5 Reasons to be at One with Nature!

Last year I joined a gym. I like it because it means I can exercise when it is beastly hot or raining.  The added bonus in Brisbane is, I always have air con. I don’t like the view which is over a pretty big four way intersection. This morning while on the treadmill I counted the traffic lanes. There were 17 I could see, and three I knew were around the corner. Above the road  looms a huge billboard of a fabric shop and a pole dancing club. I usually zone out to music or watch TV.

I realised this week, how much I miss exercising in nature. Not only the green space but the chance encounters with wildlife and people. I’m lucky enough to live on some wetlands. We have a green belt hugging our street and beyond this is the bay. I’ve spotted koalas, ducked magpies, seen the odd bush turkey, snowy white tawny frog mouth babies, gardens both unruly and manicured, huge spider-web creations, gorgeous fragrant frangipani, and delightful streets with purple jacaranda carpets.

I love the encounters with my neighbour’s dogs. There is one chocolate staffie, his muscles stretched to capacity in his skin who waddles up the street grinning. A golden Labrador named Rolf likes to jump up and lick my face. Another genius move is the man who simultaneously rides his bike while walking two dogs.  When I walked out to the bay regularly, I loved watching the red-footed oyster catchers scuttle across the mud. I gazed at the huge plump pelican settling into his lamppost perch watching the fishermen bring in their catch. I used to stop to catch my breath, gazing across the sandbank to look for dolphins.

Five benefits of connecting with nature:

  • Fresh clean air oxygenates and purifies the lungs!
  • Exercise and movement increases your body’s metabolism.
  • Connecting with the earth, people, and animals.
  • A technology break, rests the eyes and the mind!
  • Nature can invigorate and inspire the soul, a meditation in itself.

As a family, we schedule holidays where we binge on nature, a week at the beach, daily ocean swims and body surfing, runs along the beachfront. Then we come home and don’t do it again for awhile.  We go back to juggling work, kids, appointments, haircuts, the dentist, after school activities, parties, and sneak chill out time when we can, usually at home.

Five ways to get a nature hit:

  • Google the closest national park, pack water bottles and sunscreen and get out there
  • Find and follow Happy Hikers on Facebook for one day or several day trips around Queensland or look for a local hiking group on meetup.com
  • Get up early and head to the beach, river, or dam
  • Walk the dog or just walk around the neighbourhood
  • Get the camping gear out and plan your next trip

Another thing to do regularly is get out onto the grass with bare feet. Scientists are now proving that standing on the earth, sand or rocks barefoot, can rid the body of excess electromagnetism picked up in our environments. There is a whole movement called earthing which explores the benefits of going barefoot for health. Gardening is said to deliver the same health benefits.

Nature is a meditation in itself. Nature forces us to stop. Nature can inspire curiosity and allows the mind to slow down and be available for new thoughts.  Nature is rejuvenating, refreshing and unspoilt. No highways, no billboards, just silence.

Schedule in a nature walk today, or tomorrow or on your next holiday. The benefits to your health and well being are immense.

Rachel Wilkinson is a Holistic Therapist, practicing from Step into Health, 1/69 Secam St, Mansfield. She wears shoes to social occasions, kicks them off  in the workplace and is barefoot at home, always.

 

 

 

 

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On the move!

I’m packing up and starting the new year at Step into Health at Mansfield.

You can find me along with some other talented therapists at:

1/69 Secam Street, Mansfield.

From Tuesday 16 January, 2018

Only two minutes drive from Westfield Carindale.

See you there!

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Appy New Year!

I’m not one for resolutions. For two reasons, one, I don’t like rules, I don’t like living within a strict code and secondly I’m old enough to know any ideas I have of not eating cake, or vowing to exercise more will be short lived. So I’ve not set any New Years’ Resolutions for many years. I like it that way; it’s a no fail plan. There is no guilt and I can eat cake whenever I want, only less now. Too much sugar gives me a hangover and makes me feel depressed.

A friend told me about an app that counts your kilojoules. It tells you how much you have eaten for the day and breaks it down into fat and carbs and then you add your exercise, if any. I looked at the free version, put in my weight and height and start entering my food. Pretty much straight away, I encountered some problems. The extensive food log does not list pavlova, or huevos rancheros, or a few bits of chicken, with left over potato salad and lasagne. It is too precise.  Also I don’t really know how many kilojoules are in anything. The app tells you if you go over your recommended food intake after you enter the last meal in. I can’t un-eat. On the first day, I went over my quota by lunch, so went to bed without dinner after the app told me I had exceeded my daily requirement.

The next day at the gym I set the rowing machine to 100 calories, whatever that means. I’m visual. I need the settings to show me two pieces of cake or one Big Mac. I need to know if I burned off that cupcake I didn’t need to eat this afternoon, or if I can have another. I work out for a 45 minute session but try to enter this into the app it has 30 mins or an hour work out, heavy weights, light weights, cardio or a class. I did a mix, I ran on the treadmill, I did some rowing, some leg curl things and some arm pulling down ones. They felt heavy. Was that a heavy work out?

I don’t think I need the app. I exercise when I can fit it in and when I feel energetic, I eat when I am hungry and sleep when I am tired. After two days of the app, I realise I can’t do rules, I don’t know kilojoules and my food is not measured in a neat 100g serving. I would like another kind of app. A better kind of wellness app, more rounded, not just about food, but about many aspects of my life I neglect or let slide.

I would like an app to send messages like “ You haven’t eaten any fruit for three days” “ You are getting anxious again, you need to meditate” “ Have you had any time out for you, off the grid, no devices, just thinking time this week ?” “How long has it been since you listened to some jazz and cooked ratatouille?” “Time for a walk in the bush” “ Ring your girlfriends, tee up a movie” “ Go on a date night” “ Why don’t you leave the washing, sit the hell down and put your feet up with a book and a cuppa?” “Perfect weather for the beach”. “ It’s time to turn off Netflix now and say hello to your family” I would purchase that app.

I don’t need a fit bit to tell me I have exercised enough. If I’ve had a serious session I usually can’t get off the lounge. I struggle to make a cup of tea after doing too many weights. I don’t need an app to tell me I’ve eaten too many carbs or fat. I can usually work that out based on how my body feels, if my mood is slumping or if I feel irritable. I know when I need to meditate, which is always more often than I do, and I know when I need me time, or time out, because that’s usually when I shout at the inanimate objects.

I’m getting out the diary now to schedule some things in for the year. I’ve got a lot to do, I won’t be making any rules, but a few deadlines should do the trick. Make sure you schedule in some time for you and do things that please you this year. Happy New Year!

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