Mindfulness: A Tiny Little Vacation

What do a vacation in Ecuador, a stressed-out kid and Dodge have in common?

Well, I just returned from my first ever trip to a developing country.  (If you've never been to a developing country, I suggest you visit as soon as you can.  It is really, really mind-blowing, and humbling, to see how people thrive in places that are not America and I really wish that I had gone many moons ago, but before I digress...just go if you can).  I also have a highly contentious nine-year-old who tends to loose her marbles when she encounters multiplication home work.  And then there is lovely, lovely Dodge Nature Center, where I work every day.

Okay, so while in Ecuador, I noticed that I was living entirely in-the-moment.  I was not thinking about tomorrow (except perhaps to stop and try to coordinate transportation through the next frightening mountain pass), or making dinner, doing laundry or going back to school, or home work.  I was just really soaking it all up minute by minute (it was kind of like being a kid).  As I flew back to home, I began to think about the future, and about how I wanted to try to live more in the moment when I returned to Minnesota.  Now, I know that vacation is vacation, and one cannot go about your daily business without contemplating dinner and laundry, but I got to thinking about how our family can become consumed and preoccupied by the very idea of work, homework, mortgage, tornadoes etc, etc.  Plus, we generally have an embarrassment of riches here in the US, and it is embarrassing how much we manage to stress and worry about things that don't really matter at the end of the day.  Too much worry, and too much stuff, and too much worry about stuff.  Less worry, and less stuff.

Stress Reduction in Ecuador, or, Sleeping-In-the -Moment

So I vowed to take concrete steps to deal with daily stress, improve my coping skills and try to simplify by simply enjoying life a little more.  I finally enrolled myself in that yoga class that I've been putting off forever, I tried to organize my house a bit, I made my kids organize their rooms (or at least look under their beds), I made a list of meals to shop for and cook in the coming weeks (I said, "I made a list," which is not the same as actually cooking said meals) and I also checked some books out of the library.  One publication really struck a cord with me:  Parenting Your Stressed Child:  10 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Practices to Help Your Child Manage Stress and Build Essential Life Skills by Michelle L. Bailey.  Bailey plots out how to practice mindfulness with your child in order to help you and your child cope.  Think of it as being able to take a mini-vacation every day (maybe we should call it mind-less-ness?).  This concise primer presents very easy and common sense practices that are not too daunting to consider implementing.  And guess what?  One of the best ways to combat stress and practice mindfulness is to go for a walk outside, IN NATURE.  You see where I'm going with this, right?

Well, I have to tell you, I was both thrilled and mortified to realize that I spend most of my life in a job that is really, really good for managing stress.  Thrilled to know I'm in the right place, kind of mortified to realize that I still have trouble managing stress, although I'm in the perfect "therapeutic" setting.  But the take away for all of you is that the benefits of Dodge are available to our entire community.  Yes, our students get a daily dose of mindfulness as they walk and observe the world around them (countless studies show that this alone is a huge factor in reducing stress and promoting health; remember the study that proved invalids recover faster in a room with a window on nature?), but all of our visitors can walk and breath in relative solitude on Dodge trails.  You know,  just about every week, someone walks through the front doors of the Preschool (mistakenly thinking it is the Nature Center headquarters), wondering if we have a map and asking if they can hike.  Yes!  Yes!  "You can do that," we say.  And you know what?  You, really, really should enjoy our trails, with or without a map, whenever you can.

Mindo Community Preschool in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest

An Easy Mindfulness Walk:

First turn off your cell phone.  Walk on any trail at Dodge.  Notice your breathing.  Try to find the quiet spot between the inhale and the exhale as you walk.  Think about your body.  Notice where it might feel tense and focus on relaxing into that muscle as you walk.  Look around you.  Smell.  Touch grasses or leaves.  Keep walking and let your mind wander (I've read that it's good to think of your thoughts as clouds:  watch them blow by, name their shapes if you like, but try not to judge them, don't feel that you have to act on them, right at that moment,  just let them be clouds).  Try to give yourself at least a half an hour of this unhurried, easy-breathing, strolling.  A tiny little vacation.

Mindfulness Walk for Kids:

Tell your young wanderer that you are going on a Treasure Walk.  First run, and be silly, and loud, if you like.  Then try walking silently, and fairly slowly, for 5 minutes, looking and smelling and touching, but not talking.  Find a place to sit down and close your eyes.  Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth for a couple cycles, then try to remember 3 things you noticed on your walk.  The things that you remember are your treasures.  See if you can find more on your next walk.

Treasure I Found on a Walk in Ecuador