Spending time in nature is always beneficial, especially when your intentions are right, and you take time for it. Remember, the most important is to enjoy the process itself – being present in nature without any urge to control things. It should be like an adventure you are willing to experience without any real plan or agenda. So, you have no idea what is going to happen, but you are ready for it.
I like that the most beautiful season is still ahead of me so that I can slowly tune my senses and my entire being to this precious time. I don’t want to miss any day, any hour or a minute of it! I almost physically feel myself experiencing this new beginning in my body. It energises me and turns me more alive. The sun brings everything into life – every single being is celebrating the new cycle of life! It is time to start fresh! When else? When we look at nature, we see how trusting and open it is towards life. Without trust and faith, there is no point in even pretending that we care and dare to be present in our lives. It seems like we have lost the sincere joy of greeting the presence as it happens.
A home is a place where we recover and gain our strengths, relax, rest and prepare for the next challenges that await us outside. At home, we can be our natural selves without any additional expectations, pretence, or roleplay. At home, we have time for ourselves. What can be done to use the home as a source of vitality - a fresh, positive, and supportive energy for a fulfilling life? Every act that we do at home can be turned into a positive ritual that provides us with energy. We need a different perspective for that, a different way of looking at things we usually do. For example, a cup of coffee in the morning can be a powerful vitality ritual if we only want it to be.
I remember an old saying from my childhood that seeing first a yellow butterfly in spring ought to bring a golden summer, and a multicoloured butterfly an adventurous summer. As a child, I always hoped for a multicoloured butterfly but now it doesn’t matter anymore. I am happy with yellow butterflies because a golden summer sounds just perfect to me, as long as I can spend it here, at home, in the sacred place where I belong.
Theoretically we all know that changes are part of life and yet, we are never completely ready when they happen, and it is not easy to deal with them.
We get attached to things, to life circumstances, to people, to places, and enjoy everything we like as long as we can and hope nothing will ever change. In reality, life doesn’t always meet our expectations. Everything around us is constantly changing, including us.
Cultivating joy and bringing more of it into our every-day-life can take it to a next level that is far from being miserable. It is in our own hands to notice and create enjoyable moments, acknowledge, praise, and remember them throughout the day. This is how we can make joy last longer. One day we are able to connect these moments and experience a continuous presence of deep enjoyment and satisfaction that doesn’t need any specific trigger or cause, that is when we have learned to enjoy life and everything that comes with it.
This morning I decide to enjoy my morning coffee outside in the sunshine. I adore sunny mornings. My little friend is running around happily, discovering the world with open alert senses and sincere excitement: every stone, colourful leave, dry branch, dragonfly, or snail – everything is exciting and worth discovering. What is happening inside this little head of my baby dog? How does he see, perceive the world? It must be enormous!
When was the last time we looked at ourselves in the mirror? I am not talking about looking for freshly appeared wrinkles or imperfections that need to be covered but truly looking into our own eyes saying: “Good morning, do I know you?” We are not the same persons we were yesterday. Wouldn’t it be great to find out who we are and what we have become? Alone time should be free from worrying and dealing with usual things; it is about finding and re-connecting with ourselves. It must be special, like a ritual we repeat regularly.
Why some people can enjoy every activity they do, and others are struggling even with the most exciting things? According to Csikszentmihaly, a person can live a fully satisfying life only if he learns to enjoy and find meaning in the ongoing stream of experience, in the process of living itself.
The choices we make can be done unconsciously, but also mindfully, shaping and stretching our attention in direction we want. We can change the way we see things, the way we think about them. We can become an autotelic self who finds enjoyment within oneself no matter what the external circumstances are. We create our own flow.
The seaside gives me a feeling of openness that helps me clear my head and reflect on what is happening in my life. Sitting on the sand, being mindful and still, gazing at the sea and listening to the waves – it all merges into a beautiful healing act. It also has a spiritual aspect that cannot be ignored.
Whether we like a countryside, a forest, a lake or a river, high mountains, or the seaside – every landscape has its natural beauty and uniqueness. Each of them holds its own spirit that communicates through sounds, smells, touch, and sight. There is no need to search for far places to get a healing experience; a place you know is the best healer. It is up to us to choose to become friends with it. It must be our choice to learn to understand the language of nature and as every relationship, it takes time, willpower, readiness, curiosity, and effort to nurture it properly. What we gain, is intimate, sincere, and priceless.
As any practice, learning to connect with nature requires time and patience. It certainly is different from our usual way of receiving what we want. Usually we want to have results as fast as possible and selectively according to our expectations. Connecting with nature works differently. Here we need to use our senses as learning tools, forget our overly booked schedules, stop (or at least make serious efforts to stop) our usual hectic non-stop worrying mentality, and become still. Regular practice turns our senses more alert, more tuned to the rhythm of nature that helps us relate to another world that differs from our usual busy life. When does the miracle happen?
Imagine yourself sitting quietly in nature, surrounded by these beautiful aromatic trees covered with little white heavily scented flowers. Sometimes the smell is so strong that you may feel even a bit of a headache, but trust me, it is worth to stay in the middle of this spring miracle and wait a little bit longer, for another amazing character to join the scene…
Talking about nature, we usually describe a type of landscape, its shapes and colours we know and like but what about soundscape? Do we take time to listen and get absorbed by the sounds of nature? Nature is a powerful source of healing and restoring sounds that boost our vitality significantly and are good for our physical and mental health. Nature, with its blue- green spaces, endless variety of shapes, colours, smells, sounds and sceneries, peaceful environment, fresh air, sun, wind and rain is like a health package we can use for our own benefit. Spending time in nature reduces high blood pressure, relieves stress and anxiety, brings calmness to the mind and creates joyful, vital attitude towards life.
Mindfulness can be added to every activity: we can cook, eat, talk to a friend, work, play with a child, listen to music, take a walk or bath mindfully. Every single act becomes meaningful when we are fully there, in the present moment. We suddenly become aware of the life we are living; what we do and how we spend our time.
