little treasures Archives

Nature’s Little Treasures

“The more you look, the more you notice.”

This is the transcript from Season 2, Episode 4 of the Outdoors is my Therapy Podcast with my friend Krista Bjorn.

Nature’s Little Treasures

Kathryn: Hello and welcome back to The Outdoors is My Therapy podcast. I’m your host, Kathryn Walton. This is series two and each episode you’ll get to meet one of my friends who’ll share what inspires them about the outdoors. Each episode is just a few minutes long, like a little snack of information and inspiration that feeds your mind and your heart and reconnects you with the therapeutic benefits of the outdoor world.

Intentionally spending time in the outdoors each day can add amazing value to your life, including your mental health. And whilst nature is not a cure for all sorts of health issues, we do often neglect the fact that spending time in nature or connecting with nature in other ways can help us to feel better.

Why is it that we rush through the day sometimes without even a thought about the natural world around us? And how can we move from knowing that we’ll feel better if we get outside for a walk or a stretch to actually doing it? Sometimes it takes a bit of time and energy investment, but I’m here to remind you, and I’m here to remind me as well, that you open yourself up to multiple health benefits when you choose to invest and connect with nature in ways that bring you joy. The research backs up what you and I already know you stand to have improved attention, reduced stress levels, increased energy and vitality, a boosted mood and improved sleep.

Nature connection also promotes recovery from stress, and it can buffer stress in ways such as lowering your heart rate and your cortisol levels, and improving your immune functioning, and unlike a lot of things, nature is reasonably accessible for many people. And what I mean by this is that yes, you can be physically active in the outdoors and that’s great if you can be, but you can also connect with nature when you sit or lie down with a view of the outdoors.
When you have natural objects in your home or your bedroom or maybe your hospital room such as pot plants or seashells, even pets, and when you take the time to look through photos, watch videos, or view artworks that represent nature.

So if you live in a place where it’s not safe to be outside or you’re not able to go out, or maybe you are feeling unwell, there are many opportunities for you to connect with nature and enjoy the benefits, and even brief contact with nature can make a difference to your mood.

Today’s conversation is with my friend Krista Bjorn, who shares why nature is so important to her. Krista has a particular love of herbs and other plants that are beneficial for healing and nutrition, as well as adding beauty to the spaces around her. She shares her favourite place in the world and has some really practical advice about how nature can support you during stressful times and when you’re not feeling well enough to venture outside as well. We talk about how Krista learned to notice the little treasures in nature and how that led her to capture them through photography and to share them with the world.
Meet my friend Krista.

Hi Krista, and welcome to the podcast.

Krista: Hi Kathryn. Thank you so much.

Kathryn: Krista, what inspires you about the outdoors?

Krista: Oh, it is life to me, . Every day I wake up and the first thing I do is look outside at our trees and the bush and the meadows and the paddocks, and I just sit and watch the light come over the land. And I love, especially just knowing that no matter what’s happening in the world, our little piece of land is peaceful and quiet and beautiful, and that no matter what, how hard a day I have, I’m coming home at the end of the day and seeing the sunset and the incredible light and shadows of the trees, it just makes everything peaceful and happy again.

Kathryn: What’s your favourite part of your garden?

Krista: Oh, I really, really love the herbs and things that I have in my garden. So many of them are really precious to me because just looking at them brings so many memories, um, of, uh, harvesting the different berries, the roots, the leaves, the flowers for different things. And, sitting on the back veranda with friends as we pick off the tiny little flowers or scrub the roots and chop them up and get them ready for different remedies and things like that. And so when I see them, I don’t just see plants. I, I don’t just see the beauty of it, but I see, I see the healing that it can bring, to our bodies and our minds and our spirits. And so when I see them, it gives me a sense of purpose and excitement and, hope for the future, I guess. Just knowing that whether, I’ve got a headache or something, there’s something in the garden that will help us feel better.

Kathryn: Can you tell us a little bit more about how you are using those herbs and sharing them with the community?

Krista: Oh, yes. Well, I write books with all sorts of different recipes in them for people who like to make things on their own, and then I teach workshops where I show people how to actually make things from scratch. So when they show up at a workshop, I’ve got all these bowls and jars full of, dried fruits and berries and leaves and um, chopped up roots and spices that just smell amazing. So we’ll just sit there for a few hours and mix and blend and bubble and brew and make all these amazing concoctions that they can then take home.

