I often feel like I get very caught up in the hustle and bustle of city life. Don’t get me wrong, I love hanging out in original coffee shops, visiting art fairs, dining in amazing restaurants, or hitting up one or another bar in the evening.
But chasing from one exciting event to the next, also sometimes leaves me feeling unbalanced and out of tune with myself. I don’t listen to the signs of my body anymore, I get restless and less resilient to the stressors of everyday life.
Have you ever felt this way, too?
If so, I might have a solution for you. It might not be the wholy grail or seem incredibly revolutionary. But it definitely helped me so much over the last few years. I feel a lot more balanced and connected, to myself as well as the world around me. And I think it‘s definitely worth a try for you, too. It‘s as simple as:
Creating space by connecting with nature.
“What? I can’t just hit the forest or climb some mountains, in the morning. That’s a day trip kind of thing!”, you might think. And you’re right, it can be hard sometimes to connect to nature in the midst of our busy day-to-day lives. But the good news is, you don’t always have to do a huge, time-intense activity that takes you far outside the realms of the concrete jungle.
How can you reconnect with nature in your day-to-day life?
I came up with 7 easy ways to get that nature happiness boost, even while in the middle of a buzzing city:
- Notice nature around you
- Carry a nature token in your pocket
- Do a forest meditation
- Grow some herbs
- Cook meals with natural ingredients
- Practice mindful eating
- Walk barefoot
Let’s dive into each of them in a bit more detail.
Notice nature around you
This is so simple, yet, somehow we hardly ever take the time to do it. While we rush from A to B on our daily commute or hack away on our home office desks, we forget that there’s a whole world around us. Just by briefly stopping and taking a deep breath, you can already feel more grounded. More connected to yourself and the space around you. The best thing is, that you can do this anywhere, anytime, without anyone even noticing.
But there’s more! You can be mindful of the sounds around you. In the midst of all the car noise, the loud neighbors, or the clattering train, can you hear some birds chirping? Do you hear the rain on your window? The wind ruffling through the leaves? Listening to these wonderful sounds of nature can be an immediate gateway into the calm space of the now.
Another way to notice nature around you is by simply looking out for it. On your daily commute, you might notice a bee buzzing by while you pass through the local park. In fall, you might notice the dazzling colors of the leaves around you on the trees as well as on the ground. Rain creating endless small ripples in a puddle on the street. Light reflecting in your water glass. There is endless beauty in the world around us which can help us feel more connected and centered.
Carry a nature token in your pocket
Since I was a kid, I always loved carrying a chestnut in my pocket. I just really like the feel of its smooth surface in my hand and even its little imperfections. Chestnuts have become my little token helping me to reconnect to nature when I’m in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city. It makes me so happy when I find the first chestnut while walking through the park and I know: fall has come. It’s nothing really. But to me, it’s something. This token can be anything. A smooth pebble, a beautifully colored leaf, a small wooden stick. Anything that you enjoy keeping with you or picking up whenever you take a walk through your neighborhood.
Do a forest meditation
If you can squeeze just a few minutes from your busy day, a forest meditation is an incredibly powerful way to connect with nature from the comfort of your home. In Japanese culture, there’s a whole concept around “forest bathing” or “shinrin-yoku”, which is supposed to support physical and mental well-being. Not only in Japan, but all around the world people love spending time in forests - me included. I love the feeling of calm and endless space I get on a hike or even just a stroll through my local park. But sometimes time is limited and I can’t get to a forest, park, or meadow. A great way to connect with nature anyways is through forest meditation. And it’s super easy. Just make yourself comfortable (you don’t even necessarily need to sit in a meditative posture) and listen to some nature sounds. There are many amazing apps, videos, and podcasts out there that you can use to play nature sounds. Just pick whatever you fancy.
If you want, you can download this 10-minute recording I took at a beautiful spot while hiking the Alpe Adria trail. I was sitting at an absolutely gorgeous forest clearing and you can hear birds chirping, leaves rustling, and a small stream in the background.
By the way, there’s no need to limit yourself here. The sounds of nature are endlessly beautiful. Crashing ocean waves work better for you than chirping birds and rustling leaves? Go for it! The gentle thud of rain soothes your soul? What are you waiting for?
Grow some herbs
I don’t know why it took me so long to find this hack, but I’m even happier I finally got around to growing some of my own herbs at home. It’s such a game-changer. Most of them are really easy to care for (like you really need to make an effort to kill them), you always have fresh herbs for cooking, they look really nice, and plants improve the air quality in your home. Honestly, what’s not to love about all that?
