6 Outdoor Mindfulness Activities for Individuals or Groups

Last Updated on August 28, 2026 by Matthew Sockolov

If you’re like me, your meditation practice may be mostly an indoor practice. I sit outside when I can. Right now it is winter here, and the cool mornings are perfect for practicing outdoors, listening to the birds, and hearing the rain. We can also practice when we’re fully out in nature, and it’s a great thing to do!

The Buddha himself recommended we find a quiet place under a tree to meditate in many suttas, and there’s a growing body of research to suggest spending time in nature has the potential to sharpen cognition, promote cognitive development in children, increase overall happiness, and improve health outcomes. In some group or therapeutic settings, these kinds of practices may also complement broader support systems, including access to mental health referrals when deeper guidance is needed. So with all that being said, let’s jump into some actual mindfulness activities you can do outdoors. These exercises may be done in groups, with children, or just by yourself. Instructions are provided for different circumstances.

Table of Contents

• Mindful Listening in Nature
  • Basic Mindful Hearing
  • Mindful Noting for Groups
  • Mindful Listening Prompts
• Self-Representation
• Mindful Art in Nature
  • Art in Pairs
  • Natural Mandala
• Scavenger Hunt
• Mindful Sensing
• Simple Walking Meditation

Mindful Listening in Nature

Mindful listening is a powerful practice in general, and nature offers quite the opportunity to practice. Wherever you are outside, there are likely plenty of sounds to hear. We rely so heavily on our sense of sight. Tuning into the experience of hearing is a great way to open up our mindfulness in a new way. Here are a few ways to practice mindful listening outdoors.

Basic Mindful Hearing

This outdoor mindfulness exercise can be done alone or with groups, but it isn’t as interactive as some of the other activities. The practice is fairly straightforward. You can sit or stand or be on the move for this practice. Personally, I like doing this while walking or hiking when alone. As you walk, tune into the sounds around you. You can use a noting practice to help keep your mind on track.

As you stand there or walk, allow whatever sounds to arise to just be there. You might hear the sound of your feet walking, the rustle of the wind in the trees, or the sound of birds chirping. Whatever you notice, just put a simple note on it mentally. You may simply say “feet” or “wind.” Stick with the sound for a few moments before opening the awareness back up to see what other sounds you can hear.

If you are doing this activity with a group, you might come back together after 5 or 10 minutes to discuss. People can share what they heard or noticed.

Mindful Noting for Groups

Much like the previous exercise, this is a noting practice of what we’re hearing. Rather than keeping it in your head, you’ll actually share out loud what you’re hearing. Here is how I lead this activity when I lead retreats and daylongs outdoors:

• Start by explaining what the activity will be so everyone has a clear understanding before beginning.
• You may sit, stand, lie down, or walk/move for this. Ideally, the group can stick together as much as possible.
• The leader can start the practice (or choose someone to go first) by simply noting one thing they hear. I generally find it best to use a simple note, such as “bird” or “wind” rather than pointing out specifics. When someone notes something out loud, the task is for the others to tune into their experience of that noise.
• After a few moments, someone else may note something they are hearing. Again, everyone turns their attention to this experience.

This practice is a great way to engage with each other in the practice of mindful listening. We also may hear things or tune into things that we wouldn’t otherwise notice.

Mindful Listening Prompts

For a more directed and guided experience of mindful listening outdoors, you can try offering prompts. This activity works well with groups and a leader. Come up with some prompts ahead of time to offer the group. When I’ve lead groups in this exercise, I often have a big list of prompts, and pick and choose the relevant ones in the moment. Some of them work well in progression, like the first four about birds. Here are a few examples of prompts you can offer:

• Listen to the closest bird you can hear
• Listen to the farthest bird.
• Listen to all of the birds.
• Listen to the silence between bird calls.
• Listen to the sound of your right (or left) foot walking.
• Listen to the sound of your breath.
• Listen to the sound of the wind.

Self-Representation

Moving on from listening, this is more of a reflective mindfulness activity. You can certainly do this yourself, but this is an outdoor mindfulness exercise aimed at groups. We’ve also found it to be a great mindfulness activity for couples! To do this exercise, start by selecting your time. I recommend starting with 10 minutes.

During the ten minutes, each participant can wander freely outdoors, looking for something that they feel represents themselves. When the time is up, you can return to each other or the group to share what you found and why you feel it represents you. This is a great way to mindfully reflect on both nature and our views on ourselves. For example, somebody may find a river stone and identify with the strength it has in the water and how the turbulence has smoothed it out and helped shape it.

Mindful Art with Nature

These are a few more creative and fun ways to practice mindfulness in nature. Although I’ve written these for groups or pairs, you can absolutely do these by yourself.

