Track Your Life with Boyd Varty
61 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 274 ratingsSomewhere deep inside, you know what your gift, purpose, and mission are. Boyd Varty, a lion tracker and life coach, reveals how the wisdom from the ancient art of tracking can teach you how to recognize these essential ingredients in a meaningful life. Know how to navigate, don’t worry about the destination, and stay alert. These are just a few of the strategies that contribute to both successful lion tracking and a life of fulfillment. Trackers learn how to use all of their senses to read the environment and enter into a state of “greater aliveness.” When we learn to find and follow our inner tracks, we learn to see what is deeply important to us.
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Episodes
Activating the Campfire Consciousness
August 15, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 7.6 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
A Wilder People
August 08, 2021 05:00 - 4 minutes - 4.48 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
The Second Language
August 01, 2021 05:00 - 7 minutes - 6.83 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
Relational Fields
July 25, 2021 05:00 - 7 minutes - 6.71 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
The Upside Down People – Shamans Live Backwards
July 18, 2021 05:00 - 6 minutes - 6.13 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
Community Soup
July 11, 2021 05:00 - 7 minutes - 7.17 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
A Shared Language
July 04, 2021 05:00 - 9 minutes - 11 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
Notes from a Road Dog
June 27, 2021 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBhttps://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/
Expedition 6 - The Source
July 30, 2020 11:00 - 9 minutes - 8.65 MBFind the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/ Once in the far north of Kruger national park's pafuri area I found a clear pool of spring water rising out the earth. The pool was surrounded by three huge ebony trees and a giant eagle owl flew out from under the deeply shaded branches as I approached. The presence of the o...
Expedition 5 - The Sacred Enemy
July 16, 2020 12:00 - 11 minutes - 10.6 MBFollowed a rhino bull, but he led me in circles. I couldn’t shake the distinct feeling that a rhino was trying to shake me off his tail. To add to the confusion there were also tracks of a female rhino from the night before. If the rhino was my nemesis then he was my sacred enemy. The difficulty he was providing was causing untold growth in my tracking ability. Boyd Varty Sacred Sites https://boydvarty.com/sacred-sites/ Connect with Boyd Varty: Website | https://boydvarty.com/ Instagram |...
Expedition 4 - Hyena Telepathy
July 08, 2020 11:00 - 9 minutes - 11.1 MBJournal entry. The best time to be in the leadwood forest is in the creamy light of a full moon. All around the trees peg a scale of time beyond human comprehension to the earth. It can be a strange thing to watch people from all over the world walk into the dappled light of the trees and fall silent. In my days as a safari guide I would wait for the third or fourth day of a safari. I would wait for the hysteria to see animals to subside and then take people to the forest. You see the fores...
Expedition 3 - Shadow Tracking
July 01, 2020 13:00 - 11 minutes - 12.7 MBJournal entry. Tracks of huge pride of lions cut off a beautiful white sandy road onto a game path. Here the pride walks in single file laying a perfect trail. The path opens into a small clearing next to the crusted mud of a dried up waterhole. Next to a huge termite mound with a giant brown ivory growing out of it the tracks tell the story of a giant lion love ball. They have lain down here… lying up against each other…..cubs climbing on mothers heads and biting each other's ears. The fl...
Expedition 2 - Intuitive knowing
June 28, 2020 04:00 - 11 minutes - 12.5 MBJournal entry. Intuitive is defined as: using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive I think this is why I have always liked sacred sites because when you are at one “you are beyond conscious reasoning” you sense something in the air. and I like it there because for me there has always been more life beyond conscious reasoning. You only need to fall in love to understand the truth in that. There are different ways of knowing. On native medicine wh...
Expedition 1 - Symphony of Stillness
June 26, 2020 13:00 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MBJournal entry It all begins with sketchy reports of a very rare black rhino that was seen in the far north of the reserve. I drive out with my gear motivated by some deep tracking lore…. If there is a rare animal out there I must go and look for it. The inclination to seek out and find what is rare is fundamental to the tracker. In this case this results in an entire afternoon alone in heat and burning midday light scouting. It’s not romantic…..it's solo trudging…..self motivated. No one to ...
Expedition Delayed
June 22, 2020 07:00 - 11 minutes - 12.4 MBThe original purpose of religion was to bring sacredness to life. Imagine a time (whether prehistorical or transhistorical) when human beings lived moment-to-moment in the presence of the sacred. Religion was unnecessary. There was no separation between spirituality and life, no distinction between the sacred and the mundane, no division of the Godly and the worldly. When we lost the ongoing and immediate sense of sacredness, then we needed religion to bring us back to it. "Religion," after a...
