The weather wasn’t pleasant at all this week and I had to stay indoors most of the time. It poured so heavily on Monday that I felt like I was in a carwash! The week was enjoyable because I spent it, wearing my comfortable pyjamas and cooking my favourite dishes. But overall, it was gloomy and boring with grey skies and rain.

 

Mental Health Awareness Week

I am going to write a little about the Mental Health Awareness Week that just got over today. This year’s theme was nature. Nature is very important for our psychological, emotional, and physical well-being. We have co-existed with nature for as long as we can remember and thus, share a special bond with it. It is only recently that we have drifted away from the very thing that gives us life.

Nature can be very influential in your life if you allow it to be. Most of nature’s influences have a positive impact, like it motivates you to work on your creativity, teaches you to be kind, and relieves stress.

Staying outdoors and spending time around nature has helped me keep my mental health in check. Fresh air and sunlight are mood-lifting natural remedies that brighten your day. You should often spend some time outdoors during the day. And by outdoors, I do not mean the concrete streets and tall buildings, but just plain green nature. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend you to spend more time outdoors whenever you can and be in the midst of nature- hear the birds sing, the leaves rustling, observe the different shades of grass, etc. It will instantly calm you down.

Wandering up the Chosen Hill

As mentioned above, my week went pretty boring and gloomy because of the heavy downpour but the weekend turned out to be better. I woke up on Saturday to witness sunshine outside my window and instantly made up my mind to go out for a walk. I opened the OS Maps and looked up a short route in the countryside to stroll around.  I decided to go to the Chosen Hill, and so I grabbed my pair of walking boots and drove to Churchdown.

Chosen Hill, also known as Churchdown Hill, is situated between Gloucester and Cheltenham. It gives you breath-taking views of the Cotswold scarp and the Severn Vale. There are numerous footpaths which you can traverse through to reach the top.

I chose to walk a short path that took me an hour to cover so that I could drive back home before the rain caught up with me. The area was a natural reserve managed by the Woodland Trust, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, and Severn Trent Water. I witnessed a few covered reservoirs on the hill during my walk. The hill had some steep slopes, which made the walk more adventurous.

Going to Iceland

On the brighter side, our Iceland trip is finally in action. It is going to be a road trip, one that I have wanted to experience for a long time. And this also means that my get fit to ride challenge has begun. I have always been conscious about my fitness and now prepping myself for the road trip is going to be a fun challenge with my exercise bike, some squats, crunches, etc.