“Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of lies you try to run your life and manipulate others. But the fortress needs walls, so you build some. These are the justifications for your lies. You know, like you are doing this to protect someone you love, to keep them from feeling pain. Whatever works, just so you feel okay about the lies.” ~William Paul Young

Many of us have learned to wear a fake psychological mask to show others that we are something that we actually are not, lying about ourselves and doing our best to convince others of our false persona. This, however, causes tremendous pain and suffering to us, because constant lying is only helping us to feel stressed from constantly suppressing ourselves, which prevents us from living a life of peace and tranquility.

“All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind.” ~John Lubbock

Nature can be a powerful healing force for all of us, only if we realize it and harness it for our own benefit. According to recent scientific studies, spending time in nature can help boost our energy, happiness, creativity, memory and even self-esteem. Unfortunately, most people in the Western world spend most of their time sitting inside a building, and they rarely go in the countryside to enjoy nature and receive all of the amazing physical and psychological benefits it has to offer.

Here are some recent research findings from scientific studies that prove the healthy benefits spending time in nature can have to your mind:

Nature can increase your energy and happiness

“All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” ~Pablo Picasso

There was a period in my life, many years ago, when I was utterly unhappy. I was feeling a burden deep within me that did not allow me to enjoy myself. I had become too much of an introvert, my relationships with other people were falling apart, and I didn’t enjoy doing anything–except for painting.

One of those gloomy days, I found myself locked in my bedroom, painting on a canvas with my brushes and colors for many hours non-stop. Whatever my psyche ordered me to paint, I painted, with no conscious effort. The unconscious had possessed me, so to speak, and I was flowing with it.

Suddenly, I felt the desire to stop painting, and I did. And when I did, I felt a great relief, as if I had released all the burden that was inside me. At that time I experienced immense joy and I could sense myself wearing a big smile on my face.

Most of us can become very easily offended by what others say or think about ourselves. We count on the opinions of others so much that whenever one says something that we don’t like about ourselves, we take it so personally that creates within us many negative emotions such as anger or sadness. There are reasons why this happens, and here you will learn a few basic tips on how to stop being so easily offended.

Accept yourself as you are.

The main reason why most of us get offended very easily is that we don’t accept ourselves as we are. For various reasons, who don’t like who we are and want the constant reassurance from others that we are good and nice. This always make us base our view about ourselves on the opinions of others, and this causes huge psychological trouble to us. Some people might not like us or criticize us by pointing things about us (whether true or not) that we don’t like hearing and hence as a reaction we get offended and disappointed.

“Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live.”

"We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities; we are eaten up by nothing.”

“Nobody can save you but yourself and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning then this is it.”

Many years ago, a well known book critic in San Francisco, California, named Stephen Kessler uttered the following words about Charles Bukowski: “Without trying to make himself look good, much less heroic, Bukowski writes with a nothing-to-lose truthfulness which sets him apart from most other ‘autobiographical’ novelists and poets. Firmly in the American tradition of the maverick, Bukowski writes with no apologies from the frayed edge of society.”