Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott,
Up high on Dartmoor on a gloriously sunny mid-afternoon.
The air is cool but not as cold as it has been.
When I got up this morning and went for my morning walk it was bitterly cold,
There was frost on the ground,
The ground was hard.
But the sun has shone today and the whole air has warmed up so there's still coolness but there's warmth as well.
And if I look one way I can see the sun as it heads west to set and if I look in the other direction I can see the moon rising,
This lovely milkiness against the blue of the sky.
And today as I reflect it's still this reflection on kindness and compassion.
And today I'm looking at kindness and compassion for myself and I guess that's the reflection I'm asking of you today as well.
Kindness and compassion for me is not something I try to do or I set to do or I furrow my brow and make myself an action plan of being kind to myself and loving to myself or to others.
What I'm finding is that I am,
I'm gently reflecting on compassion and love and then just noticing how it turns up in my life or not.
And I found that because this is close to my mind,
Compassion and love is close to my mind,
That when I mess up or I do something that doesn't feel particularly loving and kind I've noticed it more quickly.
And it feels really healthy to notice it more quickly because if I don't notice it quickly then I can fall down a rabbit hole of feeling unkind or martyrish or discontented and actually that just feels uncomfortable.
Whereas when I bring my awareness back to love and compassion I kind of look afresh at what's in front of me.
And so today has been love and compassion to myself.
I went for a super long walk yesterday.
It was a walk that went up three different tours.
These are hills on Dartmoor that are called tours,
Quite steep climbing up to one,
Down,
Up to another,
Down,
Up to another.
And we also found a stone row and we found a stone circle.
And my body today feels tired.
Last night I slept so deeply it was delicious.
I was physically tired.
And today my body just feels weary.
It just occurred to me about half an hour ago,
Ah now is the time to get out.
So I've got up and started walking and I'm being gentle with my body,
Being gentle with myself.
And I've noticed over the last few weeks since I've been going to the gym I've picked up a few little injuries that I don't tend to pick up usually.
And I understand from speaking to other gym members that because we are exercising muscles that we don't generally exercise in everyday life because we all live such sedentary lifestyles,
It's not unusual that when you engage different bits of your body that you pick up injuries along the way.
It's kind of part and parcel.
And I've listened to that and I've also realized that I've just got to be really kind with my body.
It doesn't bend and flex in the same way that it used to.
So I'm really slowing down what I'm doing in the gym.
I'm giving myself much longer to build up my capacity with lifting different kinds of weights and doing different kinds of exercises.
And it's a very supportive gym and everyone just supports that you do whatever you want to do.
So that in a way has been me being kind and compassionate to myself.
That's a good example where I've not pushed myself too hard.
I've not got upset with my body.
I've not got annoyed with my body for feeling aches and pains and tweaks and twinges.
I've listened and my body is telling me I'm really happy that you're doing this but can you slow down?
So it's like okay I can slow down the way that I'm doing it.
And today is another great example sitting on the the seat in my house and looking at the sunshine and considering whether or not to go out and my body feeling weary and tired and just waiting until it felt right to walk out.
And now as I feel the sun on my face I feel the energy rise in me having walked up a hill,
The coolness of the air,
The warmth of the sun.
I feel this wonderful sense of nourishment that I am in a really nourishing space.
So today is just a reflection on kindness and compassion to self and I wonder what that looks like for you if you look at being kind and compassionate to yourself.
