Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
I am back on Dartmoor in an evening.
It's a super hot day or it has been here in Devon and it has been super hot since we've been away.
Everything looks very dry and yellow and I've come up onto Dartmoor.
It's in the evening.
It's a little bit cooler.
There's a bit of cloud cover.
The heat of the day has subdued and there's I mean I would say there's a little bit of coolness,
But it's not cool.
Just a bit of it's just not hot it's not as hot and there's a bit of air it's been quite a humid day and I just smile being back home and looking at the hillsides that are so familiar to me and you could probably hear the sheep in the background they're grazing on the hillsides above me and I'm just looking around seeing what's different there's the hillsides themselves are dark green with ferns and bracken and the grass,
Which is usually a green,
Is sort of a yellowy colour at the moment.
And I'm back.
And you know,
I want to talk today about the source of happiness.
And one of the things my husband and I have been doing is we've been listening to different podcasts as we've been traveling on our way back from Scotland.
And on one of these podcasts,
It was really interesting because someone said,
I know the source of happiness.
And both of my husband and I pricked up our ears because we really liked the person who was talking and we wanted to hear what he had to say.
He's a journalist.
And he said,
Look,
The source of happiness is connection.
He said,
It's family and friends.
And the interviewer just kind of had a conversation with him.
And they kind of mutually agreed.
And they went their separate ways.
And my husband and I,
We paused and we had a conversation because it's so tempting to go,
Yes,
Yes,
Of course,
The source of happiness is connection.
But for me,
That is the equivalent of saying the source of water is the tap.
If you're in America,
That would be a faucet.
It's like I go in the kitchen,
I turn on the tap.
There is the source of water.
That is where water comes from.
And what I love about the explorations with the inside out understanding is that we don't stop at the thing that we think is the source of happiness.
For me,
It's walking out in nature.
It's meeting people.
It's like,
As soon as I think that is the thing that gives me happiness,
I'm exploring a premise that just isn't true.
And I rather like this water analogy,
So bear with me.
So it could be that somebody says,
The source of water is my tap.
And I go,
Where does the water from the tap come from?
And they might go,
Oh,
That's a good question.
And then they go,
Ah,
The source of water is the pipes,
The pipes that bring the water to the house.
And then it's like,
Well,
Where does that water come from?
A little bit more investigation.
It's like,
Oh,
Well,
The source of water is the reservoir.
And it's like.
.
.
Excellent but where does that water come from?
And then you head high up onto Dartmoor itself and you go to the marshy place where the streams arise from the ground and you say well this is the source of water and it's like well where does that come from?
And you look up into the skies and you see the clouds and you think,
It's from the rain.
The rain is the source of water.
And then you say,
Where does that come from?
It comes from the oceans because water evaporates from the oceans into the clouds,
And that's how we get rain.
And it's like,
Well,
Where does the water come from the oceans?
It's like,
Well,
It comes from the rivers.
And can you see that we're just going round and round in circles,
Never finding the true source of water?
And it's like that when you look at the source of happiness or the source of love.
It looks like there's an easy answer in your life,
In my life,
That something creates love,
Something creates happiness.
But that's not true.
It's only when you trace it back,
Trace it back and go,
Well,
What is the source of love?
What comes before this?
That you are on a journey that looks within.
And it's a journey that looks within the energy of life itself.
And when you get to a place,
A bit like the exploration of water,
Where you don't know anymore where the water comes from,
There's no easy answer,
And your mind stills,
Then you know that you're getting closer to the source of love itself,
When your mind stills.
The source of happiness,
The source of love is from within.
It's the energy of life itself.
And you can't access it through things and techniques.
It's an exploration and curiosity that takes you deeper within to the most nourishing and enriching space of all.
Look within,
Look towards your true nature.
And that's where you'll find the source of happiness and love.
Let me know your reflections on this and of course don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
