Category: wellness mental health nature walking

Why Sitting is not Good for Us. (Part 2)

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We are busier than ever and there is a general belief that we should pause, be still and slow down to not get overwhelmed, stressed or burnt out. But what does good quality stillness look like, given the research that tells us we should be moving more? Stillness doesn’t necessarily have to equate to the silence of the body, but stillness within our mind. We can walk, move, breathe more and still experience a quietness of the soul.

You have probably heard of the expression the busy but sedentary lifestyle. I typically have fallen into this category with my life and its demands. However, it is sobering to look at the data to see why sitting at our desks, or in front of the TV after a hard day at work is killing us.

 Here are some facts:

These are quoted from reference one at the beginning of Mel Robbins’ Podcast featured on YouTube.

A study of 800 people found that you had a higher risk of the following for people who sat the most.

A 112% increased risk of diabetes.

A 147 % increased risk of heart disease.

A 90% increased risk of death caused by heart disease.

An overall increased risk of death by 50%

It is also stated that there appears to be a direct link between sitting and our ability to cope with stress and burnout. When we move a whole cascade of chemical reactions occur that benefits us both mentally as well as physically.

What I do to move more and the challenges I have faced:

Getting up in the morning:

I drink a glass of water first thing and get out of bed as soon as possible, even if I return to it, and I mostly do if it’s early. I’m not great with morning exercise, often skipping it but when I go downstairs (We have a house with three flights of stairs which is good.) I do 10 minutes on my ankle peddle machine. The knee rotation of a cycle action is the best thing for my arthritic knees. I do this every day.

Workday:

This has been a game changer for me, not just in performance planning lessons and my working week productivity but also in being able to move more.

I always thought setting timers for work seemed quite rigid and almost obsessive but they work brilliantly for me. I set my phone alarm every half an hour when I lesson plan. It helps me settle and focus on the task at hand, then the alarm goes off and I stop, pause, take my weights and stretch. I look out of the window, soak up the view in the distance and walk up and down the room for a couple of minutes. Then I return for another work session. I do this every 30 minutes for a total of 90, then have a tea break. I then return for another 90 minutes of work, repeating the routine, before stopping for a longer break. This is the best way I have found to get exercise incorporated within my working day and it’s quick and easy to do and crucially I do it!

In the Kitchen:

Making tea, I just move, my knees and hips usually, to loosen them up, often with some sidewalks or kickbacks while the kettle is on. I do some hip rotations and abdo pull-up’s, good for us post-menopausal ladies and a weakened pelvic floor. This is good for my back. I do this whilst waiting for the kettle to boil.

Watching TV:

I just remember to intentionally get up, move, and stand even when I’m watching a programme, or get a drink but just move for a few seconds.

Meal prep:

I have no dishwasher. I have longed for a dishwasher for decades, but since recently having a new kitchen, I now enjoy washing up with a bigger sink and see the benefits of it. We need to return to some manual tasks if we can, rather than every device doing it for us. I don’t have Alexa, another AI gadget that is making everyone not even throw the lights switches on. This is not good for us.

Standing desk;

I don’t have a standing desk because of my back problems. I find standing in one spot difficult for me and personally think standing for long periods isn’t necessarily good either. It’s not certainly not good for anyone with varicose veins as I’m also a past example of that. However, I will leave a link in the references below if you think it might work for you, as I have read there are benefits to standing whilst working. This source has some new information for me to reconsider.

Housework:

 I would love a cleaner if I could afford one. I took a cleaning job to help ends meet once in a school. It nearly killed my joints. The massive hoovering alone saw my back in two after three days and a trip to the chiropractor. I managed this job for three months. So now I do small amounts of housework, but realise getting a cleaner at 60 years of age is not a good idea. It’s that balance of letting age not get the better of you, as well as being realistic about what you can do whilst staying active. Housework helps us with strength and resistance exercise, something we must have if we are older as muscle mass becomes less and we are more prone to falling. Balance is also key to not falling. I stand on one leg regularly if I do some yoga practice.

Gardening:

I wish I could do this more. Weeding, bending and digging kills my back and knees but I do small amounts and sit on a stool, rather than kneel. We have a small manageable garden here at home. There is a whole stack of research as to why gardening is good for us and on the list of social prescribing activities from GP surgeries to benefit our physical and mental well-being. I will leave a link in the reference list below.

Walking:

This is what I can do the best. I can’t swim (water phobia) and can walk for up to an hour comfortably. I am better when I can stop, rest, and then carry on. I have a lovely walking friend who is aware of my needs, and we walk for just the amount of time for me. She hasn’t said anything but I’m aware of this and am grateful she still hangs out with me as her walking buddy. The above photo was taken last week when walking was incorporated into looking after my grandson. You will see my husband with a pushchair in the distance.

