14 Oct Reconnect with Mother Nature for Your Mental Health

Take a minute to think about your everyday routine.  How many opportunities do you have to observe your environment?  Whether you find yourself living in a city, a suburb, on a farm, or somewhere in between.  Pause and look around now, what do you see?  Hear?  Feel on your skin?  

Mindfulness.  I train on it all day long in my school position… staff, students, families, school based mental health professionals.  I teach it in my private practice with children and adults.

I, also, practice for myself on a daily basis for at least “10 Minutes” each day (okay, let’s be real.. it’s more like 5-7 most days!).  Typically, through focusing on my breath.

But I can ask myself, am I fully putting on that pause to observe my everyday surroundings?  Do I stop and listen to the bubbles in my fish tank. Watch the wind move the trees while I am out on a walk?  Do I feel the chair under my body holding me up strong to meet the world?

We take it all for granted.  Even those of us who teach this!

Recently, I was able to escape the hectic city life to camp in the woods of upstate New York.  48 hours.  Just me, my husband, a fire, some yummy food, and a good book. Oh, and a floatie for the waterfall because hey, who doesn’t like a nice 35 degree cold plunge in a natural pool!?

As I paused to listen, I felt disappointed. I could still hear traffic on the highway several miles away. But! I exercised my mindful skills that I had been honing and focused my attention.  It was hard.  I kept hearing those cars!

But after awhile my ears re-focused on the leaves rustling, the chirp of the birds, the buzz of the insects, the smell of the fire pit (one of my favorite scents!)

In the morning I made my coffee, pulled the lounge chair into a patch of sun, broke out my book (leisurely reading! What a treat!) and felt relaxed.  

After several minutes into reading I realized something.  There I was sitting in this rich abundance of nature and I’m staring at a book.  At that moment, I decided to truly disconnect.  No books, no phones, no music.  The ambience was set by the sound of the earth.  I needed to disconnect to reconnect. 

So I stood up and slowly moved through several yoga poses that I like to do to loosen up my body and find my balance.  I felt the ground come up to meet me, no chair needed.  The scent of the woods lingered around as I saluted the sun, and a butterfly drifted lazily past as I exhaled.  I opened my eyes.  Found nuances in color.  Felt the presence of my surroundings.

THIS is what the weekend getaway was for.

48 hours.

Just me.  Just mother earth.  Showing up and feeling every second of it!

Research has shown repeatedly how beneficial exposure to nature is for our physical and psychological wellness, it literally can activate the rest and digest relaxed state of our nervous system (this is called our parasympathetic system) and calm the fear centers of our body.  Results from a Natural Medicine Journal study even suggested that just by looking at pictures of green spaces can be as effective at calming the stress response in the body after a stressful situation (Beil, 2016). This is big because now even those of you who are city dwellers do not have any excuses!

 

If being mindful or practicing mindfulness is a concept that feels still out of reach for you or too abstract to fully understand, there are small ways you can practice just being present either by focusing on your body or on your surrounding environment.

Let’s try it out with the room you are sitting in right now.

1. Make the choice to pause
2. Take 2 minutes to start.  Start small and build from there.
3. Just notice.  Pick one of your senses to focus on OR choose your breath.  Try to really focus on it and feel it. What do you notice?  
4. When your mind wanders (it will!) gently come back to the sense you chose to focus on.  No judgements. It’s not good or bad.  It just is!  Our mind is meant to do a ton of thinking all day.
5. Repeat when the moment presents itself!
6. Be open minded.  ANY activity can be a mindful opportunity, you don’t have to wait until you are in nature!  Although it can be a fun reason to practice being mindful!

Let me know how your practice goes!