Radio Reps with York Hospital Radio

Radio Reps are small self-help activities that can make a big difference if practiced and used often.

Sometimes the feature may include interviews with a guest to talk about tips they have found useful to manage their own challenges in life.

Why develop Radio Reps?

Physical health conditions naturally cause distress for a lot of people. Feeling distressed can also make living with a physical health condition harder.

For some of us, self-help exercises can support us to manage unexpected or unwelcome challenges in life. Sometimes it helps to hear how others manage things.

All Radio Reps are based on psychological theories of how our minds work, and what we can do to help ourselves. 

We want to share these in as many ways as possible, with an invitation to see whether they can help you.

Are Radio Reps for me?

Radio Reps are for anyone in our Trust community who is interested in psychological self-help ideas, whether you are a patient, family member, carer, friend or colleague.

How can I listen to Radio Reps?

Radio Reps are broadcast on York Hospital Radio every Saturday at 5.20pm

How can I learn more?

All Radio Reps are available on this website for you to listen to as often as you would like.

In 2025, we are developing webinars for people who would like the next level of self-care knowledge and skills. We are calling those our Core Workout Webinars and they will help to explain some of the theories behind the Reps, as well as other self-help ideas. These will be advertised here, on the radio, and around the hospital sites when developed.

How can I help to develop Radio Reps and Core Workout Webinars?

We want to make Radio Reps and Core Workout Webinars as helpful as possible for our Trust community. Please give us your feedback via the link on the Radio Reps page.

When you have a health condition, you might also have a lot of symptoms or changes to manage. You could be living with pain, fatigue or breathlessness amongst other things. You may have a challenging treatment regime, with a lot of appointments and disruption to your usual routine, or uncertainty about the future. Overall, your life could have changed a lot. 

It’s natural to be concerned about your health and to worry about the impact of these changes on you and those around you. It’s common to feel that you don’t recognise parts of yourself or your life as you did before.  Adapting to all of those things is a lot to manage.

Why think about thinking?

At school we learn about different parts of our bodies and physical health, but learning about the role our minds have in this is much more recent. Without a guide to our minds and some skills in that area, our physical health can be much harder to manage. This does not mean that things are all in your mind, the struggles in physical health are very real. It means that knowing a thing or two about your mind and how it works can help you to manage the other things that you have on your plate.

To give you a flavour of this, our first Rep is a playful look at our thinking.

Just don’t think about it.

Has anyone ever said to you to stop thinking or worrying about something? Have you ever said that to yourself, or to someone else?

We know that having our minds focus on our difficulties can increase our distress, so it’s a really natural thing to say. The difficulty is, it’s impossible.

Here’s a little exercise that you can try yourself, or invite other people to try.

Getting ready to focus

Start by making yourself as comfortable as possible. Let your mind know to pay attention to what you’re doing, by holding yourself in an alert position if you can. Usually this means supporting your head to look forward, with your shoulders back. Give your shoulders a quick roll if it helps.

The exercise

For the next 10 seconds, concentrate on your thoughts and make sure you don’t think about a blue rabbit. You can think about anything else that you want to, anything at all. Just not a fluffy, cute blue, big-eyed rabbit.

Try this for 10 seconds.

Noticing what happened

How did you do? What did you notice? Did anything interesting happen? 

Usually, our minds really push against this, and one of two things happens:

We think about the rabbit more

or

We have to work really, really hard to think about something else, which is very hard work.

Why is this exercise a Radio Rep?

This exercise is the first Radio Rep because it’s important to recognise that controlling our thoughts in this way is just not possible for most people.  Criticising ourselves about this is really criticising our minds for doing what they’re built to do.

if it’s hard to just stop thinking about an imaginary rabbit, how hard is it to just stop thinking about the tough stuff? Nobody wants to be thinking about things that are hard, or upsetting, or scary, but it is part of what our minds do, and it takes huge effort to wrestle our minds off those things, and as soon as we stop wrestling, the thoughts pop back up, like a ball in the sea.

What is more workable?

