Mental Health Awareness Week - Nature's Cure
With Lockdown and all this glorious weather, there have been no excuses not to get out into your gardens. Even if you do not have a garden, then you may have a balcony, and if you have no balcony you may have a window box, and if you have no window box you may have a communal green space, and if you do not have that you may have a park....
What I am trying to say is that if you look hard enough, you can find green. Green is the colour of nature. It is also the colour of health and wellbeing. It is also the colour that you find in the middle of the colour spectrum and, as such, it is the one on which our eyes rest most easily which, in turn, means it is the most restful colour to the human eye. In Reike healing, of which I am a practitioner, it is the colour of the Heart Chakra - again, the centre of the body. It is the fulcrum on which all life balances.
While such knowledge was commonplace to the ancients, it has been 'mislaid' in modern cultures. I hope these strange times we have been living, where our pace of life has been forced to slow and our time has had to be filled with other things, will have helped us refind a little of this lost wisdom.
We are all creatures of Nature. We are one and the same just in a different form. Once we accept this, we can become part of it again. If we respect nature, and accept that we are just one part of the greater whole, then perhaps it will respect us too and we can live in greater harmony together.
So, next time you go out, take a look around. Really look. Whether you are in your own garden or walking down an urban street or wandering along a country path or stretching your legs in the local park, observe. Take the time to notice the weeds in the cracks in the pavement. They all have their own beauty and their own reason for living. Take the time to look up at the branches of those strong, deeply rooted trees, many of which have already outlived us, and see their beautiful tracery and the vibrancy of their fresh new leaves. Take the time to see the bee on the blossom and listen to its hard work. Smell the bluebells in the woods. Let your hands trail gently through the tall stems of cow parsley. Spot the beautiful buds opening on flowering shrubs, the soft claws of ivy up a tree trunk, the spiders webs stretching out in tall grasses, the sunlight through leaves, the reflections on water - even in a puddle - and the clouds in the sky. Smell the rain on the ground and hear the wind in the trees and the babble of a stream. See insects dancing in the slanting rays of the evening sun. Truly listen to the birds as you lie awake at dawn, hear each and every individual song, and let them ease you back into your dreams. Go out in the early evening and hear the same beautiful chorus. It will always be there. It always has been.
There is so much to celebrate daily in the natural world, especially in Spring time. The freshness, the delicacy, the vibrancy of new life. With new life comes hope. And we all need that right now.
I took a walk around the garden this evening, the wind causing havoc, and this is what I found:-
What I am trying to say is that if you look hard enough, you can find green. Green is the colour of nature. It is also the colour of health and wellbeing. It is also the colour that you find in the middle of the colour spectrum and, as such, it is the one on which our eyes rest most easily which, in turn, means it is the most restful colour to the human eye. In Reike healing, of which I am a practitioner, it is the colour of the Heart Chakra - again, the centre of the body. It is the fulcrum on which all life balances.
While such knowledge was commonplace to the ancients, it has been 'mislaid' in modern cultures. I hope these strange times we have been living, where our pace of life has been forced to slow and our time has had to be filled with other things, will have helped us refind a little of this lost wisdom.
We are all creatures of Nature. We are one and the same just in a different form. Once we accept this, we can become part of it again. If we respect nature, and accept that we are just one part of the greater whole, then perhaps it will respect us too and we can live in greater harmony together.
So, next time you go out, take a look around. Really look. Whether you are in your own garden or walking down an urban street or wandering along a country path or stretching your legs in the local park, observe. Take the time to notice the weeds in the cracks in the pavement. They all have their own beauty and their own reason for living. Take the time to look up at the branches of those strong, deeply rooted trees, many of which have already outlived us, and see their beautiful tracery and the vibrancy of their fresh new leaves. Take the time to see the bee on the blossom and listen to its hard work. Smell the bluebells in the woods. Let your hands trail gently through the tall stems of cow parsley. Spot the beautiful buds opening on flowering shrubs, the soft claws of ivy up a tree trunk, the spiders webs stretching out in tall grasses, the sunlight through leaves, the reflections on water - even in a puddle - and the clouds in the sky. Smell the rain on the ground and hear the wind in the trees and the babble of a stream. See insects dancing in the slanting rays of the evening sun. Truly listen to the birds as you lie awake at dawn, hear each and every individual song, and let them ease you back into your dreams. Go out in the early evening and hear the same beautiful chorus. It will always be there. It always has been.
There is so much to celebrate daily in the natural world, especially in Spring time. The freshness, the delicacy, the vibrancy of new life. With new life comes hope. And we all need that right now.
I took a walk around the garden this evening, the wind causing havoc, and this is what I found:-
The spirals of nature
Pink perfection of a rhododendron flower
Wild garlic flowers - art in food as well as in a vase
Stamens
Buds
Can you see the cobweb?
Rhododendron Luteum with its heavenly scent
Scabious buds
Wallflowers - pretty as a picture
Rogue rhododendron in a laurel hedge
Clematis 'Nelly Moser'
The stamens and stigma of 'Rosa Moschata' looking like a human iris
Bud, flower and calyx - Beginning, middle and end. The circle of life.
Aquilegia - freely self-seeds in the most unexpected places
Wonderful wisteria scenting the air
Late planted tulip - still flowering
Allium half-opened
The complexity of the humble cornflower
The delightful pom-pom blooms of 'The Snowball Tree' - Viburnum oculus 'Roseum'
The intricacies of alliums
The delicate tracery of umbilifers
As we come to the end of Mental Health Awareness week, I hope that you have been able to find light in dark corners and known the kindness of strangers. If you do nothing else this weekend, take a stroll into the natural world, eyes wide open. You never know what you might find.
xxx
Comments
Post a Comment