I want to help you not just survive, but THRIVE in these crazy times. I’m sending you this daily dose of inspiration, because if we set our compass right, we can sail through this!
“How you spend your time defines who you are” – Oprah Winfrey
Tip # 48: Nature Bathing
Take some me time. Outside. Away from a screen. In nature. What is it that calls to you? Consider a walk on the beach, a picnic in the park or a trek to a waterfall – choose somewhere in reach and take some time to get back to nature. Go to the place that makes you feel most alive.
In Japan they call it forest bathing and research has shown that spending time ‘soaking in’ nature has a deep connection to improved wellbeing. It may reduce blood pressure, lower stress, improve energy levels, and boost the immune system.
Getting outdoors can help forge new habits that will help you achieve physical fitness as well as increasing the number of friendly incidental connections we make with people in our community. There is a great deal of value in these, seemingly insignificant, interactions where we smile as we pass each other on a trail etc. These little connections are shown to encourage a deeper sense of belonging in our community and optimism about the world.
This kind of self care – taking time to deliberately unplug, slow down and connect with both nature and yourself – is a delicious way to energise. ‘Me time’ can feel selfish (or sometimes impossible) but creating space will free your imagination and creativity for more inspired problem solving when you return to the busyness of life. This sense of space also pulls you out of the reactive zone, so that you can make better choices, focus your attention more deliberately and uplift the relationships in your life.
Enjoy.
Recommended Reading
Into the Forest, by Dr Qing Li
Humans are increasingly becoming an indoor species. We spend 90 per cent of our life indoors. And, on average, we dedicate eight hours a day looking at screens. Our increasingly domestic lives are having huge consequences to our health.
In Into the Forest, Immunologist and Forest Medicine expert, Dr Qing Li, examines the unprecedented benefits of the world’s largest natural health resource: the great outdoors.
