Sit Spot: Cultivating Belonging

Katie Dutcher, MA, is a founding teacher of Monterey Bay Meditation Studio, a Qualified Teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and a Certified Kripalu Mindful Outdoor Guide.

Katie Dutcher

Cultivate a relationship of intimacy and belonging with a place and the beings who live there, simply by showing up and being attentive.

"The mountain says you live in a particular place. Though it’s a small area, just a square mile or two, it took me many trips to even start to learn its secrets. Here there are blueberries, and here there are bigger blueberries ... You pass a hundred different plants along the trail—I know maybe twenty of them. One could spend a lifetime learning a small range of mountains, and once upon a time people did.” —Bill McKibben“Sit Spot” is a practice of cultivating a relationship of familiarity, intimacy, and belonging with a place and the beings who live there, simply by showing up: spending time and being attentive.As with sitting meditation, the practice of Sit Spot invites us to the joyful disciplines of regularity and ritual, as well nurturing patience and inner peace by being still and “uni-tasking” rather than multitasking. We practice mindfulness in nature, being in the present moment, just as it is, just as we are.Because we practice in the living, ever changing world outdoors, this practice is often anything but quiet and still, however! We awaken all of our senses and allow ourselves to be captivated by the activity of this world, the patterns of wind, birds, light, plants, and more. We discover a “secret world” unfolding in plain view… if we only pay attention.With regular Sit Spot practice, we are rewarded in so many ways:Physically: Breathing in fresh air and the essential oils from plants and trees, receiving natural light in our eyes and on our skin, looking into the distance rather than toward four walls, all have research-backed benefits on our physical well being.Mentally &amp; Emotionally: Getting a change of scene and a broader view can help to refresh our spirits and can jolt us out of rumination and other stale or confining thought patterns. By moving from directed-attention toward screens or other highly focused activities toward the freedom and curiosity-guided “fascination attention,” we refresh ourselves and recover from mental fatigue.Spiritually: We know that we are not separate from, but rather part of the natural world… but we often live as though we were separate. Spending time and attention outdoors helps us to remember and feel our belonging to the world that we are a part of, a kinship with all beings who belong to this place. There's something indescribably right about this connection – all of us have a deep need to belong, and we may not have imagined the possibility of being in a supportive relationship with other beings in our lives, beyond the human ones. In this course:We will support each other in developing or deepening our Sit Spot practice.We’ll share and discuss what we experience, notice, and learn – what is coming alive in us as tune in to the aliveness of the natural world. We’ll discover the latest scientific research on the benefits of spending time in nature, and delve into important related topics, such as sensory anesthesia, species loneliness, biophilia, topophilia, and reciprocity.

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Sit Spot: Cultivating Belonging

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Sit Spot: Cultivating Belonging

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