Thursday, January 17, 2013

Inner Happiness


I mentioned briefly last week a new course I have started. The 8 Gifts From Nature is a journey of reflection, sharing, learning, growing and changing. It is meant not only to serve as a path for my own personal growth, but also to help me better support and guide Reece on his path connecting to nature and this earth.

This journey is being shared with a very inspiring group of people in a community like setting. After our first insightful discussion I left with feelings of happiness, fullness and contentment. The first gift of nature we are reflecting on is Inner Happiness, or to be more precise, tuning into the happiness of a child that is inside all of us.


Happiness is one of those things which is very individual. What makes me happy, may not make you happy and while I might be happy today, I might not be happy tomorrow. This course, though forces one to look past "surface" happiness, to a deeper, more innate happiness, in a sense, to return to that childlike state of happiness. Do you remember it? The magic, the glow, the pure joy of being a child at play. Running, jumping, climbing, singing, exploring without a care in the world. Yes...that happiness.

It is a beautiful place, isn't it? The happiness of a child. I see it everyday, and if I am lucky, most days I get to dive in and enjoy it, if I allow myself to be swept away. And therein lies the difficulty; moving past my adult world and sinking into the world of my child.


There has been a lot of reflection since our first night together, and also a lot of action. I have been reflecting on my emotional health, connecting more to the activities and things that bring me peace and happiness and opening my heart to express gratitude every day.

My homework encourages me to explore Children's Universal Passions, something Reece and usually do, but now it is with a deeper level of awareness. This awareness brings me so much joy in these moments with Reece and in return, so much joy for him.


My journey of personal growth with The 8 Gifts of Nature is going to be so very fulfilling on so many levels, not only for me, but also for Reece. While I will grow and change on this journey, I will also develop my mentoring skills, which will guide me in better supporting Reece on his journey.

13 comments:

  1. What a lovely class. It seems like there are so many lovely classes in you area. I need to take the time to take a course for myself. The last picture of the dried flower is so interesting. harsh and corse and sharp. Yet so fragile. A simple squeeze and it crushed.

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    1. It is KC, and I am so excited to see where it is going to take me. I am feeling really lucky, everything I have been a part of has come to me without much effort on my part...mostly a lot of "everything happens for a reason" stuff...which is totally awesome.

      Thanks, and yes, a simple squeeze would crush it :)

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  2. Such beautiful photos!
    What you're describing reminds me of the importance of knowing the difference between joy and fun. Joy and happiness are very deeply rooted once found and cultivated. I am sure your growth and awareness will benefit Reece even in the long run.

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    1. Thanks Simona. Totally agree with you, the difficult part is finding and cultivating it, we seem to have such a hard time with this in our society.

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  3. This class sounds pretty amazing.

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    1. So far it is, and I know it will get even better. It helps to be doing it with such a wonderful group of people, everyone is inspiring in their own way.

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  4. What a wonderful opportunity. Nature saves us on so many levels. And seeing it through the eyes of my children has been an amazing experience for me. Thank you for sharing your class.

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    1. It is definitely that Dawn. I find nature so healing and being able to dig deeper into this connection and grow as a mentor means so much to me. So happy to share it, I am sure I will be using this space again to reflect as I move through the course.

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  5. This sounds like such a great course. Steve and I are very interested - we will look into it further...wish we could do it with a group like you're doing. Might see if anyone around here would like to do it too...

    Enjoy it and looking forward to hearing about your journey :)

    xo

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    1. It is fantastic Renee, I think the two of you would love it. It would be awesome if you could find a group to do it with, it gives you a little bit of accountability to get the homework and reflections done :)

      Looking forward to sharing more.

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