Reference no: EM133861499

Assignment: Guided Indoor / Outdoor Reflection

Some time in the next week (to 10 days), I want you to sit by yourself for 60 minutes while writing and reflecting. Ideally, this exercise should be done while sitting outside, so if the weather is nice, find a quiet spot alone at a picnic table, on a bench, or on the ground. If the weather is cold, or if you are uncomfortable being outside for any length of time, please find a very quiet spot somewhere indoors. Give yourself the gift of the entire hour to step outside your busy, everyday schedule. In other words, stop. Sit down. Breathe. Reflect. And write. For sixty minutes.

Note: I have given you extra time this week so that you can find time to schedule this & you will need to put your technology away for this!

I. Part I: Spend a few minutes reflecting and writing about your embodied experience. How does your body feel? What hurts? What doesn't hurt? What does the air feel like? What does the bench or the ground beneath you feel like? Take a few minutes simply to check in with your body. (Suggested writing time: 10 Minutes)

II. Part II: Spend a few minutes reflecting and writing about your emotional experience. How do you feel? Are you stressed about school? Are you tired? Are you happy to be outside? It doesn't matter what emotions you're experiencing. The important component at this stage is simply to document them. (Suggested writing time: 10 Minutes) Get the instant assignment help.

III. Part III: Turn your attention outward and focus on all six of your senses. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell and taste? (Does the air taste like anything?) What does your body feel? Zen philosophy recognizes consciousness as a sixth sense, so try adopting it as a sixth sense for this exercise. Of what are you conscious? (Suggested Writing Time: 15 Minutes)

IV. Part IV: Now that your attention is outwardly focused, choose one small natural object from your surroundings. It should be small enough that you can hold it in your hands or between your fingers (for example: a leaf, a twig, an acorn). Focus all of your senses upon this object, and write voluminously about what you experience. (Suggested Writing Time: 15 Minutes)

V. Part V: Meta-reflective discourse. Spend some time simply writing about this entire reflective experience. At first, write for several minutes without judging; instead, let the experience exist, simply, in your life. So, describe it without thinking about how good it is or how bad it is. After you've done this, spend some time writing evaluative statements about the experience, and reflect on those evaluative statements. If it was good, why was it good? If it was bad, why was it bad? And so on . . . (Suggested Writing Time: 10 - 20 Minutes)