January Daily Practice: Get Outside

First things first: HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU! May the year ahead be filled with love, laughter, fun, joy and wonder!

I hope you have enjoyed the festive season and you’re now rested and ready for a wonderful New Year!

Our practice for this month is: GET OUTSIDE! In the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter, cold, dark, miserable, and it is all too easy to get that unhealthy pallor of people who never see the light of day. I have no such opportunity to fester indoors as I have a dog so I have to drag myself outside at least a couple of times a day. And that’s why I know that you feel better when you’ve been outside – even when it’s windy, raining, freezing, icy, even snowy. Nature is soothing, outside air has a fresh quality, and being outdoors seems to blow away the cobwebs and give you back perspective.

Being outside also gives you a chance for reflective, calm time. Instead of constantly being bombarded by information and ‘doing-ness’, you go outside just to walk, or stare at the stars, or listen to the wind in the branches, or watch the sun rise or set, or just to see the sun, or to dance in the rain, or just to let your mind settle down. Last month’s daily practice was self-care (I hope you got a good practice of self-care going!), and getting outside is fabulous self-care – it is good for us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

I know, you don’t want to, it’s cold, it’s raining, it’s dark, it’s ‘orrible…without the dog with her hopeful looks at me from the moment I get up, I wouldn’t leave the house in winter unless I absolutely had to. But thanks to the dog, I know it will be worth it. So get outside. Make it even easier for yourself and rope in your friends and family. Go to the Park, walk to your nearest shop, visit a local nature attraction (it’ll be quiet as it’s winter!), pause on your way from the car to the house/office and just breathe fresh air and listen to the birds.

Every day, we’ll have a reminder on my facebook page. Be sure to let me know if you’ll be joining me in this practice.

Love

Donna.x