A different way is to learn to let thoughts come and go, without giving them all our attention, or trying to stop them. Many future Radio Reps are exercises that can help to develop those skills. It does take some practice to feel stronger with this, a bit like going to the gym for your body, which is why we’re calling them Radio Reps. Finding the exercises that work best for you can be a bit like going shopping to find the right fit, and we will include lots of different options.  

Problem-solving minds

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to focus on the things that are going well in life? Have you noticed how often our minds focus on problems? Have you wondered why they do that?

Our minds focus on problems to be helpful. There may be times when we might disagree about the helpfulness part! It is natural for a human mind to look for problems, and to then try to solve them. It is part of our survival and safety centre If we spot problems quickly and fix them, it’s helpful, right?

Sometimes

It is useful for us and works well with “out there” problems. Like things that are happening now or soon, and things that need logical problem-solving and have practical solutions. Examples of these are the bus breaking down, or a washing machine needing fixing, or locking ourselves out. We need problem solving to get through the steps to a solution or find help as quicky as possible. Our minds are geared up for this.

When it’s not very helpful

What about things that don’t have an answer, can’t be easily solved or lie further ahead in time? Lots of problems that we face fit into this category. These include many “inside” problems, things that happen inside our minds or bodies. They may include other things in life that don’t have a straightforward solution. There may be nothing we can do to change these problems for a long time, if at all.

There are many examples of this is the world of physical health. One is waiting for results, or maybe feeling scared or angry. Our problem-solving mind notices that there is an issue and jumps in to help. It might try to make the difficult thoughts or feelings go away. It may go round and round, noticing the problem and trying to fix it over and over again and again. A bit like that washing machine that is stuck on spin! Exhausting!

We know, thanks to the blue rabbit, that trying to just not think about things doesn’t work. So, what do we do when our thoughts are spinning like that?

Guiding our attention

One thing that can help in moments like this is to gently bring our mind back to now. There is a lot of research showing how this can help us to manage our thoughts and feelings. It helps us to focus our attention to work for us, rather than automatically going round and round.

Finding the self-help that works for you

There are many exercises that can help us to develop this ability. We will offer a selection during the Radio Reps. We hope that they could be useful to you, though probably not all will. Please pick the ones that are best for you. Some exercises, like this one, use senses, or a certain focus. If this is not accessible to you, we hope that other choices are. If you would like to help us to develop the Reps, please leave us feedback and suggestions below.

Getting ready

Start by making yourself as comfortable as possible. Let your mind know to pay attention to what you’re doing – sit in an alert position if you can. Usually this means supporting your head to look forward, with your shoulders back. Give your shoulders a quick roll if it helps.

The exercise

This exercise brings our attention back into the present moment, using our five senses. I can be helpful to count down the steps on a hand, if you’re remembering them.

Noticing what you see

To start, I invite you to look around you and notice five things that you can see right now. It can help to say them out loud to yourself, or in your mind use the phrase “I can see….” for each one. We are deliberately putting our attention into what we can see.

Noticing what you touch

When you’ve done that, you could go through four things you can touch. It might be that you can you feel the texture of what you’re sitting on or your clothes. You might be able to feel a breeze. Again, start each one with “ I can feel….” To help you to really notice it.

Noticing what you hear

Then move on to three things you can hear by noticing the sounds that are around you. Our brain filters out most of what is happening around us becuse we just can’t pay attention to everything. Try to tune in now to the sounds about you. again starting with “ I can hear…..” Try to notice the variety of sounds, and their quality.

Noticing what you smell

Next, you could move on to two things you can smell. This can be a tricky one, again we are used to filtering most smells out of our awareness. You could notice the smell of your clothes, a drink or snack, or any smells on the air

Noticing what you taste

Finally, notice bring your attention to your taste bud and notice 1 thing you can taste:. What are you tasting right now? If this is hard, you could imagine the taste of your favourite meal. You could imagine what you most recently ate or drank.

Noticing what happened

Once you have noticed all of our senses, you could roll your shoulders again. How was the washing machine mind through that exercise? Did you notice anything?

