The Walking Challenge – Day 1: A Walk On The Wild Side in Dulwich.
Did you have a happy Easter or holiday? 
x Or did you take a writing sabbatical like yours truly? lol.x
As the celebrations of Easter, Wesak/Vesak and more mellow and spiritual past times infuse our thoughts, I have been spending some of this time catching up with family and friends around the globe.
These last few weeks, I have had some thoughts about a walking challenge as per one of my previous blogs.
How about a walk on the wild side? A walk through the ‘common’ (as we say over here in the UK ) in your area, the nearest park away from the hustle and bustle of the busy city, or just a tranquil walk in the woods, where you can experience nature in her element? Any thoughts?
Here in Dulwich, I’m blessed to have dulwich woods at my doorstep from where I can walk and navigate around and meet the golf club, the local allotments and eventually say hi to Frank, one of the gatemen at the toll gate, the last remaining toll gate in London .I’ll offer some history at another time.
Further down, on College road, where I live, there is the Dulwich Picture Gallery ( I was so excited when they started following me on Twitter recently. ), which I finally visited early last month and it was awe-inspiring to see all those lovely large portraits hanging up. I can tell you this – it was all I could do to stop myself from launching into my own artform and dancing, with all that inspiration around me. Somehow, I think that I may have caught the attention of the security staff, had I decided that now was also the perfect time to do the Pilates one hundreds exercise. Hmmm…… and then I would have had to explain myself to the curator x
How I love my ‘Scenarios.’
So I’ll begin by saying that today, I will take a half hour’s walk through Dulwich Park and build up to an hour’s pace by next week. What say you?
How can walking influence my wellness and overall health. In taking a paced walk, I can build up stamina, by controlling my breathing and reinforcing my cardiovascular status. So for instance, if I were to walk up a hill and after 10 steps, I’m out of breath, I would know that I’m either in trouble here or perhaps I may need to adjust how I’m choosing to breathe.
Think of this, is the walk leading you? Or are you leading the walk? I prefer to go with the latter myself. This way, I make choices about how I regulate my breathing and therefore end up building up my stamina.
Today, a 10 minute walk, tomorrow 15 minutes and so on. It’s when I try to run before I can just about walk, that the proverbial hits the fan, so to speak so I recommend starting slowly. Start with a lovely gentle warm up of your feet for instance. Even if you just stretch and spread your toes out before putting on your trainers, that’s a real plus to the information you are giving your brain and your body.
I will include a short preparation video as we progress with this week’s challenge, so do look out for it over the coming days.
Let me know how you get on with your walk and what you discover. You may even make some new friends on your walk, try it out and see. If you happen to be around Dulwich Park today, look out for me with my purple bag
Have a great day
Many Blessings.x
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
John Muir
