Mindfulness in Nature… at the Red Rock Canyon

Mindfulness is a practice that comes in many forms and offers us an opportunity to challenge ourselves and our focus in many ways. In March this year I was asked to participate again in a Mindfulness exercise at the ISCDD (International Society for Central Nervous System Drug Development) Conference in Las Vegas, NV.

Last year I co-presented my work with Otsuka Pharmaceutical with a focus on the mindfulness workshops to build a practice followed by individual executive coaching that focused on daily mindfulness practices.

This year, I wanted to do something different…so we headed to Red Rock Canyon at 7 am to experience mindfulness in the early morning sun on the canyon. The bus ride there was a guided information session about mindfulness, breathing, and what to expect at the canyon. When we arrived it was quite chilly but I asked participants to take in the weather, the view, and use all the senses in an individual walking experience silently…no sense competing with nature. When we arrived back on the bus, I spent the time on the ride back reading poetry…and pausing, giving time for thoughtful reflection on the current experience.

Prelude to The Dance, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

What if it truly doesn’t matter what you do but how you do whatever you do?
How would this change what you choose to do with your life?

What if you could be more present and openhearted with each person you met if you were working as a cashier in a corner store, or as a parking lot attendant, than you could if you were doing a job you think is more important?
How would this change how you want to spend your precious time on this earth?

What if your contribution to the world and the fulfillment of your own happiness is not dependent upon discovering a better method of prayer or technique of meditation, not dependent on reading the right book or attending the right seminar, but upon really seeing and deeply appreciating yourself and the world as they are right now?
How would this affect your search for spiritual development?

What if there is no need to change, no need to try to transform yourself into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving or wise?
How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better?

What if the task is simply to unfold, to become who you already are in your essential nature-gentle, compassionate, and capable of living fully and passionately present?
How would this affect how you feel when you wake up in the morning?

What is who you essentially are right now is all that you are ever going to be?
How would this affect how you feel about your future?

What if the essence of who you are and always have been is enough?
How would this affect how you see and feel about your past?

What if the question if not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person that I really am?
How would this change what you think you have to learn?

What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices that offer us the warmth of encouragement we need to unfold? How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today?

What if you knew that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty in the world will arise from deep within and guide you every time you simply pay attention and wait?
How would this shape your stillness, your movement, your willingness to follow this impulse, to just let go and dance?

Feedback on the session was most positive and this simple experiment on ‘how to be with oneself’ proved valuable. Insight to ‘being’ without the cellphone interruptions, texting, and checking e-mails allowed the individual opportunity for true reflection and prioritization of what is most important in our lives…ourselves and our ‘being’ not our doing. Nature is always a special opportunity to reflect, think and ‘be.’