It’s very common for our attention to be snagged in an exercise like this and wander. It's common for it to seek out problems! Noticing that this is happening is part of the skill of guiding attention and, with more practice it gets easier. From grounding in the present, we have more of a chance of choosing what we think about next.

Our reps so far have been about thinking. This is important because our minds naturally focus on problems and challenges. We can’t stop this from happening. What we can do is avoid getting stuck for long periods of time, thinking about difficulties that we can’t resolve.

Noticing where our thoughts have gone is a big part of developing this skill.

Finding a good fit

There are a lot of exercises that can help with this. Finding ones that you can connect with is a bit like going shopping to find the best ‘fit’. We therefore have a lot of different reps to try out.

Being curious

This exercise is called leaves on the stream. It can be used to practice the skill of noticing thoughts. It encourages us to be curious about them, without giving them all of our attention. Rather than using the environment around us, this one uses imagination.

As with all of these exercises it can feel a little strange at first, like wearing in a new pair of shoes.

The exercise

As before, start by making yourself as comfortable as possible. Try to signal to your mind that you’re about to do some work with it. Hold yourself in an alert position if you can. Usually this means supporting your head to look forward, with your shoulders back. Give your shoulders a quick roll if it helps.

Let your eyes gently close or fix them on a point in front of you.

For now, just breathe in and out.

Notice the sound and feel of your breath as you breathe, and as your ribcage expands, and contracts

Now I invite you to imagine in your mind’s eye that you are sitting by the bank of a gently flowing stream.

Imagine the way the ground feels beneath you. Imagine the sound of the water flowing past and the way the stream looks.

Imagine that there are leaves of all different shapes, sizes, and colours floating past on the stream. You are just watching these go by, and this is all you need to do for the time being.

If your mind wanders, that’s fine, that’s what minds do. Just notice where it’s gone. As you become aware of a thought or a feeling, imagine putting it on one of the leaves. Let it float down the stream.

Do this regardless of the thought or feeling. It could be welcome or unwelcome, pleasurable or painful. Whatever shows up for you, notice it, place it on a leaf, and allow it to float along.

Allow the stream to flow at its own rate. Notice any urges to speed it up or slow it down, and put on leaves as well.

If a leaf gets stuck, notice it, don’t force it. For now, all you are doing is observing this experience

You might notice “here’s a feeling of impatience”. You might notice “here’s a thought of I don’t know if I’m doing this right””. Then place those words on a leaf, and watch them from your place, on the riverbank.

It is natural to get hooked into a thought or feeling during the exercise. It's natural to loose track. When you notice yourself losing track, congratulate your noticing. Then bring yourself back to watching the leaves on the stream as you breathe in and out.

We’re coming to the end of this exercise now. I invite you to allow the image of the stream to dissolve. Slowly bring your attention back to sitting in the chair, in this room.

Gently open your eyes and notice what you can see. Notice what you can hear. Push your feet into the floor and have a stretch, noticing how that feels in your body.

As with all of the reps in this series, they work best for you with practice as you guide your mind to learn new ways of managing thoughts and feelings.

We’ve looked at how our thoughts automatically focus on challenges or problems to solve, and how it’s natural for them to go round and round looking for a solution.

Whilst our thoughts are focussing on this, another part of our brain might signal to our body that we are facing a problem. This part of our brain is very old, and approaches problems as though we need to fight them or run away. It is a power-up system that provides us with extra energy to fight or run.

It’s also very quick. Our heartrate increases and instantly our bodies can be tense and primed for action. We might not even have realised that this process is happening. Our attention can still be focussed on the problem we are thinking about.

We can get into a vicious cycle with this easily. 1. We focus on a problem. 2 Our mind triggers our body into being tense and ready to run or fight. 3. Our minds then notice this tension. 4. This in turn signals to our mind that there is a problem.

This is a completely normal process, but we often don’t need to run or fight from our problems. Without knowing that your mind is likely to trigger it, we can miss a chance to disrupt it.

This rep helps us to do this.  We can learn to notice the process happening. We can then power-down when we don’t need to run or fight.  

Progressive muscle relaxation

This exercise includes deliberately tensing and relaxing major muscle groups. It’s usual to feel tingling, warmth or other sensations. Please check in with your body, do not do any exercise that could trigger or increase pain. Please see our other reps for alternatives.

