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‘In every walk with Nature one receives more than one seeks’,
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““What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is being aware of or bringing attention to this moment in time, deliberately and without judging the experience. So when we go for a mindful walk we really notice every little detail and all we encounter – trees, cars, flowers growing out of small cracks, or a cat crossing the road – rather than creating to-do lists.”
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Walking is an excellent opportunity for mindfulness, for observing the nature around me and for simply being in the moment. In walking I can experience the beauty of the hills and mountains; I can feel the increased well-being of breathing in the fresh air, surrounded by nature; I can enjoy the companionship of others when sharing such a walk; I can achieve increased fitness; I have lost weight; I have better posture. All of this is simply a side effect of taking myself outdoors and walking.
Walking also provides me with opportunities to take photographs and to practice the art of navigation. I find creative inspiration from being on my walks. I find in walking I can overcome physical challenges and feel the sense of success and achievement and the improved courage and self-esteem that results from this.
Every time I go out, it is possible to take a deep breath and then let it out slowly, along with many of the short term problems and worries and to let them go; to regain a wider perspective, one in which we are much more insignificant; but also to gain a more detailed and immediate perspective, one in which we notice and wonder at every detail – like the frost on a spider’s web, the individual crystals in the snow, the reflections in the canal, a bright and cheerful rainbow in a dark, foreboding sky.
‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’, Lao Tzu
With every journey that we embark on and even wherever we are within those journeys, we can only move forward one step at a time. Walking, and in particular walking in the Dee Valley, has taught me to enjoy each and every step and to take notice along the way.
You, too, can receive all the benefits of walking that I have described here. Contact jo on jo@jojourneys. co.uk or 07921 912 172 to book jo to guide you on a mindful walking experience in the Dee Valley or Snowdonia.