The following exercise is particularly suitable if you are out and about in the forest or in nature in general.
But you can also do them when you're in town.
When we walk along a path, we are usually used to orienting ourselves with our eyes. We see the landscape, our surroundings and the path in front of us that we want to walk along.
And because this type of orientation has become so commonplace for us, we quickly switch to automatic mode and don't really notice what we encounter on the way.
And thus we have a lot of time to indulge in our thoughts and often enough also to deal with all the things that are not going the way we would like them to.
And of course, that causes a lot of negative stress.
Time for something new!
On one of your next walks, just try to orient yourself with your ears rather than your eyes.
You don't have to close your eyes completely for this and that would be quite dangerous when walking.
It is enough if you simply consciously pay attention to the noises and sounds around you on your next walk - hence the name of the exercise "Sound Paths":
- What noises and sounds do you perceive?
- Are there several sounds that you can perceive or is it just one?
- How does the sound feel to you (try to stay as neutral as possible internally)?
- Is it a natural sound or a man-made sound?
- From which direction does it come?
- Is it near or far away?
- Is it loud or quiet?
If you consciously perceive the environment around you in this way, you have no capacity free to indulge in your worried thoughts at the same time.
The episode:
You will automatically (at least for the duration of your "sound path") get out of your feelings of stress.
Just treat yourself to a little break from stress regularly from now on!