Bring the outdoors in

Published Aug 29, 2024, 4:01 AM

Enjoy the natural world, even when you're inside

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Good Morning.

This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to bring the outdoors in. Being in nature is a known mood booster, but even if you are indoors, you can recreate some of the same magic. When we renovated our new old house a few years ago, we installed a lot of new windows that have this fancy roll screen function. You can't see the screen when the window is down, but then when you open the window, the screen is there.

It's very cool. Anyway, I got this feature because I know that I like to open the windows. Feeling fresh air and smelling the outside and hearing the wind in the trees just makes me feel more relaxed. I have particularly enjoyed doing this when it gets a little cooler on summer nights. I will open the windows in the evening and try to read in bed for a little bit with the night sounds all around me. It's a lot like camping, but a lot more comfortable, especially if it's raining. Anyway, if you have any ability to open your windows, why not give it a try. I will admit that sometimes it's not that great to do so like if it's one hundred degrees or twenty degrees out, but at least some months of the year, the outdoors might be pleasant wherever you are. If you live somewhere with a yard, the yard was probably part of the appeal of your home. Opening the windows lets you enjoy the yard even if you are inside. Of course, there are other ways to bring the outside in too. You could decorate with greenery from your neighborhood. Many times people think they should be putting flowers in a vase, but there are other options, particularly if it's not a season when fresh flowers are readily available. Dried grasses can look pretty at any time. Colorful leaves on a branch and fall might last for a day or two, but you know there are a lot of branches out there, so you can go cut another one when the first starts to fade. An evergreen branch is festive for Christmas or really for any time of year. Growing things in your house also brings the outside in. A little pot of basil in your kitchen will smell nice when you're doing food prep and will make your kitchen feel a little more green. Or you can get a potted tree and keep that in a corner in your living room and make the place feel a little bit like a treehouse. When possible, you can decorate with natural materials. Seeing wood in your house is somewhat like seeing woodpile outdoors, and of course, if you have the option, celebrating any sort of transitional spaces can be great. A covered or screened porch is the best of being inside and outside. If you're lucky enough to have one, go all out on the decorating so it becomes your favorite place to hang out. Nature is a known mood booster, but it doesn't always work to be outside. Bringing the outside in can give you the best of both worlds and feel quite lovely, as I can tell you from feeling a wonderful post storm summer breeze through my open office windows. I don't want to be outside in those lingering rain drops right now, but that coolness is something lovely in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listen, and here's to making the most of our times. Thanks for listening to before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach.

Me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Before Breakfast

In each bite-sized, daily episode of Before Breakfast, host Laura Vanderkam shares a time management 
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