Again, if you are in charge of something that needs your attention, like children, cars or machinery, please try this later.

Start by making yourself as comfortable as possible. You can do this exercise in a chair or lying down. You will need a quiet space where you can focus for a few minutes. As far as possible, allow your thoughts to come and go, without judgement about the exercise, or about how you’re doing. Try to aim for curiosity.

1. Start with your hands. Call your attention into your hands and notice how they feel. Now squeeze them tightly, as though you are squeezing a lemon. Hold that for a few seconds, noticing how it feels to have muscles that tense. Really hold them tightly, really notice.

Then let them go. Stretch out your fingers, wriggle them, notice with curiosity how that feels.

2. Now your arms. Stretch them out in front of you. Hold them straight. Notice the feeling of the muscles being tense as you hold them for a few seconds.

Then let them go Let your arms rest at your sides, noticing any feelings or sensations as you let them relax.

3. Now move your shoulders up, as through you are a tortoise shrinking back into your shell. Like you are trying to touch your ears with them. Notice what it’s like to have your muscles that tense. Hold this for a few seconds.

Now let them go, give them a wriggle, let them settle, and notice how that feels.

4. Now take a deep breath in through your mouth. Notice the expansion in your ribcage and your belly. Hold your breath for a few seconds.

Let it go out through your mouth. Take a couple more breaths, noticing the way that your body moves with the breath in and out.

5. Next stretch your legs out as though you’re trying to reach something with your toes. Notice the feeling of tightness down your legs. Hold that for a few second.

Let it go. Notice any change in sensation in your legs.

6. And now flex your feet, pulling your toes towards you. Feel the muscles tense. Notice how that feels.

Let them go, letting your legs and feet relax, and noticing any sensations in them.

7. Now allow your mind to float through your body, noticing any tension, and squeezing and relaxing those muscles. Let yourself notice how your body feels now, as you breathe in and out.

8. And with the next breath, gently come back into your room, wriggle your body and look around you.

Do you notice anything about how your body is feeling now?

This exercise helps us to notice feelings of tension in our body. When our minds are caught up in a problem, we can miss this. Over time you can learn to reset more quickly when it’s helpful.

There are many types of exercise like this. You can find another NHS progressive muscle relaxation audio here: How can meditation help with sleep? - Every Mind Matters - NHS

This Rep takes a closer look at ways to manage our minds when preparing for an appointment.

By the time we are adults, most of us have navigated many appointments. These will have been in different settings, like school, health, or work. We might have had appointments that were boring, helpful, confusing, straightforward, scary or exciting, amongst others. One thing we can be sure of is that our minds take careful note of any difficult experiences. They prepare us for the possibility of this again in the future, even if we aren’t aware they are doing that.

Healthcare appointments can be stressful. They might include a difficult journey or parking. They might include frightening or unwelcome news. They might be disruptive to other important activities or squeezed in between them.

All of this can add up to our minds being very busy, before we even walk through the door. Our bodies can also hold this tension, maybe without us really noticing.

When to use this Radio Rep

This Rep is one to practice ahead of time, as well as to have ready to use at times like this. It could help to soothe you and bring your attention back into what you are doing. This could help you to get the most out of your appointment.

Using breathing

This Rep focusses on breathing. If that is difficult or triggering for you, please explore the other Radio Reps on our website that can help with appointments without focusing on breath. You could consider grounding or the muscle relaxation exercises

Making notes

For this exercise, it can help to have a notebook with you, so that you can write down what comes out of the exercise for you.

Again, if you are in charge of something that needs your attention, like children, cars or machinery, please try this later.

The exercise

As before, start by making yourself as comfortable as possible. You can do this exercise from your bed, in a chair or standing, wherever you are before your appointment. To practice it, you will need a quiet space where you can focus for a few minutes. As with earlier Radio Reps, as far as possible during the exercise, allow any thoughts to come and go. Notice any thoughts or judgements about the exercise, or about how you’re doing. Try to aim for curiosity.

