Click Here to Get Your Free Nature Note Cards
- Cultivate awareness. Without fail, the more centered I am, the more I can pay attention to detail and the more wonder-inspiring nature moments find me, even here in the city. How to cultivate this awareness? Meditate, EFT Tapping, yoga, journaling, chanting, taking walks, whatever works for you!
- Look closer. As you cultivate awareness, you’ll start seeing more of what’s already around you. Take it a step further, when you notice an interesting bit of nature, stop and get right up close and personal with it. So, there’s a lot of asphalt with one weed growing up through a crack. Stop, bend down and really look at that weed. How does it grow, what textures are on the surface? Does it have bugs on it? Covered in dew?
- Look further away. Don’t forget the big picture when you’re looking for nature in urban areas. The sky is always with us, but we forget to actually see This picture I took on a day I remembered to look up. All of a sudden, beauty and wonder were coming at me from every corner of the firmament!
- Take daily walks. Especially in cemeteries, parks, past houses with gardens, etc. If you can find a pocked of green space in your neighborhood, of course there’ll be more nature there. The cemetery by my house is a wellspring of nature moments! Sure, it’s mowed to within an inch of it’s life (no pun intended) but I’ve found so much nature in that space: fungi, lichen, hawks, woodpeckers, a baby deer, interesting fall leaves and bark patterns, patches of spring wildflowers.
- Reevaluate the mundane. Part of why we miss out on the nature that is always all around us is that we’re used to seeing it. So, we stop seeing it. You’ve walked past those big pine trees a million times, but did you ever stop to look at the bark? Did you ever notice the dried exoskeletons that moulting cicadas leave all over it every summer? Have you stopped to appreciate the warm, pinkish brown of it’s fallen needles?
- Plant a garden. Even one potted, flowering plant on your balcony will attract interesting insects for you to marvel at. Especially a flowering herb like mint, oregano, sage, cilantro etc. Their little flowers are insect magnets!
- Take more pictures. I’ve heard critiques about how modern life is more about taking pictures of our surroundings than about enjoying them, but I beg to differ. The more photos I take in my neighborhood, the more amazing, beautiful things I see! Click below to download a set of free notecards I made for you (all pics taken within 7 blocks of my home here in the city!)