How a Sit Spot Practice Can Benefit Your Health & the Land

Including Scientific Proof That Nature is Awesome

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Walking towards my sit spot this morning, I was so excited and curious. Who will be there this morning? What kind of mischief might have gone down last night? As I get there, my heart swells as though I’m returning home. Comfort. I see my sweet friends waiting for me. The big beautiful Ponderosa Pine stands tall and wide, arms outstretched welcoming me in. My nervous system releases before I even fully sit down—to be in the place that knows me, that has seen me through thick and thin. This place just lets me be how I am, where I am, when I am. Something we don’t find often in other areas of our lives.

It took me a while to fully get set in these ways of sitting in a spot over time. But for the past year I’ve been consistently sitting in the same spot, returning to the same trees, watching the seasons move and the weathers come. And now, there’s a force bigger than me that compels me to keep going. It’s greater than me going out to learn the land. It’s a knowing that this is a relationship and now I am responsible to uphold my part.

We have evolved over the past 2 million years from the land, as the land, and living closely with the land. Relationship with the land is hard wired into our DNA. The practice of a sit spot is something so beautifully simple, filling our hearts with life, mystery, and nourishing the longing for belonging we all have. A simple practice with benefits that are immense for your health and for the land itself.

What is it?

So, literally, a sit spot is a spot you find outside that you go to and sit in on a regular basis over a long period of time, being still and observing nature. It’s a really sweet, simple practice that opens up a doorway to so much more. The benefits are immense for yourself and the land. The effect is profound—literally changing you, the way you see the world, and the way the world sees you. One of the great naturalists, Jon Young, says that his sit spot had more to do with his development as a human being than anything else in his life. 

But why though?

The beauty of the sit spot practice begins to unfold as you form relationships with the land over time. When you go to your spot outside everyday, you engage with nature and all the creatures and elements that live there. You not only observe them, but you allow them to observe you. When you sit and allow yourself to be still and listen, you allow nature to return to her baseline. Only then will she begin to really show herself to you. You begin to see, hear and smell the natural cadence and rhythms of the plants and animals that call that spot home. You begin to see that each season has its own wonder, its own special place and purpose in the pattern of creation. Relationships are made. Safety and belonging begin to form, and a deep trusting takes root in the natural cycles and timing of life. 

Another reason to actually get outside to your spot is for your health! There has been an incredible amount of research in the past few years documenting the physical, psychological and cognitive benefits being in nature provides. Going to your sit spot daily is actually as beneficial for your brain and body as exercise, sleep or eating right. You allow yourself to to return to your own nature, reviving your natural balance and wellness.

Scientific Proof (that nature is awesome) : The Effects of Sit Spot on your Health

There are a multitude of chemical reactions that occur in our brains and bodies when we physically engage with nature. Eva Selhub, MD in Your Brain on Nature writes that spending time in nature can reduce psychological stress, depressive symptoms and anxiety, while improving sleep, lowering cortisol levels, lowering blood pressure and pulse rate, increasing heart rate variability and increasing an overall feeling of aliveness. She also states that, “according to recent research, being in nature encourages the growth and continued reshaping of brain cells, improving neuroplasticity.” 

Other research strongly supports the need to get down and dirty with the earth. It has been found that exposure to a bacterium found in soil, called Mycobacterium vaccae, is connected to the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, increasing cognitive performance and resistance to stress. Similarly, according to a study reported in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, earthing or grounding—skin contact with the earth—can have an immense anti-inflammatory and energizing effect on the body. The theory states that because the earth is negatively charged, and has a greater negative charge than your body, we absorb earth’s electrons. It is proposed that free electrons from the earth neutralize the positively charged free radicals that are the hallmark of chronic inflammation, resolving chronic inflammation by serving as natural antioxidants. It is also suggested that the earth's diurnal electrical rhythms can rebalance our biological clocks that regulate sleep and hormonal activity. Additionally, research shows that simply breathing in the natural chemicals secreted by trees, called phytoncide, has proven to improve immune function, increasing the amount of intracellular anticancer proteins and the activity of our frontline immune defenders.

