REwild your morning walk

REWILDING your morning walk can take many forms. This is just one example of what I tend to do and it varies from day to day. Feel free to experiment and add as little or as much nature as you wish!

1. Aiming for a meadow and/or wood to walk through, to gently wake up the joints, soft tissue and senses. I stick to public footpaths to help "rewild" the newly created ones (many seem to have appeared since the lockdown!) by letting nature take its course wherever possible.
2. Barefoot for part or all of the walk, to let the muscles and joints in my feet move without restrictions and the skin on my feet feel the environment, sensory nerves reporting back to my brain how good it feels (very wet grass and compacted mud this morning!). 
3. Consciously spreading my toes, focusing on this particular movement for a while as I take a step forward.
4. Looking at trees, the sky up high and the flowers and insects down low, using neck and eye muscles in many different ways, preventing stiff neck and eye strain. Seeing beauty.
5. Paying attention to bird songs - what is the message? Hungry baby birds? Male bird showing off his vitality? Birds warning each other of imminent threat? or more of a serenade?
6. Breathing in, not super deeply but deeply enough to smell the fresh morning scents, soothing the nervous system.
7. Noticing the rhythm - of my steps, my breath, my heartbeat, of the wind, bird calls.
8. Noticing the coolness or warmth of the air, paying particular attention to the contrasts from one place to another.
9. Noticing the sunlight, paying attention to contrasts of light and shadow and how it changes and how it feels on my skin.
10. Noticing my arm swing - from my elbow or my shoulder? relaxed or tense? Thumb forward or behind?
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=> A great start to the day - to every day whenever I can!

Let me know if you decide to « rewild » your next walk and how. Be creative! Whatever you do, make sure it's enjoyable for YOU!

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