Allow your eyes to gently close, or let your gaze soften onto something close by.

To start, I invite you to take a full, deep breath in through your nose. When you feel that you’ve breathed in as far as you can, pause. See whether you can breathe in a little more.

Next, take a long, slow exhale through your mouth. When you feel you’ve fully breathed out, pause, and see whether you can breathe out a little more.

Continue to repeat this breath in a rhythm that is comfortable to you. Take a big breath in, as far as you can. Breathe out as far as you can, each time noticing whether you can expand a little more.

Allow yourself to be in this moment, noticing your breath. Let go of any control over your breath, and just letting yourself be here, as you breathe in and out.

Let go the effort that it has taken to bring you here now.

When you are ready take a moment to turn inward. Notice what matters to you about your appointment. It could be giving or getting information. It might be understanding something new or planning. It could be something else. It could be connection and feeling heard.

Is your mind noticing any barriers, or things that could show up and get in the way? Be curious about these.

Notice what could help you to achieve your goal. What resources do you have? These could be resources inside you, like strength, or courage. They could be resources outside of you, like other people, or technology.

Try to notice them with curiosity, as you breathe.

Now taking a fuller deeper breath, focusing back into the rise and fall of your chest. Bring your attention back into the room. Notice where you are and move your body a little.

If helpful, use your notebook for any ideas of things that could help you to get the most out of your appointment.

As with all of the Radio Reps in this series, this skill works best for you with practice. Helping your mind to learn new ways of managing thoughts and feelings takes time.

Welcome to Radio Rep number 6. This rep takes a closer look at compassion. There are two sides to compassion. One is noticing when someone is suffering. We might feel sadness, or empathy for example, as we hear about the situation that they’re in, and how it’s affecting them. The other side to compassion is wanting to help to relieve the suffering.

Many of us find compassion much easier to show to other people than to ourselves. When it comes to our own challenges or suffering, we might automatically take a more critical or demanding “get on with it” position.

If we can develop compassion, and kindness to ourselves as well as to others, it has many benefits. It can help us to feel less up and down emotionally, to meet difficult challenges in life, to be less critical of ourselves and to focus our attention on what matters to us in our lives.

This exercise uses imagination to link compassionate feelings we may have towards others, to ourselves. If this is not a good fit for you, as always, please consider the other exercises on our pages.

The exercise

As with previous reps, as far as possible during the exercise, allow any thoughts to come and go, without beings swept up by them, or snagged by judgement about the exercise, or about how you’re doing. Try to aim for curiosity.

Start by making yourself as comfortable as possible.

Allow your eyes to gently close, or let your gaze soften onto something close by.

Settle into a breathing rhythm that is comfortable to you, noticing the rise and fall of your chest.

Notice how your body is feeling. Are you holding any tension in your body? Are there any difficult feelings around for you at the moment? Take a second to notice this.

I invite you to think of a time when you felt compassion for another being. It could be someone in your life, or someone that you heard about, or saw on TV. It could be an animal. Think of a time when you were aware of them having a difficult time, and of your wanting to help them.

Now I invite you to hold your hands in front of you, as though they were a cup. Imagine that in the cup, you are holding those feelings of care, and the desire to help.

Next, move your hands onto your body where you were feeling the tension, or where the difficult feelings were for you. 

Allow your hands, and the feelings of care and kindness to warm that part of you.

Hold them there, as you breath in and out, showing care and noticing the warmth.

We’re coming to the end of the exercise now, so I invite you to place your hands back down in front of you. What did you notice? How does your body feel?

We hope that you found this exercise helpful. It can feel very different to show ourselves the kind of care we might automatically show to others. It can take practice to guide your mind into this skill. Practice can help, so please keep checking back as we add other information about compassion, and exercises to support its development.

Several of the exercises in our Reps so far have focussed on thinking. This Rep is a little different. It introduces an exercise on feelings, and how we can regulate them. If you listened to Rep 4, you will have been expecting this for a few weeks!

