Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
Oh this is nice,
The sun has broken out from behind quite a grey cloudy sky and it's shining on my face as I shelter behind one of the gorse bushes up here on Dartmoor.
These are thorn bushes that provide a little bit of shelter when it gets blowy and there's a southwesterly blowing which heralds changeable weather,
So these white grey clouds I think might be ominous of more rain and rain showers that are forecast for some of the week ahead and it's very peaceful up here.
I can hear the skylarks above me,
I'm trying to see them in the sky,
I can't actually see them flying but there are sheep grazing and I can see some cows grazing just below me as well and the ocean is about 10 miles away as the crow flies so I can actually see the ocean today so it's quite a clear day and you know today I feel a little bit tired.
I've been looking after my mum and she gets a little bit restless at night and she woke me up a couple of times in the night when I was staying at her house.
One of the times was about four o'clock in the morning where she got up and started wandering around so I went and helped her back into bed and I couldn't quite get back to sleep and I lay in the bed,
The window was slightly ajar,
It's quite warm in my mum's house and I just thought well I'll just I'll just lie here peacefully until it's time to get up and then something magical happened.
I heard the first bird sing for the dawn chorus and then I heard the rest of the birds join in and I can still feel my stomach smile as I tell you that because there was something magical about it hearing the dawn chorus start.
Beautiful,
Absolutely beautiful but one of the downsides of hearing the dawn chorus come in is that I am actually quite physically tired.
I didn't sleep very well when I got home last night and I've just not had enough sleep over the last few nights and I'm telling you this because I feel sometimes when I'm physically tired is that mentally I become quite slow and it's often when I'm in this space that I feel a little bit flat with life and a bit low and as I was working on my computer today I'm finishing off the manuscript for the book that I'm hoping to publish in the next few weeks I just felt a bit like my eyes had gone square and my brain had ground to a halt it was like no I can't do any computer work I need to get out and one of the things I want to share with you is this is that if there are times when you feel a bit slow or you feel a bit snappy or you feel a little bit low or flat or unmotivated it's always really helpful to just check in with yourself to see whether you have slept well whether you are eating well whether you maybe have had a bit too much alcohol the night before all of these things are pointers to whether or not you might feel a little bit flat the next day and for me I know that it's really helpful just to understand this because in the past I might have given myself a bit of a hard time or given other people a hard time because I might have blamed them for me feeling like I did but when I kind of understand like oh do you know what you're just feeling tired you need a good night's sleep I'm just going to get through the day as best as I can be as kind and compassionate as I possibly can to people and then see what happens after a good night's sleep and so today is just a reminder of that it's just giving yourself a little bit of slack don't beat yourself up when you maybe are not motivated or you're a bit flat or your your communication skills seem to be taking a bit of a dive it's like that happens sometimes so I really want you to be kind to yourself we all have moments where we feel down and low but just be kind and see that your mood will blow through a bit like this southwesterly wind it will blow through and you will find clarity and peace of mind again soon let me know your reflections and of course don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature
