Did you know that walking in nature is good for our brains?
Sometimes the garden gives us little insights that we're not expecting. We might be walking through a garden or park mindlessly, as I was on my usual early morning tour this morning. Each morning our 3 dogs and I take our early morning walk through the rose gardens. They sniff new trails and I snap photos of new blooms!
Often there are little surprises waiting for us to discover. Such as this gorgeous late winter bud just starting to unfold on one of the heirloom roses.
But as I walked into the less tidy areas of the garden, my eye was caught by something a little odd. Instead of wrapping it's tendrils around the strong arch provided for it, the jasmine had wound it's tendrils through the weeds ..
.. weeds that were earmarked for the chop later in the week! Had I not noticed, the strong new growth of the jasmine would have been cut short with the weeds!
And the thought came to me;
"whatever we wrap our minds around
shapes our lives! "
Sometimes, it's too easy to see only the starkness of the world around us, and dwell on the pain and sadness spewed out across the media channels!
And we forget to 'on purpose' re-focus our minds on the lovely, simple little surprises in our daily lives.
Little treasures that are often in the foreground right under our noses. A baby's gurgle, or a child's laughter! A smile, or 'thank you' when we buy that first morning coffee. Or birdsong in the morning; a single rose or flower blooming among bare winter twigs.
Or the transient sight of mist rising up from chilled ground to mingle with warm wintery sunshine. Little vignettes that are seen and then forgotten. These are the visual reminders we need to notice and file away in our minds as reserves for when the worries and fears of this world try to take over!
So while my walks may seem like a random meandering through the gardens each morning, there is a purpose. Noticing the 'lovely' and the 'surprising' has less to do with garden planning and maintenance than you might think.
So, forgive me if I'm sounding preachy! But every time I take a walk through the garden, noticing lovely new blooms or hearing the sound of birdsong, my mind is building strong neural pathways based on healthy thoughts. That is, as I wrap my mind around these simple pleasures, neurons are building healthy pathways in my brain.
And it's not hard work as I do this. Natural environments have a way of allowing our minds to relax and 'just be' in the moment. A kind of 'mindfulness' that takes no effort at all!
So taking a walk in nature every morning, or throughout the day,
is actually a form of 'brain building'
that grows strong, healthy brains!
