Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
Every day in February I go out and about,
Take you out with me on a walk and together we explore the wisdom in nature.
And today I am in Dorset,
So I'm in a different county and I'm staying in a house with a group of people.
It's a friend's birthday celebration and we're here to spend a couple of days celebrating her birthday in a shared house and it's right in the middle of the Dorset countryside,
So very rural and you might be able just to hear in the background there's a river running beside me with a mini waterfall that's gushing down.
In fact I think this is where there's a mill,
So that's probably that water that you can hear or I can certainly hear and see is probably connected to the water mill that's here.
And I am out and about really enjoying the fresh air.
We're in a shared house and it's a very well heated house,
Much much warmer than I'm used to and I found myself wanting just to come out and take in gulps and gulps of air which is what I've been doing as I've come into this rather crisp cool day,
Grey and very muddy underfoot and I'm walking through a field at the moment.
And I think for me today is a reflection on the need for different pace in life,
The different rhythms of life that for me I need in order to be nourished and to thrive.
I often come across people that are living very fast speedy lives,
They are on the internet,
They're on social media,
They're busy planning family and giving car rides to children and connecting with people and it's a busy busy life.
And one of the things I find is that whilst I can experience that for a little while I also need that quiet and that time alone.
I don't know if that's just me but for me that's so important.
With this group of friends in this house it's really lovely,
It's a lovely social occasion and yet also I feel the absolute need to go let me slow down,
Let me get quiet,
Let me have a bit of time on my own.
And that's what I'm reflecting on today is that it's really necessary to have life that doesn't run at the same speed.
So even if you have a quiet life you need a bit of connection and socializing and a sense of being part of a group of people.
And if you are on the opposite end of the spectrum and you actually tend to lead a busy life and a lot of these people here they're in jobs and they're high up looking after companies and businesses.
They are people that probably from day to day they work 10-12 hour days.
They're busy people.
You know my hunch is people like that also need to run at a different speed,
A different pace.
I play the saxophone not very well but I do play it and I have saxophone lessons and I know that when I go to play the saxophone if you look at a piece of music it has musical direction on it and if you look at the notes on the music some notes are longer than others.
And I always know that my saxophone teacher will say make sure when you play a piece of music you're looking at the musical direction because the music will go from quiet to loud,
From slow to fast and a mixture of all of them.
And it is the full mixture of the pace and the sound and the intensity and the tone of the music that makes it so interesting as a piece of music.
And I just think it's worth us remembering that living life fast all the time is not healthy.
Even if we're living life fast in our heads we're constantly looking at the computer or social media or getting information that's not healthy either.
There's something about light and shade,
Fast and slow,
Mixing with people and having time alone.
So wherever you lie on that spectrum,
Whether you're busy or whether you just love time for yourself,
The question to ask yourself today is are you bringing enough variety into your life?
Is there more light and shade you need to bring into your life in order to feel totally and utterly nourished?