And then there are people who don’t want to do any of the work, , and they just love, um, love to take the medicines like elderberry cordial or elderflower tea or borage infused wine or whatever it is. And so a lot of people will just contact me and just say, “Krista, can I put an order in for elderberry cordial? My kids are heading back to school and I just wanna help their immunity be as strong as possible” – that kind of thing. And so, then I’ll make up batches for them, and do that sort of thing.

Kathryn: You’ve also done a bit of travelling around the world, so you’ve seen a lot of places, you’ve lived a lot of places. What’s your favourite spot in the outdoors?

Krista: Oh, goodness. Yes. I was a food and travel writer for quite a few years, and um, I think one of my very, very favourite places on the planet is Albania because I went there not knowing anything about it at all, and it was so spectacularly beautiful with incredible mountains and, uh, crystal clear rivers and lakes and so much wilderness and these hillsides just covered with millions of wildflowers. And I just loved it there. At the time that I went, which was probably 10, 15 years ago now, um, it, it was not as advanced technologically and so it was really wild. And the places that you could go, you wouldn’t see any towns, any villages, any people, anything, um, at all. And I just loved it. I loved being out there with my friends and, um, going down side roads and ending up in crazy places and everything was beautiful.

Kathryn: That sounds just so, so beautiful.

Krista: Yes, it really was. It was like something out of a fairytale. I loved it.

Kathryn: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with us about your love of the outdoors? Krista?

Krista: Oh, I just, I love nature so much. No matter what I’m going through in my life, whether it’s stressful or, I dunno, things with covid or politics or all the things that conspire to, upset our equilibrium or make us anxious or distract our thoughts, getting out into nature. Every single time it calms me. It centers me, it settles me. It, um, it focuses me on the present and, allows me to calm and focus my thoughts so that I can do the work that I’m meant to do instead of getting distracted by the, the worries and anxieties and problems of things that I have no control over whatsoever.

Kathryn: Krista, I’m wondering if you’ve got any words for advice for people who maybe aren’t very mobile, or maybe not well enough to step outside and go for a walk outside. How can they connect with nature?

Krista: Yeah. I actually have a lot of experience with this because I’ve had some pretty epic, um, health issues and there were times that I could not get out of bed, let alone go for a walk in the woods and. So in those moments, I have really beautiful picture books of wonderful gardens and, places like Venice or Copenhagen or, just different places around the world that I can, even when I’m dreadfully ill, I can sit up in my bed and open these books and be transported to gorgeous places with incredible light and beauty and wonder and magic. Other times I will rent, or borrow DVDs from the library. I really love, um, Monty Don’s Gardens, when he travelled through France and Italy and other places. Again, those transport me and even if you aren’t mobile, even if, um, you’re going through a really hard time, we can often sit or stand or look out the window. And there’s always an option and that’s what I like to look for. A friend of mine said to me once, “Keep calm and look for options.” And that’s what I like to do.

Kathryn: One thing that I often talk with people about is finding the little treasures in nature. And Krista, I think that you are just like the queen of finding the little treasures in nature through your photography, through your Instagram account. Could you tell us a little bit about your photography?

Krista: Oh, absolutely. I didn’t start out as a photographer, but about 15 years ago, I was healing from a really traumatic situation in my life. And a friend of mine encouraged me to post one photo a day of something that brought me joy. And she said, because if you can find even one thing a day, it will motivate you to keep living, to keep healing, to keep growing, and to keep hoping that things will get better. And she was right and it brought me so much joy to, either go outside or go into my kitchen or even, um, just in my bed, look around my bedroom and look at something that made me happy. And I started noticing so many amazing things. If you just sit on the ground and just limit your vision to the things that are around you, all of a sudden you’re discovering these incredible seed pods and grasses and interesting looking sticks or a really gorgeous rock with interesting markings on it. And all of a sudden your, I guess your big picture view is, um, brought down to something really amazing. And it’s almost like a meditation that it, um, focuses your mind. It calms and settles your mind. And so that’s just how I started. I just started taking photos of things that brought me joy and through that practice, through that daily daily habit, I got better and better. And now I think my eye just naturally gravitates to beautiful things. And whether it’s a flicker of light or, um, I don’t know, or a flower or, um, even an interesting crack in the pavement that looks like, I don’t know, an animal or something. Um, the more you look, the more you notice.

Kathryn: One thing that I really love that you take photos of is droplets of water. And that I think really meant a lot to me because coming through the drought that we had that just seemed like forever

Krista: Yeah.

