The Magic of Campfire Chats

how crafting fires connection

It’s mid-summer. It’s getting late. The sun is drifting over the horizon to end a long hot day. You notice, just a short way off, in a clearing in the forest, shadowy figures flicker and dance around an orange glow. The campfire has been lit.

The draw of the fire is impossible to resist. You wander over to find your friends and family nestled around the glowing flames. It’s quiet but there is a murmur of conversation. Everyone is relaxed, the day is done and there is nothing to do. Just to be together, sharing any thoughts or feelings that bubble up, close and connected with each other.

Have you ever noticed the magical atmosphere created by a campfire? As the pressure to “make conversation” is lifted, conversations start to flow more easily. Discussions move away from day to day life to deeper, more abstract stuff. Our passions, our feelings, our beliefs. We start to tell stories. Deep in our history, our discovery of fire sparked a massive leap forward in our evolution as stories were shared around the fire. An instinct for connecting in this way remains deeply ingrained in us to this day.

“Stories told by firelight put listeners on the same emotional wavelength,” and “elicits understanding, trust, and sympathy.” - University of Utah anthropologist Polly Wiessner

There are good reasons why we find a campfire setting such a natural way of connecting. The fire mildly grasps our attention. This keeps us in the moment but in a way that leaves much of the brain unoccupied and open to deeper thinking. As we have our attention focused on something there is less fear of that uncomfortable silence as the fire somehow fills the gaps. We’re not looking at each other. It seems counter intuitive that looking away from someone would stimulate connection but being free of eye contact makes it’s easier to open up and discuss more difficult topics. Sharing thoughts that are often closest to our hearts.

So often I find the campfire feeling at Craft Box Club. It’s sort of a heightened, slightly excitable peace where people find it easy to connect and share. Also there is the bonding of learning something new together, making mistakes and being a little bit silly.

So if you want to get to know someone a bit better, or make a more meaningful connection with someone, spark up the campfire or come along to Craft Box Club. We run adult craft clubs in Reading every month. The next one is this Friday