Happiness in Communing with Nature

Our fast-paced world can really burn us out quickly.  With technology enabling us to communicate faster and easier than ever before, "alone time" is quickly becoming a concept of the past.  It can be wonderful to feel connected, but it can also be daunting and draining as well.  How can we get back to basics and quiet the multitudes of voices that surround us?

The answer may be simpler than you think.  Try communing with nature!

Immersing yourself in nature doesn't need to be an elaborately planned scenario.  Try taking a walk.  Even in an urban area, you're going to have opportunities to see animals and plants -- even if it's just squirrels in your local park, or the shade of a tree planted by the sidewalk of a busy road.  Find a place to sit and breathe the air.  Observe the weather -- is it sunny out?  What time of day is it?  Perhaps you can enjoy the clouds during the daytime, or try to see stars at night.

If that's too difficult, or your access to nature is limited, try simply gazing out your window at the sky.  Alternatively, you can bring natural elements inside by planting flowers, herbs, or other small plants indoors. 

Whatever way you decide to commune with nature, know that it will rejuvenate your mind and spirit when you're able to let go and focus on the world around you.  Our planet is filled with beautiful things, so take the time to enjoy!

Read for Your Happiness!

There's a whole world in each and every book!  To me, reading is like meditation.  It can quiet the mind, activate the imagination, reduce stress, and force your focus elsewhere.  Reading is such a wonderful way to fill your head and relax your body all at the same time.

You needn't choose to read anything lofty, or super cerebral -- it's nice if you like that, and by all means choose it if you want to -- but even something easy and light can provide the benefits of reading.  Grab your tablet, your dusty copy of War and Peace, or even the fun, short fashion magazine that brings a smile on your face and inspiration to your heart.

No matter what you choose to read, reading leads to learning -- which reads a richer and fuller life!

The Importance of Alone Time

In a world where we're used to always being connected with others, we cannot underestimate how important it is to unplug, unwind, and just spend time alone.

If you're exhausted after a long week of work and personal obligations, there is nothing wrong with kicking back with some ice cream and your favorite TV show.  If you're able to do so, make the time to spend an entire day by yourself.  This doesn't need to be often, unless you need lots of time to recharge your batteries. 

Try to set aside some time weekly, or even every few days, for a small mental vacation.  Give yourself time to meditate, to read, even to cook or to plan your week.  If you're able to set aside larger blocks of time, make an effort to have an "alone date" once a month, perhaps for an entire day or night.  By making opportunities to keeping yourself company, you'll also be better able to relate to others as well.

Spend Time With Your Friends

We often get immersed in relationships with our significant others, or our families.  But we should also strive to spend time with our friends, too.

Friends are the families that we choose for ourselves.  Lovers may come and go.  Family members -- even though they love us -- can sometimes possess blind spots about us, since their opinions of us may not change as we grow.  Friendships with those outside of our romantic or familial circles are vital to our psychological and spiritual health; they can offer us perspectives of who we are as people.  Friends can also give us the objective opinions and ideas that others may not.

Make the time to maintain the relationships with your existing friends, or expand your social circle to include more people. 

For the Love of Bubbles

One of the greatest things that we can ever do in order to love ourselves, is the simple yet vital act of self-care. Self-care is not a “one size fits all” type of behavior. Although the basics are universal, the concept of self-care can take very many forms: keeping ourselves well fed, exercising, getting adequate rest, keeping ourselves safe. Stress reduction is a very large part of self-care as it can encompass so many different facets of being good to ourselves.

An important such ingredient in the recipe of our own self-care is cleanliness. Keeping ourselves and the world around us clean is a wonderful way to show love and regard for ourselves (and other people, since they have to smell us too!). However, simply keeping ourselves clean, or enabling others to do so (like our children, for example) is more than just a simple act of hygiene or physical health. It is also an important aspect of our mental health as well.

The website For the Love of Bubbles, reveals a very poignant and important philosophy of cleanliness as an act of self-care: it’s important, but it should also be fun! The owner and operator of For the Love of Bubbles, Ayieta Crawford, shares with readers her passion for all things bath and body, so that she can entertain as well as inform friends and fans alike.

For a person like myself, the physical act of bathing is intertwined with the spiritual act of cleansing as well – not just a purification of the body, but a purification of the soul as well. For the Love of Bubbles is a website that truly understands that bathing is helpful for all of our dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. A truly good bath product should clean well, but it should also make us feel more than just clean. It should renew the spirit, entice the senses, and rejuvenate us whether we are finishing up the night with a long relaxing soak in the tub – or we are simply doing a quick scrub to wake up and take on the day.

Ayieta also loves to share her sweet and soapy adventures with products that come from small businesses and independent retailers. Her philosophy seems to incorporate the idea that even small businesses can create huge amounts of happiness in every product -- and sometimes, just as a fast-food restaurant cannot compare to a home-cooked meal -- nothing can satisfy the need to feel pampered and loved better than a beautiful bar of homemade soap or an amazing small-batch sugar scrub!

For the Love of Bubbles isn't just about loving bath and body products. The blog expresses a great deal of love for its followers, too. From giving tips on the best brands or the coolest new products, to announcing some truly awesome prize giveaways, this blog is clearly not just one of many marketing tools in the online realm... Instead, it is a labor of love, handcrafted with care, exactly like the product brands that Ayieta loves to share with the world.

Oh... And the pictures of her "soap rack" (as opposed to a run of the mill soap dish!) are pretty spectacular too. Check out For the Love of Bubbles today, and add a little magic to your next bath!