Live Your Dreams

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Written by Nicole Moorey

I was seeking more from life.  I spent 30 minutes daily in nature for one year, pursuing empowerment.  My life will never be the same . . .

Yet for weeks I struggled trying to write this summary piece.  I felt so fulfilled having completed my challenge that surpassed my expectations, yet here I was with writer’s block.  How could I possibly sum up the value of everything I’d seen, experienced and learned?  Who cares, and if they do, what do they care about?

These don’t seem like the thoughts of an empowered woman.  Was this year a failure?  Was it just another exercise in procrastination, keeping me from accomplishing what I ‘should’ have been doing instead?

No.

I know it was a great year.  In some ways, it was the greatest year of my life.  And I know why too.  I can still feel the effects, the insight, the joy, and the accomplishments to my core and I probably always will.  As I sit here writing in the same backyard under the same sunny skies where my ‘passion epiphany’ first came to me, I know this experiment was an unequivocal success.

I know that every minute I spent in nature, day after day, month after month, rainbow after rainstorm after snowfall after blizzard was an act of self-love.  Every sunrise and starry sky and forest floor and lake view filled my well so that it will never run dry, not that I would ever let that happen again.  ‘Yesterday I said tomorrow and that’s today’, I’ve learned.  We all know that one thing that we need to do for ourselves today, then every day, regardless of what anyone thinks, whether or not anyone joins in or even cares.  Put yourself first and the rest follows.

I know that by spending just 30 minutes per day, every day on a goal, I can do anything. Whether it’s a fun, soul satisfying project or a dreaded, resisted task, I can do it.  It will always be more fun or less painful than I think it will be.  Once I resolved to embark on my nature journey, I saw results the very first day.  By the first month, I had already gained so much that I could have ended the challenge and called it a resounding success.  By six months in, I had it in the bag and it had become ‘second nature’.  At one year, I could do it every day for the rest of my life – and I will.  You can do anything too, in just 30 minutes per day.

I know the secret to accomplishing anything, the ‘natural order’ of all greatness, is to dream it, believe it and achieve it (and not just because I found a brick stating this on the last day of my challenge).  Dream courageously, dream joyfully, dream generously.  See, feel, smell, taste and touch those dreams.  Believe with everything in you that those dreams will come true.  ‘When in doubt, push it out’ of your mind and carry on believing.  Lastly, take your first step and then your next and so on to make those dreams happen.  To succeed, simply dream, believe and achieve.

I know why I love nature.  Sure I had an idea before, but now I have the deeper knowing that everything in nature is perfect, including each of us.  That we are born to be free in nature.  That compassion begins and ends with love for ourself, love for others and love for the earth.  That life, our feelings, beliefs, actions, spirit and everything has a season and is part of an infinite cycle.  That beauty is everywhere if we just open our heart and still our mind enough to notice.  That all is well when we let go and let nature.  May you know this too.

I know that despite my moment of doubt at the end of my challenge, I have indeed found empowerment through daily dates with nature.  Sure I still have much work to do to get to where I want to be, but I am empowered.  I realized this to be true thanks to a recent random conversation.  My husband asked if I could think of a service or product that I’d like to buy to solve any problem that I might be facing.  I could not think of anything.  I realized in that moment that I already have everything within me to solve any obstacle that I will ever face.  Just as everything you need is already within you.

The night before I began this journey, in a moment of naivety or maybe prophecy, I wrote “I know that it won’t all be easy, but by the end of it all I’ll barely recognize myself, or better yet, I’ll finally recognize myself!”  And so it is.

This is my truth.

What is yours?

Could your life use a little more colour?  It’s time to step into your truth.  The first step to happiness is out the door.  Throw the door wide open to your happiness.  The days go by slow but the years go by fast.  Daily extraordinary moments make extraordinary days.
Yours outdoors,
Nicole Moorey

See prior accounts of Nicole’s year in nature in Simply . . . Woman magazine archives.

Nicole Moorey invites her backyard and backcountry sisters to reconnect with nature while living more joyful, healthy and fulfilling lives.  Through daily dates with nature, she’s creating an empowered life for herself and sharing snapshots of insight along the way: www.facebook.com/NicolewithNature.  Nicole studies personal empowerment with the S.W.A.T. Institute, has mobilized thousands of people to help one another for 15 years as a Volunteer Administrator and enjoys adventures with her family in majestic Northwestern Ontario.