My son designed a sculpture weeks ago. This presentation of great artistic magnitude reflects a certain state of mind I experience on occasion. The various elements or tasks of life are bound by stress. All things feel important. Order seems impossible.
To tackle such a mass of confusion, I need perspective and a good dose of dopamine to help me see what’s there and begin unbinding the individual items.
I find perspective in the trees, flowers, earth, sky, and ocean. The fresh air clears my mind. A good walk, run, bike-ride, enervates the neurons that bring some extra release of dopamine where I’ll need it – the prefrontal cortex.
What works for me is also supported by research as to what helps relieve some ADHD symptoms. Director of Landscape and Human Health Laboratory, Frances E. Kuo, and Andrea Faber Taylor report in their research that a walk in nature can help children with attention difficulties concentrate better.
In addition, much research links cardiovascular exercise with improvements in executive function. Among several researchers, John Ratey and John Medina are raising awareness of exercise and its crucial benefits, for everyone, but particularly those with attention challenges.
Not that my problems are solved by the flap of a butterfly’s wings, but nature and exercise better equip me to problem solve. I can be more creative and feel less burdened by the heavy hand of anxiety.
When the day’s noise overtakes the still of now, I imagine my mother’s lens. It shows me moments of nature.
She is my mother – more than
that – an inspiration, a path. Wisdom. If I follow her gaze that “scans the horizon for beauty,” I’ll surely find rhythm and rest and more than me.