This episode is part of day two of the 14-day nature challenge, we are going to stop and smell the flowers. There are two exercises, one is the gratitude for flowers exercise where both adults and kids can make a gratitude flower and even build a gratitude flower garden wall. Plus we will be doing an appreciation mindfulness exercise with flowers.  

Activity One: Gratitude For Flowers  

A mindfulness activity that is great for kids and adults to harbour positivity, appreciation for the small things and connection to the natural world.

What you need: The gratitude for the flower template, colouring-in pencils, glue, scissors and a grateful open heart.

1. Start by cutting out the circle for the centre of the flower and write your name on it. You can also write the name of someone to whom you want to send love and kindness.

2. Next cut out the big petals for the flower. Be creative and experiment with colours. Feel free to create your own petal template.

3. Write down or draw pictures of the things you are grateful for on the petals. If you are making one for someone else then write or draw what you want intentions you want to send them.

4. Glue the petals to the flower centre and you have your first gratitude flower!

If you do this with a group of others, you can do a whole garden of flowers! You can even create a happy place by hanging the flowers on a wall for an awesome “indoor garden” to which you can return to get a gratitude boost.

Activity Two: The Secret Language Of Flowers 

This exercise is simple but incredibly powerful because it helps you notice and appreciate seemingly simple elements of your environment more profoundly.

The exercise is designed to connect you with the beauty of the natural environment, something that is easily missed when we are rushing about our daily lives trying to complete that never-ending to-do list or hopping on and off trains on the way to work. 

Nature gives us all that we need to experience joy, peace, stillness in the present moment. The big question is, do we allow nature to do its job? Are we too busy to stop and notice the powerful effect nature can have on our entire well-being? Or are we too distracted and overwhelmed to let nature in?

We live in a busy culture, where success is often measured by how busy we are, how much we hustle, how many things we can multi-task, how much we work and so forth. Then, add to all this busyness the pings and dings of email, mobile phone and social media. It is no wonder for many of us we are stressed, overwhelmed, tired and distracted.

Time has become a resource that many of us don’t have enough of. As we race around our day trying to catch up or keep on top of everything, we tend to breathe fast or irregular, get stressed and get overwhelmed. It is only natural that this leads to some form of stress, anxiety, and difficulties focusing.

How we feel daily comes in ebbs and flows, and that is entirely normal. But all too often, when we are not feeling great or are not on our A-game, we panic, beat ourselves up, and ultimately drive up our stress levels, which only make things worse. But instead of panicking, we need to be more accepting. Acknowledge that we are not on our A-game today. Then pause, breathe and become present. We need to be ok with not being our best on the day.

Accepting how you feel will reduce its emotional impact on you, resulting in less stress, overwhelm, fatigue, and anxiety. Make it a daily ritual to check in with yourself, process the emotions, breathe through them and then just let them go.

Giving yourself 5-10 minutes a day to relax will help you accept when things aren’t perfect, and it will give you a different metric for success (one that supports joy rather than perfection).

Join me now for a meditation where we release worries, get a fresh perspective and feel calmer and more joyful.

It's been said that noticing and giving attention to things outside yourself is one of the greatest and purest forms of generosity. Tuning in and becoming one with nature is an example of this.

Nature, like us, is alive. When we spend time in nature, all its goodness permeates our mind, body, soul. It positively affects our mood, our health and our own perception of the world around us. 

The sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes in the air bring our senses alive, and nature invites us to slow down and become present.

When you follow paths through nature - do you ever feel like it is healing you?

Nature helps to reduce stress, calm anxiety and slow our breath, heart and pace of life down. It boosts our immunity, and anywhere from an hour a day out in nature helps us get a better night of sleep, rest and rejuvenation.

For the first challenge go outside and spend five minutes fully present and immersed in nature.  Engage all your senses, and go from "doing" to "being". Feel, live and breathe the experience in the present moment rather than getting caught up in your thoughts.

Give yourself the opportunity to really settle in and feel a genuine connection with nature. Observe all the different layers of nature from the smallest insects buzzing in the flowers, to the clouds floating in the sky.

Notice how you feel while taking time out to connect with nature. Notice what you hear? Write down any experiences that came up for you in nature.

Read the full day one challenge, download your nature observation sheet, meditation and watch the nature video here >>>>

There is great healing and power to be found in breathing, gratitude and sitting in stillness.

As we rush about our busy lives, we forget to stop and appreciate the gift of the breath and the gift of life itself.

This guided meditation will bring you into a place of stillness, enabling you to have a deep respect and appreciation for this moment, for your breathe and for your life.  

"Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure." ~Oprah Winfrey

We have all been breathing our entire live's, but it’s only when we stop and take the time to truly breathe: slowly, mindfully and gratefully that we find great inner peace in the power of "just being".

