Did you wake up today and say to yourself, “Wow, I’m 51 years old, where did the time go?” Do you have a busy work schedule, so busy in fact that you lose track of days, maybe personal appointments? Is your weekend so busy that you have to “schedule” a date with your significant other or perhaps a parent or grandparent? Are the days and weeks and months and years flying by you like an Amtrak train heading for Kingston Station in your backyard? Ok, some of these questions I can honestly say yes to. So, what advice can I give myself and perhaps others who feel like time is just flying by with no possible sign of slowing down? One thing that works really well for me is a park bench.

It was Rachel’s birthday on the 21st and we elected to grab breakfast and sit on a park bench in Jamestown’s Harbor area. The view, as you can see from the photo above, was just gorgeous. We sat in silence for a bit, then opened up to each other about things going on at work and with my Mom and with her Mom, and so on. It was an incredibly relaxing and personally connecting 25 to 30 minutes or so. Just sitting and chatting and enjoying the amazing view of the Newport Bridge and surrounding landscape.

I thought about the park bench mindfulness exercise and took a look through my photo gallery to see some of my favorite park bench moments. Places that I actually sat and slowed time down enough to regroup my spirit and work through one of life’s mental challenges. If you are like me and sometimes use my inside voice to talk out loud, you may want to look both ways as you sit on the park bench, so as not to draw too much attention to yourself. Here are 8 park bench therapy sites that made a huge difference on one occasion or another in the roughly 18,250 days I have been alive.

A park bench is free to sit on and there are no time limits. There are no hidden fees and no scams awaiting you. Just a place where you can sit, collect your thoughts, improve your day perhaps, solve a lingering mental challenge, or perhaps reconnect with someone you care about. Time goes by so fast, believe me. I say it every day now, “Wow, I’m 51, where did the time go?”

8Unassisted Life Experience Moments 8Unassisted Photos With Captions TRAVEL heal the soul mindfulness park bench rhode island what a view where did the time go