Kathryn: And you would share photos of your garden and when you watered the garden and, and you’d take photos of the droplets, or if we had one of those rare showers of rain or there was some dew on the leaves or on the flowers, and I, I think, you know, there’s a whole world in that one droplet of water that you can capture.

Krista: Absolutely. Oh, the drought was so painful for me as well as it was for all of us. And there were days that I would, get up and look outside and just cry because it was so desolate and thankfully I was able to get some water out of our bore and my friend calls them Krista’s Green Stripes , because I would set up one drip hose on the grass and that’s all I watered the whole time was just one stripe of grass so that we could go stand out barefoot on one stripe of green grass and that I could go out there and see droplets of water, um, when I would turn the little spray on for a little bit, and just to see that life, that water, that incredible light, when the sun comes up and shines through the droplets of water on the grass, it gave me courage to keep going.

Kathryn: Thank you, Krista for sharing so many stories from your life, connecting with nature, connecting with the outdoors, I think you’ve just shared so many little treasures with us today that will be inspiring for other people to take on board and give them, you know, a little lift on their own healing journey or on their own journey towards thriving in life. So thank you so much for that.

Krista: Oh my absolute pleasure. I loved it. Thank you.

Kathryn: Thanks for tuning into The Outdoors is My Therapy podcast. We hope you feel inspired to connect with the outdoors no matter how big or small your adventures might be. If you’re looking for more inspiration or you’d like to connect with others in the outdoors is my therapy community. Check the show notes for all the links.

You can listen to the episode “Nature’s Little Treasures” here:

LINKS

Krista’s website

Follow Krista on Instagram @ramblingtart

Contact Kathryn via her website

Grab your free Guide to a Perfect Nature Escape Day when you subscribe to the Grounded Inspiration newsletter (limited time)

Join the Outdoors is my Therapy Facebook Group

“Your Personal Day of Retreat: A guide to planning self-care and stress management that really works” e-book

How to get motivated to get outdoors

Today we’re diving back into the topic of motivation which is always a very popular theme when it comes to anything that feels like hard work including exercise. I’ve previously written about how to get motivated for exercise so this time we’re going to explore motivation from a different but related perspective – how to get motivated to get outdoors more often.

The outdoors can help you get more movement into your day

The thought of exercise can be overwhelming. Some people really don’t like it and some people struggle to get into a regular routine because of health, mobility or medical issues. Perhaps you’re one of them. Or maybe there’s another reason that you struggle with exercise. But ….. did you know that the most important thing – even more than exercise – is movement?!

Exercise is fabulous for so many reasons, and yes, I’m passionate about this topic, but it’s absolutely critical that exercise is built on a strong foundation of general movement right throughout the day. Here’s where nature can help you if you struggle with either exercise, or generally being active and moving around more. When you include contact with nature in your daily routine, you’ll get outdoors more often, move more, sit less, and you’ll find joy in life and joy in connecting with nature. Your body will also benefit from the boost of Vitamin D it gets when you get outside into the sunshine.

Find your own reason to get outdoors

If you do find it difficult to get outdoors and into nature, even though you know it’s good for you, try to find another reason or a purpose for going outside. It’s much better to feel positive and drawn towards it than feeling like you ‘should’ or ‘have to’.

Grow potted plants or a garden

You could try growing some plants in pots or in a garden if you have enough space. Or you could have a go at growing salad greens and herbs in your kitchen. Plants can give you a reason to get up and get active when you look forward to nurturing and harvesting them. Checking on your plants every day gets you into a habit of connecting with nature. It helps you to get a daily routine going. Over time you can watch your plant habitat expand and before you know it there’ll be insects, butterflies, birds, bees, frogs and even spiders all sharing the space with your plants (especially if they’re outside) which is a sign of a healthy micro-habitat.

Look Out and Up

If growing plants is not your thing, you can still look for another reason or purpose to get outdoors and connect with nature that’s meaningful for you. Even if going outside is not an option, you can create a routine of looking out a window, for example, at birds as they fly by. Perhaps they’re searching for food, nesting or calling out to each other. Or you can look up at the clouds and notice their movement. Clouds never seem to stay still. They constantly morph from one shape, colour and texture to another.

