5-Minute Nature Retreat 🍃✨

The Five Minute Time Warp

Hello Reader

Well, I'm sending this on Friday instead of Thursday. I almost didn't, because the week has been full of curveballs. And then I realized my own "time squeeze" might harbor something worth sharing.

Cheers,

Jennifer

Founder, Ordinary Nature

Weekly Reflection ⏰😕😊
Weekly Practice 🍃✨
Little Tender Things 💚

WEEKLY REFLECTION

The Five Minute Time Warp

Jennifer Ruth Keller

I'm 53. My body and mind start sinking into fatigue fog around 9:00pm. My daughter is 7. She starts veering into what I call "antics hour" around 9:00pm, the time she seems to think is best suited to trying out the newest material for her one-girl comedy act. This mismatch is a recurring point of lessons learned and re-learned in our house.

One of those lessons: 5 minutes of hard-core "antics time" usually suffices to sate her funny bone. Full permission to do whatever antics she sees fit to do for 5-10 minutes seems to be experienced by her as a much longer, elongated, presence-rich stretch of time.

Today, dragging from the week and a minor infection in my right eye that is quite irritating, I remembered I could adapt the lesson from our antics hour dilemma to my own recalibration during an over-full day.

The lilac bush in our front yard is abloom. Is there anything more redolent, more brimming with nostalgia, than the scent of lilac on the breeze?

Today I barely summoned the presence of mind to get myself outside to that lilac bush right when I least thought I "had the time" to do it. One strong in-breath later, my nose tickled by the petals, and it was like starting my day anew.

Strong scent in the nose short-circuits the mind's loops, gets us out of whatever rut of thinking we might be in.

For me, the scent of lilac is an aroma intoxicant, offering instant transport to a softened psyche, and the sensory spaciousness I need to be called back again into my body, and the reality of a different set of rhythms.

Five minutes with the lilacs warped me right out of my own orbit of "busyness." The flowers reminded me--yet again!--how even a brief stint with full sensory engagement can swoop me outside of time into a better way of being.

It doesn't matter that those swoops outside time aren't sustainable. It matters that they are available to us, with just a bit of softly held effort and open-hearted curiosity.

The five minute time warp: nature's gift to us when we gift her with our care and attention.

WEEKLY PRACTICE INVITATION

The what: The Five Minute Time Warp Mini-Practice

This one's quite simple! The challenge: to remember to do it right when you're feeling "time squeezed."

You'll think that's the worst time to do it. But that's part of the fun challenge: Take the time this weekend or week when you most think you "don't have time." And prove to nature that, in fact, you do have 5 minutes to savor and receive nature's gifts.

You can even have in mind the place you'll go, right when you feel that "time squeeze" sensation taking over your body. Maybe it is a beloved tree in your yard. Or a plant on your porch. Or a favorite flower pot. Keep it simple.

Bonus: Go to something that you can touch and/or smell, since those senses offer the most visceral, immediate time-swiping effects.

When you're time-squeeze is taking hold: Go to your nature place/companion, take a few breaths, and experience them with each of your senses for 5 minutes.

What do you notice?

What feels "longer" -- 5 minutes of phone scrolling - or - 5 minutes of sensory-rich presence with nature? I mess that up all the time. Let's play with how we can get out to those flowers more often.