Green Hill - heART Journey's journal page

 Long before research has proven the effect that our environment has on our wellbeing, our Father in Heaven has provided us with an antidote to our stress filled lives....Nature.  He created a nurturing environment that has the potential to fill our mind and body with peace.  

"Research reveals that environments can increase or reduce our stress, which in turn impacts our bodies. What you are seeing, hearing, experiencing at any moment is changing not only your mood, but how your nervous system, endocrine, and immune systems are working.

The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause you to feel anxious, or sad, or helpless. This in turn elevates your blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension and suppresses your immune system. A pleasing environment reverses that."¹

And as we look into the scriptures we see that our Savior, Jesus Christ, would depart for the hills to pray, or take time to be on the water.

This journal page, Green Hills, is a reminder of how grateful I am for the beautiful nature I have around me to experience.  On the back of this project I will write what I experience as I take my walks, or spend a few minutes soaking up the sun.  I will use it as a prompt to create a healthy environment for myself each day and to express more gratitude for this beautiful world God has given us. 

*** In this time - lapse video I demonstrate how I created this mixed media piece.  

The focal point is the statement:  "Find a reason to smile."

The sky is created with Distress Inks to create the color, and a white Gelly Roll pen forms the clouds.

The hills are created from the torn edges of the papers and the added detailing is done with a permanent pen.   

I imagined these hills to be covered in green grass with flowers scattered about.  

Isaiah 55:12.  For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.

Micha 4:1.  But in the last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

^Notes:

^{1.   University of Minnesota, Taking Care of Your Health and Wellbeing.  How does nature impact our wellbeing?"    https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing#:~:text=Exposure%20to%20nature%20not%20only,health%20researchers%20Stamatakis%20and%20Mitchell.}