Getting outside….

Today was one of those days. I woke up tired, tried to have a lay in, felt even worse for it, hung around feeling restless but also not having the energy to get up and do something. Anxiety got the better of me and I felt spaced out and stressed.

In the afternoon, I attended tbe final live update for the nature guide training course I have been on for three weeks. I have struggled to keep up with the course. Too many distractions to get in the way. Busy working weeks, worries about family and friends, not having the time or energy to fit it all in.

But having watched the final live review today I felt inspired. To get out there and feel better.

So thats what I did. The sky was a flat, whitish grey, there was a light breeze through the mostly bare trees, and a fine drizzle began when I’d only been outside for a while. I wandered up the steps outside the Villa, to the top of St Andrews Hill, and stopped.

And thats where I felt it. A transformation, a relaxing of my senses and a letting go of tension. I stood at the top of the hill, looking over the lagoon, watching the birds wading and feeding there. A breeze ruffled my hair and moved the material of my clothes. A red squirrel noisily skittered its way up a pine next to me, the pine needles whispered in the breeze. Leaves crunched on the ground, and I felt calm.

This immediate relaxation came as rather a surprise to me, albeit a pleasant one. After three weeks of studying nature guiding, I was learning to notice, to slow my pace and to take in my surroundings, and never had it been more evident than today. Despite what I thought, the training had sunk in.

I carried on walking, along the track through the birch woodland, surrounded by the silver boughs and golden leaves of the young trees, and I breathed, and felt at peace. The sound of the waves lapping on the north shore travelled up to me from the base of the cliff and I felt myself smiling.

It took only a few minutes in nature to change my whole day. Only a little while of noticing to brush away all the anxiety and tiredness. I carried on with my walk, going where my feet would take me, no plan or destination in mind.

As the evening drew in, and the sky tuned to dusk, the nocturnal creatures started to appear. Owls called from the woodland and the eerie wail of a sika stag drifted across the reedbed. The piglike cries of water rail followed me along the Villa road

A small heard of sika hinds eyed me suspiciously and daringly, standing their ground as long as they could bear before turning their white tails and running into the reeds. The gull roost was in full swing, with thousands of birds issuing their forlorn cries across the lagoon. The cormorants could be heard in the midst of their usual chattering discussions.

Returning to the Villa I felt calm, quiet and relaxed. Lighting the fire and sitting down with a book, everything felt back in perspective, the world and me in our right places once again. There is truth in nature as a remedy. Anyone who doesn’t see that just needs to step outside…..