As a note to listeners, this podcast does contain explicit language.

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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Why Cristina Schooler started The Rooted Method
• What re-wilding means
• Ways to get outside and connect with nature

This is the first episode of Balanced Badassery, where host Alli Waddel brings you the top minds in wellness to share their tips, tricks and practices for building a badass life. Not only does she bring the best minds onto the podcast, but she also makes sure to give real-life strategies and exercises (A.K.A. badass homework) to take that information and turn it into transformation! In this first installment, Waddel is joined by “the queen of adventure,” Cristina Schooler. Schooler is the founder of The Rooted Method, an outdoor education service and retreat business. She takes private groups into the wilderness and teaches them re-wild skills.

Re-wilding, to Schooler, means “accepting where you are in the human journey.” She says re-wilding is really about reclaiming the human experience and getting out of day-to-day routines in order to get some perspective. Most of the time, this looks like Schooler taking groups on camping adventures. This allows her to teach people how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Moreover, she teaches people how to plan and execute camping trips, so next time they can do it all by themselves!

Be sure to subscribe to Balanced Badassery to hear more episodes where Waddel explores all sorts of topics, from nutrition to sex to relationship to movement and more. She explores the key pillars of what makes humans happy, healthy and thriving in today’s crazy world. If you like what you hear, be sure to share this episode with friends and family!

 

Host: Alli Waddel

Guest: Cristina Schooler

 

