Here we are, deep into summertime already. How's the season treating you? Any adventures in the works or just behind you? We haven't made it out of town to date, but we're lucky to live in an area surrounded by green spaces and I've been making an effort to hike Forest Park with the pups and/or friends each week. Life has been throwing me some pretty steep curve balls lately and I'm doing my best to support myself in healthy ways, three of those being things listed above: dogs, friends and forest bathing.
Are you familiar w/ Shinrin-yoku and its effects? I feel an almost instantaneous and total physiological shift the moment I step into the woods. There are studies that prove the benefits. What magic! If you're feeling stressed (easy to achieve these days), I hope you can find some time to dip into the forest. Your animal body (we are animals after all)S will surely thank you. And if a forest doesn't happen to be nearby, sitting in the shade of a nearby tree seems like a fine substitute.
☾
I have a little presentfor you today. It's a template of a new tool/habit I'm using/practicing and finding extra helpful these days. This is not something I came up with on my own - I learned it from an artist and teacher named Dylan Mierzwinski. It's called a Sensory Capture Log and it's as simple as it sounds: Each day you write down something from the day that brought you into your body (so you saw, heard, felt, tasted and/or smelled it), captured your attention, left you in awe or delight or joy or peace…maybe piqued your curiosity. I view it as a form of gratitude - noticing and noting the everyday magic that touches us - and I'm finding it to be quite transformative. At the very least, it's just really cool to look back at completed pages and see how beautiful your life really is.
This is something you could easily do in a notebook, of course, but the templateis here for you to use any time. Today I logged that I heard the sound of hundreds of feathers rustling as a flight of pigeons launched above me. Also logged: feeling a shop cat purring right against my ear during a pottery lesson and hearing the laughter of a really dear friend who I hadn't seen in a while as we walked and talked early this morning.
If you've read this far, thank you. I really do appreciate your time and care. Wishing you a sweet night, morning, day, week - whenever and wherever you are.
