Leaves in soft light

Maison · 5 min

Spend a momentwith a plant

Water one plant, turn it to the light, and look at it properly for a minute. That is the whole practice.

5 minutesFrom the library, free to readFour steps

A plant on a windowsill is a small living thing that depends on you a little, and asks very little. Five minutes with it is a quiet way to start or end the day.

The steps

Four small steps,in your own time.

  1. Choose one plant in the house. If there is none, a herb from the supermarket in a pot on the windowsill is a good beginning.

  2. Touch the soil. If the top is dry, water it slowly until a little comes out of the bottom.

  3. Turn the pot a quarter, so a different side faces the light.

  4. Pick off one dead leaf, then look at it for a minute: the new growth, the colour, the shape of the leaves.

The reason

Why it helps

Caring for something small and alive is calming in a way that is hard to explain and easy to feel. It brings your attention down to one slow thing. And unlike most of the list, a plant shows you, over weeks, that your small care is working.

A gentle variation

If there are no plants, stand at a window and find one tree or one patch of green outside, and watch it for a minute instead.

Hands passing a dish across a candlelit table set with glasses and greens

WE · TRIBE

Try itwith someone.

Give a cutting or a small herb plant to someone, and ask how it is doing when you see them. If you look after someone, put a plant where they can see it from the bed or the chair.

Try it today

Today, check the soil of one plant, water it if it is dry, turn it to the light, and look at it for one full minute.

Add it to your day

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