Built-in routines:

I have started Pilates on a Monday night for one hour at a local centre. If I have built in an activity during my day I have paid or committed to go to I will do it. Saying I will do some exercise in my bedroom usually means I won’t do it. I’ve just completed my third weekly session. I can’t do all of the exercises, adapting where I need to.I am shocked at how rigid and inflexible I really am, as someone who has been active and relatively fit all her life. I hope to improve and after the third session (this Monday) felt I had slightly.

Smartwatch :

A friend commenting on last week’s post mentioned he uses a smartwatch as an alarm set to get moving. I don’t have one but maybe it should be on my present list. Have a look here and see what you think.

So these are my thoughts and conclusions so far. This is a big topic which I’m sure I will return to. Hope it has been helpful and thought-provoking as to how much you sit and what you might like to do to change that, given the science available to us so far. I’m sure this is going to become a much ‘hotter’ topic in the future as more evidence emerges as to how long periods of sitting is detrimental to us.

Next week, I want to turn my attention to the subject of sleeping.

Until next time, take care…..

References;

Mel Robbins Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyIboe6YzjU&t=369s

Why gardening is good for us at https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/health-and-wellbeing/articles/why-gardening-makes-us-feel-better

Is sitting is the new smoking? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6187798/ This is a critical look at the evidence. The conclusion from this paper is that the two carry very different risks, and while sitting for longer periods is detrimental, it can’t be compared in the same way as the dangerous effects of smoking.

I hope I have given you some food for thought.

Getting Back on my Feet Again

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 I have been participating in a deep journaling exercise with writer Beth Kempton running over 36 days. With one question prompt a day, it explores impermanence, transition, loss and some big life questions. Simultaneously, over the weekend, I went on my first-ever barge retreat for the day and met four lovely ladies all escaping the pressures of the world and the pressures placed upon themselves. It was a gorgeous experience and one which shall be mentioned again, in connection with another post. I had never done anything like this before.

Time:

One of the questions in Beth’s journaling prompts was what is your relationship with time? The subject is worthy of a whole post, so for now, I will mention it briefly. The subject has been a focal conversation point in our household over the past three weeks. I felt my relationship with time was healthy. Now, I am beginning to wonder if this is truly the case.

Emerging Order:

The internet was finally restored only last Monday. It was an outside junction problem and order finally resumed in my life. I had thought about the subject of this week’s post and various subjects were swirling around and no one subject was settling. I was still in a deeply unsettled state of mind and finding focus again was hard.

Surprise:

To my surprise, my husband announced I had a ‘wobble’ last week. He had noticed it and said it was subtle. The way I speak and act changes. When I questioned him more, he said it was hard to describe. This was a surprise to me as I knew I felt under pressure but hadn’t noticed anything so very different to how I normally am. The month of September had certainly felt like a month of muddle when I was supposed to have had a break from work and ready to go back refreshed.

I am mentioning this only to say I think when you have experienced depression and anxiety in the past, little blips can occur. This doesn’t mean you can’t function and do well in your career and most people won’t notice. You can put on a good front and hide behind a curtain of competence and confidence but people closest to you notice, and it’s good to be reminded that maybe, it’s time to take stock. You aren’t invincible.

Control:

I suppose this highlights my need for certainty, of control and that fear and panic can quickly take over when things don’t go the way I had planned them. I have talked to my daughter about this, and several positive things have resulted because of the last three weeks.

  1. 1)I have a new working week routine with a strict boundary around other times. This includes boundaries around people.
  3. 2) The calendar for October and November is to stay largely blank.
  5. 3) Free Friday is being created. This is my time and my new day off. I choose what I do and with whom, or just on my own, leaving weekends for family etc.
  7. 4 ) I now largely use voice messaging on Facebook and Whats App. It’s more time efficient and saves typing text to message/ reply to friends and contacts.
  9. 5) What we eat here is now on the top of the list as far as time is concerned, not an afterthought. My boat day facilitated by an ex-Bali restaurant owner taught me that what we put into our bodies should be a top priority and not way down the list of to-do’s after work. There will be a dedicated time to meal plan at the end of each week, ready for the next.
  11. 6) I intend to enjoy the autumn and create more pause just to appreciate this change in the season. Observations and how noticing that the field from my bedroom window seems more brown than in August appear to be sharper. I plan to have a solo photography day with my Fuji bridge camera rather than just snapping from my phone.

Walking again:

I’m only just getting back into walking. It had largely stopped. You might think that previously, I had carved out significant amounts of time for this, and take myself off to new trails and locations each week. However, this is where my authenticity comes into play. I don’t lead a charmed life, where any reader might feel that creating a walking and writing life is hard to achieve. I am just an ordinary woman leading a life like many of us do with struggles and challenges with limited time and disposable income. I feel this is my blog’s strength in being this example.

Most of my walks are just snatches in time and taken within a couple of miles from where I live. There is nothing glamorous about it or showcasing weekly beautiful settings and numerous holidays. My writing is five to ten minutes at night before bed, such as the recent journaling exercises, or in the morning when I write these posts. And yes, they have been a challenge to do but one which helps me make sense of my world and hope it might resonate with you.

