Nature Adventure – a mindful ‘noticing walk’ with my children

I asked my children not to talk about memories or future plans and just to walk slowly and really look at our surroundings, and to ‘notice’ things of interest.

© noticing walk3 alternative NRivers

By Dr Nicky Rivers, Living Landscape Development Manager

Although we are all spending most of our time at home for now, we are still allowed outside once daily for exercise whilst maintaining social distancing. I am using this as an opportunity to explore our local area in greater detail than usual with my children, aged 6 and almost 10. Yesterday we went for a very local walk with no particular destination in mind (for a change!). I asked them not to talk about memories or future plans and just to walk slowly and really look at our surroundings, and to ‘notice’ things of interest.

This mindful activity made such a change from trying to get somewhere, or being in a hurry, or thinking of other things, or all the above. We all really enjoyed it and found it relaxing. We noticed both natural and man-made things of interest and sometimes a combination of the two.

Here is a selection of the interesting things we noticed on our walk.

  1. A close-up view of the variety of life low down by the base of a cherry tree.
  2. An on-going battle between trees, shrubs and a wire fence.
  3. New life breaking out from the trunks of cherry trees.

Have a go at your own mindful walk and let us know what you notice on our social media channels.

Take care,

Nicky x