Written by: Caitlin Alfonso, LMSW
Practicing mindfulness is the commitment to bring awareness to your present moment. There are many creative ways to do this, including grounding ourselves in the fun colorful world around us! You can practice this alone or even recruit your friends to join you. Here are two simple approaches.
- Color Walks
Next time you go for a walk, pick a color when you walk out the door; then challenge yourself to notice as many things as you can of that color along the way. You can pick broad color schemes like yellow, blue, or red or challenge yourself with specific colors such as lime green, magenta pink, or charcoal gray. However you approach this, your focus will tune out your worries and allow your mind to be present with your surroundings. Your mind may go from thinking about your exam next week or sport tournament schedule, to admiring the vibrant coral pink flowers blooming from your neighbor’s aloe plant, or appreciating the burnt orange in the sunset, or noting the neon yellow of the billboard advertisement at the corner of your block.
- Color Scavenger Hunts with Friends
Invite your friends to pick a different color. Take pictures of the color throughout the day. At the end of the day, collage them into a single photo and share what you observed with each other. Not only does this approach allow you to enjoy an activity with friends near and far, but it also encourages each other to slow down and notice life’s little details in everyday moments. For example, you might pick the color red. Maybe you notice for the first time that your classmate has red shoelaces on their sneakers. Perhaps you and your sister will bake cookies for the bake sale, and you pick red sprinkles to decorate. Then you share this with your friends. Not only have you made intentional observations throughout your day, but your friends get to see an interesting perspective on your day too.
Life is colorful, but often we move so fast throughout our day we hardly notice the beauty around us. Take a moment to just be and soak in the colors of your day-to-day world and consider inviting others to join you!