Gardening

Gardening is a great pastime and a fun activity for the entire family. Gardening gives you the opportunity to spend time in nature, beautify your environment and grow vegetables so delicious that your neighbors will be jealous. It is also a great way to build a better relationship with your children, create many memories that they will have for a lifetime. In addition, gardening is also great exercise and a good stress reliever. 

Benefits of Gardening:

1.       Exercise:  Gardening will move your body in different ways and improve your strength and stamina.  Continuing to care for a garden is a healthy habit that will build short-term and lifelong physical health benefits.  It is an effective form aerobic and of resistance training, if you do it regularly through the summer. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that if you garden for 30-45 minutes you can burn up to 150 calories. 

2.       Relieves stress and anxiety:  Gardening is a way to relax and manage your stress.  Getting out in nature will help to restore a positive mood and help boost general mental well-being!  It helps us remain grounded and lets us focus on creating something.

3.       Creates family time together:  There is a significant benefit for families to get out and garden together.  It helps teach children a new skill that they can use in the future. If a child gets to design and plant their own little space, it helps build their personal identity and their creativity.  Gardening also will build memories as you and your children get out there and interact with each other, talking and learning together.

4.       Provides nutritious veggies:  Tending to a garden means you will have access to foods that you know are healthful.  Food that you have grown yourself will just taste better. It will have no additives or harmful insecticides--all natural!  Having the veggies there handy, will make it easier for you and your family to eat more veggies and learn new ways to have them in your meals. This will help your family learn healthy eating habits that will benefit them throughout their life.

Enjoy your time gardening, trying new vegetables, and spending needed time with your family and nature.

 

Walking Meditation

Regular meditation offers many benefits, ranging from decreased stress, to increased immunity. And while meditation is usually associated with sitting motionless,  it is also possible to meditate while walking. Walking meditation can even be easier for some people than sitting meditation.  And walking meditation has the added benefit of burning a few calories.

This time of year, with the flowers blooming and the trees just starting to bud, is the perfect time to get out and try, walking meditation. To practice walking meditation, set aside twenty minutes where you can walk in open space. It's usually best to go outside, and the quieter the environment, the better, so try to get away from traffic. 

There are many different ways to practice walking meditation. Following is a simple guide for one method of walking meditation:

Before beginning, stand still while  concentrating on your breathing and clear your mind of all thoughts and emotions. Once clear of thoughts, open your awareness to your body.  Feel its many different sensations. Feel your breath as it enters and departs your body.  

Begin walking at a natural pace. As you walk, try to keep your awareness from dispersing to the area around you; maintain it focused on your body. Pay close attention to the physical experience of walking. 

Become aware of how the entire body participates in this activity. Focus first on your feet, notice how they feel. Feel how they interact with their immediate surroundings: the fabric of your socks, your shoe, your ankle. Then move up your body, and take notice of your ankle and how it interacts with its surroundings. Continue upward until you've noticed your entire body.

If at any point you feel any tension, try to relax that part of your body. And if your mind wanders, quickly bring it back to the body.

While walking and concentrating on your feet, you will be more aware of what is going on around you, the wind, the sun, or rain and the sounds and smells.  Start to take note of each and every sound in nature, feel the warmth of the sun and the way it shines through the trees.  Fell the wetness of the rain.  The smell of the woods, the rain or flowers. 

After you finish walking, your mind should be exceptionally clear and sharp. Take advantage of this increased vitality.