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Somewhere near you right now, moss is quietly filling the seams of a brick wall.
A pigeon’s neck is flashing green and violet in the sun. A puddle is holding a whole upside-down sky. A bird is singing a song you’ve heard a hundred times and have yet to name.
It’s been there all along.
And friend, it’s waiting for you.
This week, I want to invite you into something gentle and a little wild. Seven days of paying real attention to the living world around you, and the living world inside you.
The short version. To be more present, practice wild attention. For seven days, try one small practice a day, like looking closely at something you usually pass, following your curiosity on a walk, or sitting in one spot for twenty minutes. UCSF research found that people who took short weekly walks focused on awe reported more positive emotions and less daily distress.
Start Early Today
A Forager Taught Me the Easiest Way to Feel Alive Again
This idea found me through writer Michelle Dowd, author of the memoir Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult and a lifelong forager shaped by the mountains of California.
She learned to read the land for food as a kid. Which plants to gather when the berries run thin. Where the rose hips might show up this year, based on the rain and the light.
Those skills became a toolbox she carries into everything. Adaptability. Knowing real hunger from boredom. Intuition. Creativity. Joy. And a deep trust in abundance.
“When you know how to look, there is more than enough.”
Michelle Dowd, 7 days of wild attention, 2026
Her invitation is beautifully simple. For one week, let curiosity, appetite, pleasure, instinct, and attention steer a little more of your life.
Scientists Sent People on Awe Walks and Their Smiles Got Bigger
Okay, I love this study.
In 2020, researchers at UC San Francisco sent a group of older adults on 15 minute “awe walks” once a week for eight weeks. The walkers reported more positive emotions and less distress in their daily lives.
Compared with people who walked the same amount with no awe prompt, the awe walkers felt more joy on their walks, plus more of those warm, connecting emotions like compassion and gratitude.
And my favorite part? Participants snapped selfies on every walk. Over the weeks, the photos shifted toward the world around them, and their smiles grew measurably wider.
The lead researcher, neurologist Virginia Sturm, described the whole thing as a simple reminder to occasionally shift our energy and attention outward (UCSF).
That’s it. That’s the secret.
“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
John Muir, Steep Trails, 1918
Seven Tiny Adventures That Will Wake Up Your Whole Week
Here’s your practice. One small invitation a day, most of them ten or fifteen minutes.
Day 1. Get Close Enough to See the Secret Details
Head outside for ten minutes and find something you usually walk right past.
Kneel down. Get eye level with the moss, the pebbles, the clover. Look underneath and behind.
Stay with one small thing until it becomes its own particular self. Then ask, what’s been here all along, waiting for me to notice?
Day 2. Let Curiosity Pick Your Route
Take a walk and give yourself fifteen gloriously inefficient minutes.
Turn down the street you always skip. Follow the sound of wind chimes, the smell of a bakery, the tree with the wildest branches.
Wonder loves a detour. Where does it take you when curiosity gets to choose?
Day 3. Go Beauty Hunting for the Delightfully Odd
Today, look for beauty in unexpected places.
Rust blooming across an old gate. A chipped teacup. The way afternoon light pools on a kitchen floor.
Notice the moment your body leans in, before your mind decides whether something deserves your attention. That lean is the clue. Follow it.
Day 4. Make Something Just for the Joy of Making It
Create one small thing that exists purely for the fun of it.
Fold a paper boat. Doodle on a napkin. Arrange a few leaves on your desk. Cook something fancy for a regular Tuesday.
Skip the photo. Skip the post. Let the making be the whole point.
Day 5. Listen to Your Body Before Your To Do List Talks
At some point today, pause and check in with the wisest forager you know, your own body.
Maybe it’s asking for sunlight, a nap, a long stretch, a warm meal, or some quiet. Maybe it lights up around certain people and plans.
Foragers learn to tell appetite apart from craving, boredom, and real hunger. Your body speaks that same language. Hunger can become your compass.
