15-Minute Nature Fix

By Erica Place on June 13, 2022 in Blog

Summer break is here and your routine may be disrupted with playdates and sleepovers. Perhaps your evenings and weekends are already filling up with farmer’s markets, outdoor concerts, pool parties, and dinners with friends. Warmer weather brings a hustle and bustle that can be energizing, shaking off the lazier, chillier days we mostly spent inside. But that sudden busyness can sometimes be draining as well, leaving us in need of a recharge. The outdoors can fill us back up.

We might not always have time for a camping getaway or retreat to a favorite fishing hole, but there are many simple ways we can quickly incorporate the healing of nature in between our errands or commitments. Here are just a few ideas for a 15-minute nature fix, no equipment needed:

Reconnect with your senses

Close your eyes and lean into your sense of hearing. How many different bird sounds can you count? It doesn’t really matter if you know which one is which. Or focus on your sense of touch. Maybe that means the squish of soft earth beneath your feet, the coolness of the creek water on your fingers, or the breeze blowing across your cheeks. Just be present. You can do this in any outdoor space.

Hit up a different kind of bar

This one does require that you find a sandbar (be sure you’re on public property), but it’s worth the extra effort. Pick a spot and sit. Notice all the different colors, shapes, and sizes of rocks. That one is worn smooth from its movement through water and over land, this one feels heavier than it should for its size, and the one over there glimmers in the sun. You might even find treasures from the past like a tooth from when bison roamed the state or a fossil from when this area was covered in a sea.

Notice the little things

Take a break from the task at hand and inspect a single plant. Is anything making a meal of its blooms? Have the leaf edges been munched on? Flip over the leaves — do you see any eggs?

Take a moment and let nature be your focus, in whatever way feels right for you.