I have a lot of new subjects to talk about from these recent experiences. I am off to York tomorrow for a short break as there was no summer holiday this year. I hope to be inspired and see what next week’s post will bring your way.

Do take care and until next time…..

Walking Alongside the Unexpected

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Saturday 7th September

I am currently sitting at my neighbour’s kitchen table typing this out. The internet at home is ‘down’ again, despite a new router and an engineer from OpenReach coming out two days ago. I am using this window of opportunity so there is a post to send hopefully on time, having got essential work done first.

Two weeks ago, my new term of work was all worked out. I had a new way of dividing my hours between work and leisure time. I was setting new boundaries and permitting myself to take more care of myself. I had finished a book on mental resilience and was soon put to the test.

I intended to walk first thing in the morning (15-30 mins) and devote the first hour of my day where I didn’t look at anything online, starting work, emails, or jumping onto social media to answer messages. My priority was to have the first one hour for myself, then work would naturally follow on, having had a good start to my day.

 Since then, all the best-paid plans have been thrown out of the window. This was supposed to be my fresh approach to autumn, feeling recharged after the summer break and ready to go. I try hard to look after myself but this morning my brain was fried and overwhelmed.

There is a grumbling health problem going on. It might be something; it might be nothing. I managed to go to work last week and connect with a fellow teacher as promised. The student numbers were down but that is understandable given I have just had the summer off and people were still on leave themselves. It felt good to be back.

Being self-employed you get paid by results and how much value you give. There is no paid sick leave or annual leave. That comes with the territory. If you don’t work then you don’t get paid-simple. On Friday afternoon, my default place was the local book shop and I headed straight to the nature and walking session.

I am taking tomorrow off as it’s a Sunday and my aim is to do a good job on Monday. I have learnt over the past couple of years that sometimes you have to take one day at a time. My writing here is not to provide answers, or to give words of wisdom but say how it feels. Ultimately, I am writing to say that sometimes all the best-laid plans frazzle and I wasn’t expecting to feel as ‘rubbish’ as I do with lesson plans swirling around in my head.

Nothing feels even and settled yet, and stress is running high, but my walks and writing here will help me come out the other side. On social media (through my phone data) I see other people relaxing on holidays, and weekends away and saying to myself I need more of this too. It’s hard not to feel what if…….

Monday update:

 I managed to tune into a live writing group session on Saturday evening and that was very helpful in restoring a calmer mind. Unexpectedly, my home WiFi fired into life late that night. Sunday morning arrived and I had the final missing piece (an idea for an activity for my Monday class) and got straight back on it. By 09.00 I could finally park what I needed to do and my day off was good. In the shower, a revised website design and offer which I had been mulling over dawned on me.

Looking back from all of this, I realise that despite all the disruption and what felt like chaos something else was being born.  The teacher I had spoken to earlier in the week was creating something good to support other new TEFL teachers, post-conversation, and I could be part of that. It was becoming clearer how all my strands of work could be put into one hat.

Finally, our walks through life can be little more than staggers sometimes. It certainly has felt like that these past 10 days, with both a working laptop and the internet crashing out within 24 hours of one another. There are no neat pathways. The weeds grow and try to strangle you as challenges rise out of the ground and I haven’t figured out how I could have done anything differently. You can’t just stop when there are deadlines but only navigate the difficulties the best way you can with alternative solutions.

And yes, I had thought of retiring, taking a bag and walking shoes and setting off with no fixed destination. That isn’t an option though. I do have a break planned at the end of September.

Wednesday Morning.

It was important to me to get this post out somehow as a blog’s life needs consistency. However, I still feel very up and down and have a tight week’s schedule ahead to get back on track. Therefore, I am giving myself some slack and will return in two weeks and hopefully with a less stressed out and tired mind to write something that will be useful and engaging.

Until then……….

Rest and Reading- reasons to choose a book

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Continuing my theme of rest and leisure, I mentioned at the start of my holiday my re-reading of the book ‘The Art of Rest’ by Claudia Hammond. In my walk this week, I wish to write about the why we read, which scored the highest in the 10 activities outlined in this book regarding relaxation.

Firstly,I would like to ask a question.

If you are a reader, why do you read?

If you don’t read, why don’t you?

Why do I read?

Here are my thoughts about the benefits of reading, expressed as a poem that explores both fiction and non-fiction texts.

                                                                  Rest, Read and Reason

How many worlds do we find in books?

The plot lines, people, timelines and hooks,

Into the many minds of

Storytellers

Scholars

Saviours and

Shepherds

guiding us through their words of wisdom or wonder

as we pour into the pages

Forgetting

Loosening

Pausing through life

and all its strive.

How many times do we turn a page

The content, chapters, lines to gaze

Into the many covers of

Emerging

Evolving

Enlightening and

Enriching

guiding us through their journey of either fact or fiction.

As we pour into the pages

Searching

Hoping

asking for more,

as we walk through their door.

Opening the passageway to

Knowledge

Imagination

and freedom of expression.

Knowing there are no limits to where we might go,

on venture and voyage

of discovery and delight.

