Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and you join me out on the moorland of Dartmoor quite early in the morning.
It's going to be a very warm day today and I thought I'd get out early so that I enjoy the moors in the coolest part of the day and I'm just in the midst of the greenery of the bracken and the ferns and the gorse bushes.
Everything is lush and green and the bracken and the ferns they grow up quite tall so in the summertime you have to stick to the pathways.
There are tracks that have been made,
Footpaths that have been made by people and animals.
In the autumn and winter as they die back you feel that there's a much more expanse of space for you to go walking on when the bracken has died back.
So it feels like I'm kind of being guided through rather narrow tracks on this moorland walk but just enjoying the views.
Below me we've got arable lands with fields,
Smallish fields with hedgerows creating a sort of patchwork quilt effect and then if I just turn northwards I can see the moorland start to rise up with a wooded valley of a stream running down the middle of it.
And as you know getting out and about is so important for me and I guess I wanted to share with you or to make the case for you finding a space of quiet and solitude in your life.
I'm going to tell you how I do it and obviously I don't know what's best for you but I want to really make the case or to advocate that getting out and finding space and solitude,
Going out on your own,
Not listening to anything,
Just being present to what's around you.
So not listening as in not having headphones in is what I mean but instead just listening to the surrounding sounds is so important and I find it really important to find something that is alive and I know that I'm lucky I've got Dartmoor on my doorstep and I can walk out onto a landscape full of trees and plants.
And if you live in a city you might be able to find a park or a canal or sit beside a river.
There's something about connecting with nature that is so important.
We are of nature.
Our natural place is within nature and when we come back in contact with it it does something to us,
At least it does it does for me.
I can only speak for myself.
And I know that there are times I don't want to be around people.
There are times when I don't want to be listening to the news,
I don't want to be listening to music or a podcast.
I just want to be and I don't know a better way of being than finding a place in nature and being present to the natural world around me.
And I'd just be curious about you being curious yourself.
What's your response or reaction to the idea of solitude?
What does it mean to you to be on your own?
To find somewhere that could be your safe place,
Your space of reflection,
Your permission to yourself to find time just to be,
Just to be.
So today the request for you is,
I guess twofold,
Is to ask a couple of questions.
Firstly is just to be curious about your response to solitude,
To being alone,
To having time,
Downtime,
Where you're not with other people.
Just be really honest and there isn't a right answer.
You might have more of a propensity to be around people and that's fine,
It's good to know.
But equally if you're someone that needs their own time,
It's just good to be honest about that to yourself because it can be so draining being around other people however much you love them.
So the first thing is be curious about solitude and quiet times in your life.
And then the second question is,
Where might I go,
Where might you go to find that sense of peace and quiet and solitude?
Is there somewhere that you can visit a bench,
A tree,
A park where you can just be and just be with the natural world?
Even if you're in the midst of a city,
You can find those little corners and pockets of the natural world.
So those are the two questions today.
Do I like solitude and where might I go to find some space to settle?
