Affirmation: “The natural world sustains me
and fills me with joy.”
One of the top ways to find joy is to go outside. Outside you get enlivened by nature. Whether you’re in snow-covered northern Canada and have to bundle up to go roll in the snow and make snow angels, or you’re in Maui and can go out your door to snorkel amid tropical fish, every outdoor locale offers a plethora of opportunities for bliss and beauty. So let’s get outside!
Being outside exposes you to fresh air. You breathe deeper outside, so you take in more oxygen and therefore physically feel better. When you go outside you can expand. Nothing is constraining you. You feel spacious. If it is daytime, you are awakened by natural light, which is known to alleviate some types of depression. If it’s nighttime, you are wrapped in a mystical outdoor cocoon under the moon and stars or clouds and quiet.
Outdoors you interact with others. You may see neighbors on a walk, and animal friends, wild or domesticated, abound too. All these moments offer beauty.
Flora in the outdoors is particularly beautiful and blissful. You let your eyes feast on sumptuous flowers; tall, majestic trees; and textured, lovely plants. Vegetation offers you so much to appreciate in awe and wonder. Beautiful, blissful blooms and buds are joyfully waiting for you to notice them.
Exercise: Outdoor Odyssey
Go outside today or tonight with journal in hand. You have a mission: find ten beautiful outdoor things. Write down anything that strikes you as beautiful. Don’t stop till you find them! You might have to keep walking or biking or driving. Seek out beauty. After you go home, write one word next to each thing on your list about how seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or touching it made you feel. Some examples are “awestruck,” “happy,” “calm,” and “lucky.”
Beauty evokes bliss and appreciation, and the outdoors provides bliss all the time. Get outside daily and treat yourself to beauty.
Go outside, wherever you are, and appreciate each drop of water, each flower, each architectural work of art.
#joyfulliving101