…but what if you can’t?
Walking has always been my go to form of exercise.
Since I was a kid I have always loved walking.
And – coming from the English countryside – it was nearly always walking in nature.
In Australia I love bushwalking (not ridiculously hard walks, just literally walks in the bush).
Although we have done a few ‘Bridge to Brisbane’ city walks in our time including when it used to be 12kms (now it’s usually 10kms).
There’s even a photo of me on Google Maps pumping it around our suburb…
Gosh I was fit then!
In fact I was the fittest I’ve ever been when I turned 50.
Not long after this though, I started to develop pain in my ankles.
It was when we were walking in Carnarvon Gorge in 2017, that I knew something was really wrong.
By the end of an 11km walk I was practically dragging my right foot.
Still I didn’t do anything about it until 2019 when we were walking with family in Noosa National Park, and I realised I couldn’t make it back to our accommodation.
A month or so later, I was diagnosed with Osteoarthritis in both ankles.
The advice was to keep moving.
And I did, as much as I could, for as long as I could.
Until I couldn’t.
Christmas shopping… 2022.
I was hissed at, tutted at, nearly run over by a push-chair and overheard one woman saying loudly to her mother “and you thought you were slow Mum.”
Understandably, I ended up in tears and didn’t want to go near a shopping centre (or people) ever again.
(Please let me stay home, meditate, practise mindfulness by looking at the trees, and listening to the birds… )
I was now qualified as a meditation teacher, and my path in this role was just beginning…
Along with my journey with surgery…!
Somewhere in this journey, I came across an article in the New York Times: Whatever the Problem, It’s Probably Solved by Walking.
I can’t share it with you because it’s now behind a paywall… but I did find this copy.
The title pretty much explains the gist of it…
How we can benefit, even a little, by taking a walk.
It clears your mind and gives you time to really think.
It has many health benefits, is free and lifts your mood.
The article has some great quotes in it too:
“Walking is man’s best medicine… If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk,” – Hippocrates.
“There is something about walking that animates and activates my ideas,” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
As the author, Andrew McCarthy writes:
“Even the resolutely pessimistic Friedrich Nietzsche had to give it up for a good saunter when he allowed, ‘All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking’.”
But again I ask, what if you can’t?
I was in a wheelchair for a number of months… so Michael would push me along any flat trails we could do.
Being outside, hearing the birds… feeling the sun on my skin…
Just being able to sit on the patio and look at the trees made me feel better.
My first few steps/walk after the inital operation was in a local park.
It felt fabulous.
But then the pain returned.
The walking was limited.
There was more surgery.
Then put that on repeat again!
When I was able to walk (slowly) in between surgeries, I had to navigate carefully around people who didn’t see a disability.
It was hard.
McCarthy goes on to write:
“Has anyone ever emerged from ambling through nature for an hour and regretted their improved state of being?”
And I think this is the key.
Forget the ambling bit.
If you can’t walk, forget the walking bit.
They key… is being in nature.
Breathing it in…
Using whatever senses you can to look or listen or feel.
I’m one of the very lucky ones.
I am now walking again – up to half an hour a day – on a flat path around our home.
Not without pain completely.
Not perfectly.
But walking nonetheless.
I recently started introducing a few trips up and down our (very steep) driveway.
I’ve also managed a few bushwalks here and there.
And I’m so grateful for this.
But I have a very different perspective now.
The assumption eveyone can, and should walk, is ignoring the fact that many people can’t…
For whatever reason.
Or it’s stressful, which defeats the object.
The other side of this is of course – is the number of people who are walking – but are plugged into their phones.
What a waste.
They have no idea what they are missing!
Stop…
Unplug…
And breathe…
We can all do that.
Whatever the problem, it’s probably solved by being in (and breathing in) nature.
Ann 🙏