Tag Archives: health and wellbeing

Early morning light

My Walk this Week 262 – Striking a Balance, Health and Wellbeing

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My walk this week is one I am currently taking on a daily basis and striking a balance for my health and wellbeing is an essential part of it. You will understand what I am saying and why if you read this post.

Balance in everything is a motto I fully agree with, but when it comes to my personal health and well-being, I cannot say I always follow that philosophy. I have been described (accused?) as being a workaholic and while not admitting to that, it may be that I am somewhat over-ambitious when it comes to what I can achieve. There is so much I want to do, but it seems that balance will insist itself upon me regardless of my strategies and time management. 

So now I must admit to suffering from physical and mental exhaustion. While I hope that the past weekend laid up in bed, not attending to anything other than friendly blog conversations, I have realised that I must let something drop from my life, at least temporarily. 

Yes, you’ve guessed it – no more blogging for a couple of months. It’s frustrating because I really enjoy doing the StillWalks® posts and reading/viewing/commenting on others’ blogs. 

The video and images in this post are from an important element of my current working days. I am back working in a warehouse for the time being. It is not work that I enjoy (though the people there are good), but needs must as they say. One good aspect of the location of the work is that it is in walking distance of my home and the last part of the walk in and the first part of the walk after work is this woodland environment next to the small Camffrwd river. 

Through StillWalks® I have always promoted the value of the environment (particularly the natural) as the best resource for mental health and well-being. However, I did not realise just how valuable it is in this sense until benefitting from it when I come out of the warehouse at the end of the day. 

The sights and sounds of the trees, the water, the fields with horses, the birdsong, and a convenient bench to sit on to soak it all in – it is invaluable to me. And yet I find that while it can calm my mind and lift my spirits, it does not give me actual physical energy. So having used both my physical and mental resources, I need to lighten the load, take a break and only do what is essential for a month or two. 

I hope you miss the StillWalks® posts 😉

Early morning light
Afon Camffrwd
rusty metal banking
fields and horses
woodland path
riverside
mossy river wall
homeward bound
lakeside reeds

My Walk this Week 186 – Following a Theme

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Following my theme of late, to publish a new take on an old post about walks at this time of year from three years ago, my walk this week looks back at an urban lakeside amble which I remember enjoying in between meetings on a working day.

urban lakeside

I can’t help feeling that the southern European habit of having a siesta – a reasonable break in the middle of the working day – and then extending that day by an hour or two at the end, is healthier for both mind and body than the 10 – 12 hour shifts we do with just 15 minutes break in every five hours.Continue reading→

Flooded marsh sunset reflection

Taking a Short break

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Hello to all StillWalks followers. This is a short message to let you know I will be taking a short break from posting My Walk this Week. If I don’t take the break, I may end up breaking myself.

I hope you miss the weekly walk posts but will leave you for the next 2 or 3 weeks with a few calming, tranquil evening images from our local marshes and a soundscape from the place where I will be staying for a fortnight.

evening on the marshes

If you are interested, the collection of soundscapes from which this one is taken, is available here. All sales currently feed into the Art and Audio Interactivity project currently being planned and for which I have been making some very interesting, useful and exciting connections. I will post an update to my progression with this at the end of the month on the project blog.

Thanks very much for everyone’s follows, likes and comments and I will “see” you again at the end of the month.

Coastal Evening Walk Soundscape

Mist on the marsh 1
Mist on the marsh 2
Flooded marsh sunset reflection
Flooded marsh sunset reflection 2

 

Woodland Wandering

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woodland

Woodland wandering on my walk this week at The Waterside-Felindre was like doing some “forest bathing”. This is something I have been aware of for some time now but the term is not one that I like very much – to me it sounds a little bit corny (no offence intended to forest bathers, or tree huggers for that matter). Whatever the name given, there is no doubt in my mind about the benefits of walking in woodland but I can imagine it would not suit everybody.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Waterside Woodland

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The Waterside-Felindre Woodland

My walk this week is another waterside woodland walk. More specifically, this walk was one with a different purpose to my usual health and wellbeing and observation walks. Visual and aural observation was certainly a part of it as I was looking for potential natural material for a weaving frame. The woodland in question is at The Waterside-Felindre, a place I have presented on this blog on a few occasions, though I hope always in a different way or showing different aspects of the place.Continue reading→

My Walk this Week – Aberystwyth Seafront

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Aberystwyth seafront

My walk this week is on Aberystwyth seafront and from the overcast weather depicted you would not believe that half an hour earlier the sun had been shining and the sky blue.  Neither was it raining at the time these photos were taken – but I still got soaked as I walked along the beach!

Continue reading→