You’ve been incorporating pauses into your day. I’ve suggested at least one 5 minute tea break every day when you simply observe the world around you. Build up to three of these per day if you can. You’ve been using all of your senses to observe the world around you, noticing colours, smells, tastes, textures and sounds. You’ve been on a mindful walk and have described the small details.
If you’ve missed any of the challenges so far, you can catch up by following the links from here.
During the pauses you’ve incorporated into your day – and if you’ve only got time for one that’s fine – think about atmosphere of the place you are in. Combine this with what we did on day four and go for a mindful walk in order to do this if you like. For example, there’s a deserted shop at the end of our road that makes me feel melancholy when I go past, and I sometimes go walking in the old bit of our local graveyard, which feels peaceful, although I could imagine it turning frightening if I was there in the middle of the night. The shops at the top of our road are usually busy but have felt rather lonely for the last few months.
Describe one place. This could be your front room, your garden or somewhere on your walk. Come up with words to describe its atmosphere. (Of course it’s fine to use your imagination as well as what you’ve observed from life.)
If you like this idea and want to carry on with it, take the atmosphere you’ve created on the page and go further. For example, I could write a story about someone stranded in a graveyard in the middle of the night, or about the transformation of the melancholy shop at the end of our road into somewhere vibrant and full of life.
See you tomorrow for day six of the writing challenge when we’re going to bring it all together. Until then, happy writing.