I have a Buddhist-inspired mindfulness/meditation practice that I aspire to engage with on a daily basis, and forest bathing is, for me, perhaps the ultimate place for such a practice (next to water is even better!), but as is inherent to the practice, equanimity can be found anywhere at any time by just attending to the present moment.
Thanks for sharing and opening up this conversation, @BetweenTheEars. May you be well
It is such a powerful thing to realize something you do instinctively has been recognized and appreciated in a formal way by many people around the world.
I’d like to think that beauty and perspective and awe one experiences in nature carries back over into the rest of life, too. Awe can be found even in the smallest and unlikliest of places, beyond nature. While I was over in London I was walking over the Millennium Bridge. Saw what looked like a person down on their luck laying on the bridge as hundreds of people just walked by. I felt sadness and empathy for them. But then… as I got closer I realized this was not the case. It was a person with a spread of small paint bottles, an artist, working on something inscrutably small … painting maybe?
I thought it was odd, mentally shrugged and continued by … but then I looked down. Nestled in between the textured metal surface of the bridge were little bits of color. Looking closer and bending down … oh my goodness … there were hundreds of tiny, minutely detailed paintings. They were all made on dried up pieces of dirt and chewing gum! Some no bigger than a fingernail. Most of the people around seemed not to care, focused on their destination, walking all over these things.
I experienced awe. I must have stood there wandering around the bridge, getting in other peoples way as they hustled and bustled to wherever they were going, looking at all these little things. Filled with a little bit of joy at this unexpected discovery, I continued on with my day.
Upon reflection, I would like to think (but will never know for sure) that some of the mindfulness practice and efforts to pay attention to the small and the subtle in nature lead me to look down and be more curious than I might have normally been in a space that was perhaps the opposite of nature… Otherwise, I might have missed this amazing little thing. What a wonderful surprise it was!
Lovely story, @BetweenTheEars, thanks for sharing! And yes, it’s a great feeling when you find some kindred spirits that also engage in the more niche lifestyles and activities that can bring so much joy to the individual but simultaneously invoke a feeling of loneliness since they are so distant than the way most humans have been conditioned to live in western society.
Amen. My therapist often notes how at no point in history have humans been so isolated as we are today despite our technologically “connected” world. I’ve fallen victim to this reality as well (hence therapy) and am so glad to have woken up to that and earned the opportunity to do something about it. Its hard, but necessary, work to compensate for the shortcomings of the era into which we are born.
Started to commit to yoga 3 times a week and it has changed my life. Wonderful breathing and physical practice. Working on getting into a deep squat with feet on the ground still.
