Spending any time in nature will begin to help your overall attitude. Disconnecting from technology completely and just concentrating on being in the moment you are in is essential to your mental health. Taking longer and longer walks in nature, disconnected from the phone in your pocket, will give you more peace than you can in reading a dozen self-help articles on a tiny screen. It is during quiet contemplation when this realization happens. Making the time for quiet contemplation is essential for a balanced life.
Taking time to rest seems to be a sign of weakness in our super-productive culture. But what are we producing? We are mostly shuffling papers around pretending to have purposeful existences while we acquire lots of stuff to fill the void of real relationships in our lives. Real relationships take work and we trade genuine relationships in for instant gratification in small bite-sized pieces of media that confirm our narrow worldviews. The challenge of making time to actually be with other humans in the same room is not as easy as it was a decade or more ago. We can sit around with people in the same room for hours and not connect as we stare at our phones. We get lost in our own individual worlds never trying to find the connections and where our interests intersect. Never listening to the other’s perspective or truly inviting criticism. Holding someone else’s view seems to be a waste of time if it can be easily proven incorrect. It takes time, and patience to listen. It takes time to direct someone to a place where they feel comfortable to let down their armor and sword. It takes time to allow yourself to feel like you can give a bit of yourself without expecting to get anything in return. It is draining, but it is worth the energy because you will know what matters when you feel it.
The memories you will carry with you for the rest of your life are the memories that matter to you. The memories that will define your existence are the memories that matter. They will reoccur with the moments you make as you walk through quiet contemplative study or quick impulsive choices. Memories that matter range from painful to profound. Memories that matter are memories that cause you to make a change based on your previous failures—learning to make a conversion, an amendment to your behavior for the better. When you actually feel what matters taking place, you know you have taken part of an internal transformation. This feeling fades over time, but it never really goes away. It is formative and defining. It shapes who you are, and you have to be fully present to witness it happening to you. Make time to be present in your life each day.
