Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
It's just turning dark here as I walk out onto Dartmoor.
There's a slight dampness in the air and I'm sheltered from a damp northerly wind which feels quite cool I have to say.
And I'm going to walk a little bit further through a gate here then I cross over a stream.
I've got my wellington boots on and I'm going to walk up onto the moor and I think it's going to be much more windy up there,
A little bit more cool and there's lots of dog walkers rushing back home now.
They've just gone out before the last light taking their dogs back home and it feels as though the day is really coming to its end.
And I love it when we get to the January evenings where even though it's still dark,
Even though it feels like the days are impossibly short and the nights seem so long,
There's the knowledge that we are turning once again towards the light and that always warms my heart.
And you know we went to a pantomime last night and I want to talk today about the power of just simply being in well-being.
My nephew's fiancee was in this pantomime.
I'm not a great fan of pantomimes if I'm honest.
I've taken children to them in the past and they're fine.
They're very often child-orientated.
If you don't know about a pantomime look it up.
It's quite a British tradition.
It's sort of over Christmas and the January period you'll often have pantomimes running in the UK and they have baddies and goodies.
They're based on fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk or Cinderella.
It's full of audience participation so the audience will see the baddie creep up on the princess for example and they'll be shouting out behind you,
Behind you.
So there's a great sort of interaction with the audience.
The actors often speak directly to the audience.
It's that kind of wonderful mix of we're part of it but we're also watching a show.
But it's often child-orientated and in the past when I've been to pantomimes I've just found them a little bit cheesy if I'm honest.
Anyway we decided to go to this pantomime because my nephew's fiancée was in it.
I really wanted to see her.
She's a lovely woman.
She loves theatre and we sat there not expecting much but I made myself a little packed.
I thought do you know what I'm just going to get right involved in this pantomime this year.
I'm not going to sit back and groan at the terrible jokes and like shrink away from the audience participation.
I'm just going to go with it.
I'm just going to boo.
I'm going to hiss.
I'm going to shout out.
I'm going to wave my arms.
I'm going to clap when I need to.
It's like I'm just going to completely be engrossed in the experience.
And as it was it was a brilliant pantomime.
It was a pantomime that had me not looking at my watch once.
I was completely engrossed in it.
Loved the colour.
Loved the music.
Loved the dance routines.
Just loved the whole vibe of it.
And as we came to the end of the pantomime the audience were singing along a song and waving their arms in the air and I was doing the same.
And I just looked around me and there was laughter.
There was smiling faces.
There was energy in the audience and on the stage.
And I really felt something deeply.
I thought I really felt that connection of well-being.
And in that moment I just thought to myself wow all these things I hear about in the news and the news stories and the things that are happening in the world they feel so distant right in this moment.
Right in this moment I am in my well-being and I'm in that collective well-being.
We are all tuned in to that deeper sense of well-being and love and compassion and enjoyment and joy.
And we are all touching that in this moment.
And there was something very powerful about the whole audience being in that space of well-being at the same time recognising it.
And it just had me wonder like I wonder what it would be like if we could capture this.
If we could have this sense of well-being spread not just when you're going to the theatre but this community well-being spread across towns and villages and cities.
I wonder what it would be like if you could almost bottle it up and spread it around.
And of course you don't need to bottle up well-being.
It's not something that's out there.
Well-being is what happens when you fall back into your natural state into that state of okayness of God energy of beingness.
And that happens when we stop giving energy to our thoughts and thinking.
So today is just a reflection on the power of well-being of being present to it in myself of being present to it in myself when I'm in a group of people that are also present to it.
The energy of well-being it really is a superpower when a group of people fall into their well-being and feel that sense of joy.
