Outdoor Reflection -- Walking and Listening

 For my outdoor time this week, I went on a long walk along Shooks Run here in Colorado Springs. Throughout my four years living in the Springs, Shooks Run has been a favorite place of mine to walk or run. My walk this week specifically made me reflect on the importance of all senses being involved when building connections with nature and outdoor spaces more broadly. 

Walking is one of my favorite activities, and I often go for long walks a few times every week to find peace and calm. It’s an activity that is of great value for both my physical and mental health. Often times, I listen to music or podcasts while walking, which sometimes draws my focus away from my surroundings. Being able to choose the sounds I listen to often makes me zone out from my physical surroundings. I can almost feel the same walking on a treadmill as on a trail if I listen to the same music. 

For my walk this week, I opted for a music-free stroll. I left my headphones at home and filled my ears, instead, with springtime sounds of birds chirping and winds rustling the newly green leaves. Without the otherwise welcomed distraction of my Spotify “Daylist” or a new episode of the “Modern Love” podcast, I could fully dedicate my attention to an element of nature I rarely attend to – sound. I felt a new sense of peace, not only from the activity of walking but from the places I was walking through. This simple choice of embracing the nature I was moving in through all my senses let me appreciate this natural space to its fullest. While I’ll likely continue my podcast walks as well, this outdoor experience has also encouraged me to prioritize interactions with nature that dedicate all senses to strengthen my sense of place and connection to space. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Reflection on the Outdoors -- A Porch Evening

Image
  With warmer weather and the bittersweet chaos of the last block of the year, much of my time spent outside this week has been on my porch. I live on a busy intersection right off campus, but somehow my college house porch has been a source of peace for me all year, especially in busy times where calm is not the easiest to achieve. This week, I spent one particular evening out on the porch observing my surroundings and reflecting deeply about what it is about my porch that grounds me so meaningfully.  It was around 8pm that I was sitting outside, and the sky was painted that perfect shade of deep blue that often happens at dusk this time of year.  My porch faces west, giving me a great view of the sun setting and all its effects . Since reading Joan Didion ’s  Blue Nights  last year, I always react to this shade of blue, thinking of Joan’s introspective words when seeing the springtime blue night that she describes. I realize that my porch is a perfect place to...
Read more

A Reflection on my Environmental Values

  Growing up in urban areas, with my time outdoors being spent more in urban parks than in vaste, mountainous areas, I often thought of nature and the environment as a distant concept that I did not feel very connected to. It was not until I began my journey of studying environmental science and studies that I rethought my relationship with and definition of the environment to one that I believe is more holistic and inclusive. Now, I see the environment as a space where people live, play, work and learn, and I value an approach to environmental care and protection that prioritizes collaborative commitment to allowing all inhabitants to thrive. Recognizing that my approach to environmental care is largely oriented around humans   Because of my own exposure to the environment as a child and how important broadening my definition of the outdoors has been to me in terms of developing a sense of place, I am particularly interested in urban green space as a means of community-buildi...
Read more

Kantian Ethics, Animal Rights and Vegetarianism

  For class today, we read materials that focuses on Kantian ethics. Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher and a central Enlightenment thinker, importantly sees rationality as a core element of humanity. He argues that being rational beings is what makes humans unique, and that this rationality marks out both the class of moral agents (those who are capable of acting morally) and moral patients (those who we have moral obligations towards) (Hourdequin 48). Following the textbook chapter introducing Kantian ethics, we also read some of Kant’s work directly, as well as an exploration of why Kant excludes animals from direct moral consideration by Dr. Holly Wilson. The theme of non-human animals and morality greatly stood out to me from today’s pieces. I saw paralells between a Kantian approach to anthropocentrism and arguments from other EV classes I have been in, and thought deeply about how Kant’s views of animals as means rather than beings with rights apply to some of my own person...
Read more