Being among the trees here in our woodland is so supportive for my mindset. How are you connecting with nature to support your mindset?
I’m Dinah Liversidge and I’m a Coach and Trainer, a Celebrant and co-host of The Charcoal Hut, a woodland cabin in Myddfai, Carmarthenshire. I’m also a no-box-thinker. I believe when we stop trying to ‘think outside the box’ we take away labels and limitations that were always an illusion. There never was a box.
I love being a Coach, a Celebrant and a Host. All these aspects of my life help me achieve that illusive ‘work-life balance’ so many seem to be striving for. Join me in Myddfai in our woodland garden for a #MyddfaiMinute and listen to one minute of birdsong. I hope it brings you some peace.
If you’d like to explore Coaching, take a look at my Mindset Coaching here.
I hope you’re enjoying my Podcasts. I’d love you to share them with someone you think would get something positive from them.
Dinah
Speaker 1:
Hi there. I'm Dinah Liversidge and welcome to my no box thinking podcast. Thanks for joining me for this series where I've been focusing on how we can nurture and nourish ourselves and our mindset. And today I really wanted to talk a bit about nature. Now. We are in a really, really amazing place. We live just on the edge of the Brecon beacons in Wales in a little Welsh long house in just under three acres of Woodland. We have gosh, so many different types of tree from a beautiful Oak that is thought to be a couple of hundred years old to Sycamore and Ash and Hazel and Willow. And Oh gosh, I mean so many trees. It's unbelievable. I think we have four different types of Birch tree and being amongst those trees, spending time outside has been so important to my mindset during the lockdowns that we've experienced over the last year or so, but also longer term than that. Um, we moved here just over six years ago from a big house on a big road, in a big town. And now we live in a little cottage in a little village. My nearest neighbor can't see our house and we can't see theirs, but we can walk to them in a minute or two. And the difference, the space, the peace, the calm has had a massive impact on my wellness and also on my mental wellness and mindset. I was very good at doing busy. I remember how many times in a week I would find myself complaining about how busy I was, how much I had to do, how many phone messages and emails I had. Gosh, I was a proper professional busy person. And when we moved here, when John and I took that big decision, and it was a huge change in lifestyle, it was to support my physical wellness because I was recovering from really major heart surgery. But also both of our mental wellness. We were both feeling very, uh, busy as I've said, but also that, that constant level of stress that meant we were very rarely present in the moment. And we were both very aware of that. Um, one of the things that's changed most dramatically here is we've both stopped wearing a watch. Now that can be a risk. Obviously you have appointments, but I'm an adult. I can set reminders, which I do. The thing is I don't spend my time looking at the time. Instead I'm present in this moment, appreciating the pace of life here and how different it is to the life I led for gosh, 47 years before we moved here. So nature is around all of us, no matter where we live, it is possible to open a window and hear something that makes us think of nature. When did you last notice how beautiful the rain can sound? It may mean that you can't go outside and play. Unless of course, you've got great Welly boots and you want to go puddle jumping, which has become a favorite hobby of mine, but it had to be in Wales. Didn't it? But there is always that opportunity. And if you are saying at this moment, well, if I open a window, all I hear is traffic. Then listen to the sound around the traffic, listen to the wind. And you know what? We are really lucky that we live in the age we do, because no matter which piece of social media you look at, somebody is sharing images of wildlife, of nature, of the view from their window. Take a look at my timeline in Twitter@DinahLiversidge. And you'll see, I follow people with amazing wildlife cameras. You'll see badges, uh, eating cheese from people's pots in their back garden. You'll see birds making their nests and otters visiting ponds. Nature is always there. We just have to make the time to look for it. And boy does it impact us more and more studies have been done about trees and how they support and communicate with each other. We could learn a lot from their sense of community and how the strongest tree will take water from its own trunk, pass it through the root system and give it to a tree that needs it. More nature has a lot to teach us about mindset. As somebody reminds me every year in autumn, look at those trees, learning every year and teaching us how to let things go. As they shed their leaves to allow for the growth that's going to come after the peace and calm of the winter, the new buds in the spring and the new leaves that inevitably return watching that cycle. And we've all been locked in and kept away so much from what we want to do, watching that cycle and seeing that even this year spring does happen is amazingly calming and reassuring. My dear friend, Libby Moore says that nature is the new corner office. It's what we're now all striving for because we have realized that is so much more important than the status of a great view. Being in nature, allowing ourselves to be renewed and calmed and hugged by its embrace. Yes, I am waxing a bit lyrical today. Nature has changed my mindset and no matter how cold or how wet it is today as you're listening, I really encourage you to make time for your wellness, for your nurturing of your mindset. See how you can put 10 minutes in nature into your schedule every day. Thank you for joining me on the podcast. I hope I've inspired you today to get outside or to open that big window and just listening to the sounds of nature around you. I hope you'll join me in the next episode where I'm going to talk about how you can make sure you keep nourishing and nurturing your mindset. I hope you'll join me. I'm Dinah Liversidge and remember there's no need to think outside the box. There is no box.