Don’t underestimate the therapeutic qualities of the rain…
In the UK, we have a tendency to complain about the rain – which is ironic because we also complain about the sun – but I don’t think we appreciate just how relaxing and soothing the rain is to our mind and soul.
Stay with me here. I promise i’m not crazy…
It has been a well known fact for many many years that nature has wonderful benefits on your peace and well-being. Almost every advice column for dealing with stress and anxiety offers the solution of getting outdoors.
What these advice columns don’t do, is advise that you go outdoors when it is raining and quite frankly they are missing a trick. There is nothing better than the smell that you get when it has been raining. Everything smells fresher and earthier.
Not only that, but the sound of rain is guaranteed to ease your mind. If you just look on you-tube at music for relaxation and sleep, you will find hours of ‘gentle rain’ or ‘rain and thunder’ and it is because the sound of rain has a strange quality of relaxing your mind quietening your thoughts. Just look on Reddit for solutions to anxiety and you will read of multiple posts that detail the ways that rain calms them down. Some psychologists refer the sound of rain to being like white noise. This blocks our stimulation and acts as a blanket to calm us down.
Why has peacefulness given way to business?
Perhaps we need this more than ever. Modern day life is too busy. Everything is on demand and life is speeding up. Maybe we could all stand to slow down. We are a generation that have everything and yet we seem the most dissatisfied.
Something is missing when mental health issues are constantly on the rise in young people and the trend in self help books are at an all time high. Just think of The current international best seller. The Power of Now. The book details the accessibility of peace when we are no longer living in the past nor the future but the present moment. It is books like this one that suggest a cultural desire to stop being busy and start being alive.
Young people seem to be opting for minimalism, mediation, and craving the simple life more and more.
Maybe this isn’t you. You may be reading this and thinking ‘what a load of rubbish, I thrive off business’ then fair enough, apologies, everyone is different.
I feel happy when I am sat at my back door listening to the rain, watching the rain fall off the leaves in the trees, and smelling the earth. It makes me feel small in some way and opens my awareness to the world around me that I miss in my business.
While I’m sat there, preferably with a hot chocolate, I feel refreshed and at complete peace.
When I am present, and taking it all in through my senses, there is no room for any other thoughts. It is the ability to focus on the present that The Power of Now is urging.
Open your window, sit at your back door, and if you are lucky, swing on your garden swing, but whatever you can do pay attention to the rain. Be present and take in the sound, the feel, and the smell.
I promise you, it’s worth it.
The Simple Life 
Leave a comment