Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
I'm just paddling through a little bit of a boggy part here of the moor.
It's quite unusual and it's been so dry but there's a bit of water that's coming out of the stream there and it's creating a bit of a boggy patch and I'm up and now up on the moor and along the hedgerow here I can see the thick whiteness of the hawthorn blossom on the hedgerow with the trees that are growing.
How stunning,
Stunning white.
It's a lovely day,
A bit cooler than usual.
I really welcome a bit of the coolness of the breeze.
It's been quite warm recently and up here on Dartmoor I'm just admiring the view,
Just admiring what it is to have your eyes look out on a view that stretches out in front of you.
It's beautiful and today's reflection I think will be really helpful.
It's been really helpful for me and I'm reflecting on it even as I'm speaking to you now.
I just need to take you back to a conversation that I had with my friend to make sense of it.
My friend,
I'm going to call her son Jack for the purposes of this story.
My friend's got a son called Jack and he's 13 years old and he has huge social anxiety problems,
So much so that he refuses to leave the house and he doesn't go to school,
He doesn't get an education.
He causes a lot of problems but she worries a lot about him and his life and what's going to happen and impacts his behaviour,
Impacts the rest of the family and it causes huge concerns.
And she fights for him,
Fights his corner hugely,
Particularly when it comes to him getting an education.
And this is what the story is about today,
Is that she was explaining the other day that she had a particular meeting which was in order for him to get to the next stage of having some funded education that would take place at home.
And she'd done lots of research and she was a bit boggled really with all the things that she had to research and find out in order to be prepared for this quite important meeting.
And she was just very concerned when she thought about this meeting that she might not do justice to her son,
That she might fail in some way and not raise something or forget to ask something that would mean that that was the difference between him getting an education or not.
And she told me that an idea came into her mind just before she engaged in this particular important meeting which was just to write on a yellow post-it note,
The most important thing here is Jack.
And it was as simple as that.
She put it in the middle of the table for her as she reflected on what was important and it was like the most important thing in this is Jack.
And then the meeting started and all these experts came in and talked and did whatever they did.
And my friend just said every time I got a bit concerned or I got a bit wobbly or I got a bit confused or I felt a bit overwhelmed I just looked at my post-it note and saw this is just all about Jack.
And as soon as I saw that everything simplified and I came back to what was really important and she said I made a very competent case.
There were questions that arose within me that I hadn't planned to ask but came from a really deep and wise place.
And she said every time I got a bit overwhelmed I just looked at this yellow post-it note,
The most important thing is Jack.
And I just really admired her for doing that and it just made me think.
You know if I had to write a little yellow post-it note for my life today,
Writing down what is the most important thing in my life today so that when my mind goes off wandering or I get distracted on emails or I go off at different tangents in my life,
If I was to write down on a yellow post-it note what is the most important thing for me today,
What would I write on my post-it note?
And if I had to write a yellow post-it note for the rest of my life,
The most important thing for me to reflect on over the rest of my life,
What would be on that yellow post-it note?
And so that's what I'm inviting you to reflect on today.
If you had to write a yellow post-it note for today,
The most important thing for you today,
So you would come back to that message,
What would it be?
And if you had to write a yellow post-it note for the rest of your life with a message that was going to bring you back on track for whatever happened in your life,
What would be on that yellow post-it note?
What would you say is the most important thing for you to rebalance you as you move forward in life when you get a little bit distracted or overwhelmed or wobbly?
What is the message for you in your life?
