Calm Your Mind, Thanksgiving, and Open Up Your Senses In the Bearcamp Trackers we incorporate 3 mindfulness practices into tracking
The 1st practice is a technique to calm one's mind. I initially encountered it when insomnia overtook my life soon after my first child was born. I found this ted talk about a musician who nearly died from his lifestyle (poor eating and insomnia). Somehow, instinctively, he came up with this routine to allow himself to sleep without medication. I use it for sleep and to calm my mind before tracking.
Calm Your Mind Routine:
Sit or lay or stand in a comfortable position and close your eyes.
Use both hands to tap your legs and keep a rhythm (I use about 4 beats/second)
Breath in slowly for 5 seconds and out slowly for 5 seconds-- continue this pattern
On top of this, I focus on the very subtle sensation of how the air feels coming into my lungs.
Continue this for 3 minutes.
Halve the speed of your hands tapping and continue for another minute.
As I am doing this I usually feel a great sense of loosening in my mind as the anxieties, responsibilities and stresses in my life melt away.
Thanksgiving:
Inspired by the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address we will go in a circle each say something we are thankful for. This is usually but not entirely focused on the animals who may grace us with their tracks, the environment who sustain and inspire us, and the people who support and energize us.
Opening Up Senses
In this moment name to yourself:
3 things you can see
3 things you can hear
something you can taste
2 things you can smell
2 things you can feel.
This will help bring your senses into the present moment and engage with the world around you as you prepare to go out and experience Nature. But it is a practice that you can do at any moment and I challenge you to try it throughout your days and treat this practice as a touchstone to continually re-immerse yourself into your own body and Nature.
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