Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and every day in March I'm going to get out and about reflecting on nature's wisdom as I go out walking and it's a wet windy day.
It's been wet and windy for a few days in Devon where I live and today I've been looking at the mist and imagining where the sun is.
What has happened to the sun?
And you know I love thinking about the sun and I love living in our part of the world because we do get our fair share of rain and mist and dampness but there is something that when the sun does come through,
Oh my goodness,
I so appreciate the sun when it does eventually arrive.
And today I'm reflecting on the sun because it takes me back to a time when I used to help people understand about resilience and you see I see that we all have resilience and resourcefulness built into our system.
It's inbuilt,
It's innate.
We are resilient,
We are well-being and we forget it when our thoughts and habitual thoughts and fears and anxieties and insecurities cover over that innate sense of well-being.
And one of the ways that I like to describe this is by sharing a story of me taking a photograph from the same spot on two different days.
So I was actually camping with my husband and I went for a walk on two consecutive mornings and on the first morning it was a little bit like today.
It was very grey,
There was a storm brewing.
I was looking over the ocean and the sea was grey and the waves were white tipped and the sky was a steely grey and you couldn't see very far.
A storm was on its way and it came over that night and it was wild.
And then the next morning I went out,
The storm had gone,
I went to the same spot and I took a photo from the same spot and what a different image it was.
Blue sky,
Blue sea,
A few wispy white clouds,
There was clarity and colour,
Everything looked vibrant.
The day after the storm from the same spot it looked so different.
And the question I ask people is this,
On which day was the sun shining more brightly?
Was it on the day of the storm or was it on the day when the storm had passed?
And the initial response to this question is that people say well it's shining more brightly on the second day,
On the day where it's blue skies and blue seas,
It's obvious the sun is shining more brightly on that day.
But is that true?
Is it true?
Because you see the sun is actually shining with the same intensity on both days.
It's just that on one day there's a weather system in front of it,
But actually the sun is shining at the same intensity.
And for me that's a really great reminder about our innate resilience and well-being.
It's like the sun,
It's always shining at the same strength.
It doesn't go anywhere,
But there are weather systems that pass in front of it.
And those weather systems are the moods,
Our feelings,
There are thoughts,
Our beliefs,
Our stories that we tell ourselves,
Our insecurities about the future and memories of the past.
All of that can obscure and veil the sunshine of our well-being,
But our well-being doesn't go anywhere.
And I find it really helpful on days like today just to remember that.
It's a grey stormy day here at the moment and it's just useful to remember that the storm doesn't last,
It will pass.
And I find it really useful to remind myself and to remind others that resilience and well-being are built in.
They're innate.
You don't need to do something to get well-being.
You actually just need to remember and remind yourself of what is already there.
And when you feel those emotions that feel uncomfortable or sad,
They're like a weather system passing over your sunshine of resilience.
It doesn't mean it's gone anywhere,
It just means it's being covered over.
And as that weather system passes on,
So you are able to experience that sense of resilience and well-being again.
So,
As I walk home in this misty,
Stormy,
Grey day,
I too am going to remember that the sun will return and I will at some point be able to enjoy the warmth of it on my face again.