Transcript:
this is a founding media podcast yo yo yo bad as brigade welcome to balance badassery your weekly fix of wellness wisdom again I am your host Alli Waddell this week we’re talking about adventure and travel with My Girl Christina schooler of the rooted method were hugging trees talking about camping growing up talking about how she works with clients to incorporate more adventure and travel into their lives from grounding outside to getting their asses out into the woods so stay tuned
this week we’re going to be talking about one of my favorite subjects adventure and a little extra time to time here was my queen of the venture she takes the wheel on adventures she has adventures of her own so I can’t wait for her to share her inside of how you can have more adventure in your fucking life because how you can be healthy and have some fun if you’re just a lame-o hang in there in your house by yourself do you know your interviews results of the bed as per day please sure my name is Christina school or I am the founder of the rooted method an outdoor education service and retreat business I take private groups into the wilderness and teach them re wild skills yeah really wild skills I mean first off let’s just get a good definition of what re wild means to you for sure to me rewilding means accepting where you are in human journey I think so much about rewilding is reclaiming the human experience you know we have all our micro day to day routines and things that you know we have to do we have our kids are our jobs our mortgages but really what my service is trying to do is get you out of that routine is kind of break you out of what you do day today so you can get perspective and so you can get out of the chatter that you hear in your head so you can be more in tune in hot in harmony with yourself and each other
why do you think that that so important expressly kind of in today’s society I think we I mean I think it’s it’s a given that we are so over stimulated that it’s hard to hear our own voice so even if you’re seeing a therapist or even if you are you know going to yoga eating doing all the things that it can seem overwhelming and the amount of tasks that you have simply because we just do you have more stimulation so I really try to spread the message that if you wanna get more back in alignment back into the rhythms and the seasons of life that you really need to physically and mentally get out into place to that it doesn’t mean you have to like throw your cell phone in the water you know I don’t know like take it away from you but it just means that you really have some time to disconnect and just be with your thoughts the natural world why did you why did you discover kind of this this way to kind of get back in turn tune with yourself I mean I definitely I really I do I grew up in an outdoors family but I really got serious about it when I decided to quit drinking for me that was a very personal choice and being the sensitive person I am I knew it was just hindering me from my life and because of that when I really quick that allowed me to kind of broaden my mindset and really jump into exploring more of what I love and having the energy and time to do it and
what have you found most people is the big takeaway like say they’re in their new to like they’ve never done this before right of city slickers they live and maybe they didn’t come from camp rightly is our outdoor centered families what is kind of a big take away that people have when when you take them out for the first time in line can’t like in a tent no well it’s funny actually the people that you mentioned are most of my clients I know you know I know but I’m you know what I see first it’s really interesting is the first day I kind of feel people shoulders are up you know like that kinda like walking around a little bit stiff and I seriously at the end of day two its like relaxation like I see people’s bodies and minds just relaxing in your rounds on you can tell they’re just kind of holding it when they get there everyone’s accessing around situation like animals do like people do and then the second day I would just hang in it’s really special it’s really my favorite part about what I do is seeing people relax into themselves and each other and these people come from different backgrounds you know I’ve had clients from Japan New York like all over and it’s kind of bringing people outside your circles so you can expand and connect them to explain to people what what kind of one of your adventures would look like so Mike signature trip I do is called that’s our dreams happens four times a year and Big Bend national park it’s four nights and what that looks like it is the first three nights we are camping I provide all the gear all the food in the fourth night we’re staying in a really cool ego Airbnb or two in terlingua and I do that because I want people to have the experience of getting dirty you know kind of getting in the outdoors but also ending their experience with time to kind of like in a way like clean and reflecting a you get a shower you get to come back to relative society Interlingua and sit together and really reflect on the experience yeah it’s kind of the integration exactly this of the camping right exactly because I’m not what I’m teaching I’m not teaching people to you know just bush crafting go into the world and they get in the frame I actually interviewed for that show on it though good the minimum amount of me my mom I live in a hard junction so anyway this long story because of maybe that can be your next
so what do you think are some ways that people can start to incorporate into venture into their life there’s trips like yours but what are some other ways that you think that maybe people could start incorporating that in and even even a baby step way that’s a really really good question something I’m passionate about one of the first things I tell people to do they’re just starting to take off your shoes as much as you can that’s an awesome tip yeah no really you know the earth is one giant battery and we evolved to be barefoot and the more we have connection with earth the soil the water the stone the more energized I mean I really start people there and it really has helped a lot of my clients a lot of my community another tip is just going outside even if you live in an apartment on your porch and breeding in nature just seeing what that’s like even for ten minutes a day five minutes even just to face your head towards the sun deep breathe I mean it’ll immediately get you out of your kind of like micro story that you’re telling yourself so kind of ground with your feet and kind of a blessed with your breath hello that’s awesome grounding is actually I mean studies is just shown I mean just the power of ground in itself but is then just being in the sun and being outside and what that actually does is just a general state change like my I’m a big fan of like if you’re sitting that like set a timer and just get outside and walk like people want to make it super complicated and I’m like Hey listening to an interview with Tony Robbins and re Florio and he in shoes like you give one person a piece of advice what would you do like if they’re stressed depend up and he was like go jump in a body of water it was like you know like it’s so it’s so much more simple than we think because we’re so we’ve intellectual I star world we do our animals he’s got to get out yeah
