Greetings food and nature lovers. Today I decided to share something other than food. Though I have a few delicious recipes lined up, I thought it was time for something different.

So in this post, I want to share a little bit about my life, the place I live, and the importance of having good friends to hang out with in nature.

Not so long ago 3 of my best friends, my hubby, and myself went to Omal waterfall | ទឹកធ្លាក់ឱម៉ាល់ in Kampot, Cambodia. A stunning place close to home, yet a good hike away so that you have the feeling of being somewhere completely different.

To get to the waterfall you have to travel along the ridge of a small concrete/dirt road through banana plantations and lush green jungle. If you are lazy you can take your motorbike up, though for the inexperienced driver this might end up in a catastrophe.

The little road going up is very narrow, muddy, and broken almost all the way up. It is incredible how these plantation workers manage to drive their bikes loaded with bananas on their back downhill… scary stuff. Next time I will take a picture of this… it seems I forgot it this time. Very impressive driving.

We, however, always prefer to do the hike. It’s about 4-5km and going up takes us about 1h15min. Going down goes a little faster.

We left early in the morning and spent the whole day up there. Next to the main waterfall, you have smaller cascades and a beautiful thick jungle surrounding all of this. Because we are in the middle of the rainy season there was a lot of water everywhere. This time it was even impossible for me to swim up to the main, big waterfall as the current was too strong.

For the five of us (and my friend's 2 puppies), this little getaway in nature was just what we needed after a few busy weeks.

Nothing better to unwind and relax than good friends and nature. And the best part, since it was a weekday we went, we had the place all to ourselves.

We had such an amazing day that we decided that in a week or two we are going back with our camping gear and staying up there for a night or two… we all agreed that we need to spend more time together and get some more of the very addicting VITAMIN NATURE.

VITAMIN NATURE - WHY YOU SHOULD GET MORE OF IT

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Research shows that spending more time in nature is good for our health and happiness.

Our environment directly impacts our bodies and mind. It can either create stress or reduce stress. But not only does our environment plays a key role in our mood, but it also plays a vital role in how our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are working.

Being in an unpleasant environment surrounded by stressful, unkind people can make us feel anxious, sad, helpless, and depressed. Negative emotions like these can suppress our immune system and tend to raise our blood pressure, heart rate, the production of stress hormones, and muscle tension which can have severe negative side effects on our overall health and well-being. On contrary, surrounding yourself with kind, loving people in a pleasing environment - such as being in nature - can reverse all these negative effects.

In the past decades, our lives have gotten busier and we tend to spend less time outdoors. We are consumed by a world dominated by screens - our computer at work, a console or computer to play video games at home, TV, the screen of our phone to feed our ever-growing social media hunger and the feeling that we have to be connected all the time.

According to multiple studies, nature deprivation and too much screen time has been associated with not only depression, loss of empathy, lack of altruism, and isolation but also with an increased risk of death.

NATURE HEALS - SOOTHES - RESTORES - CONNECTS

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Nature can help us to find inner peace by reducing stress, anger, and anxiety while boosting our immune system, and increasing our happy hormones and happy feelings.

Nature can help us cope with the pain and discomforts life throws at us.

Nature helps us to be calmer and balanced which impacts our overall well-being, both mentally and physically.

Nature also enables us to find a better connection, and we are not talking WIFI here! According to a series of field studies conducted by researchers at the Human-Environment Research Lab, time spent in nature connects us and our environment making us better, less stressed, and kinder people.

So to me, it’s clear…. We need to get out more often and surround ourselves with positive people.

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NOTE: all pictures are from our recent trip to the waterfall!

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WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTHY DAY ღ ღ ღ

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PICTURE(s) TAKEN WITH GOOGLE PIXEL 3 XL

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