Aside from all of this, being in nature away from your day to day distractions and obligations gives your pre-frontal cortex a chance to rest for a minute which has incredibly beneficial effects on your cognitive functioning and creativity. When you engage regularly with a sit spot, you start to become engrossed in everything that is happening around you. It’s mesmerizing without being mentally taxing, actually freeing your pre-frontal cortex from figuring anything out and allowing the brain’s default mode network to kick in, activating the imagination network. Neuroscientist David Strayer states, “You let the prefrontal cortex rest, and all of a sudden these flashes of insight come to you. It supports creativity, positive well-being and reductions in stress.” 

The activity of the imagination network is absolutely critical to creativity. It draws on many regions across the brain, including the hippocampus, where memories are formed and stored, and the medial prefrontal cortex, which is involved in self-focused processing, including autobiographical memories and planning. The imagination network is what enables us to imagine other perspectives and scenarios, imagine the future, remember the past, understand ourselves and others, and create meaning from our experiences.

Clearly, we have evolved over the past 2 million years from the land, as the land, and living closely with the land. Relationship with the land is hard wired into our DNA. Without physical contact, we become unwell, out of balance, and sick.

Essential Elements of a Sit Spot

A place outside. I know especially on these cold days, or the busy days, it may feel tempting to just look out the window to watch the wildlife and call that close enough to a sit spot, but it really is totally critical that you actually go to a sit spot in nature—outside. For all those reasons above. Enough said.

A place you can get to easily. Like within a 2 minute walk or less from your door. It is difficult enough to stick with a new practice within a busy schedule. Make it easy on yourself to get there. Like I mentioned above, it does not need to be a “perfect” or pristine sit spot, it just needs to be a spot outside where you can get to easily on a daily basis.

Go there often. The benefits of this practice increase dramatically the more you go. Just like any relationship, you have to be attentive and consistent in order to build trust and knowing. The more you go to your spot, the more the land will know you, and the more you will observe the subtle changes that occur as time passes and seasons change. So much happens on a daily basis! If you can’t make it daily, I strongly suggest several times per week. 

Away from distractions. This is a place for letting go, for building connection, for awakening your senses and for strengthening your observation skills. Do not bring your phone, and make sure your spot is in a place where you can avoid interruptions.

Sit quietly. This can be a hard one at first but definitely gets easier after a little practice. Sit quietly in your spot for long enough to allow your nervous system to attune to the baseline of the land. This does two things: It greatly benefits your sweet nervous system, activating the parasympathetic nervous system and quieting our perpetual state of over-activation. It also allows the birds and animals to sense your quiet, non-threatening presence, to which they respond by resuming their normal activities as if you were just a part of the landscape. 

Engage your senses. Unfortunately with our screens and our automated lives, our senses are becoming dulled down. Use your sit spot practice to strengthen your senses and your overall awareness. Experiment! Activate all of your senses. Look around you. Try looking with tunnel vision, with wide angle vision, with blurry eyes. Notice the sounds everywhere. Put your ear to the earth and listen. See if you can identify every single bird call. Smell the trees and the soil. Maybe even taste the soil or the plants (the non-toxic ones obviously). Wake yourself up and come to life in your little spot.

Stick with the same spot over time. This one is tough for me. I am just so curious and want to try new spots all the time. However, there is some magic that happens when you continue to connect with one spot over a long period. You get to know this spot intimately and you witness the elements and living beings go through the natural processes of change that occur through the days, through the weeks, through the seasons and even through the years. There is a depth that begins to sink in over time.

Give yourself time to just be. This is not an activity where you have to do anything, or figure anything out, or have anything to show for your time. Just get yourself to your spot and just be. The rest will unfold.

Anyone can have a sit spot. Even if you live in the middle of the city, nature is everywhere! Birds live in every corner of the world. Grasses and native plants grow through decks and cracks in the sidewalk. Trees, even newly planted—especially newly planted—long for relationship. Coyotes make mischief and pigeons play… You get the picture. It doesn’t have to be the most pristine untouched patch of nature. It just has to be a place you go to connect.

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If you don’t already have a sit spot practice, this is the most incredible season to get started. The ground is still covered in snow or soft with mud, showing tracks of all those who wander by. The birds have recently returned filling the air with their songs. And soon enough, so much life will be emerging from the winter slumber.

Just find a spot that’s calling you nearby, and go introduce yourself. Meet the ones whose home you’re resting in.