Everyday Therapy

I thought about this the other day, after I’d already posted the blog on managing anxiety, and wished I’d included it on the list.  As a kid, I used to frequently visit my Aunt Mimi and one of my favorite things to do with her was head to her friend’s garden nursery for what Aunt Mimi called “flower therapy.”

We wandered the aisles of the greenhouses, my eyes soaking in the colors and light and textures, my nose breathing in the scents, my fingers stroking the variety of green leaves.  And I consciously felt my heart beat more slowly, and a tingle move through my hands, and an awakening happen in my soul.

It wasn’t a conscious choice when I started doing it with my kids.  The greenhouses just happen to be on the way home from school.  “Wanna stop for some flower therapy,” I asked one afternoon and they’ve been asking me ever since.  (It helps that the greenhouse passes out free popcorn and cookies!)

From there, we went to the yarn shop where our eyes feasted on the rolled-up skeins of wool, too many colors to even imagine, all stacked in their wooden crates.  And the local fruit stand, where the array of color, when we stop to notice, is on full display right before our eyes.

That seems to be it.  The noticing.  Because what I have come to notice, is when I slow down enough to allow myself the time to see, the world around us is full of color and scent and texture and light, all just waiting for us to soak it in.

Thank you Aunt Mimi for giving me the eyes with which to see.

Do you have a favorite “therapy”