Tales in paper binding formed

and weaved together to create

a tapestry called life and living

that can never be hidden.

Spilling consciousness on to the page

of hopes, ideas and art.

A canvas of paper

In black and white

yet revealing all its colours.

To read captures all of this

No wonder many people love its bliss.

@Helen Marshall August 2024

To pick up a book is good for us:

There are a whole host of studies as to the many benefits of reading. Here is just one which you could read.

.The evidence is clear that reading is good for our emotional and physical health.

When do we like to read?

For me, I find it easier to read at night and unwind before sleep. In the mornings, I like to listen to music and prefer to write or work on my lesson planning. Reading at the end of the day, when the work is done, is psychologically good for me, and is a relaxing reward for the day’s activities and commitments.

How many books do we buy and is it increasing?

Having explored some data on this, it appears we bought more books during the COVID lock-down have been exploring different types of books and ways to read. In ‘The Art of Rest’ the author cites that in 2018, in the UK, there were 1.6 billion book sales.Take a look at these statistics if you enjoy numbers on the growth of book purchases, including reading in digital format.

However, the way we read appears to be changing as we purchase more e-books and listen to audio books. Reading demands a high level of cognitive function and I’m wondering if the same brain work is required for listening to audio books. I am curious to do some more research to see if there is any cognitive difference.

As we journey through books, how is it different to other forms of leisure like social media or TV?

At a bookshop, library or shopping online book stores, we choose our book with an intention. Even if we browse the shelves, we are often looking for something specific. This is very different to scrolling for news to read on our phones or glancing through the TV guide. We enter a world of our choosing or because we are intrigued by what lies behind the pages. Reading helps us focus and increases our attention span while social media can do the opposite.

Finally:

Social media had led me away from physical books but now I’m embracing them again with renewed vigour. I have tried a Kindle and even an audio book, but nothing compares to the smell of fresh, crisp paper, a book cover and pages to dip into. I tend to read more non-fiction books, but recognise the value in being transported into another world with a great story. I would like to read more fiction, not just for increased creative writing skills but solely for pure pleasure.

I hope you too can be persuaded to give reading a closer look if your gaze has been elsewhere.

Until next week…..

Photography is from my walk this week at Castle Rising, Norfolk on the old road by the chalk river. It was a perfect hot, sunny day with the clearest of blue skies and the sheep were shading themselves from the sun within the cooling trees. It is one of my favourite walking places.

So Near and Yet So Far

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Footsteps Conversations
Footsteps Conversations
So Near and Yet So Far
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“Failure is success in progress.”

Albert Einstein

A definition of the word failure from the Cambridge Online Dictionary:

“The fact of someone or something not succeeding.”

A personal perspective of re-framing the word/feeling as a result of not succeeding in a set goal or task.

As I walked with this word these are the thoughts that came to mind in the light of my own experiences:

The opportunity to do things differently.

A result from which I can learn and grow from.

The choice/chance to take another direction.

Success is just around the corner.

Something better is going to come to you.

To evaluate what I should/could be doing differently.

The wake-up call to not keep pushing the wrong door open.

The chance to pause, be still and think about what I should be doing next.

A stepping stone from which I can propel forward.

An acknowledgement that I did my best but this is not for me and that’s OK.

A loss before a win.

Putting a slide- rule over a decision and taking a long hard look at it.

A pothole in the road you can’t avoid. You can walk over it, or you can walk around it but keep moving on.

When failure occurs you get to choose (depending on the circumstances) which one of these reframings you decide on and which fits your best situation.

For me, the sentence expressing a feeling that something is not right is the one that speaks the most with an area of my professional work coming under review.

To heal from failure:

It’s OK to say I am hurt, feel the pain and don’t try and cover it up. Sit with it, alone, in silence with coffee, with family and friends. Take your time and only you will know when you are ready to take the next step.

The hardest but most important thing of all is, don’t compare yourself to others. Focus squarely on yourself- so in this case you can be selfish. Give yourself lots of self-care for repair. You will be writing your prescription for healing (in doing so) that is unique to you.

Sometimes, your circumstances will mean you can’t sit for long because of a commitment you have to another- a student, a family member or an employer. Get out of bed and show up, however hard it is, because that momentum will force you out of a sinkhole of sadness and mental paralysis. Do what needs to be done and then pause, and take a rest when you can.

Try to keep the ego out of failure. This is not easy as our self-esteem have been bashed but hurt pride could force you into an action that leads to another mistake. Detach the ego with the result you have just had, and this will allow you to look at it more objectively and help you make the next step less likely to be the wrong one.

Above all, don’t hurry, create some space and take your time even if your day-to-day routine has to be active. Your rational self will come up for air. Failure makes you vulnerable, acknowledge it and give yourself time to think through the bigger picture. You could be just one move from getting that next decision right, or one move away from compounding the error.

Realising failure means that you are fully living. It shows you are prepared to take risks, rather than hide in the shadows. You are experiencing all life has to offer, the opposite of stasis, procrastination or just existence.