Sacred Sites Preparation Day
June 20, 2020 13:00 - 11 minutes - 12.5 MBAnthony Bourdain once said “I know theres a guy inside me who wants to lay in bed all day and eat donuts. My life is a series or strategems to avoid and outwit that guy”. If you’re an artist you know this place. I wake up at 4 30 every day and meditate for an Hour. I track every day to practice my craft I do breathwork and work out. I diligently attend to what I need to do to keep my company going…. I maintain routines because I know my nature is profoundly ungrounded. I can be a drifter. I l...
Intention
June 16, 2020 13:00 - 10 minutes - 13.8 MBIn a setting with almost no connotation for me to the Sacred. The Sacred is not just places but what happens in places. I will start with what I can. I will work with the track I have. I will go to the Sacred sites of this land to explore the sacred. I think the Sacred is archetypal….it's an energy of life. I will walk alone to specific places on the land……. Sleep on the ground…… meditate….and ask those places to help me understand. I will go unnassisted on my own two feet to the places th...
Dispatches from the Boundary Walk
June 12, 2020 11:00 - 12 minutes - 13.2 MBBoyd Varty decides to walk around the full boundary of Londolozi (no mean feet), and shares with us his adventure as he takes on this mission with Londolozi’s General Manager, Duncan MacLarty, Digital Storyteller and Ranger James Tyrrell and Head Ranger, James Souchon. The reason for walking, describes Boyd, was the classic intention of masculinity, and a desire to challenge yourself. Boyd who is used to walking 25km, was a bit anxious about doing double that on this particular boundary walk...
Notes on Reentry
May 15, 2020 12:00 - 11 minutes - 12.5 MBNotes on Re-entry Bedrooms are strange. I look at the thatch roof with gratitude and a touch of contempt. Before I get to that I would like to tell you something that happened on the last evening. I was on a crest, the land fell away and 3 rhino we feeding in a clearing. It was beautifully serene and I felt so still. I was ready to leave the tree. Far away from me a lion roared and I had to go and look. Quickly the clearing gave way to a sandveld bush. I let myself stop thinking about w...
Day 40 - Searching for the Spirit of the Great Heart
May 11, 2020 05:00 - 7 minutes - 8.57 MBAnd then all of sudden we were there. The face of the people I love. Saying goodbye with immense gratitude to the tree and this beautiful place on the river. The last dawn from inside this experience on the river. I know this is not the end but the beginning. You will be hearing from me. There is so much life for us all to live. I’m not going to try and summarize of sign off well. I have said what I need to say. I will leave you with an anthem by the late great South Africa Johnny Clegg....
Day 39 - Reflection
May 10, 2020 07:00 - 11 minutes - 12.8 MBA ceremony is a place to remember to remember. As I walk through my last 39 days I have a lot to reflect on. I remember the resistance that arose before leaving home. I remember the anxiety of the first few days when six weeks seemed like an eternity. I must remember to sit with anxiety with compassion. I remember the feeling of a shell being taken off after one week. How do I work with this after I return back? Optimization for me comes out of consistency. I must remember to sometime...
Day 38 - Push
May 09, 2020 00:45 - 9 minutes - 11.2 MBIf you think 6 weeks is long you should try two days. The moon rises here have been truly epic. Last night as it rose a small pearl spotted owl was perched on a Marula tree silhouetted for a moment. An astounding truth that the moon controls the tides and fertility in its cycle. The night was so bright I didn’t even need a torch. You know you are so hungry when everything looks like food. A huge pancake, a wheel of French cheese and a ripe peach. It’s not that I’m tired but rather how yo...
Day 37 - The Two Paths
May 08, 2020 02:00 - 12 minutes - 13.4 MBWow we made it to day 37. In so many mythological stories there is an idea that when you were born a twin was born with you. It was thrown out the cot and becomes your wild twin. It’s a scallywag, an outlaw, a rogue. IT slips chocolates to your nieces and nephews before supper. It’s willing to act outside the bounds of the rational. It doesn’t give a hoot about what anyone else thinks and can be relied upon to do something totally essential. It knows how to grieve, it does not control t...