Feeling overwhelmed

Life can be very busy and the reasons for this are different for all of us. For some it may be demands at work. It might be the to-do list that comes with running a home. It might be managing a health condition, including attending appointments with different healthcare professionals. It might be caring responsibilities. It could be all of these. And that’s before we add in making time for hobbies, family and friends. No wonder we can find ourselves feeling overwhelmed.

Regulating our reaction

Emotional regulation starts with understanding that both our bodies and our emotions respond to these everyday experiences. It can be helpful to develop skills in noticing and naming these emotions when they arise. This can help us to choose how we respond to them. This can in turn help us to avoid getting swept along or overwhelmed by them. There are lots of different ways to increase our emotional understanding and awareness. This is a favourite, that is used a lot. It’s called ‘taking your emotional temperature’.

Taking your emotional temperature

A prompt can help with this. This can be a sticker on the back of your phone case or a hair bobble on your wrist. It could be a note pinned to your fridge. This prompt helps you to remember to STOP for a moment. To pause. Take your emotional temperature. This means noticing your body and to how you feel at that moment. You can ask yourself these questions:

How do I feel right now?

How aroused or worked up am I?

If I had a thermometer for my feelings, what reading would I see?

Would I be in the green zone – feeling calm, chilled, at ease?

Or in the amber zone, feeling slightly on edge, worked up, agitated?

Or in the red zone, feeling frustrated, angry, scared or overwhelmed?

If you realise that you are in the amber or red zone, you can then take action to soothe, regulate and cool your emotional temperature. Again, there are lots of different ways to do this, and lots of choices among the Reps. Below is a favourite and something that people often say works really well for them. It’s called the butterfly hug.

This Rep uses your hands to make a small tapping motion onto your body. If this is not workable for you for any reason, please consider the other reps on our pages.

The Butterfly Hug

This technique was developed by Lucina Artigas. It aims to reduce anxiety and help us to calm, particularly during or following stressful life events.

As always, if you are in charge of something that needs your attention, like children, cars or machinery, please try this later.

Start by making yourself as comfortable as possible. You can do this exercise in a chair or lying down. You will need a quiet space where you can focus for a few minutes. As with earlier Reps, as far as possible, allow your thoughts to come and go, without hooking into them. Notice judgements about the exercise, or about how you’re doing with curiosity.

Cross your arms over your chest. Have the tip of your middle finger of each hand placed under your collarbone.  Or if you prefer, cross your arms over your chest by putting your right hand on your left shoulder and your left hand on your right shoulder. Choose the position that feels best for you.

The hands and fingers should be as vertical as possible. The fingers point towards the neck and not towards the arms. If you wish, you can interlock your thumbs. This creates the body of the butterfly. Extend your other fingers outward to form the wings of the butterfly.

You can close your eyes gently or lower your gaze, looking at the tip of your nose.

Next, gently and slowly tap one hand and then the other, alternating the movement of your hands, like the fluttering of a butterfly. The aim is to tap slowly. You may wish to count. 1..2..3..4..5 and so on, as you tap and breathe slowly and deeply. Gently observe what is going on in your mind and body.

Notice thoughts, images, sounds, smells, feelings, and sensations without trying to change, move away, or judge them. You can imagine that you observe them as passing clouds.

Keep tapping those little taps for about 20-25 seconds. Start to notice what’s going on in your mind and body.

Next, take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. See how you feel and start a new set. If you notice that Is the reading on your emotional thermometer reducing, continue the exercise for a few more rounds until you reach a state of calm.

To strengthen the calming sensations, you can visualize a real or imaginary place. Choose one that makes you feel calm, safe and at peace. Try to recreate that image as realistically as possible and focus on the calming sensations you experience. If you tune in to future Reps, you will find guided exercises for this.

I’m going to invite you to stop your tapping now. Just take a couple of breaths as you draw this skill to a close.

Do you notice anything about how your body is feeling now? Has the colour of your temperature changed at all?

Part of the value of this exercise is in getting more used to noticing your body and your emotional state. At first it may feel odd or difficult but over time, with practice this usually gets easier.