Nature Walks and Journals

Are you up for a little more activity than simply observing what’s around? You could aim for a daily walk to a nature strip or park and notice the changes in your surroundings each day. Some of them will be obvious, and others much more subtle. It can get you wondering what changes you’ll see tomorrow when you next come back. You can make a mental note of the changes, or you might enjoy keeping a journal of what you see and hear on your outings. In your journal you can use words, but you can also use images. You might like to take a series of photos of something growing or changing, or keep some audio recordings of the sounds you hear in nature.

Learn and Grow

Take your noticing and journalling one step further by tapping into the resources in your community or on the Internet so that you learn more about nature and the outdoors. You can use bird and plant identification apps and books, online interest groups such as the Outdoors is my Therapy Facebook Group, clubs and you can simply ask other people what they know about the things you’ve seen or heard.

Set Yourself a Challenge

Staying motivated with your habit of regularly getting outdoors can be helped along by setting a challenge for yourself. This could include committing to a daily garden check or recording the birds you see for a week. Set a specific time of the day to do this that will work for you. For example, if you’re usually up and about early or spend time winding down after a day at work in the late afternoon, these would be ideal times to do a bird check because that’s when many birds are most active.

Notice the Little Treasures That Tell a Story

Don’t forget that the little things in nature can also help you get motivated to establish a daily routine of getting outdoors. Have you ever been the first person to walk through a cobweb as you explore the park or bushland? I certainly have! I don’t like the feeling of sticky cobweb across my face and the panic of wondering if there’s a spider clinging to my back, but I am constantly amazed at how the spider can rebuild the web overnight and there it is the next day, stretched across the same bit of walking trail.

If you find something like this in your local area whether it’s a cobweb, a little cluster of flowers, an ant hole, a tree with buds, a creek weir, or whatever it is, check on it every day to see what you can see. You will discover the secret life of the natural world all around you when you take a few moments to pause and notice.

Over time, these little discoveries will tell you a story. A story that will compel you to keep coming back day after day so you can see, hear, smell, taste and touch the next chapter.

What motivates you to get outdoors?

Some of us are motivated to get outdoors simply for health reasons. Some of us are not. But perhaps you will be motivated to see what’s calling for your attention outdoors once you get to know it better and discover nature’s secrets in your local neighbourhood. Too often we focus on the big, obvious things in life. I encourage you to focus on developing small habits – small changes to your routine. Look for the little treasures and let the motivation flow in its own time.

If you would like more motivation and inspiration to connect with the outdoors, subscribe to my newsletter Grounded Inspiration.

Listen to the audio version of this post in the Outdoors is my Therapy Podcast Episode 25!

Discovering mountain biking as life’s ultimate parallel universe in her middle age, Kathryn Walton shares information and reflections that inform, inspire and empower women to a healthy and active lifestyle.

Everyday in the Outdoors

everyday in the outdoors sunrise

Intentionally spending time everyday in the outdoors can add amazing value to your day, to your mental health and to your life in general. Yet many people rush through their day without even a thought about it. When you invest time and energy into connecting with the outdoors and with nature each day, you stand to gain multiple health benefits including improved attention, reduced stress levels, improved sleep and a better mood. Spending even just a few minutes outside each day can start to make a difference.

Recently the Outdoors is my Therapy Facebook Group ran a 7 Day Challenge to share ideas about some of the ways we can all get connected with the outdoors on a more regular basis – so we feel better! And live better! All of these are completely do-able, perhaps with some modifications, no matter your fitness level, age, where you live or how mobile you are. Here are the 7 challenges we undertook to spend time everyday in the outdoors:

GO FOR A WALK

I’m referring here to simply walking around, moving your larger muscle groups and immersing yourself in your surroundings. Whilst daily exercise is very important, the act of getting your body in motion and connecting with the outdoors is the focus here. You can take a walk at various times during the day depending what works best for your routine.

Morning walk

Getting out into the natural sunlight first thing in the day helps your brain to wake up, re-sets your body clock so you’re ready for sleep again after dark, and forms a solid foundation for your day.

Lunch time walk

A mid-day walk helps to break up your day. Getting outside your usual workplace and changing your focus is one of the best stress breaks you can give yourself. Perhaps you’ll love it so much you’ll incorporate a daily constitutional into your regular workday routine.

End of the day walk

A stroll at the end of the day signifies the end of work and helps you transition to family time, personal time or relaxation time. Walking as the sun goes down is especially helpful to switch modes and settle for the evening.

