December can be a joyful yet challenging time – full of excitement for the holidays and a new year, but also heavy with grief, difficult family dynamics, and feelings of loneliness. Let’s step away from the chaos and immerse ourselves in the sights, sounds, and sensations of the natural world to find calm amidst the storm.
By slowing down and really tuning in, we can experience awe and a profound sense of connection to something greater than ourselves. This practice is not about escaping our problems, but about finding the resources within to face them with more clarity, resilience, and compassion. So join me on this journey to grow the good – in ourselves, in nature, and in our relationships.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
– How to use nature to ground awareness and attention
– Practices to cultivate awe and wonder
– Benefits of connecting to something larger
LISTEN TO SONYA
LINKS
- Become one of my clients! Health Coaching | Mental Performance Coaching
- Moving meditation to combat self-criticism
- Moving meditation for your next workout
If you want to work towards your goals and more, check out my self-paced online course: Moxy & Grit Mindset Academy.
Episode Transcript
Sonya Looney 0:29
I’m so glad that you guys are back for another moving meditation, and man, the response to the last two that I put out has been really good, so I’m going to keep doing it. And if this is your first one with me, welcome. I do these off the cuff. When I’m out training, I think about the thing that’s connecting with me most, and I always want to share it with you, because I know that we’re all human beings, and we’re sharing similar human experiences. So if you hear like the sound of my feet, I’m out for a long run, or you hear me breathing a little bit harder, don’t worry. Okay, so it’s December, and December can be a really fun time, very exciting for the holidays and family and all the things, the excitement of a new year coming up, a fresh start, but it can also be hard. It can be both. Can be overwhelming. Maybe it’s your first holiday without a loved one because they’ve passed away, because you’re estranged, or maybe you’re divorced, that’s really hard. Maybe it’s the time it’s been with family members that have in the past not really been kind to you, that it’s really difficult to have productive conversations. And maybe it’s a time where you’re alone or you wish things were different. Maybe it’s a combination. So today, I wanted to use nature as a way to ground us and our awareness and our attention, not meant to make all the problems go away, because that doesn’t actually happen in real life, but just a moment to get underneath the surface, kind of like if you’re in a storm and the waves are choppy on top, or really bad if you go a bit further down, it’s calm, it’s quiet. There’s all kinds of vibrant sea life that might be unaware or maybe just unperturbed by the choppiness up above. So let’s drop into nature in that way. Nature has so many benefits for our mental health and for our physical health. And think, instead of going into it right now, I’m going to use that, do that in an introduction later. Let you into my process. But the main reason why a lot of us feel good in nature is because of experiences of awe, feelings that take you outside of yourself, that transcend worrying, ruminating self, criticizing or even criticizing others of thinking too much and resisting and avoiding things. Maybe you’re on top of the world. All can also bring you back in a different way, and it’s great to feel on top of the world, but all these feelings, thoughts don’t last forever. So just dropping in, I encourage you to do this outside. If you can, if you can’t do it outside, you can even try just putting on your TV some pictures of nature. I know some of the smart TVs do that, which actually really enjoy, and we’re going to engage in all the senses. This might mean stopping. You’re running, if you’re biking, might mean stopping. Might mean putting your Strava aside for just a moment. Maybe put it in your Strava that this is what you’re doing because you can inspire others to do this for themselves. So as you settle in just noticing your space around you, I’ll tell you about mine, and then I’ll give you a minute to think about your. Is running in the Pacific Northwest, wet, dank, loamy, lots of wet roots. I’m hearing water. I’m seeing so many shades of green. I see a moto up ahead. I see pine needles. So do that for yourself for yourself for a moment. Stay on your environment. You might need to pause or stop and just look up if you hear motorcycle like I do, maybe just let it pass sounds that’s just a sound.
Sonya Looney 5:42
No, noticing the trees.
Sonya Looney 5:52
Maybe this sounds about Woo to you, but can you feel the energy coming off of those trees? I
Sonya Looney 6:03
and you feel the boundaries of yourself dissolve for a moment and connect with the trees. That sounds weird or that’s not working. Have a working hypothesis that the intensity level that we’re exercising at can impact how much we feel we can connect with nature you’re struggling. Maybe try speeding up or slowing down and see what that does for you.
Sonya Looney 6:39
Noticing the color of the dirt, the
Sonya Looney 6:49
sounds, the sky, maybe just stop. I’m stopping to look up so often when we are in states of stress. Said this before on past meditation, but our perspective narrows. Our tension narrows. Sometimes it can get really focused and granular, on worrying about ourselves, thinking about the past. So look up, look around. So widen that perspective and
Sonya Looney 7:31
zoom out a little bit more. Maybe now you’re a bird in the sky looking down on you. Maybe you’re an airplane flying over, looking down on you. Keep zooming all the way out on your country, on the planet, you are just a spec, a massive universe with so much mystery, it might feel lonely, but it also might be amazing. That’s what I do in my bike races. When I’m struggling, I’m worrying, and I’m thinking about all these things. Is I just zoom out and tell myself all my worries are kind of not very significant or that important for the grand scheme of things, you are important and your worries do matter. But I also like to just frame that perspective, and that helps me.
Sonya Looney 8:34
Now we’re gonna practice, we’re gonna do all of our senses. We’re gonna start with five things that we can see and not just glancing this might mean stopping and marveling at things. Five things. Maybe it’s a pine cone, a leaf,
Sonya Looney 9:00
moss, cactus, five things.
Sonya Looney 9:10
How much detail can you see in that thing that you’re looking at?
