Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott on a glorious morning.
I'm actually in Exeter and as you know I come and help my mum in Exeter.
It's a city in England not far from where I live on Dartmoor and she's very elderly and needs a little bit of additional support so I come up for a couple of days now and then just to give her a bit of help and I love when I stay overnight,
I love to get out early in the morning and I've got quite a regular walk that I take which I love because it takes me alongside the river which is where I am now,
The River Ex and it's built up,
We're in a city but there's something always quite calming about being beside the river.
As I was walking over a footbridge to get to where I am now,
It was lovely on one side I could see a family of swans,
There were two parent swans with six sort of grey fluffy cygnets gliding gracefully through the water.
It just made me smile to see them and then on the other side as I looked down I could see a heron just sort of walking slowly along,
I guess hunting maybe,
Along the banks of the Ex.
It was really just very special to see and it's always a good reminder that even here in the city there is there is wildlife,
It finds a way to come here which is quite heartening really and today is a reminder I think for me and I want to share it with you too because I'm hoping this will be helpful for you,
It's a reminder to look towards the constant in your life and when I talk about the constant I'm talking about looking within to your ever-present sense of awareness.
You see there is within us a and as I'm pausing here is because I'm wanting to feel it and then do my best to describe it or explain how it is for me,
So as I look within there is this,
The best I can put it right at the moment,
Is it feels like it's a flame that is always a light,
Always a light.
Now that flame is present always and that's a place to bring my attention whenever I feel a bit wobbly and it just strikes me that yesterday I was feeling quite tired and I was a bit sluggish,
I call it when I feel a bit treacly,
Things felt a bit like I was walking through treacle,
Things were quite hard.
So yesterday was tough and when I come up to mums I'm just a bit cautious if I feel in that kind of way that you know I give myself time and space,
I don't want to be snappy or to take it out on her and today I wake up and I feel just like everything is lifted,
It's a bit like the day today with the sun shining,
I feel a sense of freedom,
I feel a sense of lightness,
I feel a real sense of being present.
Before I understood about this flame,
This place of presence within me,
This place to lurk,
I was forever trying to change my moods,
So I was forever trying to change what I would call unsettled moods and try and get busy sorting out things in my life so I could feel settled more often.
It was almost like I just needed to crack the code of what it was to live happy,
Happy,
Happy all the time.
And what I've come to see and learn is that we're not designed to be in one mood state all the time,
We're human and we experience different mood states and that's the starting point.
And what I also have learned is that whilst it might be tempting to try and change what might feel like uncomfortable moods,
The trying is really hard.
So for me,
Over the last few years,
I've got a very simple thing that I come back to every single time and that simple thing is look within.
Look within to that flame within me,
That ever-present flame.
It is always there and just knowing and feeling it is reassuring.
I'm not saying look within,
Feel the flame and then your mood will change.
By the way,
If you hear cyclists or runners go by,
That's because I'm on a shared footpath.
So I'm not saying look within,
See or feel the flame and you'll feel better.
I'm saying by the nature of being human,
You will feel different moods,
Have different mood states and the place to look is to be reassured that there is a part of you that is ever-present and ever-connected and that's the place to know that you are okay regardless of your mood.
So today the message is look within and feel your flame.