A great thing about this Rep is that you can repeat it as often as is helpful in the course of a day. For example, this might be helpful after a difficult start to the day. You could have experienced pain or discomfort that has made moving around a challenge. Later, you may have had plans go awry or take longer than expected. You may have started to feel frustrated - a good time to take your temperature and once again engage in a butterfly hug. Later again, you may find yourself in a disagreement with a member of your family or a friend. Before going to bed, you might check in with yourself again, and use the butterfly hug and a calming breath as part of your preparation for sleep.

We hope that you find this Rep helpful. Please also listen to the other options on our webpage or look out for future exercises and information on York Hospital Radio. 

In our Radio Reps so far, we’ve looked at how our minds will often automatically focus on problems. This might be worries about the future, or things that we can’t change or influence now. This part of our mind is trying to help us. It constantly scans for possible threats, so that we can try to avoid them.

We can easily find ourselves on autopilot though, caught in a cycle of worry, imagining future problems and feeling stressed. We can become cut off from what is happening now and from other important things in life.

We can build skills to notice this process. These help us to bring our attention back into where we are and what is happening in real time. It is then easier to direct our attention deliberately into what matters to us.

It is difficult because the system that scans for threat is powerful and quick. We can’t just switch it off, we might need it one day. So, it’s very common to repeatedly find ourselves tugged into thinking about problems. We can lose track of what we are doing, even when we’ve practised these skills quite a bit. Our minds can be very tricky!

Having a go at learning these skills in different settings can really help with this. We therefore have a few in the Radio Reps series. This one is all about using these skills on a walk, or a memory of or imagined walk. If this is not workable for you for any reason, please consider our other Reps that develop the same skills. Alternatively, please contact us via the form below and help us to adapt a version of the Rep in a more workable way.

There is a lot of evidence that being present in nature can reduce lots of common types of distress. This rep therefore uses an outside setting. If you are in hospital, you could practice it in one of the gardens or green spaces. Or if you aren’t able to do that, your imagination or a memory can work just as well.

As with all of these exercises it can feel a little different and strange at first. As far as possible, try to be curious rather than judging about any tugs on your attention. When you notice this happening, gently redirect your focus back into the exercise. Each time you lose track, notice and bring your attention back – that’s a rep, just like at the gym.

Mindful walk in nature

Find a safe space to walk outside. This can be anywhere, such as a park or path, in the countryside or on the beach. Or for now, imagine an outside space if you can, by letting your eyes close or letting your gaze soften.

Start by taking some slow breaths in, and out, allowing your chest to expand and contract.

Bring your attention to your feet and notice how it feels to be supported by the ground underneath you. If you like, push your feel a little into the floor. Wriggle your toes or rock a little on the balls of your feet. Notice what that feels like, noticing any sensations in your feet, and how the ground feels beneath you.

Notice your body and how it feels. As with our other reps, encourage your body to be upright, without being stiff or tense. If you like, wriggle your shoulders or stretch out your arms. You could pause and rock a little on your feet again, releasing any tension.

Begin to walk slowly, bringing your attention to the feeling of walking.

Notice the feeling in your feet as they contact the ground, or as you lift them up.

Notice the feeling of the ground underneath you; is it hard or soft, smooth or bumpy?

Notice the feeling of the air around you. Is it warm or cool? Is it windy or still? Notice the feeling of the air on your face as you move. Stretch out your fingers to feel the air between them.

Notice your breath – has it become shallower? Breathe deeply as you move. Notice how your chest expands and contracts as you walk.

Notice again how your body feels. You can wriggle your shoulders or stretch out your arms. You can pause and rock a little on your feet again, as much or as little as you like.

As you walk…

Bring your attention into your surroundings. Notice the colours around you, noting any difference in shades or shadows. Are there leaves, or grass or waves around you? Notice the different colours that they include, or the different shades within each one.

Remember to be curious, rather than judgemental. It can help to use the phrase “I notice….”

Notice sounds around you. Really tune in to notice things that you may not have been aware of. Stop walking for a moment, if it helps. What are the different tones or volumes of the sounds in nature around you?

Do the same with smells that might reach you on the breeze.

As you continue to walk, keep noticing the information from your senses, noticing what you feel, see, hear and smell.

