred skill. I am ever grateful for the support of good, old friends and family who see through my passion and connect to help me spread word about TrueNature.
By Tarsh Williams
Tarsh is crazy about the wilderness, but has adapted himself to watch detective series and dramas on Netflix, during this lockdown. A music aficionado with 100s of audio tapes and an old-school Bangalorean, with a thing for die-cast moulded fighter jets. He has been thinking wishfully that he’s into reading, writing and playing the guitar, but has gotten nowhere, although he’s single and lives with a bamboo plant called Elsa. He is reachable at [email protected]