Obviously, if you have a garden or a balcony, that’s amazing. You can plant lots of herbs and other plants and will always have a little nature retreat available to you. But if you live in a small apartment in the city without this luxury, don’t despair. So do I, and it’s totally possible to grow a few herbs (and maybe a few additional pot plants) at home. I currently have basil, sage, and rosemary in my kitchen. Just make sure they get enough light and don’t water them too frequently (but also often enough for them to be happy) and voilá, here’s your own little bit of nature right in your house.
Cook meals with natural ingredients
Now that you’ve already got the herbs in place, why not use them to cook some delicious and nutritious meals with flavor-packed, natural ingredients? We tend to think of nature as this “thing” co-existing next to us. But actually, we are nature, too. We are made of the same stuff the plants, animals, and the world around us are made of. Thus, we should be very mindful of the food we put into our bodies. Home-cooked meals made from natural ingredients can be both nourishing and mouth-wateringly delicious. At the same time, they can help us to reconnect with nature. Choosing the ingredients, mindfully preparing, and bringing them together to form a well-balanced, rich dish can be very satisfying and enjoyable. And surprisingly easy! There are so many simple recipes out there that get a delicious home-cooked meal on your table in less than 20 minutes. One source I can highly recommend is Anna Jones’ food blog and her cookbooks! I love her holistic approach to eating and cooking and her recipes are both simple and delicious.
Practice mindful eating
Mindfulness has become such a common term that we’re starting to get a bit bored of it. But if you’d ask me to pick just one thing where being mindful has actually had an impact on my life, it would be eating. Water and food are essential parts of our life. Yet, most of the time we don’t even really notice or care what we eat and drink. We just do it quickly, in between meetings, in front of our laptops, or while walking to the tram. That might make us feel like we’re “saving time”, but that’s a fallacy. You’re not as effective as you might think at typing while simultaneously trying to shove some salad into your mouth. It probably would have been quicker to just take 10 minutes to eat calmly and then respond to that email. But apart from actually not saving any time, we also miss out on so much! Because there’s a whole lot to be gained by actually focusing on the food you’re eating, while you eat it. Mindful eating can help you to
- feel less hungry throughout the day (and thus eat less unhealthy snacks)
- experience less bloating or digestive problems
- better absorb the nutrients in your food
- enjoy the food a lot more
- feel more focused and less tired after eating
- experience more gratitude and appreciation
There are just so many benefits to it, there really isn’t any reason to not at least give it a try. And it’s simple. All you need to do is… do nothing other than eat your food. So, no scrolling Instagram, no mealtime video, and no reading the news. No emails or calls. Instead, focus on the taste of your food. Appreciate its texture, the different flavors, colors, and smells. What sound does it make when you bite into an apple? Can you taste the combination of sweetness and umami in your tomato? What flavors can you detect in this specific coffee roast? Maybe you can think of all the work it took and all the people that were involved to ensure you can enjoy your food at this exact moment. This is your chance to feel grateful and appreciative of that effort.
It might feel a bit weird at the beginning and you’ll feel the urge to distract yourself with your phone or the TV. But hang in there! Once you get used to it, a whole new, life-changing world of deep connection will open up to you (or you’ll just enjoy your food more while forming a healthy habit, which doesn’t sound too bad either).
Walk barefoot
Walking barefoot is one of my favorite things to do to connect to nature. I love running over a grass lawn in the summer or feeling the texture of a natural wood floor under my feet. I regularly take off my hiking boots to step into an icy cold stream or walk over some mossy tree trunks. There’s an endless depth to the textures of nature.
And even if you can’t walk barefoot, you can still feel the quality of the surface you’re sitting on. The texture of the objects you touch. The wind on your face. The warmth of the sun on your face on a cold winter day.
You can re-connect with nature (and yourself) every day, no matter where you are
These easy and fast hacks can help you to connect with nature, even if there’s no wildlife reserve readily available across the street. Many of them don’t even require you to invest additional time. You just need to slightly reframe the things you do anyways.
This has helped me immensely to feel more present and connected to the world around me - but most importantly to myself. I hope these simple tricks can help you to feel the same. Even if life gets busy, stressful and you feel burdened with tasks and responsibilities, you now know there’s an easy way to find more calmness and space: connecting with nature.
