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                    ...

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    ...

                                                                                                  Image:Marie Vonow What does the word ordinary mean? According to my old Heinemann Australian Dictionary (yes the old one held together with sticky tape), ordinary means normal, usual or average. That doesn’t sound very exciting. It sounds like enjoying the ordinary means accepting things that are pretty boring and dull. Actually, it is the opposite. It means discovering the exciting aspects in everyday th...

Nature gives me great pleasure                                            Image:Marie Vonow Everyone gets pleasure from different things and different experiences. Therefore I can't make a list of things guaranteed to bring you pleasure. Even for myself, I have changed over the years so if I had made a list of simple pleasures about 35 years ago some of the items would be different from now. But I do know the items on the top of that list would have been an uninterrupted night's sleep, an afternoon nap and a hot cup of coffee drunk without an interruption. Yes, I had a baby back then.

Enjoy that cuppa, enjoy the moment                                  Image:Marie Vonow What could be better? I am sitting at my computer blogging while listening to uplifting music. I am drinking my favourite coffee from a lovely mug. Every now and then I take a nibble of dark chocolate and I don’t have to feel guilty because it’s only a small bar and it’s sugar free. Also, I have read dark chocolate contains anti oxidants and boosts your endorphins. The sun is shining through the crystal I have hanging in the window making rainbows of refracted light appear on the walls of my room. These may be simple pleasures but they make my life good. I feel gratitude for these things and am living in the now, in the present moment. Eileen Caddy, spiritual teacher and New Age author said, ‘Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time.’  It is easy t...