Day 36 - Never Punch a Monkey
May 07, 2020 00:00 - 11 minutes - 12.7 MBIn the silence by the fire I suddenly heard growling. It was so constant I thought it was a generator on the breeze. It was the sounds of cats mating but without the specific sound that leopards make at the end of copulation. Lions mating. In line with my family tradition I walked in the moonlight down the road to the camp. The moon was so bright I cast a shadow. I knew if the lions were mating I only need wait a bit and I would hear them again. I stood in silence listening to the Scops...
Day 35 - Enchantment
May 06, 2020 00:00 - 12 minutes - 13.3 MBI think of this experience as the slow removal as a shell. As the days went by I felt more myself. I felt the creativity coming back in, co-creating the story with nature. My energy levels return to new highs. My relationship with beauty was revived. I feel like so much of what I was trying to do before was trying to tune out, now I am trying to tune back in. I felt I was absorbing tons of information but my minds own capacity for dynamic movement was slowing. It’s like a fasted state, ...
Day 34 - So Many More Elephants
May 04, 2020 23:00 - 11 minutes - 13 MBAt dawn I awaken breathing misty breath up into the branches of the tree. At midday a dust devil skids across the water spreading a rainbow across the sky. At night I am still visited by a lone firefly. In Jungian dream analysis, everything in the dream is a symbol of the self. The way to interpret the dream is to speak as it. I imagine everything I encounter is a symbol that I talk with and let it answer. Who are you I ask? I am the wind on the water. Describe yourself with three adj...
Day 33 - Sinking In
May 04, 2020 07:00 - 9 minutes - 11.1 MBA lonely day missing people. In a week I will be complete and its starting to stir up the mind. It feels close and creates a bout of anxious immaturity. I want to talk to them now but also I don’t want to leave this tree. I have come to ride the ups and downs of how the mind uses time. I sit in my chair and listen to the sounds of nature. A kingfisher hitting the water, elephants flapping and nyala browsing. Time to have time, who has that? Johnny Clegg: The world is full of strange beh...
Day 32 - Being Elephant
May 03, 2020 07:15 - 11 minutes - 13.1 MBThe days are shortening and there is a distinct chill on the air when I open my eyes onto the branches of trees in the morning. I feel saturated with natural beauty. Winter is the time my ancestors used to come to this land back in the hunting days. It is the time when many tribes would sweep off the escarpment. I cross the river just after dawn moving on instinct to where I though the sound of the lions roaring is. I would need time to crack this code as the tracks go in all direction. B...
Day 31 - Dialogue with Silence
May 02, 2020 08:00 - 10 minutes - 11.3 MBThere was once a BBC report, maybe before the second world war. This is the BBC on the hour, there is no news on the hour. Day 31, there are no new stories at this time. That’s not true, its just that I’m going to a place underneath stories. I see friends across the world, around the fire. Friends in Canberra, California, Charleston, Bath. In stillness I know the exact moment of when a friendship would change me. Friendship is a dialogue in silence. As I write this the herd of elephants ...
Day 30 - The First Track
May 01, 2020 07:00 - 10 minutes - 11.5 MBI made an oatmeal breakfast that was Instagram worthy. The brand of oats out here is called Jungle Oats with a strong image of the Bengal Tiger on the front. There is a Chinese saying that the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago or now. I love this idea and feel it here as time warps. I don’t know where time has gone. I think our relationship with time shapes some of our relationship with life and self. In a natural rhythms your consciousness changes as your notion of time shifts....
Day 29 - Pattern Tracking
April 30, 2020 08:00 - 12 minutes - 13.3 MBWonderful encounters continue around the camp. Two young rhino bulls made their way past camp and after a short while I got on the tracks for some fun. They led me on the southern bank of the river. Past a Sausage tree and Apple leaf when I heard growling from 50 meters back from where I had come. The growling escalated and I immediately knew it was the mating leopards from the other day. My gratitude for this spot and the experiences it has given me is impossible to state. I love this t...
Day 28 - Call me Crazy
April 29, 2020 07:00 - 12 minutes - 13.4 MBYou would be amazed at how far crocodiles move at night. I found myself following the distinctive track for about 2 kilometers. I’ve spent a lot of time in the bush veld, but in this experience by nature of the experience I have been taken deeper. I have the will and the mindset to find out where crocodiles go. To be immersed in patterns that otherwise seem random. This is an understanding of a certain individuality to each creature. Of course even deeper is the fact that naming anythin...
