Three ingredients to greater wellbeing.

In our popular wellbeing programme ‘Caring for Yourself’ we talk about slowing down, taking notice and connecting with nature as three of the ingredients to greater wellbeing.

International Day of Happiness (20th March) falls this year on the first day of (astronomical) spring. It’s also very close to the 5 year mark of the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK. A time of emergence, at winter’s end, was instead a retreat.

During those years it was hard to make plans for the future and it felt as if life was on hold. I passed the time walking around the local area with my 18 month old son. It felt like waiting, but it was living.

Two years later (on 15th March 2023), still on our rounds but less often, I would make these notes on my phone. They made me feel powerfully sad at the time. And now, another two years on from that, we no longer walk much together as he is in the school system and gone from my side. I feel his absence like a missing limb, but:

I’m trying to recall and absorb and live the lessons those hours taught me about happiness. About slowing down, taking notice and connecting with nature.

Here is what I wrote.

15th March 2023

Three ingredients to greater wellbeing.