The green diet not only limits your food choices, it pretty much puts your social options on hold as well. Forget the afternoon coffee or the evening drink with friends. Going out to restaurants is way more complicated  and tedious then just preparing your own meals so it’s time to take the green off the plate and out into nature.

A colleague was taking a group on a sensorial walk through the Tuileries and I decided to join. The Tuileries is situated on one of the most coveted pieces of real estate in the world. Lounging in between the Louvre and Place de La Concorde, you can stroll down it’s wide avenues  and take in the amazing history surrounding it. Unhindered perspective lead all the way down the Champs Elysée to the Arc de Triumph & the Eiffel Tower points in the distance past the Obelisks that once marked the  entrance to the temple of Luxor.  But our mission today was to go inside the park, to sink into it’s mysteries and not be tempted by the surrounding spectacle.

Once we got there Pascal  gave us exercises that quickly transformed us from 8 separate individuals into one group.  After a brief introduction, he gave us tasks to coordinate movement and sound, then asked us to mimic each other.  We went from being complete strangers to willing accomplices.

Given some time to explore the gardens on our own, we  came back to the group where we found a partner and were asked to blindfolded and lead them to a spot of beauty or interest. There they would open their eyes and admire (or not) our vision of the exceptional.
We were experiencing a very familiar setting in a completely new way, first by depriving one of the senses then witnessing it through someone else’s eyes.

I led my partner to a festival of jasmine bushes where they were giving a fragrant concert. Then past the rows of noble chestnut trees, I laid his hand on the hairy bark of a windmill palm.

My partner obviously had very different intentions because his first choice was to lead me to a tree that had a heart carved into it. I gently let him know that he was definitely barking up the wrong tree. I closed my eyes again & he led me the length of the park and waited and waited and  when he told me to open my eyes, I witnessed the blushing colors of the fading sun stain the sky.

It was an amazing experience. One that without changing my diet I never would have bothered having. Why would I walk blindfolded through a familiar park with a complete stranger trying to hit up on me? Our freedom lies in our desire and ability to change ourselves.
If we can change the predetermined way we see the world; if we choose to look without our usual filters We can set ourselves free.