Nature Connection Challenge - Day 22

Of all the senses our sense of Smell is the most primal. It has a direct effect on our minds and bodies. It affects our moods and is connected to both our emotions and memories. The sense of Smell can trigger an immediate response and have an effect that lasts long after it has gone.  
To illustrate this point, try this; What is your most favorite smell? In your mind as you are exploring that smell, Where do you go? How do you feel? Both inside and out? How long does the effect last?  Take a few moments to reflect on what you are noticing about that one smell. So now let’s go outside and access the many smells the forest has to offer.

Today’s Challenge/Invitation: This is a great invitation for any time of the year.
Preparation: 

Go out in nature to a place where you feel safe and comfortable. Sit or stand and take a look around you, connect to the place. Give yourself permission to fully arrive in the present moment. Breathing in deeply and effortlessly. Notice how your thoughts arise and then disappear. Just noticing. If you are able, close your eyes, or if you’d prefer keep them partly open.  

Now, breathing in through your nose:

• What scents are being offered by the forest?

• How do they appear?

• From which direction do they arrive?

• Do they change as you explore them?

• How long do they last?

• Perhaps moving your head from side to side, they way a hound would sniff to track a scent.

• When you feel ready, slowly open your eyes. What are you noticing?

“Scratch and Sniff “ Invitation:

• Go out and slowly wander your place with your sense of smell in mind. Be curious. I wonder what you will smell? 

• You may want to awaken a scent by gently Scratching and Sniffing a certain being, be it a tree, moss, soil, or rock. Everything has a scent.

• Wandering and noticing.

• You may do this invitation for a minimum of 15 minutes and for as long as you feel called to do so. When you feel complete perhaps taking a moment to offer something back to the forest for what it has offered you. 

• Take a few moments to reflect back on your noticings.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s Nature Connection Challenge and would love to hear of your experiences. 

Fun Fact: 
Conifer trees were the first aromatic plants on earth, appearing some 300 million years ago. So when we walk in a coniferous forest, we have a chance to smell what the world smelled like back at the beginning of time!