Day 6. Say One Small Wild Yes
Choose one thing today that gives you a spark of aliveness.
Take the long way home. Eat dinner outside. Wear the sparkly shoes on a regular weekday. Dance while the pasta boils.
Catch the desire while it’s small, and simply say yes.
Day 7. Stay Until the Place Starts Talking to You
Pick a bench, a stoop, a backyard, or a spot under a tree, and stay for twenty whole minutes.
Stay a little past the urge to get up.
Slowly, the scene comes alive in layers. The same bird returns to the same branch. The breeze changes direction. Your neighbors come and go. You stop passing through and start belonging.
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Simone Weil, letter to Joë Bousquet, 1942
And the more you practice giving attention to a place, the more naturally you’ll give it to the people you love. I wrote more about that in meet everything with understanding. And if you need little sparks for your wild yes, here are 50 things to brighten up your day.
The Best Part? Attention Turns What You Already Have Into More
Here’s what surprised me most about this practice.
It asks for nothing new. It simply lets you see what you already have.
Instead of asking, “What’s next?” try asking, “What’s here?”
You get your wonder back. You get your senses back. You get your aliveness back.
You can have a full, busy life and still find it overflowing with small miracles.
At the end of the week, notice which days made you feel most like yourself, and keep that one going. Start with what’s ripe, within reach, and in season right now.
Artists live this way all the time, which is why I love how The Creative Act teaches you to live as an artist in every area of your life. And when you’re ready to slow all the way down, move at the speed of your own breath.
Your Questions About Wild Attention, Answered
Wild attention is the practice of noticing the living world closely and letting curiosity, instinct, appetite, and pleasure guide more of your choices. The idea comes from writer and forager Michelle Dowd, whose seven-day invitation includes looking closely, following curiosity on a walk, beauty hunting, making for joy, listening to the body, saying a small wild yes, and staying in one place.
An awe walk is a short walk where you intentionally look for things that fill you with wonder, like light through trees or a sweeping view. In a 2020 UCSF study published in Emotion, older adults who took weekly 15 minute awe walks for eight weeks reported more positive emotions and less daily distress.
Pick one small practice and repeat it daily. Look closely at one living thing for a few minutes, check in with what your body is asking for, or sit in one spot for twenty minutes and watch the place come alive. Small, repeated moments of noticing build presence faster than big plans.
Many people feel a lift during their very first walk. In the UCSF study, participants took one 15 minute awe walk per week, and the gains in positive emotion grew over eight weeks. A seven-day practice is a lovely way to start and discover what works for you.
The World Is Already Showing Off. Go Catch It.
Feeling a little numb, rushed, or disconnected is so human.
And the way back to aliveness is closer than you think. Right outside your door, actually.
Somewhere near you, that moss is still quietly filling the seams of a brick wall.
Go find it.
That’s what starting early looks like. Waking up to the world, one small wonder at a time.
Complement this with the peace you are chasing lives in this very breath, Thoreau’s radical answer to living fully, and the complete science of gratitude.
If this made you want to step outside today, join us here. We’d love to keep sending you your daily dose of GOOD.
With love,
Paolo
Sources
- Dowd, M. (2026). 7 days of wild attention. Substack
- Sturm, V. E., et al. (2020). Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults. Emotion. doi.org/10.1037/emo0000876
- UCSF. ‘Awe walks’ boost emotional well-being. ucsf.edu
- Muir, J. Steep Trails. Quote via Sierra Club John Muir Exhibit
- Weil, S. Letter to Joë Bousquet, 13 April 1942. Via kfitz.info
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Carry this into tomorrow morning
The practice in this post lives in an app we built, Hold Until Sunrise. Your alarm becomes a moment of stillness. You hold your phone, rest with one affirmation, and let the sunrise welcome you into the day. Begin tomorrow gently and on your own terms. Find it on the App Store here.