Sonya Looney 9:20
Imagine all of the different things that thing has withstood. You’re looking at a tree, all of the different weather, the different people who have passed by the tree, the different animals, the test of time in the world, of all the things that tree has withstood,
Sonya Looney 9:52
take your attention to something else. Maybe it’s a rock. Maybe it’s a crack in the sidewalk. Things You Can See, use your curiosity evoke a sense of wonder about these things.
Sonya Looney 10:15
You’re really feeling it. Maybe take a picture to remind you later about the wonder in the world
Sonya Looney 10:27
now your own pace, do three more things you
Sonya Looney 10:46
up your mind is wonder to come back to, using your eyes, your senses of visual awareness,
Sonya Looney 10:59
thinking about how nature is there, withstanding all the elements,
Sonya Looney 11:11
power of it, the invisible things that You can’t detect as a human, that are there. So now let’s move to four things that you can hear. Hopefully don’t hear my feet splashing through the water. Four things in your world that you can hear. I’ll give you a couple that I hear the sound of water dripping off the trees, the faint call of the bird, the sound of an excavator far off in the distance,
Sonya Looney 11:57
and the sound of a very light breeze in the trees. Find that for yourself. Connect.
Sonya Looney 12:19
Once you’ve noticed this. Sounds. Let’s come into the things that you can feel. I’m going to open this up not just physical sensations. You can shift to emotional sensations. Maybe you feel your feet moving in a circle, air pressing or even biting your skin. Maybe you feel impatience for me to move on. I
Sonya Looney 13:04
missing three things you feel.
Sonya Looney 13:18
Look up again, look around your surroundings, your tall running like me, I have to slow down so I don’t fall
Sonya Looney 13:35
quick. Little bonus of thinking about or even perceiving what other beings are around you that you can’t see? Maybe it’s plant life, but maybe it’s animals bugs. When I think about that, I feel it in my body. I feel warmth and my stomach area and my throat,
Sonya Looney 14:11
not alone.
Sonya Looney 14:17
Now let’s come to two things that hang on, Anthony, I forgot sight hearing. Sight hearing, feeling. Two things. Now let’s move on to two things. You can smell doesn’t have to be a pleasant smell. Doesn’t have to be a strong smell. Maybe you smell yourself, maybe you smell the forest, or you smell pollution and smell of a moto or something else. I. If you can’t smell anything, just noticing how it feels when air goes in and out your nostrils. That means breathing in and out your nose a few times,
Sonya Looney 15:19
noticing how it feels when you breathe in through your nose, and how your nose cool if you’re outside in a cool temperature, how your nose cools the air, maybe you smell leaves that are rotting, or pine or a fire burning, hopefully a cozy fire, remembering that all these things are available to you any moment of the day, but experiencing them in a nature environment increases those feelings of awe and connection to something bigger than our own. World, in her mind, last is taste. This one’s a bit tricky. Evoking on nature with taste. Hopefully you’re not tasting things that are poisonous or bad. But can you taste the air you like? Stick your tongue out just a little bit? Maybe you just taste the taste of exercise. Maybe it’s, hopefully it’s not the taste of blood, but sometimes it is. Maybe it’s the taste of something you ate a little while ago, the taste of water, contemplating even what the taste of water is. What do you taste?
Sonya Looney 16:58
Letting all that go. You did five things, five senses. We did, hearing seeing smelling tasting. We did hearing seeing, smelling tasting, healing. Ling
Sonya Looney 17:26
looking around again. Life is crazy. There’s lots of things always going on at every minute, lots of demands on our time, lots of things that we want to do, things we’re excited about, things that we’re disappointed about, things that we wish were different, things that we’re avoiding. Using mindfulness to tune in so that we can connect to something bigger. Using awe, using her, marveling at nature. That’s a great way to live, helps us better memory, helps us sleep better, helps us have better relationships, helps us with mind wandering our default mode network that’s so hyperactive at all times. So meditation does is it calms the default mode network. You don’t have to meditate experience off, but what you attend to becomes your experience. When you start looking around you for the beauty in the world, the things that maybe can’t even be explained. You start seeing it everywhere. You become sensitive and attuned in different ways so the world around you by these practices, you it. This is a quick little sneak peek into our podcast. Rebrand next month. Grow the good is what it’s going to be called the grow the good podcast doesn’t mean that there isn’t hard things in life. Growing the good means growing the good in yourself, noticing it, noticing and growing the good in nature, most importantly, noticing and growing the good in the people and relationships around us, these mindfulness practices are a tool to help you grow the good help you experience presence, connectedness and contentment to.
Sonya Looney 20:05
Let’s round this out by taking three the biggest breaths you’ve taken today. You breathe into your mouth, if you want nose or mouth, whatever works best, but straight into your belly. Fill your whole body, fill it up, let it out. Another one. Let it out. One more. Pull it up. A little bit more, let it out. Now, let’s check in. How are you feeling? I do you hear Do you hear things? You see things more than you did when we started? Do you feel more calm? Do you feel like you have more resources to take on the frenetic energy of what lies ahead? I hope the answer is yes, this is always available to you, using your sentences to engage in nature, to experience awe, so that you can connect to something bigger and get outside yourself. Thanks so much for listening, for participating, thanks again for all the feedback you guys have been giving me, because that’s helping me with ideas moving forward. When I do these, I mentioned, I am not going off of a script on purpose. The perfectionist, I mean, struggles with that a little bit. But I want it to be authentic, and they wanted to connect with the moment, to meet the moment in a real way, not in a scripted way. Hope you have an amazing holiday. Make sure you tune in in December or in January, because we’re going to start offering some workshops as we move into the new year to help you grow the good in your life. And I’m so excited to join you through that journey. Thank you for being a part of mine, and as always, I’m with you on this journey of personal growth adventure and our mission to be better every day. We’ll see you right back here very soon