I am often very curious about people's ways of mental relaxation. Each individual understands himself better than anyone else, and also each person will have different ways that work for him or her. I love hearing how people often use themselves to relax, even though those ways may not work for me. However, these sharing will help me better understand the importance of mental health in life and I will also be able to find the way that works best for me. What I and many people have in common when it comes to mental health care is probably me and they all started with hobbies. For example, I use sports to relieve stress, and if I want to relax, I like to go for a walk in a quiet place with lots of trees. It brings so many benefits to my body and my mind, I feel really relaxed and no longer worry about the past or the future.
One afternoon of the rainy season (October-December) in Da Nang, it rained erratically in batches and small areas throughout the day, while I was still working in the early afternoon, the sun had already begun to shine. slightly. When I finished work at 4 p.m., the sky wasn't much better than it was in the morning, especially the big grey clouds near the mountains. I didn't want to go home again, even though it was a lot more cozy than my stubborn desire to go to the mountains. But suddenly I thought differently, if I want to relax and get more positive energy after a stressful working week, I need a quiet place without noise and disturbance. A place in the mountains although normally a lot of people go there for sightseeing and camping, but they wouldn't go there on a bad and rainy day like this. This is my chance to monopolize that place. I chose Da Den beach on Son Tra peninsula, an ideal place with wild colors. The road up there is only allowed for motorbikes because the road is steep and narrow, many bends have poor visibility. At the top of the slope there will be a Covid control checkpoint and I will need to make a medical declaration with a QR code to get up the mountain. That day, due to the cloudy weather, the whole way I only encountered a few people photographing rare langurs, there were no visitors. Sometimes I stopped, parked my motorbike on the side of the road and strolled to see the beauty of the mountains, the fruits and the city by the sea. Left worries, work behind and immersed myself closely to the nature where I am.
When going to Da Den beach, there will be a single household managing the beach and forest in that area. This is also a parking spot, providing water for drinking, hand washing and toilets. Starting from here, I can only walk down to the sea, as I expected there were no cars or visitors. I excitedly followed the trail down. The road to the sea is quite short, only about 300m, when I arrived, I was quite surprised when the view of the lawn was green and very clean. The previous times I came, there were always people and garbage, the grass was trampled, so it was not as green as it is now. The scene appeared with green lawn, next to the most beautiful beach by the sea of the peninsula. When I looked around, I also saw a homemade hammock made of ropes and a log tied on a casuarina tree that looked quite romantic when swaying to admire the scenery. I walk around and enjoy the natural scenery that has been revived due to the impact of the prolonged covid epidemic that restricts tourism activities. That day the sea was quite turbid due to the water from the small rivers pouring into the sea after heavy rains. But in return, the waves are quite big, pounding continuously on the rocks that are worn by the sea and wind, leaving the rocks full of shapes a bit like coral. If it was sunny that day and the sea was clear, the beauty would be complete.
There was only one wooden chair there, so I chose the flattest lawn to sit down and relax. In order for bare feet to be in contact with nature, massage the soles of the feet as an effective folk remedy. Floating the thoughts in my head along the cloudy horizon, sometimes there are flocks of birds that are probably on their way home, which makes me quite emotional. That beauty probably comes from their wild, unbridled freedom.
While I was sitting there thinking about it, I heard a noise behind me. Turning to see a yellow dog looking at me, he looked at me and came closer and let me pet him. He looked like he was happy because he was surrounded by company when he was in a large deserted place every day. Perhaps living comfortably and freely roaming the forest like that is the happiest dog. It doesn't own any cages, food plates, and is not taken by the owner to shoot Tiktok, so it lives very leisurely. He sat next to me and looked at the same direction towards the sea. It looked like the two men were thinking far away about something of their own. Sitting for a while, I walked over to the homemade hammock swinging like a child, while the dog found a small, flat rock to sit and watch the scenery. I watched the dog for a long time feeling its loneliness and sadness. Or is it a reflection of my mind?
I came closer and sat next to the little dog to take a few pictures and then I had to say goodbye and go home because it was starting to get dark fast and I would take advantage of stopping by when tourism had not returned as usual.
Walking in the forest is the most effective way to take care of my mental and physical life. How about you?
