Urban Distraction
Today's walk happened from 1 pm to 2 pm, and I walked from Yonge/Lawrence to Yonge/St. Clair. This was partly due to the contingency of the subway closure and also because the weather was beautiful enough to make me want to walk outside.
As before, I used my mantra to ground my mind in the body and to prevent scattered or wandering thoughts from emerging.I found that there were so many things happening that I tended to feel closed off from the walking and easily distracted. I was moved by a lot of homeless people in the Yonge Eglinton area, and I also could fee the bustle of energy as people were moving and shopping. By the time I had reached a more natural, less populated patch of ground around the Mount Pleasant Cemetary area, I was a bit exhausted, and felt like ending the walk right away. It seems, based on my observations anyway, that the quality of the experience of walking really depends on the location. Location is everything! But physical state is also another: I had a late lunch due to my overtime shift in the morning, and part of what was driving me was a hunger.
This observation also tends to corroborate with my recent readings on the relationships between nature and the technological world. Writing about what he calls "Nature-Deficit Disorder", Richard Louv (2011), has reported on studies which suggest the benefits of specifically natural elements. In one such study, researchers examined people who participated in "two walk, one in a country park around woodlands, grasslands, and lakes, and one in an indoor shopping center; both groups walked for the same amount of time" (p.59). Louv notes how the study revealed a great difference between the outdoor walk in nature and the indoor walk in the shopping center, where the former generated improvements in self-esteem, mood and alleviation of anxiety and depression. Louv playfully attributes the difference to what he calls "Vitamin N" (where "N" stands for "Nature"), but the factor that contributes to the increased mood in outdoor walking ranges from increased Vitamin D (p.48) to the benefits of bacteria found in dirt (p.60-61).
Since my area of research tends to lean toward phenomenology, I would be interested to get a richer description of what it feels like to recognize nature while waling--whatever "nature" happens to be. It's not about identifying natural elements scientifically and isolating their effects, but more about describing the way that nature is recognized in experience and how it contributes to contemplation and meditation. Louv's examples tend to take a positivist approach of trying to isolate a certain factor found only in the outdoors or in "natural" things such as soil or trees. I, on the other hand, am more interested in first-hand accounts of how people construct nature, and when it becomes a significant ingredient in one's experience.
My own hunch is that "natural" areas such as parks and woods offer a broader landscape, and they become complements to meditation by providing a less demanding mental space than, say, living in an urban environment. As my previous experience in the urban walk demonstrates, walking in the city feels demanding because there are shifting, multiple subjectivity to contend with: people are restlessly shifting place to place in search of sustenance and stimulation. As a corollary, it would be interesting to find out how a group walking (such as a hiking club or walking meditation activity) plays into this equation. When people are together on a meditative walk, can they stay focused on the practice of "just walking" and enjoying the walk itself as a process, or is it tempting to interact with others socially? Can people contemplatively engage both walking and socializing, without the latter becoming a distraction?
Louv, Richard (2011). The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books.
As before, I used my mantra to ground my mind in the body and to prevent scattered or wandering thoughts from emerging.I found that there were so many things happening that I tended to feel closed off from the walking and easily distracted. I was moved by a lot of homeless people in the Yonge Eglinton area, and I also could fee the bustle of energy as people were moving and shopping. By the time I had reached a more natural, less populated patch of ground around the Mount Pleasant Cemetary area, I was a bit exhausted, and felt like ending the walk right away. It seems, based on my observations anyway, that the quality of the experience of walking really depends on the location. Location is everything! But physical state is also another: I had a late lunch due to my overtime shift in the morning, and part of what was driving me was a hunger.
This observation also tends to corroborate with my recent readings on the relationships between nature and the technological world. Writing about what he calls "Nature-Deficit Disorder", Richard Louv (2011), has reported on studies which suggest the benefits of specifically natural elements. In one such study, researchers examined people who participated in "two walk, one in a country park around woodlands, grasslands, and lakes, and one in an indoor shopping center; both groups walked for the same amount of time" (p.59). Louv notes how the study revealed a great difference between the outdoor walk in nature and the indoor walk in the shopping center, where the former generated improvements in self-esteem, mood and alleviation of anxiety and depression. Louv playfully attributes the difference to what he calls "Vitamin N" (where "N" stands for "Nature"), but the factor that contributes to the increased mood in outdoor walking ranges from increased Vitamin D (p.48) to the benefits of bacteria found in dirt (p.60-61).
Since my area of research tends to lean toward phenomenology, I would be interested to get a richer description of what it feels like to recognize nature while waling--whatever "nature" happens to be. It's not about identifying natural elements scientifically and isolating their effects, but more about describing the way that nature is recognized in experience and how it contributes to contemplation and meditation. Louv's examples tend to take a positivist approach of trying to isolate a certain factor found only in the outdoors or in "natural" things such as soil or trees. I, on the other hand, am more interested in first-hand accounts of how people construct nature, and when it becomes a significant ingredient in one's experience.
My own hunch is that "natural" areas such as parks and woods offer a broader landscape, and they become complements to meditation by providing a less demanding mental space than, say, living in an urban environment. As my previous experience in the urban walk demonstrates, walking in the city feels demanding because there are shifting, multiple subjectivity to contend with: people are restlessly shifting place to place in search of sustenance and stimulation. As a corollary, it would be interesting to find out how a group walking (such as a hiking club or walking meditation activity) plays into this equation. When people are together on a meditative walk, can they stay focused on the practice of "just walking" and enjoying the walk itself as a process, or is it tempting to interact with others socially? Can people contemplatively engage both walking and socializing, without the latter becoming a distraction?
Louv, Richard (2011). The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books.
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments