Natalie Moore, LMFT, walks you through a mindful walk: notice what you see and hear around you, feel your body moving, let thoughts pass without holding them. She grounds the practice in real sensations like the smell of night-blooming jasmine in an LA neighborhood.
Hey guys, it's Natalie again. I wanted to tell you a little bit about my mindfulness walks and how I do them. So for those of you who don't know what mindfulness is, it's simply drawing your awareness to the present moment in a non-judgmental way. And so in order to do a mindfulness walk, it's really easy. First of all, just take a walk. Secondly, notice what's happening in your mind with your thinking. Notice— you're probably going to notice that you have a lot of thoughts running through your mind. You're gonna have that to-do list, and it's usually an endless to-do list with way too many things that we really don't need to do right now, because all we need to do right now is just walk and breathe and be mindful of where we're walking. And so what you do is you start to just notice your thoughts, and instead of latching onto them— and let's say you have the thought that, "Oh, I need to get food prepared for dinner tonight." Instead of latching onto that thought and then thinking, "Okay, what do I need to make?" How am I gonna make it? What am I gonna do? All of that stuff you're gonna figure out in that moment, but in this moment you don't need to figure that out right now. All you need to do is walk and pay attention to your surroundings. So what you do is you just notice the thought and you let it go. And then another thought is probably gonna come in and you let it go. And another thought comes in and you let it go. And you practice this non-attachment to the thoughts. What I do is I imagine that my awareness is the sky and that the thoughts are clouds. And so the awareness is so much bigger, and you are the awareness. You are not the clouds. You're not your thoughts. Your thoughts come and go, but they're not you. So what you do is you allow the thoughts to pass through your mind, and you allow them to pass through without judging them, because then when you judge a thought, you're also thinking again. So we don't want to add to the pile of thoughts. So what you do is you allow the thoughts to go through your mind and you don't judge them. And instead, what you can do— the best way— what I say to my clients is that the best way out of your mind is into your body. So when you're bringing awareness to your body and also the surroundings around you, it's a lot harder to get lost in thought because our body sensations happen in the present moment. So as you're walking, you can bring awareness to what the ground feels like on your feet as you take each step. You can notice what the air feels like on your skin. Does it feel cold or warm? Is it moving? Is it windy or is the air still? You can notice any scents in the air. For me, when I'm walking around in my neighborhood, I like to— I know it sounds cheesy, but stop and smell the roses. I like to find especially night-blooming jasmine is my favorite smell of flowers, my favorite scent. And so I'll find bushes of night-blooming jasmine, I'll just stand there and I'll just take in the sensory pleasures as much as I possibly can. You can also notice the sounds around you, the sounds of the leaves flickering in the trees. You can even notice the sound of cars going by, that subtle whir of a car going by. There's one right there. We could be mindful of that sound. You can notice the sound of leaves that are crackling as you're walking on them. There's so many different things that you can notice. You can notice the visuals around you. In this neighborhood, there are so many beautiful homes. And so what I do is I walk around and I just look at all of these beautiful homes, and I just appreciate the architecture and the gardens and all of the work and the care and love that went into designing and maintaining those homes and looking at all the gardens and thinking about all of the care that went into tending to those plants. And when you notice, even living in an urban environment, there are so many different natural features to look at and to appreciate. I know that people tend to think of LA as this concrete jungle, but if you really look around, you'll see tons of trees, lawns, gardens, and so many different natural elements. Even just looking up at the sky and the clouds— well, we don't tend to have that many clouds in LA, but looking up at the sky and looking at the clouds when we have them, and just noticing the natural beauty around you just completely changes your mood, changes your mindset, and just changes your life, really. So that's what I do on my mindfulness walks, and I really hope that you guys try one. It's really fun, it's really easy, and I swear it's not weird or hard or strange. It's just an awesome way to take good care of yourself. So hope to see you guys soon. Bye!
5 Things You Need to Cultivate Total Wellness with Natalie Moore | Authority Magazine
