Simple Self Improvement

                                                                                   Image:Marie Vonow Following on from yesterday's tip of spending time in Nature, comes the tip for day 5, spend time gardening. If spending time in Nature makes people happy, it makes sense that time doing some gardening will contribute to happiness. As well, when you are gardening you are getting exercise which increases happiness (happiness tip day 3). Easy to grow plants can be very colourful                    ...

                                                                                                     Image:Marie Vonow Research has found what many people know from their own experience, contact with Nature increases happiness . So, my happiness tip for day 4 is, spend more time in a natural environment. You don't have to go on a holiday to the beach, mountains, river or any other natural environment to get a boost of happiness. Time spent walking a tree lined street, pottering around in...

                                                                                     Image: Steve Buissinne from Pixabay Recently I watched several You Tube videos where people talk about things they no longer purchase. There are things I don't buy now that I did years ago when I had young children, was in the paid workforce or owned a car. As well there are things I have more recently decided I don't need to buy or choose not to out of concern for the environment or to save a few dollars. On the other hand there are many things I didn't buy when I moved ou...

Gum blossom                                  Image:Marie Vonow I love being in a natural environment. It could be my own garden, someone else's garden, a park or the botanic gardens. It could be by a river, in the hills or at the beach. When I am in a natural environment I find it easy to live in the moment and to feel gratitude. Nature is good for the soul, I can feel it doing me good and research shows Nature is beneficial to a person's health. For more info, check out - http://selfavenue.com/why-nature-makes-us-happy/ http://selfavenue.com/nature-relatedness/39201/ Local river in winter       Image:Marie Vonow Elements of Nature such as birds bring joy                     ...

Blackbirds hang out in the palm   Image:Marie Vonow Life is full of things to do, people to catch up with and appointments to attend. It seems there is always so much to do and life can be overwhelming if you don't schedule time to just breathe. I am fortunate at this point in my life I don't have to rush off to work in the morning. I am able to take some time for myself most mornings and watch the birds in my garden as I slowly drink my coffee. I wrote this short poem about relaxing in the garden and observing the local birds.         Birds And Nature Friendly birds sitting in the tree Joyfully singing songs for me, I love to sip my coffee while I sit, Watch them and relax for a bit. Nature can calm my active mind I look around, focus on what I find, Stop and take a break from stress Breathe deep, don’t think about life's mess. You may already know, from ...

A garden can bring much joy                             Image:Marie Vonow I enjoy spending time in the garden but to be honest I can’t be bothered with any plants that need to be fussed over. There are so many types which are easy to grow that I can’t see the point in actually stressing over plants when I want to enjoy my time in the garden. Some people do enjoy the challenge of getting a delicate or fussy plant to grow but that's not my style, I prefer things that are simple. When it comes to veggies and herbs, I plant easy to grow stuff like loose leaf lettuce, rocket, spring onions, chives, basil, parsley, rosemary, silver beet and tomatoes. I grow some things in containers and others directly in the garden.              Rosemary bush    ...

Dolls House                   Image by Marie Vonow I moved house earlier this year. As I have moved house several times over the years, had made plenty of lists and thought I was pretty organised I didn't expect this to cause me too much stress. However, even though nothing major went wrong it has been more stressful than I expected. I have come to the conclusion, no matter how organised I think I am, moving house is a stressful life event. That's a fact I have to accept. I think when moving house, the degree of stress an individual experiences depends on various factors including - personality attitude to the move whether it is your decision to move length of time spent in the place one is moving from how attached you are to the place you are moving from how you feel about the dwelling you are moving to how you feel about the location you are moving to distance moving whether ...

Image:Marie Vonow People talk about the benefits of feeling gratitude for the good things in life. But there are times one feels there isn’t much to feel gratitude for. This feeling can descend on us when there are lots of stresses or we are weary. Perhaps you often ask yourself what is there to feel gratitude for in my ordinary life? There is another way of looking at life. Can you be grateful for what you don’t have, for the things you have escaped or avoided? Can you see the positive side of what initially appears a negative?