Perfect Days
Mindfulness, trees and enjoying the mundane
Finding Perfect
How a tree validated my experience of anxiety which I had been dismissing for months. Because I watched the film Perfect Days for the first time.
I’ve been learning about mindfulness lately and last night I watched the film Perfect Days, a film which highlights finding contentment in life’s mundane things. Inspired by this, I went for a walk to do just that. I strolled up the mendip hills earlier today and sat on a bench which overlooked the hills between some nearby trees. The more I examined these trees the more they spoke to me.
Nature Nurtures us
To really challenge my low-attention span I chose one tree to focus on. Here’s what I learnt…
The tree was covered in some type of ivy so it had thousands, maybe tens of thousands of leaves wrapped around it. The leaves consume its branches so much that I could only see the outline of this tree. I looked closer, focusing on a single ivy leaf, noticing how it flickers rapidly in the wind. I noticed how it’s flickering at a different rate to every other leaf on that tree and even that particular branch.
It made me think about how people can experience the same challenges but respond differently. The wind affects each individual leaf differently, some stay attached and unaffected, others give up and fall. I considered why, maybe the shape of the leaf changes how it deals with the wind.
Personally, when my anxious thoughts manifest I convince myself there is something wrong with me. I forget everything I’ve been through and forget that my negative thoughts are probably a logical reaction to my experience. It makes me even question if I’ll ever feel normal again.
When I look up higher, the branches are all fragmented against the sky, they shake differently to the leaves even though they’re all connected. Then I noticed how the leaves which are much lower and closer to the ground are barely shaking in comparison.
Becoming more Grounded
This reminded me that people who are ‘grounded’ are often less affected by life events which shake others more vigorously. I think it doesn’t matter who you are but you’ll be affected differently depending are your environment.
Research suggests around 25% of people with anxiety can be attributed to genetic factors and the rest is purely environmental experience. This means if you struggle with anxiety it most likely isn’t an inherent trait and probably just a consistent build up of stressful experiences.
In the film Perfect Days, main character Hirayama is a humble cleaner in public toilets scattered about Tokyo.
Even though his job looks slightly gruelling with a long list of locations he cleans each day, he still takes time to notice things which others simply walk past.
One of my favourite of these is the shadows left on walls by trees which Hirayama looks at with wonder. Something so simple seems to bring him so much joy. We see the effect of this mindset on his life as he smiles widely at the sky each morning before work. Something which I’ve never seen anyone do here in the uk.
Adopting a Hirayama approach, I discovered so much about myself today by taking time to notice the trees. Similarly, I noticed how the hills beyond the trees sort of mirror my negative thoughts. By this I mean how negative thoughts often feel like a long uphill walk without knowing whats on the other side. When I’m feeling anxious I forget there’s an alternative way to feel. Similarly, when walking uphill I forget there’s a downward slope to effortlessly walk down on the other side.
If you walk up the entire hill you get to roll back down on the opposite side. It gets easier.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far, feel free to subscribe or not, I’ll still be documenting my learning journey. As always have a nice day, see what small pockets of beauty you can notice today even if you feel stressed.