WALK MINDFULLY

If you have 30 minutes…

Even if you only have half an hour for lunch, it’s plenty of time to take a mental pause and connect fully to the great outdoors. ‘Taking a more mindful walk helps to reduce your cortisol levels and boost your mood,’ says psychologist Emma Kenny (ekenny.co.uk). ‘A lot of us are so busy – and distracted by electrical devices – that we rarely have enough time to recalibrate. But a mindful walk helps you be happy in the here and now.’

HOW TO WALK MINDFULLY:

• Mentally scan your body and acknowledge what you feel and where. Perhaps there are aches or niggles – turn your focus away from them and let them go.

• Next, move on to your mind. Notice feelings that come and go. Don’t be tempted to divide them into ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – accept that they’re passing through your mind instead of dwelling on or challenging them.

• Start to walk slowly and keep noticing things around you. Can you see anything you’ve overlooked before? Be like a tourist, even if you’ve walked the route hundreds of times. Marvel at the landscape or the buildings – even the most mundane office block has beauty if you look for it.

• Keep accepting, and feeling grateful for, everything you see and feel as you walk in a leisurely way.

• After your walk, note down something you felt particularly thankful for and put it in a jar. At the end of the year, if you’ve walked like this regularly, you’ll be able to track what a positive difference it’s made to your long-term happiness.