Spending outdoor time with and for friends
When my sister was diagnosed at the end of last year, one of the first things she did was to reach out to her friends. She noticed that some people have the ability to provide her with positivity and empathy that give her strengths and encouragement to climb the mountain of challenges and fears that was in front of her.
So she created a WhatsApp group with 7 friends to share how she feels and her thoughts and news before and after important doctor appointments. The result was a group of people who live miles apart that came together to find ways to motivate her from a distance. People who don’t really know each other but all know her.
As doctors and researchers recommended to her to have as much outdoor time as possible and natural vitamin D, we have all started to collect “sunshine hours”. Every weekend we would make an extra effort and all go out and take pictures or videos from our day outdoors and share them in the group. It was so uplifting and encouraging, not only for my friend who is fighting for health but it also motivated friends of friends to go outside and share a picture or video as a token to say “hi, I am here with you and for you”.
After the first weekend we have counted the total number of hours on a simple spreadsheet. 20 hours. And we thought it would be amazing to spend these hours together one day. And it would be even better if we could collect even more hours. So we set ourselves a goal for 100 hours. And we created a sunrise template to make it visual.
The following weekend we added more hours and a destination. Where could we go in 100 hours? So we calculated the distance to one of her favourite places, a beautiful island where she spent a lot of holidays over the years and she would love to go back. Which is why it plays an important role in her journey of getting better. And the next destination goals and hours are yet to come.
Your story and example could be very different. You might be looking forward to seeing your friend, soul mate, sibling, parents or your grandparents again and collecting sunshine hours for them and with them.
We would love to know and hear your story and perhaps we can help you achieve your goal.
@andoleasan
📷 @robjbye
