Slow looking.

I’m here on my back porch drinking a cup of coffee and admiring my vegetable garden. I built a small raised garden bed and each summer I plant vegetables: Cherokee purple tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, and this year, I decided to try eggplant.

Each morning, my squash plant has big yellow blooms on it. The cucumber too. The bees and butterflies love them. I’m watching them hop to each flower and drink in the nectar. They also like the marigolds. Marigolds are good for keeping slugs and other creepy crawlies away from the veggies. But they are also really pretty. They are long and leggy with large round yellow-gold flowers. They provide a nice pop of color amidst all the greenery.

A hummingbird just came by to enjoy the flowers too. Then it zipped over and hovered in front of me, checking me out. It was really cool.

It feels good to let myself sit and enjoy the scene in front of me. I’m usually running around feeling pressured to do a million tasks. But this morning I really needed to just sit and watch. To look. Slowly.

Slow looking is a restorative mindfulness practice backed by the emerging field of NeuroArts. By intentionally examining art or objects for extended periods rather than passively glancing at them, this deliberate engagement lowers cortisol, reduces inflammation, and activates the brain's emotional and self-reflection networks.

So there’s science behind this idea of slow looking. But science aside, I like the fact that it just feels nice to sit, relax, and be.