A MOMENTARY PAUSE
“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.”
So wrote the Welsh poet William Henry Davies, an ardent admirer of nature and the outdoors life, in his classic work, ‘Leisure’. Its basic theme is that the usual hectic business of our lives means that we suffer from an inability to enjoy the simple things around us. I’d urge you to read it in full as it’s as relevant today as when he wrote it in 1911, perhaps even moreso.
Fast forward a century or more to the present day. Imagine you’re at the RSPB’s Old Moor reserve in South Yorkshire’s Dearne Valley. Or if you’re not able to get here you can mentally place yourself in any local woodland or field, it just has to be somewhere where you have greenery around you and you have space to - both physically and metaphorically - see the light.
Stop and look around you. Begin to notice things, large and small. Take it all in. The sound of the wind through the trees. The temperature on your skin. The colours of the water. The smell of the flowers. The movement of the clouds or, at the other end of the scale, the insects. Experience the stillness. Use all your senses and take as long as you like, as long as you need. The world will keep on turning at its constant speed however much you might want to rush. Focus on your breathing and make a conscious effort to slow it if you can. Breathe deeply and gently and notice how the air moves within your body.
How does all this make you feel? Simply recognise the feelings and acknowledge them. Be gentle on yourself. You’re not judging yourself here, you're just taking note and recognising the different sensations and emotions. Try to exist purely in the moment; the past is gone and the future is yet to come. Just recognise everything and be as fully aware as you can. If your mind starts to wander, perhaps wondering what time to pick the kids up or how much the gas bill will be, don’t worry or berate yourself. Just gently guide it back to focussing on the moment, the here and now, you and nature just being together.
This, my friends, is an exercise in Mindfulness, a mental skill that we can all learn which has been proven to reduce stress and depression and even act as a natural form of pain relief. It’s a toolkit to help us manage the difficult or uncomfortable moments in our lives and become more resilient throughout life’s changes. We know that constantly dwelling on negative thoughts and emotions has a detrimental effect on our physical and mental wellbeing. Think of mindfulness exercises as a similar but opposite mental process, one with much more positive results.
Training yourself to become more aware of your surroundings gives your mind a chance to slow the constant train of thoughts running through it. The more that you can concentrate on the here and now, the less you will allow the stressful thoughts to take root. You can learn to, if perhaps only temporarily, take a break from the panic, stress and other negative junk that impacts upon our day to day happiness and sense of calm. And isn’t that one of the main reasons many of us go for a nature walk in the first place, to feel more at peace with the world and ourselves?
Around the Old Moor reserve we have an Interactive Mindfulness Trail made up of several small boards encouraging visitors to take a moment and be especially aware of a certain area of the site such as the reed beds or a particular oak tree. They even have QR codes attached which you can scan with your phone for more information and guidance, should you wish.
The person who designed this trail, Louise Oliver, is holding three ‘Mindfulness in Nature’ workshops at Old Moor, the first being on 17th of April. She’ll be taking attendees around the reserve after our normal closing time so that the group will have the place to itself with no other people around to disturb their peace.You can get more details at this link.
Whether you can come to one of these events or not, you might consider giving this Mindfulness malarkey a try. Your brain will thank you for it. Mine does.
Old Moor Wellbeing trail with seasonal mindfulness exercises
Volunteer Shaun welcomes visitors to RSPB Old Moor. He also writes a weekly blog about life at the reserve titled, "View From the Shed". He usually wears a big hat.