Practicing Sit Spot
Do you have a special place you like to go in nature, maybe in your back yard, or a park near hour house? Some of you might already have a sit spot, a special place somewhere in nature that you visit all the time. It’s a place that’s just yours -a place you know better than anyone else. It’s a place where you know wild animals as your friends.
Practicing ‘sit spot’ is just one part of our curriculum at Wah’-shă Academy.
As someone who has practiced various methods of meditation, particularly zen meditation, I found ‘sit spot’ to hold similar qualities, and very different, all the same.
First of all, the premise is to find a spot outdoors, sitting in quiet awareness. At first, I had a hard time going to the same place every time. I wanted to see it all. But, as my mentors shared with me, It seems to be an emergent instinct for people to find a particular place in nature that they visit over and over again to do this. And, sure enough, I found that when I began to visit the same place, there was a certain comfort and familiarity with which I bonded. This is known as your Sit Spot! It is like being in relationship with a best friend. As weather patterns came and went, animals -even ants visited in somewhat regular patterns, smells became apparent, my own state of mind flowing through patterns I came to know well, my relationship with nature became intimate.
A Sit Spot can become like an anchor in your life — a place to settle down, cultivate present-moment awareness and a quieter mind, and observe the flow of reality occurring around you.
Sit Spot can be great for kids. Some of them love it immediately. Others, though, may not find it appealing and have a hard time connecting. This could be because their minds are so ‘busy.’
If you are interested in your child having this experience, The Wilderness Awareness Curriculum suggests:
- Setting up a spot for campfires, where you can roast food and hang out. This can become a vantage point for witnessing the natural world. Forts can also work well.
- Playing a game in which you take turns hiding along a trail, and seeing if the other person can find you. The longer you wait to find your child, the more “Sit Spot” time they have. As a bonus, they also get to develop empathy for animals that need to hide, awareness of camouflage and landscape, and the ability to be more still.
- Finding some sort of lookout spot to pause at, in a place you visit regularly, to eat a packed meal, watch a sunset, or share a thermos of tea or cocoa.
- Sprinkling birdseed on their bodies and to see if a bird will come.
I am narrowing down my spots in Crested Butte. I may end up with two spots -one related to the school, Wah’-shă Academy, and one related to my home. But, it was a sit spot that helped solidify my ‘agreement’ to move to Crested Butte. I was camping up cement creek, and my husband had been out for a walk. He had returned, and wanting to have more ‘quiet,’ in addition to the morning sun, I moved toward an open field. Just as I spotted a small boulder, I looked up to see a huge cinnamon bear crossing the field. She stopped, looked my way, then continued her journey. It was a magical experience indeed.
- Disclaimer: While magical for me, of course with children, there are a number of safety precautions to take into account when hiking or choosing a sit spot.