Use your Lake District stay at Pheasant Lodge to supercharge yourself.
What does wellbeing mean for you?
It may seem like an overused word and yet each one of us can notice when it’s missing. Those times when we feel unsettled, almost out of synch with ourselves.
So, what helps you self-soothe? The peaceful surroundings will make it easy to focus on supporting your wellbeing. During your stay at The Pheasant Lodge, you can slow down and rediscover your sense of wellbeing in the Lake District – surrounded by peaceful gardens, fresh air and the ever-changing beauty of nature. It’s the perfect time to reset and tune back into yourself.
Instead of unease, we need to find ways to seek ease and it’s not ‘easy’. We all have our rituals, our self-soothing habits that can change a stressed-out mental state into a more beneficial, even momentary pause. Recall what you do already. What really works for you that is totally health-giving and calming? Here are my favourites.
Simple ways to self-soothe during your stay
1. Body Scan check – notice what’s going on internally
I find I can be too much in ‘my head’, with thoughts and anxieties buzzing round. So I need to become more aware of my own physical state, scanning through from head to toe to notice where tension is manifesting itself.
Try it now. Intentionally focus on parts of your body from head to toe, pausing at each point and consciously letting go. What do you notice? How does your body feel?
2. Move and stretch and breathe – start to get physical
Nothing mega yet. Cultivate a new stretching habit. Just natural physical movements (stretching arms high and wide, wriggling toes – anything that feels good for you). These can interrupt the cognitive mind-babble and get the blood flowing.
Not so surprisingly, this interrupt helps to prompt expansive thinking and a less rigid mind-state. This is a perfect precursor for getting outside of your head and into the actual outside environment.
3. Get outside
Looking up and round, expanding my vision makes me feel blessed and relaxed to be breathing fresh air and acknowledging the value of nature and the environment to give me an endorphin rush which is hard to beat. Even this photo below might start the process of outside/in – a way of allowing the outside to change how you feel on the inside.
Sometimes I just walk down the long driveway from Pheasant Lodge and back. But better still, I am lucky enough to be able to walk round the country lanes just outside our gate in Field Broughton (just a half hour walk from Cartmel if I am feeling energetic). I am not talking about climbing a lake district mountain (although that might also be worthwhile). I find that even a short walk acts like a prompt to shake off negativity, a recall to notice the beautiful surroundings we have outside our door (the gardens, the fields, the magnificent trees, the everchanging constancy of nature).
Find ease in everyday moments
These are my self-soothing rituals. Simple, nothing extraordinary but so effective for my wellbeing.
I know I am lucky to live where I live. The silence at night and the tranquillity during the day (bar a noisy tractor or two) ‘forces’ me to notice what matters most. You can experience this too when you stay at Pheasant Lodge, your Lake District hideaway. Why not start some new habits that you take home with you?
Wishing you well!
Kath