Spending time in Nature

Nurture your being through Nature

Spending quiet time in your favourite nature hangouts is a key element to cultivating mindfulness. Sure, you can cultivate mindfulness anywhere, being in nature is not a pre-requisite. Nature, though, has the added benefit of connecting you to your origins, grounding you & bringing you back to centre, which makes practicing & recognising mindfulness a whole lot easier.

In a way, it should be a given; that spending time in nature is essential to our health as humans.. though it has been proven time & again that nature is something that we, in first world countries, are adamant in abstaining from. We wear shoes, all day long, separating us from the earth.. we control the temperatureindoors, separating us from the weather, we wear clothes & we hardly ever get to feel the wind on our bodies in a free & relaxed fashion, a fashion where we are not being scrutinised by ourselves & others as to how we may look without those clothes, leading us further away from, nature.

We eat using a fork & a spoon & don't touch our food or touch our mouth while we are eating, we drive in cars or ride or take other transport, so often that walking every day, which is what our bodies were made to do -  is an odd concept for most. We buy food from a shop, rarely understanding the value of it & never knowing the person that took the time to nourish the earth in which it was grown, sow the seeds & tend to the tender plant until it was time for harvest. We are removed more than ever from the natural ways of living & yet the thing we crave the most is this aloof & fleeting feeling of connectedness.

Do you have a favourite spot that you like to spend time in?

One way you can support yourself & your overall health is by spending time, on purpose, helping yourself feel that connected feeling. It's as simple as taking a breath, making a smile, stepping outside & looking up. Another way to feel connected is to spend time in nature. Do you have a favourite spot that you like to hang out in? it could be your local beach, nature reserve, park.. anywhere where you are outside & able to move freely without hesitation. Take a walk, lie down, sit with your eyes closed & listen to the waves coming in, going out.. 
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Some of my favourite nature time practices include walking in nature either at the beach or around the bush, lying on the earth with my eyes closed or looking up into the leaves of a tree, observing the wind & light flickering through the tree.. simply sitting on the beach and breathing in the ocean. 

Cultivate mindfulness and connectedness by regularly spending quiet time in nature.

(and don't forget to look up..) photograph curtesy of my son :-)

Annalee Atia

Annalee is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Radio broadcaster with the Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond radio program on award winning 99.9BayFM,  Maternity Consumer Respresentative and is a Speaker & Writer on Health & Wellness matters globally.