To experience failure is to know that you are embracing life in all its yin and yang, ebb and flow, ups and downs, black and white, push and pull, opposite forces, good and bad.

For me, the biggest failure was a catalyst to find a whole new path where eventually I would find the greatest happiness and success. I didn’t realise it at the time but it opened up a gateway of opportunities that I never thought were imaginable.

In conclusion:

Ultimately you and your thoughts get to choose what happens next

Acknowledge it

Feel and sit with it

Take responsibility for it

Realise that whatever has happened the result is in, and you can’t go back and change it

It doesn’t have to be repeated

Be big enough to say I made mistakes, but that could have been out of fear, panic, not knowing, inexperience, poor tuition, lack of support or temporary skill or just plain bad luck.

Say ultimately this wasn’t for you right now. It may be in the future, it may not but usually what happens is for a reason and it will all come good in the end.

You can be victorious, but you will doubt it for a while. Give yourself grace and time to rise to see beyond the defeat.  

Don’t compare failure to shame- know the difference. The ego is hurt, yes, but shame is often a feeling when you have done something wrong causing hurt to others and that is a completely different curve ball.

I feel I have only touched upon this subject and may need to come back to it. I leave you with one final statement which my experiences have taught me the most.

Above all failure teaches us humility and compassion.

Until next week…………..

Reference https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/failure accessed online 5th August 2024.

Images from Positivity Flip Chart, A Positive Phrase For Every Week Of The Year, Lisa Angel @Floral Positivity Flip Chart, Norwich, NR136LH.

Walking Towards Rest

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I started this blog in April and feel very pleased that I have posted every week since its start. It takes time, dedication and commitment to write even one post each week without any interruptions. Sometimes, the deadlines have been tight, but this was a promise to myself to do this activity and to get my writing life fully living again after many years of absence.

 It has become a time of relaxation and while this is published online, the simple art of writing focuses me to become ‘offline’ and off the grid of to-do lists. It’s been an extremely mindful practice and one that is bringing me more awareness and self-care.

Furthermore, it has certainly brought my writing discipline to the table. At first, I was afraid I would quickly run out of topics and things to say, but each week the words have flowed without any effort. I have found this easy, so far. I have no writer’s block and I have barely begun to write about all the list of subjects I had written down at the start of this intention and have up my sleeve.

But we all need rest, and a recent yoga retreat on Sunday made me realise how tired I am within myself and how much I need a restorative period. This year has been a full one and great, but a lot has happened and there has been a lot to juggle.

The topic I want to write about can wait until I return from a much-needed break. I am going to Oxford to celebrate my aunt’s 90th birthday. Then I will return, have time off from teaching while some house renovation starts. There will be painting/decorating to do but it will be different from lesson planning. I can listen to music, relax and go out for walking and days out, alone and with my family.

We all need time and space to unwind and do what we need to do. For me, time away from screens is what I need right now. It also gives me an opportunity to walk in nature which is what I love doing the most.

I wish to thank all of you for supporting this blog, so far and for all the comments, encouragement and support which has already made this all so worthwhile.

For now, I will leave you with some summer sunshine, flowers from my garden and an idea from Claudia Hammond’s book ‘ The Art of Rest’ which I will re-read over this summer break from tutoring. She talks about creating a rest box. In hers, she mentions a crochet hook, seeds to plant and music. What a lovely idea. She also stresses that rest doesn’t mean having to sit and do nothing. I wonder what I shall put in mine.

There is a saying that goes,

“A change is as good as a rest.”

I have a fiction novel to take with me to Oxford. At the time of this post, my work concludes tomorrow for the end of the academic year. I no longer have a position in a school, but I still have kept the mindset as if I do. On Thursday, I will wrap up for the year from an admin view point, do one further day of Nana duties, and then pack my case to drive off on Saturday.

Take care and I will be back on August 7th.

Until then,

Helen.

‘ The Art of Rest. How to Find Respite in the Modern Age’ Claudia Hammond, 2020 CanonGate books. Pg 262.

Walking along the coast and solitude

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Footsteps Conversations
Footsteps Conversations
Walking along the coast and solitude
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I have decided to write this blog as two separate posts as I visited two locations on the same day. Each offers a different perspective of being alone and in stillness. To make a connection with the audio, this describes my coastal walk and next week is from a local church and what was experienced there.

Snettisham is on the North Norfolk Coast and what a lovely summer day after all the cold and rain. What immediately hit home was why do I not give myself the space and the permission to do this more. The last time I came to this beach was a year ago.  A blanket of calm swept over me like the tide coming into the beach.

My heart felt lighter, and this felt like another home to me, one without walls, restrictions and representing the highest form of freedom and physical expression. There was a radiance with the sunshine bouncing off the waves. The air looked fresh and clean like a cleansing tonic. As I breathed it in, the words started to form.

I sat, took out my notebook writing a few prompters to guide my message. The bicycle passed, and then I hit the record on my phone. After talking to you, what did I notice?

The flowers were striking.

