Mindfulness in Nature

While the practice of mindfulness is nothing new, it has become more popular in recent years, with programs designed for all ages.  Often we hear "mindfulness" and assume it refers to a still and quiet meditative process.  While that can be a method of mindfulness, this activity focuses on awareness in the present moment, as one acknowledges feelings, thoughts, and sensations.

Think Outside introduces mindfulness to individuals and families so they can adopt different techniques to enhance their experiences in nature.  The activities work for beginners through experienced mindfulness practitioners.

Need to present this activity virtually or indoors?   Check out our suggestions for Adaptations below. 

A brief guide for an outdoor version of this activity: Mindfulness in Nature Quick Guide

* Prior to Starting – Walk the trail to get familiar with the path, and determine the points along the activity where you’ll pause for different mindful activities.  Stops can be timed (ex. one stop every 10 minutes) or occur naturally.  Review the recommended videos to get ideas.

* Your Group’s Mindful Walk

• Trailhead: Start with a breathing exercise. 

• Begin your walk and make stops for Seeing, Touching, Hearing, Smelling, and Tasting.

• At your stops, as much as possible, use the items around you as materials for mindfulness : leaves, trees, bird song, soil, rocks, sticks, etc.

• Supplemental items can be placed at activity locations to act as "stop here" indicators and provide additional sensory experiences.

• Before each mindful practice, remind your group: “During this activity, our minds may start to wander away from the present. We often drift into thinking about the past or future and lose focus on what’s happening in front of us. In order to have the best exploration experience, we will be present - just here now - throughout our time together. It can be a challenge, so try your best.”

* Reflection

• How do you feel?

• Where else would you use the mindful exercises we practiced today?

Suggested Book to Share: I am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde (Author Read Out Loud)

Materials You Will Need*

This activity works great with found objects and sensory experiences along a trail or in an outdoor space.  For those wanting to have materials on hand--especially for tasting!--here are a few suggestions for easy-to-find items, some of which you may already have at home:

• Seeing: colorful blocks, paper shapes (tangrams), pictures of clouds, trees, water, animals.

• Touching: moss, feathers, pine cones, twigs/tree bark, leaves, seed pods.

• Hearing: recordings of water, wind, rain, bird songs; rain sticks, wind chimes.

• Smelling: cotton balls infused with essential oil, scented tea lights, flowers.

• Tasting: healthy bites like raisins, graham crackers, or pretzels.  Aim to make your selections nut-free, and depending on how comfortable your group is with shared food items, consider providing single-serving snack sizes for each participant.

* A box containing some of these materials is available for Stewards to check out.

Directions 

Guidelines for an outdoor version of this activity.

Before your program, walk the trail to get familiar with the path, and determine the stops where activities will occur along the way.  Your stops can be based on time intervals or organically occur based on the surroundings.  Be prepared to give your participants at least 1 minute of quiet mindfulness time at each stop, so they'll have time for a thorough sensory exploration of the things they have selected.  Consider placing supplemental items (feathers, mosses, rocks) at your activity locations to serve as "stop here" indicators and provide extra sensory experiences beyond what's readily available at the site.

Introducing Mindfulness and Breathing

1. Welcome everyone and introduce yourself. Explain that this activity asks participants to do things that might be unfamiliar or seem a little silly, but they are practicing valuable skills.

2. Ask the participants if they are familiar with the term “mindfulness” and ask them to define it in their own words. 

Mindfulness: a state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

3. Mindfulness is a skill we can develop by paying close attention to our present situation and our role in it. By reflecting on our thoughts and actions, we can decide how to make better choices. Like sports, hobbies, and school, it takes practice!

4. Explain the steps of deep breathing and lead a short practice (Belly Breathing) Once everyone has practiced breathing, begin the walk.

Hands-On Activities

• On your walk, at different stops along the way, you'll have an opportunity to explore all of the senses mindfully through a series of activities: mindful seeing - mindful smelling - mindful listening - mindful touching - mindful tasting.

• For each sensory activity, encourage participants to reflect on what they are feeling and share what they are experiencing.  (Sample prompts and questions are included below under "Sample Scripts.")

• Based on your group’s amount of time, you may select all or some of the activities. Don't Rush!  This program is designed to create and nurture a personal relationship with nature by connecting positive experiences with being outdoors.  It's better to give your participants a generous amount of time to reflect than it is to hurry them from one experience to the next.

• During each activity, refocus your attention on the breath — specifically the rise and fall of the chest and expanding of the belly— and return to the breath whenever you get distracted or notice your mind starting to wander.

• Remind participants: “During this activity, our minds may start to wander away from the present. We often drift into thinking about the past or future and lose focus on what’s happening in front of us. In order to have the best exploration experience, we will be present - just here now - throughout our time together. It can be a challenge, so try your best.” 

• Based on your group’s time constraints, you may select all or some of the activities. Think Outside is intended to create and nurture a personal relationship with nature-connecting positive experiences and reflection.

Optional Exploration Outside

If time and space permits, allow participants to freely practice for additional time.

Final Reflection 

• Close by saying, “Your activity is coming to an end. Take a few moments to be mindful of your thoughts, feelings, and sensations for the day. You can continue to take mindful breaks throughout today and every day.”

• Ask your participants: "Which activity did you enjoy the most?  Which did you like best?  How will you be able to continue mindful practices beyond today?"

