There will be those who, doubtless, will question the wisdom, if not the sanity, of Ed's proposed Yukon journey. 'Is he mad?' - could be the common reaction.
As Ed Wardle sets out on his solitary trek into the wilds of the Yukon, we will be watching his adventure with great interest. Ed will follow in the footsteps of Christopher McCandless who tragically perished in trying to achieve the goal which Ed is now going to pursue.
While we can console ourselves that he may be able to acquire enough food through his hunting skills and that he may have the use of a rifle to defend himself against predators – most notably the bears with whom he may have to vie for salmon - perhaps the greatest concern should be about an absolute solitude for three months when he will neither see another human being nor hear another human voice!
'No man is an island...' as the poet Donne would have it, and we have always recognised that man is a social animal: deprive him of human companionship and consolation and there may be negative emotional and psychological repercussions. Those who know most about the type of loneliness Ed will experience should be the mountaineers, the astronauts, the explorers like Benedict Allan who travelled widely over difficult, lonely territory and no doubt Ed will have consulted with some of them.
So, what can Ed do to maintain psychological health while he is alone in the wild? He must, of course, get at least the bare minimum of nutrition and most importantly he must be able to rest properly: if he is fearful, stressed (as he will be from time to time) and not sleeping, he will be exhausted and become, psychologically as well as physically, more vulnerable. In order to try to relax when he goes to bed, he might try some physical relaxation of his body, muscle by muscle, and then drift, daydreaming, into his inner world, into his safe space; this could be a place he knows, he remembers, where he felt safe and secure and calm and rested. He might also go to this place in his inner world to combat anxiety and panic.
Should Ed become depressed and lose motivation then he might use this daydreaming to take himself to a remembered time and place of achievement, when he felt enervated and successful and full of life. Or he could imagine his return to his loved ones, the stories he will have to tell, the soft bed, food and drink and the joy, on going home having achieved his goal. The success of this technique will depend on how easy it is for him to visualise such places and events and enter into them in a way that is a self-hypnotic daydream.
Ed also needs to exercise his mind, his books will help with this but they should be a widish cross-section. While those which deal with solitude and survival will be useful, so will those books that take him back into the world of other people. And a place should be reserved in his rucksack for a fun book – something that makes him laugh. Laughter is a great stress buster. A joke book, a book of cartoons might do the trick. When he is on the move and cannot lean on his books then he should recite every scrap of poetry which has stuck in his mind: the rhythm and sheer joy of poetry can lift a man. And so can music: humming and singing will lighten his steps and lift the gloom.
Ed should remember to smile, even though no human will see it and respond; he should smile at the wildlife, at the scenery, at himself; this is good for his spirit as even deliberate smiling may cause positive physiological changes.
There will be time, much time, for reflection on his life to date; here Ed must be careful. It is fine to think about mistakes made, to think how he might have avoided these by doing things differently. Ed can learn from such reflections. It would not be healthy or helpful to dwell on his errors over and over again – this would pull his spirits down. Ed has to be his own compassionate helper; he must not be hard on himself but be gentle. More importantly, alone and in this environment, Ed should not address any childhood or adult traumas he may have experienced. Such things must be explored in a safe place with social, or expert, support on hand.
What has been said so far is focussed on Ed – how he should think about himself and how best to survive physically and emotionally. But it may be helpful for him to spend regular time, perhaps at the beginning and end of his day, thinking of others – his loved ones and people not known to him who may be struggling with pain or hunger. He could send goodwill to them through prayers, positive thoughts – whatever he cares to call it. This may enable him to feel he is doing something for others albeit something spiritual and intangible; it may also help him appreciate all that he has (hopefully he will have some thing to be glad of each and every day) and prevent him from becoming unhealthily self-obsessed.
Ed should have some structure to his day, an order, a routine, familiar, comfortable, helpful but not rigid. He may think of his daily self sufficiency and survival as work of his choosing, and happily compare himself to those streaming into trains, cars, undergrounds to their workplace. Is he having more fun? - Maybe so, dangerous as it is.
But all said and done, few have attempted this type of hazardous adventure. We do not really know how he will cope; individuals react in different ways and have varying resources with which to combat such physical and psychological stress. This is a scary, risky and exciting challenge and in my view (and I have met him) Ed Wardle is too wise and resourceful not to make it.
Dr Cynthia McVey is Head of the Division of Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University and a Chartered Psychologist (Health). She is a committee member on BPS Scotland (Scottish Branch of the British Psychological Society) and Editor of their Newsletter – the Bulletin. Cynthia is also a Member of the British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis (Scotland).
Do you feel a pull towards solitude? If so, do you employ any techniques to help you move beyond lonliness?