I realised that birdsong comes in waves and little groups. You didn’t hear them all at once.

I walked along and photographed some flowers. Some were a bit blurry as there was a stiff breeze despite it being a calm day. I have chosen the two best here.

There was a little boat moored in the sand. Another was in the dunes. I wanted to photograph them, but I couldn’t reach one because of the terrain and the overgrowth. My mobile phone couldn’t capture the other in the distance very well (sun glare on the screen) At that moment, I realised that the Universe didn’t want me to sell my bigger bridge fuji with my recent decluttering efforts. It needed to be with me and to be here. Mobile phones can also make us lazy photographers. They certainly have made me this way when I look back at some of my earlier work many years ago.

Blue rope cordoned off for ground-nesting birds such as the Oyster Catchers.

 I listened out for the birds, and these were the following:

House Sparrows, Black Headed Gulls, Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Linnet, GoldFinches, Oystercatchers, Dunnock.

A couple of people were using a metal detector to pick up any beach treasure. I could hear it bleep.

In stillness, my eyes were scanning around me. I was starting to notice. As I walked, I had to bring myself back to the view. My monkey mind wanted to create an internal conversation so I brought my attention back to where I was. How often do you get distracted by that little voice prompting you about what you need to get back to, or what happened yesterday?

This wasn’t a long walk and some of it was sitting. I only had an hour on the car parking ticket, due to the costings (coastal car parks in prime areas are calculated carefully. An hour was £2- fine, but anything over time that jumped to £5 -clever and there was a little part of me hurrying to get to the next location as time was precious. I wanted to do as much as I could. Normally this would have been a childcare day. I was only off duty because I was still recuperating (see last week’s blog). This hit home about time is not always as flexible as I think it is and still a works in progress.

I then took myself to Snettisham church where the journey continues ( for next week).

What did I take away from this time?

To be honest, it was a glorious time away.

I felt at peace, happy and authentic to myself and what I enjoyed.

This walk was part of who I am now, a lover of nature, the environment and the outside world.

I felt restored, even for that short afternoon. I could go back to my ‘other’ world happily.

This was a good anchoring experience for me. I thought about the last two years (in particular) and it all made sense and I was proud of how far I had come. I love my chairs and my churches as well. The church came next!

Overall, it was a great afternoon out and I hope to get out to see a poppy field on Friday.

Slow your Steps

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(There is no audio this week, due to a minor contagious illness preventing me from walking when I was hoping to record it. There will be one next week.)

Looking at the latest photo of my 10-month-old grandson, what strikes me is the pure joy on his face at that given moment, with no thought of time on his hands. I feel this is the purest example of living in the moment. He had no concerns, no pressing engagements and just as it should be.

My Father gave me a valuable lesson years ago when he said:

“There is only one thing you can make in a hurry and that’s a mistake.” ( See my slightly hazy, imperfect photo.)

Remembering these words, I think back on all the wrong decisions taken and the mistakes made when I was rushing around, not taking enough care and attention, and crucially not just pausing and taking the time to check or think through what I was doing. It’s even happened with this venture and if this new blog has achieved anything then it has highlighted this and what I need to do about it.

I was watching a video the other day where the speaker mentioned that when we are asked how we are feeling, the word fine is swapped now to busy. We live in a fast-paced world. Our present Government wants the 3.5 million of us who are termed ‘economically inactive’ aged 50-64 to get back out to work and one friend expressed a phrase that we are all units of production. There is a subtle pressure of being idle isn’t acceptable.

Recently, I had conversations about being on the hamster wheel in my younger days of juggling work, house, family commitments and childcare. Of course, we all pay bills, and most of us want a sense of purpose and to connect with the outside world. We can’t escape the demands of modern life.

Becoming busy can become addictive as the adrenal pumps through our body. I researched the subject and stumbled across this blog. I largely have this problem.

I asked myself one question, How does being busy validate me?

1) Being busy must mean I am doing something useful.

2) I’m not wasting the precious time I have.

3) I can achieve something important, a goal or a step towards completing a long-term project.

4) I’m adding something of value to the world.

5) I’m getting ‘things’ on my to-do list done and this gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

6) It takes the pressure off deadlines.

7) Apparently, I’m at my happiest when I am busy.

8) It is the opposite of lazy and being lazy is a word I have never been encouraged to be.

Over the last month, I decided that it was no longer necessary to work at the weekends. As most self-employed people know, working for yourself means that there is always something to do. The email list, financial accounts, the tax return, re-evaluating your website and for me as a TEFL teacher learning the latest teaching methodology or skill. The guilt of the teaching of grammar course I purchased ages ago, that I still have started and the personal development programme from Beth Kempton’s writing courses I have to finish in less than a month, or the content will expire and I would have wasted precious money.

Then there is the constant tweaking of my morning routine so that I can get my work done early, so that time is made for walking, family and leisure. So, on one of these Sundays, I sat in my dressing gown and I couldn’t help feeling this was wasted time and physically felt the restlessness. I had to quieten my mind and just take my time, saying it was OK to have a morning of ‘blobbing about.’ It felt so uncomfortable and is something I find hard to do.

