Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
Over the past couple of days I've been reflecting on things that I've learned since the passing of my dear beloved old dog and today is one of the incredible realizations I had.
I say incredible realizations,
I want to manage your expectations.
It was incredible to me but it's kind of obvious too so let me explain more.
On the day that we put our dear dog to sleep my husband and I very understandably were very wobbly and very tearful.
We loved that dog so much and one of the things that I realized is that sitting around the house was not what was needed and we soon realized that we just wanted to get in a car and drive somewhere and go for a walk and we went down to the the seaside,
Went down to a place called Bigbury where it's just beautiful.
There's a river comes and meets the ocean and it's blue,
Blue sea and it was a bit windy,
The sun was shining and there's lots of wildflower meadows around the area and the butterflies were just so plentiful flitting across our path as we walked down beside the river and up some fields and then look down towards the sea itself.
It was a very beautiful walk and I noticed that as I walked I felt my sense of grounding return.
It was incredible.
It was such a contrast from the wobbliness I felt when I was sitting at home to the groundedness I felt as I walked.
There was something in the act of walking that felt so nurturing.
Now I didn't really think much more of it that day until later on in the evening we were willing the time to come for us to go to bed because we were so mentally exhausted and it was still fairly early in the evening and we looked at each other and said let's go for another walk and so together we got in the car again and came out for a walk and in fact I'm very close to where we were walking then as I sit on the moorland today on a granite boulder and as we walked again once again we just felt our mind settle,
That sense of peace arise within us,
That noticing of the strength of the sureness of who we truly are became more present.
It was always present,
Always there beneath the storm of thoughts that had been crowding in and the sadness that had been crowding in is that the act of walking seemed to deeply nourish me and allow me to reconnect and feel and experience that sense of grounding again and for me this has been a real blessing.
I mean I love walking as you know I take you out every day with five minutes in nature,
Walking and being outside is just an absolute integral part of my life but I think what I really got yesterday,
One of the gifts,
The many gifts my dear old dog has given me is one of his last gifts maybe is this realization of walking.
When you feel sad or you feel lost or you feel discombobulated or unsettled or insecure just try walking.
There is something about the act of walking it seems to slow down your mind,
It allows you to breathe deeply and regularly,
There's a rhythm to walking that is meditative.
Walking is a beautiful gift and I realized that so deeply from that time when I absolutely needed walking but hadn't realized how powerful it would be as a settler,
As a place for me to settle.
And I want you to be really clear I'm not talking about going for a walk and squashing or getting rid of feelings,
That's not what I'm talking about at all.
I absolutely know the healthiness of feeling feelings and just allowing them and there is something though about getting in touch with that groundedness,
That rock solidness within me that means as those feelings rush by I can really feel myself rooted in the ground,
Really feel myself rooted and settled and connected.
So today is just a reminder of the power of walking and just a little question,
Do you go walking enough and maybe is it time for you to integrate walking into your life?
