Nature as a Mindfulness Practice

“When you bring the dimension of mindfulness into your awareness, life itself becomes the meditation practice.” Jon Kabat-Zinn

As you develop your mindfulness practice you will find that there are times you are more mindful and other times when you are mindless and your thoughts are running amok.  I try to find time to be in nature as often as I can because I tend to be more mindful in nature.  You don’t have to go far to be in nature, I can go in my back yard and observe the plants or go for a walk in my neighborhood.

Recently I went skiing at Deer Valley in Utah.  I am very mindful when I ski because I don’t like to get hurt.  If I am not focused in the moment on what I am doing, I can catch an edge and fall, and I really don’t like the after effects of falling.  I also love absorbing nature when I am skiing.  I stop from time to time and just take in the trees, the snow, how the light glistens off the snowflakes and the views.  I use my senses and smell the fragrance of the woods, I listen to the sounds around me and I open my mouth and taste the snowflakes as they fall and I giggle.  I am in the moment and being grateful for the beauty of nature. I enter a state of bliss. Skiing becomes my meditation practice for the day.

Where and when do you find it easiest to be mindful?

How can you spend more time in the places that make it easiest to practice mindfulness?