do what do you teach people actually I know you do what what are the different skills you teach people like while they’re on retreat and what are some skills that people can start you know say that they don’t have access to meaning you wonder some skills that people can start to develop that would be fun for them to then be able to practice out in the world for sure so the some of the skills skills I teach our how to plan and execute a basic camping trip like what is that even look like if you’ve never touched a backpack before or a tent I teach people how to not be afraid you know like to mitigate the fear aspect of going out far I teach a lot of women about how to you know how to deal with female hygiene in the back country one of the biggest questions I get like what I do in the sight of about you know but I think that if people are starting their own journey in developing camping skills I really wherever you are in the world is recommend going to your local like outdoor Co-op or rei I’d they have tons of classes like if you really never had any exposure those are really good places to start usually they’re very low cost like ten to fifteen Bucks or if you’ve a membership they’re free another one and another thing to do is only a couple book recommendations but really just as much as you can you have to the camping and outdoor world get your hands dirty you know you it’s really I mean that’s just the reality of it is it’s not going to ease your first time probably not your second or third time like it it’s like exercising a muscle you know the more you have to get uncomfortable to get to the place where you feel comfortable doing often yeah I love that you did one of the things you address is fear because I actually think that the big thing when people think about travel and adventure is like they’re telling themselves or they’re telling the world that they don’t have time or they don’t have the resources financial or otherwise or they don’t have whatever but really when you start to unpack like why haven’t you traveled why haven’t you done these things that you say you’re on your bucket list that you say you want to incorporate and when you really start to unpack it there is some fear around okay it could be all kinds of things worthiness or I’m gonna hurt my cells or any gonna put my family in danger and we’re gonna get eaten by bears or you know and so what are some of the ways you help people first off to recognize that maybe that’s what’s coming up and then how did they process and kind of go through you know I I like to say there’s a real fear initially it’s almost like in the beginning like micro dosing yeah but it’s like it it try going out for a day don’t go from I’m just doing my work outs inside that’s all I’ve ever known to camping for eight days you know and people but that’s where people jump to the jump to I want to do I never been on a day hike but I want to go camping so I think that it’s really important to just practicing your city or in your park just being outside alone like in in a place that safe you know as much as you can with your kids where you have to rely on yourself and just warming up to that feeling like in a place you know is safe basically is what I’m saying where if it’s a local Parker even if it’s just a little hike outside your city just telling you know your love one where you’re going and when you’ll be back because doing that you also make sure that someone else knows where you are and that’s a huge piece of safety like even when I go on the green bell I’ll tell my boyfriend like Hey I’m gonna be out for three hours by myself you know I’ll be back around this time if you don’t hear from me call and that’s a really good thing that one of my outdoor mentors told me about when teaching people about how to warm up is just if you want to go by yourself tell the more you’re going to them how long that way nothing bad can happen to someone else knows that bass is in general life to it is just a general I like that I feel the same way about driving so like striving somewhere fun like I’m going to Houston tell somebody you’re driving to Houston because of nobody knows and then you’re gone people are going to be on what the fuck happened now is they were questioning yeah and
so I was very lucky I mean like you I came for a very outdoorsy family like our thing yeah number one now looking back we can’t a lot because we were broke like we just didn’t have money for vacation so it was like we were yeah camper ho yeah but now it’s such a skill set that I’m like oh thank god when campers I’m so gret grateful for my father who like instilled that means like I don’t have any it’s it’s interesting that somebody would be scared of like stay in the AL size ten I know that I have friends that are like he helped in Big Ben okay which issue with Henry yeah thank well you know there’s a cool room for them and their Sakhalin is there a little kind of scary to be quite a lot of noise but is it is a fascinating the to then incorporate you know to to to talk to people and pack those thought process of thank you came from just such a different environment right then then I did and that there’s baby step ways to do everything I’m like I tell people I’m like man you’re worried about can’t mean read a trailer the first time and go to only go do it little camping trailer park I go then you’re you’re kind of camp only implanting don’t even the T. P. you know go sleep in even the cabin that doesn’t have wifi you know we’ll start why five first a love that but I do think it’s another one of those things that travel for so many people feels like it needs to be this Instagram garantia those I need to bring my fuckin tripod internally and my whatever the hell else I’m going to do and I’m gonna take these amazing photos of doing a handstand on a cliff minds like here’s my phone try a little bit yeah and I and
