A slight shift in how we think about, and approach, an everyday walk can help the mind find a certain balance and harmony. Read on for a simple, effective strategy to direct your attention, find beauty in the mundane and add to your mental and emotional ballast. This is the second in a new series of articles with practical, everyday ways to care for your psychological wellbeing.
If you read the first article in this series, Beauty As Ballast: Creating Stability In Turbulent Times, you may recall therapist Jules Taylor’s comment, “I find beauty everywhere. Even a simple little flower on a weed I find extraordinary.”
You would have also read that Jules is an experienced teacher of meditation and mindfulness practices. Paying alert attention to the world, noticing the overlooked as well as the obvious, and finding beauty in the mundane—such as a flower on a weed—is a form of mindfulness practice we can all try for ourselves.
An everyday walk, in any environment, is a prime opportunity not only to move the body but move the mind into a state of present moment awareness of our sensory experience of the physical world. In turn, this serves to calm the mind, reduce anxious thoughts and agitation.
As an artist and mindfulness practitioner I set great store by this kind of walking with alert, attentive awareness, noticing what is present. This is walking at a steady pace, paying attention to the physical surroundings underfoot, around, above—rather than being lost in thought and unaware. Walking with eyes attuned to colour, form, shape, texture, light, shadow, movement, and so on, becomes a form of art practice through which we can find beauty in the mundane.
For those of us fortunate enough to live in Jervis Bay and able to walk on beaches and in the bush, the mundane may be a striking stripe of yellow spray paint on a rock marked by the council. It may be a decaying mushroom, drying, shrinking and changing form. Or the husk of a cicada, its wings glinting in sunlight.
On an urban street walk, the mundane may be shadows cast by strong sunlight, illuminating peeling paint on a wall. Perhaps, paper tabs advertising something—a room to let; a bicycle for sale—fluttering in the breeze.
“What if I were to think art is just paying attention?”
Allan Kaprow (1927-2006). American artist.
Looking Beyond Liking
When the mind is paying attention and the eye is noticing, there is intriguing colour and pattern and texture and line and contour to be found everywhere.
The intention here is to notice without judging, without having an opinion. In the case of colours, to simply notice, appreciate their presence and qualities—the intensity, say, the variation, the contrasts.
Allowing the mind to be in neutral in this way—to be open, accommodating, not pulled this way or that—is a restful, restorative state where balance and harmony may be found and nurtured to aid our psychological wellbeing.
More on mindfulness
Click here to find other practical how-to articles on mindfulness in Jervis Bay Weekend’s Wellbeing section.
