Quick Strolls - slowing down

Russ: Yeah, whenever I'm here I just feel relaxed. This just feels like... the mountains, looking at them, you realise they've been there for millions of years, looking just the same, so everything's in perspective and it makes you feel like timeless, you know? 

I just really like this feeling of being here in the fresh air and the open. You can hear the birds song in the background and a tractor still going away over there and it's just a beautiful spot, really really nice. I saw loads of sunrises and when you wake up early in the morning to see the sunrise from a mountain top it seems to be different from when you're looking from your bedroom window because you're higher than the sun as it rises and it appears just like a big red fireball in the sky. Some of the mornings it was really like a translucent large red glowing object so not the yellow sun, the yellow circle that you think the Sun is at most times in the day. It actually looked like a gas giant fireball and you're sitting on the mountain top looking at that, having breakfast. You just think, wow, you know, you can see a real energy about the world.

Emma: So a friend of mine Anna Martha, she's a psychotherapist. She taught me this. She said that basically we need three mind meals a day, she calls it. So we need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We basically need three periods in the day where we're doing something just for us or just for our minds. So essentially, a 20-minute sit in the garden, a cup of tea, 10 minutes sitting on a yoga mat and just staring into space, like whatever it is. 

She really encourages these mini breaks in the day and that's something I really, really stick by. Because I think the overwhelm comes when we don't have any space to think. And I really believe that wellbeing is about capacity. It's about factoring in times in the day where you can just breathe. And it does give you that stamina to keep going, I think.

A rock on a hillside en route to the viewpoint from which he'd been watching the same pair of eagles for eight years. It became such a ritual, he even gave the rock a name.

Hamza: Now we're coming up to my friend Rocky, and there's a special tradition that you've got to do with Rocky. You've always got to greet him, say hello, and give him two taps with the walking stick. And to anyone else, they would probably think I've lost my marbles by this point, but this is the moment where I always used to take a break. And here he is.

What up Rocky? How you doing big man? Hope you're well. This is the infamous Rocky. That's the rock that I send postcards to from Antarctica and six months later the postcard arrives and I actually come up and read it to it. This particular rock is when, as I'm coming up the hill trying to film those eagles, I'll always find myself stopping here taking a breath and I realized, this is where I'm doing it. So I've named the rock Rocky, but it actually became a moment where you kind of do a little bit of meditation or you're having a tough day you go for a walk. 

Where do I go to? I found myself coming up here all the time because I love the eagles but before I even get to the Eagles in the winter time I stop off at Rocky. You've got this amazing view looking over to mole and down the Sound of Mull and it became kind of my quiet spot. Just sit, enjoy life and an eagle happens to go past. 

So there's a little reminder from a few of our guests to carve some time out of your day for nature, for stillness and for yourself.