10 Ways to Connect Mindfully with Nature

Nature is the very best place to be if you want to practice Mindfulness.

Nature provides us with an opportunity to engage with all of our senses.

Nature is the ultimate stress reliever.

Try these 10 tips to becoming a tree hugger and you too can benefit from the soothing effects of a nature walk.

1. Hear the sounds under your feet as you walk and all around you, notice sounds that are close by and those off in the distance
2. Notice the air moving through the trees, and the air as it touches your skin
3. Smell all of your surroundings, try and identify different smells, eucalyptus, decaying animals (move on from that one), rain on the vegetation
4. Breathe, stop and breathe in the fresh and air and allow it to completely fill your lungs. Feel gratitude for having this opportunity to breath in fresh air as so many do not.
5. Touch (not break) just gently caress leaves and feel their different textures, this can go with smelling as well 🙂
6. Probably don’t taste unless it is something you are very sure about, but you can still think about what something might taste like, bitter, sweet …
7. Take time to be in awe, stop and look, sometimes when walking in nature, we scoot through at a rapid pace, just stop and look around, look up, look down, notice the ants, the birds, the plants, just notice. Notice how amazing, unique and special nature is (just like you)
8. Plug in – use hand mudras to connect with nature, in a circular motion raise your hands above your head, looking up the sky and connect with father sky, then bring your hands down through your heart space and connect to yourself, then sweeping down open palms beside your thighs acknowledging mother earth. Continue this movement earth, sky, me, earth, sky, me – we are all connected.
9. Canopy gazing – if you can find a comfortable spot just lie on your back for 10 minutes staring at the tops of the trees and skies, think nothing, just do it!
10. Hug a Tree – You have to, get in real close, ask if its ok, then wrap your arms around, you may like to whisper some gentle words like, “thank you for filtering the air that I breathe”, “you are so beautiful”’, “I’ll Protect you”.

If you can’t manage to step out into our natural wonderland but need your energy lifted by connecting to nature you can always bring it inside with some house plants of flowers from the garden. Here are some gardenias I picked from my garden 🙂

Nature is a gift, enjoy,