Art in Pairs

To do this activity, you’ll need to split off into pairs or groups of three. You can choose as a group what you want to do, or the leader can offer a prompt. Together with your partner(s), you will be creating something to follow the prompt. You might choose something concrete like an animal, tree, place, or scene. You also might choose something more open-ended or abstract such as love, kindness, joy, or peace.

Offer the partners a short bit of time to discuss, perhaps a minute or two. Then, everyone has a set amount of time to silently make their art with things they find in nature. They may collect leaves, sticks, rocks, dirt, or whatever they find. Together with their partner, they will silently work to construct the piece they wish to make. If you are doing this activity in a group, you can come together at the end to discuss what you made and how the process felt.

Natural Mandala

This is a creative mindful group activity that can works best with 5-10 people. If you have a larger group, you can split off into smaller groups. To do this activity, each group member can choose or be assigned a specific item or color to find. For example, one person may be in charge of finding rocks, one person finds green leaves, and another person finds sticks. Allow everybody time to collect their supplies.

Coming back to the group, begin constructing a mandala or geometric pattern. Start with one person. They can lay down their items in the center to make a design. When they finish, somebody else may go, putting their items around the center to create the next round of the mandala. You can do this activity in silence if you wish, allowing the person laying their items down to do so with full mindfulness and presence.

Like the previous activity, there’s no wrong answer here. The practice is to mindfully choose and place the items, however that may look or feel to you. You then can reflect when the mandala is finished on the process, your experience, and how the mandala looks to you.

Scavenger Hunt

Similar to the self-representation exercise, you can run a bit of a hunt in nature for items. When I do this practice, I always ask participants to do it in silence as it allows for more personal reflection and self-awareness. The goal of this practice is to simply be mindful as you investigate nature and follow the prompts. Encourage participants to tune into the entirety of their experience. You can really do this two different ways.

First, you can send people on a more concrete hunt. I generally start this practice with a round of concrete prompts to lay the groundwork. Some prompts I have used include to find:

• Something smooth
• Something rough
• Something strong
• Something weak
• Something of a specific color
• Something that makes an interesting noise

Next, you can move onto more abstract prompts to encourage a bit more reflection. Here are a few I use:

• Something that brings you joy
• Something that makes you feel calm
• Something that interests you
• Something you are grateful for
• Something yucky (great prompt for kids)

Again, this is a great practice to do in silence. You can offer the prompts one at a time or as a group, but try not to overwhelm people with too many prompts at once! You might consider writing them on something so people can bring their items back and check the next item on the list. When the activity is over, you can share in a group or partner up to share with another person what you found.

Mindful Sensing

This was a practice first introduced to me in teacher training at Spirit Rock, and I loved it. Well, I found it rather uncomfortable at first, but let’s say I grew to love it! We’ve done it several times with our students at daylong retreats and in groups since then. This is definitely a group or partner exercise.

To start, pair up with a partner. This exercise requires some trust. One person (person A) will be the leader first for 10 minutes, and then roles will be switched. Person B will be blindfolded or close their eyes. Be sure to walk slowly and mindfully. This alone is an exercise for both partners!

The task of person A is to find things in nature they can give to person B to experience in a new way. The leader may instruct person B to feel, listen, or smell the object. You don’t have to guess what it is or know waht ti is, just experience it. When the person is done, continue walking or looking for something else to give the person. When the time is up, switch roles!

Simple Walking Meditation

If you’re a regular leader of the blog or listener of the podcast, you know I’m a big fan of walking meditation. I won’t go on a rant about the importance of moving meditation, but let’s just say meditating in other positions than sitting still can be quite beneficial. This is especially true if we have the opportunity to walk outdoors or in nature. I’ve included a guided walking meditation practice as well if you want to familiarize yourself with the more formal practice.

We generally do walking meditation in a rather formal and structured way, walking back and forth along one path mindfully and slowly. Although I love this practice and find it beneficial, it sometimes can be good to be a little more relaxed and at ease with our walking practice. Again, the more formal guided practice can be found below.

To start your walking meditation, I recommend standing still for a moment and just taking in your experience. Take in your internal experience, where your body rests, how your feet feel on the ground, the sensation of the sun or wind on your skin, etc. Then turn to the external experience. What can you see, hear, or notice?

As you walk, you might use something as your anchor. I often use my breath or the feeling of my feet on the ground to return to. Rather than closing in on this one sensation or experience, open your awareness to see what you notice. Do any sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or feelings grab your attention? What about thoughts or general mental states? Notice your reaction to sounds and sights and feelings. Do certain things feel irritating or calming? There’s no right or wrong answer. Be true to your experience!

If you want help finding the right outdoor mindfulness exercises for your group, please reach out to me at Matthew@OneMindDharma.com. We’re happy to freely offer our suggestions based on your group and their needs!

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