Mindfulness could be the solution to saving the environment and discovering our own true greatness. #mindfulness #environment

Howard had an extra man to help this morning with the sheep work and he asked me to put our lunchtime appointments in town back to later in the afternoon. I was left with some space to tidy the house, write up a few invoices and put some washing out. In the back of my mind I was thinking that this would be a great opportunity to go outside and plan my yoga classes for next week. It is a glorious day but I had my ‘busy hat’ on and thought that housework and bookwork needed to come first. Then ….I just decided to stop and go outside for an hour.

There is a lovely spot on the lawn, under the lemon-scented gum trees. I sat the yoga mat out and put on my straw hat, then settled into the ‘extended child’ yoga position. I could hear the birds and the wind. My breath lengthened until I felt ready to begin a yoga practice. It is always interesting to note how you feel at the beginning and at the end of each yoga session. That sense of needing to do ‘something important’ this morning melted away and I noticed ‘something important’ was already going on.

The sky was a deep deep blue and white clouds floated by, ever so carefully. The spring sun wrapped around my skin like a shawl and as I stretched and reached into each posture.. the detail appeared. The insects, the tiny ants, the bright birds, the tall old gums, the green lawn, the tiny stones and the plants flowering in the garden. The grape vine is in full leaf already, sunlight touches each rich green tip and the warm breeze creates a wave like movement right along the vine. And its then that I realised that mindfulness will help the environment. (You can't improve a situation that you don't notice)

If most of us are busy all the time, then who is aware of our global environment changing? We glance at a sunset and perhaps grab a cup of tea in the sunshine but who is totally present with nature ? I remember being on the front verandah one morning and noticing one fine string of a spiders web sparkling in the sun. I tried to work out if it was from a broken web, but found it was being released by the tiniest of spiders who stood on a scrub in the corner of the garden. As I watch the spider he let go and started floating up and up on a breeze I couldn’t even feel. He was catching a ride to the very top of the gum above us. This tidy spider the size of my little fingernail new the direction of the wind and how to fly high into the tree.. with ease.    

That day I realized that all these living creatures have great intelligence and they matter!  When savoring the sky and the garden today I also realize that we probably benefit more from nature than nature benefits from us. We must look after our environment, even without knowing the full positive impact nature is having on our health and wellbeing. We must wake up and notice. If our generation keeps damaging forests, parks, dear old trees and rare wildlife someone is going to stop their ‘busyness’ one day and wonder what on earth has occurred.

Mindfulness wakes us up to the beauty of nature now and the beauty of nature connects us the cycles and rhythms of our own existence. I believe sitting in nature is one of the most therapeutic habits we can have. Out there you don’t have to do anything or be anything, you can simply be 

and this is when our true greatness and positive impact rises from...