Just Stop

Simply sitting, noticing the view and our senses

Over a hundred years ago, J.A. Thompson, Regus Professor of Zoology at the University of Aberdeen told the doctors assembled for the British Medical Association (BMA) annual conference that 

"Nature ministers to our minds, all more or less diseased by the rush and racket of civilisation, and helps to steady and enrich our lives".

He went on to point out that this was achieved through mindful contact with all around us, animate and inanimate.

Today, we can argue that there is even more 'rush and racket' and that more and more people are affected by by it, by trying to work the hours, use the technology, keep ahead. What happened to the idea that technology helped make our lives easier? How often have you been frustrated, stressed or hassled by the inability to achieve what seem like simple tasks using the technology available to you?

The good news is that mindful contact with nature doesn't need anything except your desire to make such contact. No technology, no outside assistance, simply a determination to stop, to breathe and to notice what is around you by engaging with all your senses. Notice how warm the sun feels, while at the same time you can feel the cool breeze on your face. Notice the multitude of sounds, birds calling, trees creaking even the sound of a motorbike racing down the road. The key is to notice the sound, welcome it as part of your symphony of the moment. There is no need to tell a story, to wonder what the sound is or where it came from, where it is going. Simply notice it and move on, find another sound. 

Notice the colours you can see, the shapes, feel the textures. Whatever you are doing you can stop and notice. You can focus on your breathing, again no stories, no wondering why it is how it is, simply watch the breath come and go. Allow yourself just a few minutes, not to stop but to generate the ability to continue, to rejuvenate the mind, simply to be.