• Connect to Nature: Provide participants with simple examples of how they can have a positive impact on their surroundings and request they commit to an environmental act of kindness (e.g., picking up rubbish in a local park, conserving electricity) in the following week.

Suggested Reflection Prompts for Families and Older Kids

• • Why is being a good listener important?

  • Do you think you'll adopt mindful practices like the ones we did together today into your everyday life at home? at school? at work? Which ones would you select and why? How might these mindful practices help you get through the day?

Sample Scripts

Suggested language and questions for different sensory activities:

Belly Breathing 

• “I’m going to teach you a trick I learned that helps to clear your head so you can think straight and feel better. We will use this in each activity.”

All Sensory Activities

• "How does it make you feel?"  ("Are there other times you've also felt this way?")

• "Does it remind you of anything you've seen/smelled/heard/touched/tasted?"

Mindful Seeing

• "Sometimes, it feels really good to slow down and pay attention to what's around us."

• "Can you think of someone--from a movie or a book or a TV show--who is amazing at noticing things?  What makes some observers better than others?"

• "Silently look at an object.  What do you notice about it?  Can you observe this object from different sides?  Does it have any unique details?  Can you describe its color, shape, and size?"

Mindful Smelling 

• "Gently relax your eyes so they are closed or half closed.  Focus on your breathing.  Now, notice the air passing in through your nose and out of your mouth."

• "Focus your attention on the object you are smelling.  What does it make you think of?

• "Can you imagine a name for the scent you are smelling?"

Mindful Listening

• "Let's sit quietly, be as still as possible, and create a space to practice our listening."

• "Take a minute to listen to the sounds around you.  Turn your head from side to side.  Pay attention to how the sounds come in and out of focus as you do this" (45 seconds)

• "Identify a sound that you heard.  Focus on that sound.  What do you notice about it?  Is it close? far? coming from behind or in front? getting louder, quiter, or staying constant?

Mindful Touching 

• "How do you think this will feel in your hands?"

• "Is your object squishy? hard? warm? cold? bumpy? smooth? sticky? wet?

• "Do you like the way it feels on your hands?"

Mindful Tasting

• "Practicing mindful tasting can help us enjoy our food, connect with our bodies, and be healthier overall."

• "First, go ahead and eat one of your ___________________.  Did you take a moment to think about how it looked, felt, smelled?  Now, this time, we're going to use as many of our sense as we can to explore our second _____________ before we eat it."

• "Do you notice anything special about the way your ____________________ looks? feels? smells? What color is it?  Does it feel hard or soft? grainy? sticky?  How does it smell?"

• "Now, put the second _______________ in your mouth--but don't bite down just yet!  Consider closing your eyes. Let is rest on the tip of your tongue and move it around your mouth?  What textures and tastes do you notice?  Chew very, very slowly and notice how the flavor changes from moment to moment.  Swallow slowly as you pay attention, moment by moment.

General Suggestions

Mindfulness can happen anywhere, anytime - it just takes a bit of practice to find your breathing rhythm and settle your mind.

Adaptations for Different Audiences

* Suggestions for Engaging Audiences in the following Age Groups:

• Pre-K to 2nd grade: pick 2-3 senses to focus on for our youngest audiences.

• Grades 3-5: Frame the activity as an exploration adventure or safari : their goal is to notice as many birds, bugs, creepy-crawlies, and any other animals as they can. Anything that walks, crawls, swims, or flies is of interest, and they’ll need to focus all of their senses to find them.

Adaptations for Different Formats

This activity can easily adapt for different environments and group sizes.  If indoors or stationary (event tabling), gather materials participants may use for mindfulness practice. 

• Indoor Classroom Setting: if possible, allow participants to get in the most comfortable position for them (floor, standing, sitting, etc) prior to beginning for best practice of deep/belly breathing

• Table at a Community Event/Festival: place a variety of materials on your table for a "mini" mindful sensing session (feathers, moss, mint, lavender, raisins, leaf, mushroom, flower). Briefly teach "belly breathing" with a 10 second practice.  Have participants use a specific sense to study their object for 45 seconds while belly breathing.

• Capstone Project or Tree Planting: consider incorporating one or two mindful practices into your planting day, and encourage your hardworking volunteers to be in the moment and reflect on what they're accomplishing!

Key Terms

• Mindfulness: a state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations

Fun Facts

• An emerging body of research has demonstrated that there are health benefits associated with feeling more connected to nature.

• Mindfulness is highly accessible. It is completely free and requires no equipment other than yourself!

• Research has shown that the average ‘uninterrupted now’ moments, typically last between 1-10 seconds - with practice, mindfulness will increase that time.

Remember . . .

mindfulness can take place anytime, anywhere, & for anyone

Nature-boosts-kindness-happiness-and-creativity 

National Geographic We Are Wired to Be Outside 

Mind UP 

Mindfulness for Children

Outdoor Activities for Teens to Boost Mental Health

The Lerner Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, NYU Langone Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center developed a "Destress Monday" campaign targeting mindfulness and deep breathing. There are many great resources for all ages, but overall focuses on teens & adults.

• Guided Breathing GIFs

• Destress Monday Resources 

PBS offers many resources for young children, including a simple belly breathing song from Esme & Roy 

• Practice Mindfulness & Belly Breathing

• Breathing Exercises to help calm Young Children

• Mindfulness in Nature

• Developing Mindfulness

• Calm Down Brain Break Exercises

• Top 9 Breathing Exercise Videos for Children