Your attention might be taken by a thought, worry or a judgement. You might notice some emotion showing up. That’s fine, that’s what minds do. Just notice that this has happened. Aim for curiosity rather than judgement. Gently bring your attention back into your walk, and what you can feel, see, hear, and smell.

Notice your breath, and your chest rising and falling.

Allow yourself to be in this moment, on your walk, noticing the sights, sounds, smells and feelings, as you breathe.

We are going to bring this exercise to a close now. Please take a moment to notice how that experience was for you. Did you notice anything different around you that you may have missed before? Was it perhaps a struggle, with your mind continually hopping to other things? This is natural and will keep happening. It can get easier with practice. Noticing, and directing your attention to where you want it to be can feel more natural.

Have you ever noticed yourself getting lost in your thoughts and missing what is happening around you? Maybe you have taken a walk and not noticed how you got to your destination. Maybe you've brushed your teeth without noticing and now aren’t sure whether you really did.

It’s really easy to get caught up in thoughts or worries, and it happens all the time. You might have an upcoming appointment or treatment that you’re thinking about. You could be worried about work and family life. It could be that you’re not especially worried, just that your thoughts are very busy. There could just be a lot going on.

Our minds get busy on our behalf, and we can accidentally find ourselves on autopilot. We aren’t paying attention to what is happening in real time.

What if there was a way to gently bring your attention back to the present moment? You could be more aware of your surroundings, and less caught up in thoughts or worries.

The rep for this week can help to build these skills. It is a way to practice noticing when our thoughts are drifting and bringing them back to the present moment. It uses a single object to do this. This is a rep that you can do indoors or when you are out in nature. There is research to suggest that being mindful and present in nature can help with many things. This includes stress, anxiety and low mood, and improving your overall wellbeing. Isn’t that amazing!

As with other exercises, thoughts will come and go during this exercise. As far as possible, allow this to happen, without beings swept up by them. Try to notice if you are snagged by judgement about the exercise, or about how you’re doing. Try to aim for curiosity. If you notice that your mind has gone wandering, bring your attention back to what you are doing.

Mindful practice with stone

I’d like you to find a small object. For today, this might be a pen, a book, a mug, or something that you can see around you. Anything will do! I encourage you to also practice this exercise when you are outside, or with something more closely linked to nature like a stone, a stick or, a leaf, when you get the chance. Try to pick something that is emotionally neutral for you. So not something that might remind you of a time when you were angry, sad, or really excited. I’m going to use a small stone I found on a trip to a beach.

Once you have your item, get yourself nice and comfortable. Breathe slowly and deeply in and out. Notice your muscles relax and tension release.

Start to really notice the object. What does it look like?

Does it have any distinct marks?

What colour is it?

Is it made up of one colour, or many colours and shades?

Is it smooth?

Does it have edges?

Is it shiny?

What is the size of the object?

How would you describe the object to another person?

Now pick up the object and move it around in your hands.

Does it feel the way you expected?

Is it heavy?

Is it light?

What is the texture of the object?

Does the texture change as you move the object?

Does it look different if you move the object around?

Does it feel different when you move it in your hand?

What do you notice?

Does it make a sound as you move the object around?

Be curious about the object, creating a moment of stillness as you just observe it, without judgement.

I’m going to invite you to take a couple more deep breaths, and to come out of the exercise now.

How did you find it? Perhaps you found it odd at the start. Did you notice any judgements that you made? Maybe you thought “this feels silly” or “am I doing this correctly?” Perhaps you noticed your mind wandering away from observing the object. This is a natural reaction.

Next time, when you notice this happening, gently bring your attention back to observing the object. Try to notice any judgements about how you are doing without getting too snagged by them. Each time you notice your attention wandering off and bring it back, that’s a rep, just like in the gym. You’re building your muscle of noticing and directing your attention.

With practice, it can become easier, and the great thing about this exercise is that you can do it anywhere! Maybe next time you can try this outdoors, or you could bring a bit of nature along with you. Some people find it helpful to have a small pebble in their pocket. They can then hold in their hand or take out and observe in times where they are noticing they are getting caught up in their thoughts.