Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me,
Liz Scott.
I've come to a slightly different part of the moorland than I usually come to.
I was on the opposite side of the little stream valley here,
The Ludbrook,
And as I was walking on the hillside I could look over and I could see this pile of grey stones which I'd never been to before.
So I thought,
I'll come here today,
Which is where I've come now.
And I've just found these stones and I'm kind of wondering if maybe they were once a structure.
Like a pile of stones at the moment on the landscape on the hillside but I wonder if maybe these would have been some kind of burial cairn in the past but you know who knows I would need a historian here or an archaeologist to help me fathom out that one and as I look up beyond these stones I can see on the hillside the lone hawthorn tree one of my markers to know where I am on Dartmoor when I see that I know where I am.
These hawthorns are dotted around the moorland and they are so good,
They're like little beacons,
They're like lighthouses.
And my reflection today comes about from a conversation with a friend who has blossomed,
Absolutely blossomed,
Having come across singing.
My friend is also someone that is inspired by the inside out understanding or the three principles.
And there's a course here on Insight Timer if you want to know more about the three principles.
So she has really found something in her life,
A foundation in her life that feels rock solid and true.
However,
It was only when she came across singing,
Which is probably in the last two or three years,
That something has shifted about her energy.
It's like something has blossomed.
One of the things we were talking about is that she was sharing,
She'd recently been on a singing retreat called Find Your Voice.
And one of the things on this singing retreat had been that people had the option,
And they didn't have to do it,
But they had the option to stand up in front of the group and to sing.
And to receive some coaching and the coaching obviously would benefit the singer but also would benefit the whole group.
And she really wanted to do this,
But felt a lot of thinking and anxiety and fear and vulnerability about standing up in front of the whole group.
She managed to get herself together enough to say to the person who was organizing this,
I do want to do this,
But if I'm going to do it,
I need to be the next one to go because otherwise I'm going to talk myself out of it.
So she had watched singers go up,
Have some coaching,
And she'd got a lot from it watching them.
But she also knew that She would benefit,
But if she sat around any longer,
She would talk herself out of it.
You know,
That feeling where your mind goes into overdrive and you start coming up with all the worst case scenarios of what might go wrong if you put yourself into this situation.
And she knew deeply there was something else guiding her.
And that's the bit to listen to,
That inner compass,
To stand up.
So she did.
And she stood up and somebody accompanying her on the piano,
And then there was the singing coach.
And they created,
As she described it,
This incredibly loving,
Safe,
Secure space.
It was like they were holding her.
She described it as like it's like what you would love your parents to do for you.
She said,
I didn't experience that with my parents,
But this is how I imagine it is to be held by your parents,
Nonjudgmental,
Loving way.
And they got her to turn her back to the audience and she was able just to whatever she wanted and she chose Amazing Grace.
And she said the incredible thing was that she started singing and was lost in thinking and thought and things whirring in her head and what she was doing wrong and what was she doing up there and how stupid was she to do this.
And she said suddenly all that thinking stopped.
Completely stopped.
And instead what I was noticing is that All that was present is that there was this person,
Me,
Singing.
And I was singing and I didn't have any of that noise going on in my mind,
In my head.
And as she spoke of this experience,
She shone.
It was like this energy was coming through her,
This realization of without that thinking,
She had an experience of what it was like And she was herself in the world shining in the way that only she can shine.
And it just so happened it was through singing a piece of music.
And the thing she really attributed to enabling her to do this was this safe,
Secure,
Loving space.
And that's what I want to share with you today,
Is creating those safe,
Secure,
Non-judgmental,
Loving spaces that allow people to fall out of their thinking and to really experience who they truly are.
Truly are.
That's something we can offer.
We,
You,
Me can offer another human being is a place to shine,
A place to experience themselves,
A place to fall out of their thinking into something much more nourishing and joyful in the world.
Let me know your reflections on being that person to provide a loving,
Non-judgmental space.
And of course,
Don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
