Warwick Life Strategies

If “a little change will do you good” then a little change of scenery will do you great! I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to spend a few days at beautiful Falcon Lake in the ‘Whiteshell’. For those unfamiliar with Manitoba, the Whiteshell is a large provincial park full of everything wonderful that our Canadian Shield has to offer. It is cottage country at its finest, within a 2 hour drive from Winnipeg. Although the bugs were out in full force, I can’t really admit to roughing it. The beautiful cabin accommodation certainly didn’t test my camping skills, but did create a space where I had no choice but to slow down and (gasp!) relax for a couple of days. It’s a strange realization that in fact, it is possible to forget how to truly do that....or to realize that what you thought was relaxing was merely a hint of the deep calm that is possible to achieve. It was as if I was given the permission to slow down...no, that I was forced to do so...with no obligations to attend to and no distractions to divert my attention. What a blessing this was. Although I had to return to reality, I was grateful for the moments that I had to slow down and experience ‘quiet’.

In our busy lives, how many of us regularly take a few minutes in true ‘quiet’ and find a space where we feel peace and serenity? You may wonder if that’s even possible in the midst of traffic sounds, airplanes flying overhead, sirens blaring, phones ringing and TV’s droning in the background. Of course there was noise at the lake, but it was a different kind of noise. It was the awakening to chirping birds, hiking to the top of a cliff and hearing only the wind rushing through the trees, listening to the sound of water lapping against the lakeshore and of a canoe paddle cutting through calm waters. It was noise that contributed to a more relaxed state as opposed to clouding my mind and distracting my thoughts. I returned rejuvenated, fresh-faced and ready to tackle the week (I also found myself doing the mental math of the possibility of bidding adieu to city life, moving into a cottage and spending each day hearing those incredibly beautiful sounds...unfortunately the math did not add up!) Although living in this environment would be sheer bliss, it is not the reality for many of us, so the question that I asked myself was “how can I find this quiet space in my everyday life?” I liken it to eating an amazing dish at a restaurant...you have been tempted and would love nothing more than to go home and replicate that incredible taste...but you ask yourself, how? How can I feel that way again in an entirely different environment with so many external distractions that are out of my control?

This is the question I’m asking myself today. Do you have any suggestions on what works for you? To be continued...
Moving you forward, WLS