Highland Climate Festival Nature-Connection Activities

Nature Walk

Very simply, go for a walk in nature and mindfully take in your surroundings. Use all your senses and notice what sights, sounds, scents and textures attract your attention.  Sometimes it is easiest to close your eyes and focus on your others senses in turn. It can be surprising what you notice when you close your eyes, in part because you tend to stand still when you do this, allowing you to concentrate and focus on your other senses. So find a place to stand, put down anything you are carrying, relax your arms letting them hang by your side and close your eyes.

Start by engaging your auditory sense and listen to what you can hear around you. Can you hear animals or birds? 

Can you hear the wind rustling the leaves? Take a deep breath in through your nose. What can you smell? 

Think about what you can feel. 

Is the surface that you are standing on hard or soft? 

Is there a breeze? Is it blowing your hair? Can you feel which way the sun is oriented in relation to you? 

Try turning though 90 degrees to your left or right. Does what you hear change? If the sun is shining, how does it feel now that you have turned. 

Continue turning in the same direction until you are facing the same direction that you started. Once you open your eyes again, focus for a while on the thing that first grabs your attention.