so I think so for a lot of people travel can be won it feel very pressured absolutely pressure driven and I lake that you have figured out a way to put some ease into it and allow people to be like listen this is about you and then I you connecting with others be that your family or your friends or yourself or whatever that looks like so do you have people that come to you and be like I need this amazing campaign grandiose adventure can you orchestrate that for me and then you have to like walk them back up the back from the no I do I do help people with that like I especially families you know like all all help a lot you know that the only kind of like private you know one on one client sessions I do people are mostly with families you know that really do want to because they have kids and obviously they want to go with themselves so I do have kind of a way that I walk people through the process of like you know where you’re going how are you getting there I kind of walked him through a ten page process that I’ve laid out to mitigate that fierce it makes it more easy because the thing is once you’ve done it once and it’s easy you felt what it’s like to be out camping and you want it again it only takes your first a great camping trip to be like holy shit what have I been missing right now cell yeah and it’s so far I mean my sister and her husband are like legit campers like going there all the time yes the live in Colorado and they have a whole section of the garage that’s all they’re camping stuff packed in a giant tub this mini van up their truck and they go like that clean clean clean and then they get to the place and it is like some orchestrated amazing no yeah everybody has their jobs and she’s like the whole thing you see is an oven I mean she was like everything all over males are going I was like that is highly fucking impress yeah she’s but again now she’s instilled that in both of my my niece and my nephew who now my nieces in college and now she takes her friendly now she’s the one and she had you know she got a Subaru because she’s like I’ve got to go camping I put on my friends who also don’t know how to camp like in the back and so it really is I think it’s such a cool and importance thing to teach your kids not only just camping but the sense of adventure and that your this person on this planet absolutely you can explore and that can look all kinds of ways and so I think I do I it’s funny that when I first go through a you know kind of my wheel of that I Surrey with clients and I have this adventure quest adventure travel question them like some more yourself and where you are in a lot of people some people are really high and some people are very low and very few people are in the midst and it’s
it’s an interesting thing to to talk to people about because they like I wouldn’t think that this had to do with wellness I get totally totally in I think for me in my business and my my fuzzy for me it’s I think it should be addressed before anything else because it’s and I’m sure we’ve talked about this before it’s about your perspective because if you are in the right mindset and you can’t step outside yourself then it’s you know it’s harder to go along the journey you have to go to step outside constantly be able to like remove yourself and look at the bigger picture yeah and that’s what I’ve found for people is just I think some people need a permission slip yeah some people need a little bit of the permission slip like I need you to plan two trips a year like for a lot of people like them like I just need to do something I don’t care what it is but you have to get out of your of this wheel of like just normal life I mean because you just lose all perspective of what you want if you want to pull some like gratitude in your life go don’t shower for five days no and actually some of my clients today after my trips is when I get feedback as they say like this should really made me appreciate my shower I really made me appreciate like my dog or we know it because it does you realize how much we are so lucky like how much we have yeah and how much we don’t need that’s also the other thing that I think is super important specially about traveling in either by yourself or like very lean you know not fancy travel is like you really realize very quickly like the importance of minimalism and how much space your shit is taking up not just in your life but in your brain and then you’re like soul space is like if I can go and like be bare bones in a man can have an airstream we can live in that thing for weeks at right time know that you can and I’m like I’m like dude if shit hits the fan were good I’m like don’t worry we’re fine good saponins you can go ahead and get just vanish like there is a lot of amount there’s so many people struggling with having confidence and assurance and feeling self responsible and I’ll tell you what fucking does that knowing that you can take care of yourself of shit ever hits the fan I cannot tell you know since he does because especially like when I was going to like my sobriety the early days like shit can’t take care of myself and you know really honing in on my camping skills and I mean it changed my life obviously that’s why I’m doing what I do and using your hands to like behind computers were on our phones I could get you in back into the human experience of like being animal and using your hands and give you happiness and joy yeah and we did this shit for million it’s like you need to know how to make a fire have you read a Sabians okay of course I think one of my own my foundational books for sure yes he said yeah and so I do think it’s this process of like ended the N.
again it’s a self knowledge and self awareness practice unlike the only now your shit especially with those you love the most yes your shit will come up real yes AZT it’s like you’re not putting up the tent right wing dynamic and it teaches you like how did deliver differentiate what who’s doing what and how do you communicate this thing it’s amazing like you know it’s like everything you know how you do one thing is how you do everything and when you get out of your normal routine and you have to then again create a new routine it’s so fascinating to watch people’s dynamics and how that ends up coming out in there like this is a fun little sociology experiment oh yeah I think all the time about who I love watching this have you had should go down and when you’re not you know I’ve been pretty lucky on if you haven’t had like one real wacky person I know you’re getting I you know I really been lucky I have really a great like assistance to help me and has made it fall especially couple like like you know in terms of people yeah just not being comfortable in the beginning but nothing they got past the second day that’s good yeah it’s good that happens what’s the longest adventure you’ve been on solo solo twelve days where’s that Alaska house it was amazing I went to do not only national park and keen eye fjords national parks only like half and half or and I got dizzy to not only a life changing this is actually like when it gave it gave me the big push to start my business since it was the trip they gave me the big bike okay this is a fine didn’t do this and I thought that you know that human collective XP you know feeling in my body and just I knew that I tapped into something that I wanted to share with people mmhm
