“I go to nature to be soothed, healed and have my senses put in order.” So said American naturalist John Burroughs. I experience the truth of this every time I step out for a walk – whether strolling by the Mersey, in one of the local parks – or even a short walk around neighbouring streets. There’s always something to delight the eye and tempt my mind away from internal preoccupations. This morning I stepped out to sniff the heady scent ofa deep red rose in a garden pot. It took just seconds but the smell and the memory linger on hours later. It reminded me how I can choose where to place my attention in any moment.  I could switch straight back to preoccupations about things to do and  things I’d failed to do - or, I could spend some time marvelling at the complex structure of the rose. I could dwell on the fact that there was only one rose on the otherwise denuded shrub or I could enjoy and celebrate the splendour of the rose I was sniffing. Smelling the rose and remembering it later brought a sense of ease, happiness and a spacious sense of my surroundings. I began to notice other things I hadn’t spotted before – raindrops dotting the leaves of near-by plants, the fresh smell after night-time rain, the warble of a blackbird. You yourself may have felt this sense of spaciousness, contentment or appreciation while digging your allotment, caring for your house plants or simply as you pass a patch of greenery or a flower-filled front garden while walking to the cornershop.

If we break down what is happening in simple terms, it comes down to this:

·      Stop

·      Pay attention

·      Focus on what you can see, smell, touch, hear or taste

·      Savour and appreciate it fully through your senses

When we are paying attention, these moments have the power to ground us, to help us appreciate and can even help us gain more clarity and perspective on a problem we may have been tussling with. It is yet another way of “pausing” (see my blog “The power of pausing”) There is plenty of research pointing to the beneficial effects of nature on mental health. And I suspect it's something we all intuit in a deep-down in-our-bones kind of way. As Albert Einstein is reported to have said: “Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.”

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