Episode #23  Patricia Pearsell Patricia Pearsell on Facebook
Episode transcript: https://treesmendus.com

My dear friend Stacy had given me a copy of Take Back Your Outside Mindset for Christmas in 2019. She always puts quite a bit of thought into what she chooses to give as gifts. She knows how much I enjoy being outside in my yard, or camping, or hiking.  The title intrigued me and I began reading it right away and I immediately felt a realization that I needed to do this - to get outside again and often.  Your story and your book truly touched my soul at a time when I was feeling extremely overwhelmed and full of negative ruminations. I honestly feel that it has changed the quality of my life, and my family's.  The best part though is how the effect has rippled through the communities of women that I am connected with, and how my sharing your book with them or encouraging them to get outside more often has helped them too. I fully believe that returning to our outside mindset is crucial to our overall self-care as women and as caregivers.   I decided that I had to meet you and reached out to you online but we have not been able to meet in person....yet. 
When I read about negative rumination in your book, Take Back Your Outside Mindset, that is one of the biggest ahah moments that I had. I didn’t realize that that was what I was doing to myself – was perpetuating that cycle of negative rumination until I read about it in your work. And I think it is something a lot of people do and just don’t realize it. And it does take a little bit of realization to help get yourself out of it. So for me, one of the best examples I can give you is, it was keeping me awake at night worrying about the decisions we made for our son’s care and how that was going to affect his future. Of course no one can predict the future, we don’t have crystal balls, and I was spending a lot of time and energy worrying about what was going to develop, how he was going to develop… what is his future going to be like? Who is going to help him down the road? All these things that at the time did not serve me or my family in any good way.

Before I ask you how you and your son are doing. In the introduction we learned that you were diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion after your son was diagnosed with cancer. And that you had negative rumination. Can you tell us a little about that please? Before you do, I will remind our listeners that negative rumination is that kind of thinking that starts with what if, if only, I can’t,

For peer reviewed research on how your time spent in green space can change your mindset, balance your nervous system and your heart rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com and check out my books Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space