However, being busy isn’t necessarily being productive. What we spend our time on matters, how we do things in the most streamlined way counts. The chance of a mistake is reduced and wiser decisions are made when we just slow down, take our time and hit the pause button.

After the death of Dr Mosley (see last week’s blog)  it has hit home how fragile life is and how living well isn’t just about cramming into your day as much as possible. Days of quiet, resting, noticing, pausing and just being is essential and within those spaces of time a chance to connect with yourself. I confess my whole life ( from the age of 10) has been built on steps towards ‘something.’ Just to walk, smell the air and notice the view is a skill I’m having to learn to do.

Ironically, this week I have had to stop due to a minor illness which has meant I have needed to be isolated within four walls. This has hit home to me just how hard I find it to stop. One day later, I am restless, trying to catch up, and being away from my paid work this week is very frustrating., I am thinking of the things that need doing where I can use my time productively.This is a mindset that needs to change and work in progress.

What piece of advice would you give someone who needs to just ‘be’?

Do you see any of your behaviours in what I have expressed here?

Your thoughts are always welcome.

Until next week.

When Walking Suddenly Stops

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(Written on Saturday 7th June, I have decided to keep my words as they were written, but have since updated them at the end).

I have always remembered what a GP once said to me as we were on a ward round together.

“Any of us could be dead within the next thirty minutes.”

 The Lockerbie air disaster of 1988 had just happened. Lives were wiped out in an instant. A colleague was crying as one of her relatives was on that plane. This made me realise that:

You can be moments away from your death at any point.

You can be only one error away from changing your life or someone else’s for the worst.

A wrong decision can escalate into one long negative impact after another, like a pack of cards or dominoes falling around you.

One of my biggest errors of judgment was embarking on a personal relationship that had catastrophic consequences for me in my early twenties. This was my negative domino/compound effect.

 I now ask myself. What if I hadn’t accepted the idea of a friend writing to a lonely heart’s column on my behalf because she had had so many offers of a date, and I happen to like one of the photos and replies?

What if I had listened to my gut then, thinking I’m insane doing this, and instead of waiting on the corner for the car to appear, just to have gone home?

Trust me, it ended badly. The costs were felt for years to come.

I have been scrolling for updates on my phone regarding the disappearance of Dr Michael Mosley, who was reported missing Friday night after going off for a walk. The highly respected doctor and journalist whose podcasts such as ‘Just One Thing’ have been hugely successful in helping people change their lives for the better, with his lifestyle advice on diet, exercise and sleep. He is mentioned in My Library and someone who is a larger-than-life figure in the world of health, science and personal well-being for me.

So no one was more shocked than I was when I heard he had gone to Symi (a Greek Island) for a holiday with his wife, decided to take a walk from the beach back to his hotel, and to date has not been seen since.

What could have happened to him is still at the time of writing anyone’s guess? He appeared to have made it to the nearby town of Pedi after traversing along a rugged and rocky footpath, where there is the danger of falling into the sea, but his last sighting in the town is where the trail ends.

I think what is so unnerving for me is that he seemed invincible. Dr Mosley appeared to have his life ‘ together.’ in every way possible. He was a beacon of good habits, good choices, healthy, fit and successful. His work on health conveyed a feeling of where positive changes and crucially the right decisions, from the food put into your shopping trolley, to the workouts you gave to your body and mind can have such a lasting positive impact.

 Whatever his motives for deciding to walk in extreme heat, this news upholds two central beliefs I have, that being:

 1) We only have the present moment.

2) We can be one decision away from changing the trajectory of our lives, for better or worse.

A few years back I read ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Toll. It was suggested that I should read it as I anxiously awaited the results of a suspicious mammogram. This was my second recall, and I was convinced this time it must be cancer. Having known several people with the disease it brought home to me that I wasn’t invincible. I thought about my life in the past and was fearful of my future. I even felt anger, and yes even bitterness that my life could be cut short and for all the things I hadn’t had the chance to do.

Up to that point, I had taken my health for granted, having long-lived parents and thought my genes were strong. It did turn out that I had dodged the bullet once again (the suspicious result was simply a result of skin tissue being squashed and overlapping within the scanning machine) but this experience never left me. Life could not be taken for granted. As I left that hospital appointment I felt I had been given another chance.

Last night I picked up ‘The Power of Now’ and was reminded of the importance of this book. Eckhart Toll states:

” Realise deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”

Life can be a lottery of chances, victories, mistakes, risks and the roads taken and not taken. With wisdom and hindsight, we try to make the best decisions based on our knowledge at the time. We know that life can be snatched away from us, at any given moment and that life isn’t fair or just and it appears that in this game called life, there are winners and losers.

How we navigate it comes down to choice and personal responsibility and to some extent where circumstances can be beyond our control.

