In an attempt to create a wholesome solution for mental health distress, my therapist is teaching me coping mechanisms, so we don’t just rely on medication and therapy alone. One of them is to put something neutral between me and my triggers, give me even if it is brief a respite from the anxious thoughts, giving my body a chance at finding sanity. She asked me to take walks in nature.
It has been more than 2 weeks of taking these “walks” and I am beginning to notice that they are not necessarily walks but go-outs, as I don’t do much walking, more standing, sitting, staring, and thinking depending on how I am feeling and what the outside has to offer that day. One day, after I came back from my ‘go out’, papa told me that my walks are awfully short. I told him that they are not so much walks but a going out of the home and connecting to different, untriggering stimuli. To this, he said that I may be conveniently loosely interpreting my therapist’s advice. No, this is one of those times when I am sure I know exactly what she wants me to do.
On my go-outs I:
- stand and stare at birds that hop from one branch to another wire to a new branch. I make mental notes of the color of their butts and beaks and feathers to Google later. Till now I have met red-whiskered bulbuls who have red butts and yellowthroats/yellow-breasted chats.
- try to figure out what is cooking in a house based on what I can smell or hear outside their house. One time I heard a grinder go on so long, it had to be for dried coconut.
- find a spot with gorgeous sunlight and stand in it. Soaking.