In the past week, Victoria has experienced quite the diverse weather pattern. A majority of the week consisted of beautiful sunshine and blue sky, while one day had intense hail and cloud. The various weather patterns prompted me to think of different ways to experience the outdoors, even when it is wet and rainy.

First, as aforementioned, a majority of the week consisted of blue sky and sun. Each time I see blue sky and sun, I get restless being inside and crave the outdoors to soak up the good weather. The sunshine promotes my motivation levels and increases my mood immensely. Similar to last week, I again visited a local hot spot beach in Victoria. At the end of Cook Street Village, there is a long, beautiful beach that looks out onto the ocean and the mountains of Olympic Park in the States. It also provides a beautiful and colourful sunset. As it has probably been made obvious, sitting at the beach at sunset is one of my favourite outdoor activities. It makes me realize that no matter what sort of day that I had, it always comes to an end in a visually beautiful way. I was able to sit on a blanket, resting against a log and debrief about my day. While at the beach, there was several other people, kids and dogs all running around. It prompted me to think that although I am at the beach to unwind and reset my mind because of school anxieties, each person here also has their own story to tell. Sometimes it is nice to sit back and observe, and realize that everyone has their own situation going on, and that no matter what kind of day that you personally had, to always treat people with kindness and respect.

In addition to the beautiful weather this week, I was rather upset to see the sunshine streak broken when it started furiously hailing one day this week. It was on a day that I was rather stressed about assignments, and all I wanted to do was go for a walk to clear my head. However, I put on a couple sweatshirts and took a seat on my covered patio with a cup of tea. Despite the cold and the hail coming down very hard and loud, I was able to watch the hail and breathe in fresh air. Although it wasn’t the beautiful sunny walk that I had in mind when I woke up, it still enabled me to clear my mind while watching mother nature perform it’s thing.

The aim for this post is that even though the weather can throw a wrench into plans of seeking nature and the outdoors when your mental health needs it the most, even taking a breather on the patio away from technology can be beneficial. Watching the hail come down made me realize that even after a few beautiful days of sunshine and happiness, some days can be dark and gloomy. However, even a bad day is only 24 hours and will always pass. It is important to realize that even when our mental health is thriving, some days it will decrease. Being happy is not a straight pattern, it has it ups and downs, similar to weather patterns. The important thing to note is that the sun will always rise, and there will always be optimal opportunities to enjoy the outdoors!

I have attached a few photos of my sunset experience at Dallas Road. Hope you enjoy! 🙂