Sitting in a space of having a deep appreciation for "just being" is truly a transformative experience.

Even better, gratitude has been scientifically proven to strengthen your immune system, make you happier and bring about a deep sense of inner peace. 

We all hold the power of creativity. We all have the creative muse live within us. The creative muse is our source of inspiration and creativity.  The hard part is quietening down the noise of the outside world so that we can connect and honour our own creative muse within. 

Connecting with your own creative muse will inspire you to step out of fear and live creatively, which does not have to mean pursuing a life that is professionally devoted to the arts or creative endeavours but living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity, joy and inspiration rather than by fear. If you want to write poetry or play music or paint, the creative muse will help you do that. But if you want to garden, take hip-hop lessons, play golf, build a tiny home or raise horses, the creative muse will be there for you also.

We all have those things in our life that bring us great joy, comfort and enthusiasm, things like our favourite places, activities, rituals, people or things.

Tapping into the things that bring us joy is the portal to connecting with our own inner creative muse.  The things that bring joy to our heart have the potential to heal, inspire, motivate, uplift, connect and reveal. In our fast-paced world, these very things that bring us joy also become our sanctum or place of solace when we need some restoration, rejuvenation and a little inspiration.

When you slow down you see and appreciate the beauty that you never saw before. When you live with intention you actively choose what is important to you and drop the rest. When you simplify you create space for meaning and purpose to unfold. 

By slowing down and choosing to live more intentionally and simply you dispose of negative energy, and instead draw in positive energy. Not only will this shift make you feel light within, you become more able to live your life with ease. Also, by de-cluttering your entire life you also enhance your manifestation power by creating the space within to attract abundance.

Clearing out the clutter in your mind as well as physically decluttering your home, inbox and anything else that may be taking up space in your energetic field will bring you more mind-body wellness and is also a great way to clear the path for miracles to materialise. 

Thank you for joining me for week 8 of the Everyday Miracles Course. Today we will be dipping into slow, intentional and simple living. There is also a breath awareness meditation that goes along with today’s lesson.

Today we are going to take a journey together to reconnect with our own creative muse within. In all our busyness and getting lost in all our doing it is easy to disconnect from our own inspiration and creativity. Maybe you have the ideas within, but you cannot find the inspiration or motivation to act.  Or maybe your mind and life is so cluttered and busy that you cannot process your inspiration and creativity therefore making it hard to bring it into your own reality. Or maybe you are tired, weary and worn down and have no creativity or inspiration left within.

It’s okay…and completely natural and normal to feel like this.

Often uncertainty can overwhelm you… and mindless busyness, anxiety and stress can drown out the voice of your own inner creativity.

When dealing with creativity it is easy to have moments like this… moments where you feel blocked… stuck… not able to tap into your own creativity and let it flow into your work… into your life…

Harnessing creativity requires a mindful choice to slow down, de-stress and quieten within. Today we are going find that quiet space within so that you can hear the voice of your own creative muse.

Bring your mind, body, and spirit into harmony; and drift off to sleep more soundly with this deep relaxation sound bath.  A meditation that will feel like you are floating in the ocean alongside the whales: a little ethereal and entirely soothing. Press play, turn up the volume and close your eyes. And then, hopefully, drift into a deep and relaxing nights sleep as the whales sing you to sleep.

We live in a society that is predominately oxygen starved. Our busy schedules, never-ending pressures and overall fast pace of life causes many of us not to breathe properly. A big percent of the population in the world breathe too shallow and fast. This means that we are not taking in sufficient levels of oxygen, the result of an oxygen starved body is toxic build up which makes it hard to naturally relax and overtime it can lead to disease and long-term stress, anxiety and fatigue.

Slow mindful breathing can transform your life. In our busy, frenzied and stressful world taking time out creates space within, a place where you feel at peace and are reminded of how important it is to slow down and not race through this life. A daily ritual of mindful breathing also has the power to heal your body and mind on both an emotional and physical level .

What if we don't need to be any more than we are? What if we are enough?

The invitation of today's lesson is to encourage you to love, honour and respect yourself. Just as you are.

Owning our journey, our lessons and our truth - it frees us. It frees us from the suggestion that we are not enough and that we should contribute more or become something greater.

The only person who gets to define our success is ourselves. And the only person by whose measure we are worthy, is our own.

So, don't wait to be saved by a person, an opinion or a credential. Because you'll be waiting for eternity. It's time to look within to save yourself.

Today's lesson in the Everyday Miracles Course is about honouring the true self and becoming more self-actualised. The definition of self-actualisation is “The realisation or fulfilment of one's talents and potential, something that is present in everyone”.