I’m not the most patient person, and I get stressed easily. These are things that I’m well aware of, and have myself to remind me of often, but still get plenty of external reminders as well.

There are some days that I don’t even get five seconds out of bed before I start to feel my blood pressure raising. Today happened to be one of those days. Coupling that with a heel injury that I’m still working on resting, and I had the urge to get out of the house for a bit, but unable to do my usual morning jog. A walk was in order.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, my camera is built into the same device as my MP3 player, IM sender, Dropbox storage and impulse Twitter checker. Without having to plan for it, I have all of the tools necessary to do a bit of nature photography. As some of you may know, after I moved out of Downtown Orlando last year, I moved into a house within viewing distance of a nice nature biking/jogging trail. Coupled together, I had the recipe for a pleasant walk to clear my mind a bit, and in turn give me a few photos and an idea for an inspirational blog post.

Take a walk. De-Stress. Contemplate a few minutes on what you are doing before jumping back into the fray and doing it. Don’t let your work and life consume you to the point where you don’t want to be living. Take a moment to breathe, clear your mind, and just be.

I’m trying to do a bit of that consciously every day, until it can become an unconscious, autonomic reflex. My heart, health and mind will thank me, and so will yours.