Sky, Glorious Sky. Try Skychology on Your Next Walk

Looking up at the sky is an activity many consider ordinary. We do it every day, often without even realising it. For millennia artists have been mesmerised by the sky, yet little is known about the lived human experience of doing so. A significant body of nature wellbeing research extols the benefits of interacting with nature to enhance psychological wellbeing and physical health; however research has primarily focused on green and blue spaces (e.g. natural areas in wilderness and urban settings, oceans, lakes, and rivers).

Crucially, and unlike green and blue spaces, the sky is always there, unbound by geography or urbanisation and available to virtually everyone.

Since Ulrich first identified restorative health benefits from noticing nature for postoperative patients, a multitude of studies have identified links between nature involvement, improved physical health and psychological wellbeing, including higher levels of life satisfaction, attention, positive affect, and decreased levels of stress and anxiety.

The simple act of viewing a natural vista can have an immediate effect on an individual's psychological and physiological functions, rapidly lowering stress levels.

The experience of looking up also has striking parallels with meditation and mindfulness practice, the latter defined as 'the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment by moment'.

5 Ways to Bring Skychology into Your Life

Find out how looking up every day can positively enhance your wellbeing in an instant.

1. Just deciding that you're looking up at the sky with a view to boosting your wellbeing will shift your perspective in such a way that you'll be more receptive to the beauty and mystery of the sky, which we so often take for granted.

2. Embrace skychology, whatever the weather: glorious sunshine, blazing stars, thunderstorms and vibrant sunsets may seem as though they have more to offer than a grey sky drizzling rain, but the ever-changing nature of the sky is just one more thing to be wowed by. So don't be deterred by the weather.

3. Be curious about what you see. Make a point of observing and enjoying different textures, colours, contrasts and sensations you experience when sky-gazing.

4. As you look at the sky, allow any thoughts you have to come up and then move on. Does the sky seem to reflect how you're feeling? Or is it entirely different? Considering your relationship with the sky can make for interesting viewing of your own

5. Developing the ability the see the extraordinary in the ordinary is likely to soon extend from your skychology practice into many other areas of life! Notice when this comes up and take that new frame of mind with you into everything you do.

Being grounded by the sky encompasses being into the moment, instilling calm, connectedness, and an expansive sense of perspective. The sky is an awe-inspiring window into the infinite and the impermanent, stimulating an innate existential curiosity with the universe and their role within it.

When was the last time you sky-gazed?

Love,

Sophie and Ellie xx

Source:

Natural Health Magazine, The Sky's the Limit

Paul Conway (2018) 'Skychology: The future of wellbeing is looking up'

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327941956_Skychology_The_future_of_wellbeing_is_looking_up