Had to share this beautiful picture. 💜

What is it about pictures? If there's anything in this world that can simply take your breath away and make you feel in just an aww like moment at one glance, is when your eyes stop at the moment you see a beautiful picture pop up,

Whether a simple sunrise or sunset, or an ocean view, to snow covered mountains, or this simple yet serene picture of a calm lake. All I know is every time I see a picture of nature, it just stops me in my tracks at one glance, and I dive in mentally, picturing myself right there at that moment, breathing in the fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sun, feeling the wind on my face, smelling all the different scents that my nose and senses start to pick up, smell of the water, to the different scents of flowers and plants. Nature pictures are definitely my kind of pictures that I truly appreciate.

I don't know about other people, but ever since I can remember, I was always outside and loved being outdoors. I remember when I was young, my mom and dad were always taking me and my brothers somewhere outdoors, whether we'd go downtown by the beaches and find a spot to hang out, go swimming, my dad setting up the grill to BBQ, going to the zoo, and taking little road trips maybe an hour or so away to check out another spot with a lake or nature scene they heard about one like lake Waconda and just about every weekend, we went camping.

Camping for us was our social networking and second nature. We were always meeting other families and always made friends to where we'd be planning future camping trips with the 3 other families we had camped with the week or two before. Oh, those were the days and possibly the best days of my childhood that I'll always remember.

On another note, being outdoors is one of the healthiest things for us to do. Nature helps us to connect to Mother Earth and the Univeral energy which helps in getting grounded, feeling connected in oneness, while reaping other benefits such as breathing fresh air, soaking up sunlight, getting that daily dose of vitamin D, calming the mind and soul, gaining insights, practicing mindfulness and gratitude, learning to appreciate, the beauty in everything, and getting in some of that much needed "quiet time" most of us need after a long busy, chaotic week.

As we journey through life and go through many different stages and changes as we get older, some people evolve well with change and learn to grow, in different areas of life, maturity being one of the important areas and more than often, are open to learning whatever comes their way. And then there are so many others in this world, who unfortunately, just grew older and became stuck, sometimes bitter, even a victim or prisoner to their own life, and one day, started noticing things, people, their job or career, and something about them, just was not working for them, and shortly thereafter, they're suffering with their Mental health and are in crisis.

And some people realize it and want to know what happened and then there are many who don't and for years on end, or that suffering stays with them for life! Holding onto a plethora of generational behaviors and perspectives and not open and most times, not equipped for challenge or to be challenged, or curious or trying something new and different, knowing other alternatives, looking at different perspectives, looking at fails as opportunities, and a different point of view, whatever the case may be, childhood traumatic events, or over protective to codling as parents, most time old fashioned sometimes foreign parents who were born and raised a certain way, carry on their parenting ways to their children.

No matter what the situation, we learn from what we see and what we're taught, from our culture to our behaviors, and started developing at a very young age and as we start growing and if we're not open or curious then the day-to-day becomes challenging, and soon many face an uncomfortable situation(s) which then becomes an obstacle, and no matter the obstacle, all obstacles are considered a threat, and what they remembered and were taught how to deal with a threat, is to avoid all threats, no matter the threat and that threat to many bring about fear, and fear as human beings, triggers the human "anxiety" response, our internal fight or flight mode which keeps us safe from danger, and some may know danger is real and those who didn't learn that fear is an anticipated future thought of an event or situation that might never happen or even exist, which sounds crazy, right. Some people start freaking out because they're feeding their brain the worst-case scenario of a life death situation, when rather, using a little common sense, taking a pause, and looking at the situation and breaking it down. And many generations were not taught to analyze fear, rather they choose to turn and run away from it because it's easy and quick, and don't realize, later down the line, and eventually, that fear causes suffering and that suffering can be extreme, to crippling, which then leads to pandemic of mental health disorders.

Bottom line, many of us grow up losing sight of the little, yet so many things that once brought joy and happiness, because of a trickling effect of generational curses of learned behaviors or some traumatic experience(s,), which I believe I read somewhere, EVERYONE today has childhood trauma on this planet, and if you think you don't, I challenge you to go and pick your brain, look at your life and your relationships, family, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, habits, hobbies, behaviors, your mindset, are you perfect in all areas of your life? Can you remember everything from childhood being perfect? I think you get the picture.

Sometimes our past isn't perfect, or we forget the past, and sometimes when we want to forget the past, we forget that there were times of happiness and laughter and there were beautiful things, nice things and those things we once might have appreciated, the beauty, the fascination of this world we live on, but somewhere down the years, we just forget.

We have gone through so many changes. Just think about it, the generations, eras, our clothes, our hair styles, technology, medicine, so many different cycles of life, and with those cycles and living in a world of flux, life just takes priority. Lives become chaotic at times with work, school, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, children, friends, partying, and we neglect ourselves in the process, we spend less time with ourselves because we're too busy doing for others and then we many get stuck or even lost and don't even realize it until things stop making sense or the stress becomes intolerable and insomnia sets in and then it happens, mental health breakdown.

And if we could only stop and take a few moments to remember and think of those times when you were young, being carefree and always laughing as a child, and everything and anything made you laugh and made you feel so happy, playing with your toys all day, going to sleep and getting up when you were ready? Why? Because you were a child, a kid, you really had no responsibilities, no thoughts of rent or mortgage to pay, or what to make for dinner, and is the laundry still is the washer/dryer? Do the kids have parent teacher conferences today? Or watching all the violence on TV. No because the only thing we watched on TV is our cartoons that always made us laugh. We didn't have worries being kids wondering if we'll have enough money for the bills or groceries. We just worried if there was going to be thunder and lightning or raining cats and dogs and our parents not letting us out to go play.

I think many of us can relate. The moral to the story, take some time for yourself, a few minutes every day, make time for yourself, create a routine, where you like to meditate, sit back outside on the back porch, or a park bench, even take a minute to picture yourself somewhere outdoors that makes you feel at peace, reflect on you, breathe and look at the beauty that has always been right in front of you! Love and Light!