Want to help your kids, friends, and yourself deepen your sense of place? The Sit Spot is one of the most powerful tools you can use to develop that connection. In our active lives, it might feel strange to sit and do nothing for 7 minutes. However, giving our brains a chance to slow down and process the world around us is essential for healthy development. After this activity, you will feel recharged and ready to take on the rest of your day.
Sit Spot
Find a device-free place in your natural world that you can visit easily and often. This can be your garden, a nearby park or even the drainage ditch close to your home.
With your family or by yourself, get comfortable and try to sit still for at least 7 minutes a few times a week.
The sit spot is one of the most powerful tools you can use to develop connection. In our active lives, it might feel strange to sit and do nothing for 7 minutes. However, giving our brains a chance to slow down and process the world around us is essential for healthy development.
The goal of this activity is to create a connection to place. Try to get to know your sit spot very well. What is it like at different times of day? What is it like when there are clouds, when it’s sunny or when it’s raining? Does it sound different in the morning?
Visit your spot over the course of a few days, a few weeks, or even months, and watch how it changes. See who the new visitors are, how the dandelion grows between the cracks. If you are able to develop a connection to one place it will become the basis of connection to the greater natural world for you and your family.
Things to think about: Try to estimate how long you sat for. Did it feel longer or shorter than 7 minutes? What did you notice? What did you wonder? What did you hear? Did anything surprise you? What did you smell? What was different today than the last time you were at your sit spot?
Checking in with a Sit Spot is a big part of what we do at CFI. Make your spot unique to your family or community and snap a picture and tag CFI or send it to us!
If you’re looking for fun games, journal prompts or more lessons head over to cfimoab.org/coyotescorner for more ideas!
Canyonlands Field Institute guides you in creating a sit spot in your own environment