WITNESS SUNRISE & SUNSET

Begin your day with the waking light of dawn and finish your work day as the sun sinks below the horizon – nature’s perfect bookends for your day! If you practise yoga, why not do some sun salutations as the sun rises or sets. Or use this special time for personal prayer, meditation or breathing or stillness practices. Sunrise and sunset are global phenomena which can help us feel connected with other people and places.

SPEND TIME IN A GARDEN

Are you fortunate enough to have your own outside yard? Or do you have pot plants, indoor plants or access to a local park or green space? Maybe you have an in-house kitchen garden with herbs or bean sprouts growing? Your daily garden routine could include weeding, pruning, watering, planting or harvesting. It could also include more physically demanding jobs such as fencing, making compost and nurturing your worm farm. If you don’t have your own garden, you can spend time planning your dream garden, creating a garden either in the earth, on your balcony or on your kitchen bench. Or you can use your senses to enjoy nature’s handiwork outdoors.

HAVE A GO AT BIRDWATCHING

Bring your attention to the bird life around you. What birds can you see? And hear? You might like to identify the various birds in your neighbourhood, or simply watch and listen to them. Over time you’ll notice their patterns and routines, flight paths, nesting sites, amusing behaviours, social groupings, and how they respond to seasonal changes.

PRACTISE MINDFUL PRACTICES

Mindfulness-based practices are wide and varied. In general the focus is on slowing down and bringing your attention to your surroundings and your experiences in the moment. This can be challenging because we spend so much of our lives rushing around.

Sensory mindfulness

One way to practise mindfulness in the outdoors is to observe the world around you through each of your senses one by one. Spend a couple of minutes noticing what you see, then move on to noticing what you hear, what you smell, what you feel, and so on.

Mindful walk

There are many variations of mindful walks too. You can be barefoot or wearing shoes. Begin by pausing for a few moments, close your eyes, take a few breaths and tune into how that feels in your body. Notice the sensations of the ground beneath your feet. Slowly open your eyes and draw your gaze to the ground slightly ahead of you. Move slowly forward one step at a time, bringing your attention to the sensations as you move your foot forward – lifting, moving, placing it down, and adjusting your balance. Repeat this for each step you take bringing your attention back to the sensations of walking each time your mind wanders. Continue for a few minutes, then when you are ready to finish, pause again, close your eyes, take a few breaths and then open your eyes. This is a wonderful moment for a gratitude practice.

FIND THE LITTLE TREASURES

Make new discoveries in your outdoor spaces every day. When you begin to look, you can find little treasures everywhere! Cobwebs hiding in the corners of the fence. Bugs scurrying in search of new homes. Grasses beginning to seed. Leaves swaying in the breeze. The soft sound of bird wings as they fly by. Grains of sand sparkling in the sunlight. The feel of the breeze as it moves your hair or caresses your skin. The smell of the eucalyptus tree.

CELEBRATE LIFE WITH A PICNIC

Picnics are the perfect way to celebrate life and the outdoors. They are equally delightful whether you go solo or share it with others. Picnics can be simple or complex, planned or spontaneous, romantic or practical. All you need is some food and somewhere suitable outdoors. You might like to have a picnic rug, chairs or a park bench to sit on, but finding a fallen log or rock is heaps of fun too.

Pre-preparing picnic food can be pretty special, however turning your ordinary everyday meal into a picnic outdoors is a fabulous way to liven up your day. If you like, you can bring some extra activities with you such as a camera to do some photography, bat and ball games, “I Spy” games, books and crosswords. Turn your picnic into an adventure by adding a physical challenge to it, for example hiking or biking into your picnic spot.

Let's sum up!
We had a lot of fun sharing these activities during our 7 Day Outdoor Challenge. Which ones would you like to incorporate into your routine for getting outdoors everyday? Or what other actions are you feeling inspired to take to get connected everyday in the outdoors?

Head over to our Facebook Group to view the videos and threads about our #7DayOutdoorChallenge and share your ideas with us. By the way (if you’re not already a member) when you request to join the Group you’ll be asked to answer some questions before you can join (so we know you’re not a robot!) and you need to agree to the rules which are there to keep the group as a safe space for sharing and inspiring.

You can also listen to this article in the Outdoors is my Therapy podcast!

Kathryn talks you through how you can incorporate a daily routine of spending time in the outdoors that works for you!

Discovering mountain biking as life’s ultimate parallel universe in her middle age, Kathryn Walton shares information and reflections in ‘Daisy Spoke’ that inform, inspire and empower women to a healthy and active lifestyle.