rewilding
Charlie India Thorne

“Rewilding” Is a New Wellness Trend. How One Woman Did It

It’s about shedding social expectations and finding your essential self

We live in a world where it’s very easy to forget who you are.

Social media algorithms present you with a version of yourself that depends on what you’ve been double-tapping lately. The constant churn of the zeitgeist offers you a spinning cycle of identities to try on, discarding them just as quickly (being a “girlboss” is cancelled; you’re a “Corporate Girlie” now. Barbie pink is out; Wednesday Addams core is in.)

Then, of course, there are the endless roles that the people in your life expect you to play. You can be five different people in one day—partner, parent, friend, sibling, employee—and all of them can feel like a costume someone else sewed for you.

That’s exactly where TikTok content creator Charlie India Thorne found herself last spring. From the outside looking in, she seemed like someone who was doing life the “right” way, checking all the boxes a woman in her late twenties should: Newly married, working as a lawyer, surrounded by family and friends. “Yet I felt completely lost,” says Thorne. “It dawned on me that I didn’t know who I was.” She’d always felt she was “governed by people-pleasing,” and constantly worried about what people thought of her, and how she might prove herself to others.

“Rewilding” is an approach gaining traction in conservation circles that entails leaving nature alone to do its thing, with a minimal amount of interference.

In order to “find” herself, Thorne spent years trying personality-type tests, therapy, lifestyle fads like workouts and diets, even studying psychology, not to mention throwing herself into a prestigious career she didn’t particularly enjoy. “I would mimic what I saw other people doing, trying to use their lives as blueprints for mine, because they seemed to have what I felt I didn’t,” recalls Thorne, who is based in the U.K.

Nothing resonated, until she remembered a concept she’d encountered when she was studying geography at university: “Rewilding,” an approach gaining traction in conservation circles that entails leaving nature alone to do its thing, with a minimal amount of interference. On a suburban scale, rewilding might look like no longer mowing the lawn, giving up weeding and letting your entire garden just grow wild. “I took this definition and applied it to myself,” says Thorne. “I wanted to see how my experience of my life would change if I peeled back the layers of social conditioning.”

What did this actually entail, in practice? Initially, Thorne made a “rewilding bucket list” of activities, like going on a solo hike with her dog, and getting a tattoo. “I think I did a handful of things on that list before something shifted,” she says, explaining that the list became a “total overhaul” of who she was as a person. “So much that I thought I knew about myself was a mask, and so much I didn’t know about myself had been suppressed for years,” she says of the journey that would unfold over the next six months.

@charlierewildingthis sounds trivial but it feels like an important shift – gotta keep practicing 🥺♬ original sound – Charlie Rewilding 🌻

 

As she stepped out of her comfort zone—solo camping, for example—Thorne discovered new capability and adaptability within herself, which led her to begin “sifting” through all her beliefs. “I dove deeper into journalling and started to question everything in my life,” she says. “I stopped in the discomfort of silence and listened. It wasn’t an overnight thing, but once I started on this journey of self-trust, self-love and self-acceptance, it seemed to unfold without any planning.”

Still, she struggled to find anyone in her life, beyond her husband, who could relate to this radical journey she found herself on—or felt “comfortable sharing in another person’s discomfort and growth.” That’s when Thorne began sharing her journey online, quickly finding a community of like-minded people on TikTok. Particularly on that platform, there’s a growing interest in strategies for returning to some sort of “essential self,” whether it’s inner-child work or “wintering,” which calls people to find harmony by embracing the rhythms of nature.

“I was overwhelmed by the number of people, in particular women, who resonated with the idea.”

“I was overwhelmed by the number of people, in particular women, who resonated with the idea,” says Thorne. “It was so reassuring to feel a community of people around me online who were going through a similar journey, and to see people embark on a rewilding journey back to themselves after they watched my videos. I was the one that had the courage to embark on the journey, but the community online were the people who helped me to carry on.”

In Thorne’s case, rewilding involved dressing how she wanted to dress, dropping what she calls “the mask” of wearing makeup, expressing her genuine thoughts and opinions, learning to rest, and, eventually, quitting her corporate job. It also led to her seeking a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, which she says only happened because she finally had the time and self-reflection to consider it as a possibility.

“Rewilding helped me be completely honest with myself about who I thought I was,” says Thorne. “I had all these beliefs about who I was, many of which were socially conditioned, and when I started to challenge those, the areas in which I struggled in life started to become more obvious,” she explains. “For example, I always thought I was an easy-going person. In fact, I’m not. Because I am autistic, I can get overstimulated very quickly, struggle with socializing for long periods of time and like to be in control of what my days look like.” Rewilding helped her see that easy-breezy facade as a “mask” she’d worn to “get by undetected.”

@charlierewilding #howtochangeyourlife #discoverwhoyouare #selfdiscoverytips #selfdiscoveryjournal #selfhealingtips ♬ original sound – Charlie Rewilding 🌻

 

Along the way, Thorne’s learned a few things about rewilding yourself. It can start with making a list of your beliefs and goals, really considering whether those are things you subscribe to or really want, and then making a new list that’s entirely your own. It can be a painful process, full of self-doubt and the temptation to revert back to your old ways. It takes time—and you’re never done.

“There is no destination. That is something that I am learning along the way,” says Thorne, who feels she’s in a good, content place now. “There is a risk of being all-consumed by the idea that if you just keep working on yourself you will one day wake up and feel completely whole. But that’s not possible.”

Instead, she’s embracing the ups and downs, however they come. “Most of us will never be in a position where we live completely independently of a society that is constantly seeking to mould us,” she says. “I will always be on this rewilding journey.”

 

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