so what is your long term goal for it if my long term goal is that it becomes a practice that people can use within their own communities and families yeah I want I I really am exploring it being something that more of a methodology like you know it’s not something like the nature any experience outdoors is so broad you know you sometimes you can’t pinpoint what that means exactly but I want to provide people with the beginning steps in the process of like what it even looks like it’s not only go on camp but have a good relationship with nature to like be sustainable and to have a symbiotic relationship with the earth so they know the importance of going out experiencing it okay well that fits perfectly into any one of them so tell me tell me the beginnings of the method how do people develop that connection and relationship with nature in your view like what would be some of the steps that everybody could start to do well I think first of all it all comes down to your mind you mean I can’t you know you have to prime your mind into being in the right mindset to receive any new information to start a process so I mean I mean it sounds like a broken record I think I mentioned this but breathing like I literally someone the first things I do whatever and gets you into a workshop or retreat as I talk about breeding before you start anything you before you go on anything stressful because you’re allowing new information and if you go outside you just up in the sunshine and you’ve been on stressful call you probably know can experience it very well if you don’t stop for two minutes and just breathe that’s the first thing I talk a lot about breeding like ways you can breed how you can read different like I use like three different methods that when Hough is one of them that I use and he talked about nothing yeah I use a lot I look for myself so that’s the first step and then I mean there’s a lot of other steps to it but really I spend the first like in a few hours and chapters that I’m working on in explaining the mindset of it because I can’t have you do something in until you are recognizing the potential in yourself you recognize that you deserve to have fun and you deserve to go out there you deserve it and it’s part of your human experience like explaining that that no matter where you come from no matter what your background is like you deserve to feel good and have fun and be a part of a community
fuck the yes absolutely love that I think that is speaks to the heart of kind of everything I teach which is first surviving we’ve taken a lot of the fun and of wellness is so god damn serious and it’s like oh my gosh the whole point of this is so that you can have a lot of fun yeah and that’s why I love what you do is you’re so open and just raw and more animals and we messed up and we do shit wrong but we also last minute okay fine it’s all right but I just love that and so really getting back to kind of that hard in the matter which is like mine set in the and even when it comes to traveling the world is really where it comes back yeah I am practicing it daily like even if it’s simply waking up and like for me in the morning I tell myself like I’m human I deserve a great day okay that’s a good money yeah I mean it helps me though and I notice today’s my don’t do it like she forgot that this morning you know it’s it it’s in like muscle you know the more you do it I mean I can tell on the days that I haven’t done that that I haven’t meditated even for just like five minutes yeah yeah I love that
okay we’re going to go on is in rapid fire questions okay are you two ready ready for the all you just started it so let’s finish and what is your morning routine look like my morning routine I wake up at five AM and I light some incense I got a big glass of water kinda and since it’s a a non Tompa yeah okay and then I grab a glass of warm lemon water I drink it and I said and I usually turn on some Indian flute music and I and I I usually will do their whim Hoff reading on my own kind of long breeding for about five minutes and then I will sit and immensely tell myself what I’d like to achieve for the day it isn’t like do great today it’s very specific you know it’s very much like I would like to I am I am going to do X. Y. Z. specific and it helps a lot I love my first like kind of thirty minutes what is one saying that you believe that people think you’re crazy for I think people think I’m crazy for crystals don’t you mean that could be yeah yeah people think I’m crazy for obviously camping people things like like I get that thing like Christina the crazy camper you know I think she’s out of the woods in light of late nature girl my boyfriend’s like what weight where to go okay here’s a little I mean I get that for sure like I love working with elements in my own day like so crystals water trees yeah being with them I love that okay final question tech to bird what advice would you give to your younger self and you can tell me how old she is and what advice would your nine year old self give you today I would definitely give to my you know like early like twenty three to twenty six year old softening that was a really important part time for me is that don’t give a fuck about what other people think and so hard I know right I sit there and say it’s hard but I but I mean that I don’t mean as in a foot that way I mean in a way is unique if you can really trust a voice inside you you can follow it your life is going to be great a real if you can learn to trust it my nine year old self are you saying what would she say to me now in my nine year old self would say that you’re on the right path to helping people connect to mother nature yeah lets us she was because you are because I see it all the time thank you well thank you so much is there any final things are things that you would like to share with us million just don’t under estimate the power of a tree river just simply going in sitting by it it’s all say I so side note is my dad is obsessed with trees on my dad my dad’s a sculptor and his obsessive trees has been ancestors this whole life you build everything on it so for and so the find another way would you know resolve weird treat me for sure awesome thank you dress by needs a call and we need to stop with that is me I go knock on people’s or something and a look at your tree well thank you so thank you so much for having me as an honor so have you been outside today go on go outside stand in the sun take some deep breaths thank Christina for reminding us how to be bad ass and fill our lives with adventure and travel the balance better as a team includes me alley with dell our producer Myra Gosset our sound engineer Jake Wallace and I want to give a big shout out thank you to the entire group of founding Austin for all of their support balance faster is available on Spotify stitcher iTunes or wherever you get your podcast you can follow me on social media at alley what dell at a L. and I’d W. A. D. D. E. L. L. thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next week