Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott,
Where each day in January I'm taking you out on a walk to experience nature and to hear her wisdom.
And today I've come and I'm standing beside a gate overlooking a field and this field sweeps down to a valley and then up the other side is a woodland.
And you can probably hear it's very wet,
There are raindrops dripping from a tree above me and falling all around me and it's a very fine rain,
It's a drizzle and it's sweeping across the landscape so that the woodlands that I can see across the valley are kind of kind of grey,
It's like there's a veil that has been sweeping across like smoke is drifting across obscuring and then you can see the trees again and then it comes in again thick so you you find it hard to see the view that's in front of you.
And I'm bringing you out here today because well those of you that know this is a very typical Devon day,
We get very wet weather,
Mild weather often in winter that sweeps across the from the Atlantic and here on the southern edge of Dartmoor which is where I live it often falls as rain.
But last night we had a gale,
We had strong winds and heavy rain,
Rain that beat down so hard it was actually difficult to hear ourselves speak when we were in the house and the weather is the subject of what we're reflecting on today.
You see I know for sure that the gales and the winds and the storm of last night it came,
It blew its way through and I can see debris on the path around me of broken branches that have fallen to the ground because of that wind but I know that the storm will pass.
Now the storm passes and what's replaced it is a rather grey mild drizzle that is so wet it permeates everything and makes you feel damp inside and I know that this too will pass and at some point the sun will shine and at some point it will snow or there will be frost on the ground and then it will rain again and the sun will come out and then there'll be more storms.
And what is so helpful to realise for us is that in the same way that the weather is ever-changing so do our emotions.
We have different emotions that sometimes feel like squally storms or drizzle or mist,
Sometimes it feels like the sunshine is out and the sun will be shining forever and a day,
Sometimes it's cold,
Sometimes the snow comes,
Sometimes the frost hardens the ground.
In all this change we know one thing,
We know that the weather will change and in a way what's so good to realise is that our moods shift and change,
Our thought shifts and change,
Our emotions shift and change.
We're not designed to be in one state of mind or emotion forever.
That's not what it's like to be human and it's just good to know that.
It's also really good to know that whatever emotional intensity or feelings that we are in at any one time,
That like the weather,
They will pass.
Isn't that good to know?
And we are designed as human beings to deal with whatever is in front of us,
Whatever feeling or mood or thought storm comes through at any one time,
We can deal with it.
In the same way that I am out here in this damp drizzly wet day and I've got my wellington boots on and I've got my waterproof trousers and a waterproof coat,
I'm dressing up for the weather that I'm experiencing.
In the same way that I can just deal with whatever is in front of me when it comes with the weather,
So you can deal with your emotions and so can I deal with the emotions that rise and fall at any one time.
So remember,
We can deal with what's in front of us.
Our emotions are like the weather,
They come and go and we're designed to deal with whatever we're feeling in any one moment.
The weather comes and goes and whatever presents itself,
You and I can deal with.
Isn't that good to know?