Day 27 - Who Would You Be Without Your Story
April 28, 2020 07:00 - 11 minutes - 12.9 MBNew addition to the list of animals seen from the camp, but I will get to that. One thing about living outside is that it makes you’re more hardy. You get scrapes and bites and sometimes if can feel like a slow attrition. I decided to run to the edge of the reserve where there is an anti-poaching camp. I ran out through high terrain, through dark soils and wet grass. I saw herds of zebra and even ostriches. At the halfway pointing I was bonking as athletes call it. I felt like I could li...
Day 26 - Define Abundance
April 27, 2020 07:00 - 11 minutes - 12.3 MBThere is a line in the Book of Mormon where a Ugandan women is singing about the Utopia that can be found in Salt Lake City. At first it seems like another comedic line, but it’s actually profound. The women is imagining utopia from her point of reference. We all imagine inside our own frames of reference. The question is what are your friendly warlords? What is abundance? What is wealth? Real wealth is not being rushed, stillness, enjoying your food, having places you are excited to explo...
Day 25 - Sidetracked
April 26, 2020 08:00 - 10 minutes - 12 MBI am missing all my friends. In my mind I find myself composing long legends of the fall type letters on a typewriter. Dear friends….the nights grow colder, I think of you often. There is something deep about missing people and staying in the feeling of missing people rather than turning to WhatsApp. The daily presence of elephants has become something I look forward to. I went up into the tree and had a kettle shower and in between the late afternoon light and endorphins from the run I ha...
Day 24 - Pegasus
April 25, 2020 08:00 - 11 minutes - 12.3 MBMy decision to suspend all river bathing has been vindicated. Last night I shone my torch into the river and saw not one but two crocodiles in the water. I will tell you now about the curious incident of the rhino in the day. I went out for elephants but cut across the track of a rhino bull. A beautiful dinosaur three leaf clover tracker. The bull had left an impressive size of dung. I am a very good rhino tracker, if anything happens in life I always have rhino tracking total back on. B...
Day 23 - Spirit of Spirit
April 24, 2020 10:00 - 12 minutes - 13.7 MBFresh tracks of a pride of lions in the predawn light behind the camp. Its been strangely cool, almost like a cold winter has been knocking on the door. Tracks cut down into the river and onto a beautiful sandbank. The sand allows you to see very clearly how the pride plays with each other. The tracks then cut up onto a hippo path. I’m nervous to follow but do so anyway. The path opens into a small beach near the rivers edge. The cats pace from side to side not wanting to go in. With t...
Day 22 - Trauma Healed is Medicine
April 23, 2020 07:00 - 10 minutes - 12 MBLast night I had a dream. I was walking around the premises of the boarding school I went to when I was ten. I could see the dull linoleum floors and the fluorescent light hallways. There I would feel more alone than I have ever felt before. Through a strange quirk of the system the school would retain students for an extra year before they went to high school. It was my first encounter with dysfunctional hierarchy. Only when I got older did I begin to understand that unless you show a y...
Day 21 - Mystical Visitation
April 22, 2020 09:00 - 10 minutes - 11.7 MBWaking up I felt no motivation to get out of bed. So I just lay there. I thought of all the years I suffered from depression when I woke with the dreaded weight on me. Connect with Boyd Varty: Website | https://boydvarty.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/boyd_varty/ Twitter | https://twitter.com/BoydVarty Find out more about Londolozi Website | https://www.londolozi.com/en/ Impact | https://londolozi.africa Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/londolozi/ Twitter | https://twitter...
Day 20 - Centered
April 21, 2020 08:00 - 11 minutes - 12.3 MBThis morning at Dawn a spur fowl flew over me in sheer terror. A second after a goshawk came past, silent with its wings tucked. Thinking a lot about how information is transferred. Want to follow an elephant bull for a whole day. Following one took me into a grove of green grass and trees. I followed signs of crushed foliage and chewed branches. I have been alone for twenty days and have a profound relationship with the stillness. The 3 elephant bulls were in a mud wallow. I could feel ...
Day 19 - Track Awareness
April 20, 2020 08:00 - 11 minutes - 13.3 MBOne day before the halfway mark and I’m in a rage. In a clear blue sky a benign cloud floated over my camp and dumped everything it had on me. Everything was wet. Wet blankets, cloths, shoes which set in a whole process of drying and cleaning. The rage culminated on my run when a swarm of biting flies bit me and I exploded. I broke a branch off the tree and started to whip myself in a clearing. That is a powerful image metaphorically and in reality. After wandering for a while I found tra...