As I fear for the safety of Dr Mosley all I know is one thing. The Now is all we have. We cannot cling on to the past, nor hold too tightly to what we hope to be the future. I try to live each day as if it were the last day I have on this earth. Doing what I can to contribute, making a difference, to leave a legacy, spread some kindness, care for others and do something which has meaning to me. That is all I can do.

 This is why I have set this blog up. The combination of audio, my words and pictures finally feels right for me and it is as important as the love and care I give to my family, friends and my paid work.

Take a moment to think about your life. There is a well-known saying that if you knew you only had three months left to live, would you carry on doing what you are doing?

What would you change?

What can you start changing today?

Sunday 9th June:

Update: It is with great shock and sadness that Dr Mosley has been found deceased. He appears to have taken a wrong turn on his walk, made a massive ascent up a hill and nearly made it back to a beach hotel, according to an internet statements from his wife Claire. It would appear that the heat was a likely factor in his death, and a post-mortem has confirmed he died from natural causes. My heart goes out to his family at this utterly terrible time for them. He will be so missed in the world of science and medicine. He leaves such a great legacy but his work will live on.

I still can’t believe that a man representing the right choices for living well could be taken too soon and it makes no sense. Life and death just feel like it hangs by a thread at any moment. We can do our best to not let it be cut short but there are no guarantees.

Live well my friends and enjoy each day. Be grateful for just being here, take hold of the power of Now and never let it go! His death just re-enforces this more than ever for me, and the trivial in life, plus any problems, placed more into prospective.

Walking Along a Carer’s Path

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Exhaustion is one word I didn’t say in my audio to describe the impact caring has on carers. Also, how caring can affect us not only emotionally but physically, especially those of us with our own health problems. I’m currently experiencing a flare-up of an old back injury due to the lifting of my grandson over several days. It’s easy to push our own needs aside when we are caring for others and just work through pain and discomfort.

I was interested to know the stats for unpaid carers. How many are there in the UK? How much were these people saving the economy every year? I was shocked. Here are some figures to illustrate the impact caring has:

The National Census of 2021 cited five million carers aged five and over in the UK. Yes, from age five, the plight of children in a carer’s role must be mentioned here.

Here are some figures from Carers UK.

75% of carers worry about juggling care and work commitments.

30% report their mental health was bad or very bad.

63% of carers were worrying about managing monthly costs.

The cost of unpaid care in relation to saving the economy money in England and Wales alone is a staggering 162 billion pounds a year. This figure almost matches the funding of the entire NHS for 2020/21.

How many of us define ourselves as carers, or where our labour has gone towards a caring role? What if we sat down and thought about all the direct and indirect care we give in our time towards others? I think many of you would be surprised. I asked myself this question during the last seven days and these are my examples:

I have helped care for a grandson for three days. One of these started at 07.30 and finished at 22.30.

I drove an elderly friend to the hairdressers which took up a morning.

The visit to my 94-year-old father in a residential home required a 70-mile drive.

The next day I saw one of my ‘adoptive style’ parents for the day who was visiting Norfolk before returning home, another long drive. She is approaching 90 and lives alone, and seeing her I know means a lot to her.

After writing this, I found a report illustrating the exact point I’m making. I don’t identify myself as a carer, but when I sat down and thought how much I do for others, it was quite a revelation.

All of the above illustrates one of the main reasons why I walk because it gives me the opportunity to get out of the house and to create some alone time, or an occasion to unwind with fellow walking friends. It creates freedom around my obligations of caring for others. Walking is free, flexible, adaptable and can be done at any free time, for as little or as long as you want. You can incorporate it around other activities, in this case, my two days away visiting elderly relatives. It also eases my back pain as well as helps two arthritic knees, also a casualty of caring when I was a nurse.

Supporting others has a cost, and from what I have briefly read so far, this cost appears to be increasing as we juggle a cost-of-living crisis and dwindling resources within the NHS and Adult Social care. Our national news recently highlighted how many councils can’t even meet basic care needs for people living at home and some are on the verge of bankruptcy.

This brings me to mention the new blogger I have connected with online from the USA and the power of writing to help others. I do hope you will look at Tina’s work. We are now helping each other to get our work noticed so others can benefit from our experiences. You can find her here. She would be so happy if you took a look at her site and left a comment.

The power of community can make a significant impact in terms of stress and the ability to cope. We need to help each other like never before, and the urgency has never been greater.

I’ll leave you at the church where I was sitting in Bungay, Norfolk where I recorded the introduction. I was sitting to the left of this picture, listening to the world go by and about to walk all around the village looking at the open gardens. My back was hurting but by the time I completed nearly 10,000 steps ( having enjoyed some beautiful gardens) my pain was gone and I felt so much lighter. I went on to enjoy the rest of my day and spent two hours with renewed energy visiting my dad who has vascular dementia. He was quite bright that afternoon and still knows who I am. I am blessed.

What care have you been giving this week?

What care have you given to yourself?

I know from writing this blog that I need to look after my own needs more consistently because I do far more than I realise for others.

See you next week.

The reference source for census 2021 @ www.ons.gov.uk