Connect with your childlike spirit that craved the challenge of a climb. No matter how big or small, when you climb a rock, your heart rate accelerates, and danger becomes real. Bring your attention to your limbs and focus on what’s right in front of you, breathing into each moment and thinking through every move. You’ve got this.
Don’t doubt for a moment that you are an artist. Slip on your shoes, grab some shears and step outside. Open your eyes to the beauty that surrounds you. Collect colourful blooms, large green leaves, crooked branches and stems. Arrange them in a bouquet, noticing each little petal and leaf. This is one of nature’s greatest gifts.
Take off your shoes and socks and feel the air between your toes. Bring your attention to the many bones in your feet as they adjust to the uneven terrain beneath them. Explore slowly, one slow step at a time. Notice every sensation as you connect to Mother Earth. Let the power and groundedness flow through you.
Did you know that if you are patient enough you can pet a bubble bee? I remember being a five-year-old in my grandma’s garden. Holding my breath, I ran my little fingers down the bee’s yellow fur. I knew that it would be only a short, magical moment until it would fly away, leaving nothing behind but pollen and wide-eyed wonder.
When you pull on a pair of rubber boots, there’s no trail that you can’t explore, no puddle you can’t splash through. Meander at a river’s edge or at the cusp of a swamp, the muddier the better. Embrace the muck, and reflect back on the trails you made this year. The year is drawing to a close, where do you want to go next?
Dive into a lake and in a single fearless moment, reality changes! There is no turning back. The stark difference from air to water leaves you feeling shocked, invigorated and wildly alive. You are a courageous, resilient creature who is capable of so much more than you know.
Bundle into your parka, grab your warmest hat and let’s take a walk through a snowstorm. Embracing the winter’s chilly weather will make you feel alive. This image reminds me of my mom, her rosy face looking at me through the fur of her hood, her eyes smiling. We hold to each other up and head out into the wintery blizzard, ready for anything.
Find a large tree and gaze up at its magnificent structure. Imagine the strength of its roots, the elements that it has endured, the history it has witnessed. Close your eyes and focus inward. Consider your strengths, what you have endured and the possibilities that lie ahead. Let this space hold you for a while.
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. – John Ruskin. Image Credit: How We Live by Maggie Broda www.maggiebroda.com
“October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy draughts that bit at exposed hands and faces.” – J. K. Rowling. Image Credit: She Flies On by Gayle Dempsey www.artsinmuskoka.com/gayle-dempsey