Day 18 - Golden
April 19, 2020 09:00 - 12 minutes - 14 MBDay 18 - Golden People have a saying in South Africa, we are looking golden. Well if this experience has its own ebbs of fortune, emotionality and joy then we are looking golden. The lions have returned to Londolozi and I could see the tracks of the pride heading further west into the bush. They cut off the road and I scratched around a bit on their line o movement. The light was beautiful and the smell of a fresh morning was invigorating. I was feeling totally in tune with their movement...
Day 17 - On the Trail of the Wild Man
April 18, 2020 09:00 - 15 minutes - 16 MBYesterday I walked out onto the clearing at sunset. On the hill there is the most ancient hope of a horizon. The scene was so soft with the graceful movements of the giraffe. At dusk a hyena slink past looking guilty. Hidden in everything is the unseen masculinity but held together by the feminine energy of nature. Animals talk with body language. A good tracker must be attuned to this. What does it mean to be a man? It was often a question that seemed to be asked out of profound sense ...
Day 16 - Glimpses
April 17, 2020 08:00 - 11 minutes - 12.7 MBSomethings are quite easy to talk about and it feels good to tell you what happened. Making notes help me to look deeply and sense how I am feeling. Experiences that are characterize by what’s not happening. The finger pointing to the moon are not the moon. Yesterday after the sun came out briefly, I shed my layers like a moth emerging from the cocoon. The storm was still in the forefront of my mind. I was lying in the deck staring out in the beautiful dark branches. I was tired after th...
Day 15 - Storming
April 16, 2020 11:00 - 19 minutes - 20 MBIf I thought I was getting into cruise mode, Day 15 took care of that. I was out of the camp early looking for tracks of lions which I followed. The confidence to make choices that stretch your flexibility My body felt weak like it needed fuel. When the lions turned off the road the trouble began. I couldn’t get onto the line of their movement. The lions moved erratically, I moved erratically. Tracking is about rhythm and flow and there was none of that today. Byron Katie says the only t...
Day 14 - Compass Not Culture
April 15, 2020 09:00 - 13 minutes - 14.3 MBOne month of solitude to go…until what? The idea I could finish this experience is becoming somewhat absurd to me. Touch wood my camp has not yet been ransacked by baboons. Everyday I bathe in this gratitude and I would like you all to put this all on your gratitude at the top. After washing a pot in the river I came face to face with a teenage elephant. Communication has been well established. An amazing cast of characters lives out here.] Harmony is when, by being yourself, you form part...
Day 13 - Define Progress
April 14, 2020 08:00 - 12 minutes - 11.2 MBI’m gonna give this one a bit of a go but it is a bit of a tongue twister….Those who bagged their game and made their camp snug and secure bedded down with contentment. The adventurer contentedly thought that the hard life was well worth it. The snakes are out in the post rain heat as I see their tracks crossing the roads. The patterns of movement are stored in me that way. I’m becoming very good at pinpointing sounds. The trick is to gauge a distance to a sound across a woodland. I imagine...
Day 12 - Learning To See
April 13, 2020 08:00 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBModem life is built on a truth and a lie. Excerpt from Braiding Sweet Grass, a beautiful book about indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teaching of plant. The land is the real teacher all we need is mindfulness. It is surprising to me how much time giraffes spend down by the river. Like an artist I’m trying to see things differently. I look beyond them walking to a geometry. The trick to transformational processes is how to interrupt and shape patterns, in order to do this yo...
Day 11 - Paradise Lost
April 12, 2020 11:00 - 12 minutes - 11.1 MBDay 11 - Paradise Lost I suspect things get a little wierder from here. Or a little mysterious depending on how you look at it. The leopards are still mating up and down the river, as if living next door to a noisy couple. I know I must resist to fall all the way into the poetic, but its difficult, everything is so beautiful. Lourens van der Post- Story after the war. Van Der Post came to camp alone in this wild Eastern region. In the heat of the day I was cooking my pap by the base of th...
Day 10 - Wayfinding
April 11, 2020 08:00 - 12 minutes - 11.8 MBJournal entry, Thinking of loved ones across the world. This morning I walked down to the river and a cloud of orange butterflies encircled me. Above them an aura of dragonflies and then higher a martial eagle circling. For a moment I was enclosed in a concentric interlocking sequences I was a world inside a world. Interdimensional and I was walking in nature. Iron John: An adventurer goes out to find out why people disappear when they go into a forest. He finds a pool and at the bottom ...