A helpful exercise when practicing mindfulness is to focus on the senses, and a relaxing walk among the smells, sights and sounds of Autumn can be the perfect combination for staying in the present moment.
When our racing minds begin to take off to the future with worried "what-if" thinking, or when they drift to the past with messages of how things "should" have been, or "could" have been, then we are not present. But mindfulness practices that bring us right into our senses can help with this. The sounds, smells, view, feel and even the tastes we experience in the present moment are all that really exist. We can consider the past and bring information from it to the present to help us solve something or move forward, and we can consider those worries about the future in order to apply action to productive worry, but letting our minds live in the past or future only leads to prolong feelings of depression and anxiety.
Don't worry. You're not alone if your mind tends to drift off into the past or future quite often, but you can get better and better at staying in the present by apply daily practices that exercise your ability to return to the present over and over again. The more you practice mindfulness, the more frequently you will be present and the less you will suffer from the consequences of living in symptoms of depression and anxiety that are triggered by thoughts, and not reality.
A beautiful and relaxing Autumn walk is perfect for these kinds of mindfulness practices. In such an environment you can intentionally pay attention to the brilliant changing colors all around you. Fall is a time of year that offers carpeted paths of fallen leaves of shades ranging from yellow and green, to orange and red. The changing environment around you will also offer the smells of the changing season. Damp leaves and transforming forest floors produce the smells of the shifting season as the trees around you are shedding their growth for the coming winter.
There is something about walking among all those leaves that also has a feel of insulation that softens sound. Depending on where you live, you will also hear the sound of the traveling birds as they make their way south this time of year, and other animals will be busy in the bush preparing their winter homes and food supply.
As you zero in on these senses during your walk, you may not notice it but your mind is no longer racing into the future with worry or drifting into the past with sorrow, regret, and other emotions that surface. These changes also preventing any ongoing unnecessary symptoms that those memories or worries create in your present moment.
Here is an exercise for your Autumn walk. Spend 5 minutes on each statement, rotating through them repeatedly throughout your walk: "What do I see?", "What do I hear?", "What do I smell?", "What do I taste?", and "What do I feel?" The very last one listed here is not about feeling emotionally or psychologically, but what you feel physically, such as the temperature, or the sun on your face, or your clothing on your body, etc. In addition, if you do not detect something in one of your senses, that's okay. For instance, if you are not eating anything, or do not have gum or anything else in your mouth, you might not really taste anything at the moment, and that's okay. Just move to the next sense and continue.
This is a beautiful time of year to get outside and enjoy the mild temperatures, as well as the beautiful colors and smells. They say there is no time like the present, but the truth is that the present is the only time that really exists. So it should say, "There is no time but the present".
"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree." ~EmilyBronte
Thanks to Sebnem Gulfidan for the great photo, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
