3 Guided Meditations to Connect with Nature from Mindful
Good morning. Welcome to spring! What a great day to take some time to find some natural beauty to drink in. Whether it’s in an urban park, on a hiking trail, or in the midst of a forest refuge, taking an awe-soaked walk in nature is great medicine for the body, mind, and spirit.
When we spend just a few extra minutes in the trees and the greenery, and the elements—sun, wind, water, the ground beneath our feet—we recall that nature is not simply a distant backdrop to our lives. We are part of nature. As both Joni Mitchell and the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson like to remind us, the same substances that make up the earth also make up our bodies: the remnants of stars that dissolved long ago. We are stardust.
Connect with the inherent mindfulness of the natural world with these three guided meditations:
- Begin with yourself. The four elements–earth, wind, fire, and water–connect us, both internally and externally, with the world around us. Jeanne Corrigal brings her Métis heritage, and her training as an insight meditation teacher, to this 12-minute guided practice to connect with the four elements within our own body.
- Then, give yourself permission to rest. Mindfulness teacher Kelly Barron notes that, “Nature restores, regenerates, and renews itself continually in a process of oscillation between activity and periods of rest.” And because we too are from nature, we also benefit from this cycle. In this meditation, she leads a practice for connecting with nature wherever you are by engaging in a moment of rest so that later, we can regenerate and renew.
- Finally, listen. “Listening is a beautiful doorway to the present moment, a tuning into what’s here,” says mindfulness teacher Scott Schute. In this guided meditation, he invites you outdoors to notice the ebb and flow of sounds in nature as you become present with the whole range of sounds you’re experiencing.
Warmly,
The Mindful Editors