Mindfulness in Nature
by Zoë Tobin Peterson
Pick a designated spot for the group to come back to, make sure everybody knows where it is and when they should be there.
Instruct everybody to go out into nature, remind them to be respectful of the plants and creatures and to just take time to be in God’s creation. Noticing things like sounds, smells, colours, textures, and anything else that might call to them.
Instruct them to pick something up that stands out to them, remembering to be respectful while doing so, and to bring it back to a designated place, where everybody should now be in a circle.
In a calm voice, invite each person to hold up what they brought, and notice how it looks. Noticing the colours, how they may or may not change throughout the object, noticing the shape, any texture that might be visible.
Next, invite them to notice how the object feels. Noticing the weight. If it’s smooth or rough or flaky. All the textures it might have. Noticing if its wet or dry, or somewhere in between.
Next invite them to notice how it sounds. For this one, its helpful if you do it as well to show. If not, say something along the lines of: try holding it up to your ear, tapping it, rubbing it. Noticing if it’s a deep sound, or a shallow one. Noticing if it sounds different in different places. Noticing how you can interact with it to make different noises.
Next, invite them to smell it. Noticing if it smells like something else, or a mixture of different scents. Invite them to try thinking of words that might describe the smell.
OPTIONAL (ONLY IF USING FOOD)
Invite them to put it in their mouth, without biting into it, noticing the textures they can feel on their tongue. Noticing the immediate taste.
Invite them to bite into it. Noticing if the textures and tastes change as they chew.
OPTIONAL (explanation, and conversation about exercise)
This exercise is called the child’s mind exercise. The idea is to look at something through a child’s eyes, or like you’ve never seen it before. Some people prefer to think of it like an alien visiting earth for the first time. What would an alien or a child notice that we might not? Some things get mundane, once we’ve seen them so many times. What this exercise is meant to do is remind us to take the time to notice things that we might have skipped over time and time again.
Invite everybody to share something that they noticed about their object, as well as something in their day-to-day lives that they would like to pay more attention to.
Some tips:
Using a calm and steady voice is a good way to make the group pay attention.
Make sure to give them a suggested time limit to be back to the circle, after step 3.
Speaking slowly.
Saying “I’ll invite you to…” before you begin a sentence or idea.
When talking bout an object, giving options like “maybe it’s__, maybe it’s___” and “Is it __ or___” is a good way to introduce the style of thinking in the beginning and throughout.
Saying something like “when you’re ready”, “no rush”, and “in your own time” between sentences.
Don’t be afraid to be repetitive, its part of the experience.
Pausing between each sentence.
Giving them time to be mindful after you’ve finished speaking, before you move onto the next step.
If you’re doing the exercise along with them, giving them about 10 seconds more than you needed to fully notice is a good rule of thumb, but use your intuition and look around the group to sense when to move on to the next phase.
Feel free to alter this exercise in ways that make sense for you and the groups of people you do this with.
Exercise prepared by Sacred Earth Camp Youth Staff member Zoë Tobin Peterson