Go Outside and Play

It has become our habit to run from location to location. We run, run, run everywhere. Once we get somewhere, the mental countdown is going on in the background of our minds for the next location. We can easily get so caught up in our day to day routines that the only time we see the outdoors is the few moments it takes for us to walk from building to car, then from car to building. Over and over again. How much time are you spending outdoors? Do you purposely seek time outside to appreciate nature?

Our indoor environments are filled with toxins. It is a wonderful and beautiful thing to see so many people making healthy changes for their indoor environments, including water systems, air filters and environmentally safe cleaning products. These changes are to be celebrated and encouraged. But it still doesn't make your environment as healthy and rejuvenating as the outdoors.

Mother Nature offers so many benefits to your physical body, your emotional health and your spirit! Fresh air alone can revive you and a gentle wind can literally caress your worries away if you let it. But you have to GO OUTSIDE to experience the benefits. Go for a walk in your neighborhood and listen to the birds sing and the dogs barking their excitement. Sit by the ocean, a lake, a river or creek and read a book or draw or talk to a friend. Put your music down and listen to the symphony of nature. Take your dog to the park. Sit in the backyard with your cat, bunny, hamster or little brother (ha ha). Give yourself 15 extra minutes in the morning to sip your coffee or tea on your patio and relax into your day with appreciation for a moment of peace. It doesn't matter where - just go outside. It doesn't matter when, every time is valuable and magical. It doesn't matter how often - do it MORE.

Break your routines. Make it a priority to reconnect with LIFE by going outside and appreciating it. By making room for being outside in your life your natural rhythms will reset to nature's clock. It will revive your spirit and soul. It will reconnect you with our Mother, rekindling the love between you, breathing the fires of passion into hope and faith in our futures together. You will begin to feel more connected to the cycles of nature and feel and see how they affect you individually and the world population collectively. You will have more insights into your own life. You will find more peace. You will feel more joy.

Try something. Try anything. Just go outside!
* Join a recreational sport league and play outside
* Walk, run, bike, swim - exercise!
* Go for an evening after-dinner walk before you tackle the dishes
* Save the last 10 minutes before you leave for work to sit on your porch and drink your coffee
* Go for a stroll after eating lunch
* Call a friend and reconnect over a walk at the park
* Turn off the TV and sit outside to read a book, or journal, or just SIT

There are a million different reasons and ways to get yourself to go outside. It doesn't matter how, it just matters that you do it. It is 100% vital to every single human being to connect with nature. You ARE nature, this is your true environment. For every goal you have, for every challenge you face, spending time outside in nature regularly will absolutely, positively make a very real difference for you. Make space for it in your life.

You, like every other aspect of nature, require fresh water, fresh air and the cycles of the great open sky above you to be healthy and thriving. Take care of her so she can continue to take care of you.