Rest and Relaxation Therapy in Nature

Happiness and Contentment in Life that Is Simple, Life that Is Simply Good!

We all live in a life that is not devoid of stress. The stress may come from our work, from people we work with or people we interact with, from family, from friends, or even from ourselves. Though I may give a picture of a stress free life because most of my posts here are our nature escapades, but truth is, they are my way of managing stress in a life that is as busy as anyone, and as stressful as anyone. Just like most, I work 5 times a day and have to do household chores at home. Though I love my job, find a meaning in doing it, see it as my passion and one of my sources of priceless joy and happiness, but I do not deny that it is not perfect and it has its share of emotional stress.

So much researches point out to the dangerous health disorders brought about by stress. Stress can raise cholesterol levels, create hypertension which could damage arteries to the point where there is blockage and heart disease. Stress is also known to cause digestive disorders, worsen bowel conditions and lower immune system which causes our bodies more susceptible to infections and viruses. Stress can also slow recovery from major traumas to the body.

We respond to stress by doing our best to live in harmony with ourselves and to be content with our lives. Our lives are not perfect, and maybe never will be, but we need that acceptance and contentment within to feel a sense of happiness and inner joy that can never be taken away, not even by daily stress.

Relaxation plays a great role in combating stress for me. Through time, I have learned how to fight stress that brings in not only rest and relaxation, but also so much spiritual therapy and physical energy giving me a boost and a high to live life as happy and as contented as I can be. Some of the many ways I do to lower down my stress level are:
1. Exercise and do stretching activities daily to relax my muscles.
2. Prayers have always been a good antidote for stress. Prayers that are not limited to praying at home or in the church only, but also prayers that extend to the inspiring silence of outdoors in nature; whether in land or in water.
3. Relaxing in nature. I know a lot have asked me question if don't I even get physically exhausted hiking, boogie boarding, etc? The answer to that always is, EXPLORING OUTDOORS  for me is a very strong relaxation therapy. You feel lighter ( well, you've burned a lot of calories), you feel energized and rejuvenated ( well, from all those breathing in and breathing out of fresh air ), you feel so inspired and thankful ( well, NATURE simply fills you with inspiration and relaxation therapy ).

Hiking and Snorkeling, one of our favorite weekend activities to get the most needed Rest and Relaxation

I've experienced a state of life where I almost did not have time for myself. Almost had three jobs: college teaching, high school teaching, and tutoring. I did not own my weekend for I was teaching even Saturdays. At that time in my life, being new to US, the kind of relaxation I was doing was picked up from peers and friends during the early years of my career. These were: malling, shopping, movies, eating out, city vacation and whatever or however that commercialization promotes as happiness. My only "nature relaxation" then was going to the beach. Until I found I had collected so many clothes, bags and shoes I even have no use of ( I gave most of them away already ). Until I found myself gaining 40 lbs of weight and dealt with scary health issues. That was the turn around. I started hiking with hubby, with high hopes of improving my physical fitness and health. Hiking up Mt. Woodson became a favorite because I noticed how much my weight would go down each weekend after climbing up its slopes.

Hiking Mt. Woodson, my local outdoor gym to lose weight back then
( the electronic gadget I was holding in the bottom right picture is not a cell phone for surfing or texting or uploading pictures to FB. :) That is a GPS which I was using for finding geocache, which we loved doing with hiking, it's like a treasure hunt, but the clues are the GPS coordinates, and the treasure is most of the time a geological feature of Earth )

Instead of turning to restrictive dieting to lose weight, I turned to nature. Slowly, from a mere "outdoor gym", nature opened up to me the joy of slowing down, and her being also a great place for prayer.

My hikes made me learn that nature brings more than rest. It taught me that with slowing down, we get to enjoy its many surprises and not miss the pure joy and happiness of the simple things in life. Let me share a quote from the lyrics of the song "Simple Life" by Karl Kohlase, one of my favorite songs, and actually, where the title of this blog was inspired from.

"Living life can be hard today, 
I have to say it's so. 
But I have learned if I stop and pray
 I get the grace to go. 
And I have found by slowing down 
I have more time to live the simple life."

You can listen to the song here http://www.k4communications.com/karl/downloads/simplelife.mp3 if in case  you are not familiar with it.

At some point in our lives, we always have life changing experiences. My weekend wandering with nature did not only make me lose weight, but also slowly reduced my jobs from 3 to 2 to 1. I gave up tutoring and Saturday teaching. I gave up college teaching job and chose high school teaching to be my only job. I soon found out that nature did not only teach me to slow down, to enjoy life simply, it also increased my savings despite of lost income from 2 jobs I gave up because spending time with nature on weekends and weekday nights made me lose my appetite for commercialism and materialism. I slowly started seeing the wisdom behind these words which were always shared to us by our parents: "Savings are not directly proportional to what you earn, but inversely proportional to how much you spend. Learn how to balance living life fully and saving responsibly." Sadly, in the early years of my career life, I forgot the relaxation taught to us by our parents, absorbing the common  form of relaxation, nothing bad, but I found out those types were just giving me a temporary fix. Tiredness and body aches did not go away, instead they were increasing at a rate that made me feel a lot older than my age and weaker. Energy to keep up with the goodness of life was running out. I am glad to have found the joys of slowing down to live a simple life, which slowly built my energies again to live a life that is as happy, as contented and as healthy as it can be.

Learning the joy of slowing down in nature, I always see to it that I free my weekend for nature wandering. It's a form of relaxation I could never exchange with any commerce based relaxation. I lost my appetite for shopping, for the mall, or for movies, or for eating out, because I know, there is much deeper joy in silence and in nature.

from this weekend's snorkeling

Knowing how huge nature plays a great part in rest and relaxation, I do not spend weekends for household chores. Instead, I do all household chores on weekdays, after work by applying the art of multi-tasking. :)

First, I do laundry on Mondays, after work. Monday is the day of the week I am so full of energy having been energized and rejuvenated by our weekend nature wanderings. Why not do most work on this day? While doing laundry, I quickly clean the house. After cleaning, I cook foods for dinner and for our lunch boxes. Hubby helps me fix laundry, we are a team in our household. While I do the cooking, hubby does the watering of plants outside. Cooking actually is another form of relaxation for me, and another activity that I find lowers down my stress level. There is just so much therapy that goes with slicing vegetables, preparing dishes and fruits for smoothies. I do the other household chores such as house cleaning other days of the week. By Friday, when my energy is lowest after a week of work, I look for rest and relaxation in nature. After work, we would go hiking in our local nature parks and watch sunset. That's how we usually spend our "Friday after work date" which does not cost us anything for we just go to local nature parks. The time spent together enjoying the gifts of nature and the joy, rest and relaxation we feel, for both of us, are priceless.

Hiking and The Ocean, Our favorite place for a Friday night date

After getting nature therapy on Friday after work, we are energized to do more weekend nature wanderings and relaxation.

From this weekend's nature wanderings

We do not have to wait for vacation to do what most people do in their vacation. Instead, we spend our weekend like it's a vacation, well, a staycation, simply enjoying family togetherness and what nature has to offer in our home sweet home, San Diego. 

♥♥