Early morning light

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

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 😉

trees in sunlight

My Walk this Week 234 – The Park Through My Viewfinder

My walk this week looks through my viewfinder at our local park and its pond – Coedbach Park. Coed = wood and Bach = little, so Little Wood Park.

The video above of the pond and the images below were all taken on my DSLR, my “proper” camera, rather than my iPhone which I have used so often lately for my posts. I may have expressed some frustration with the iPhone images but I wouldn’t complain about the quality of the video it takes. The audio was recorded separately on my Zoom H5N recorder.

It was a walk taken at an opportune moment during a busy week when the sun was a rare sight. One advantage of working from home (for many more of us now) is that you can often be flexible with the hours you put in. I would argue that it is important both for yourself and your employer (if you have one) that the health benefits of taking a break for a short walk round your local park, or even just around your garden (again, if you have one), are such that it is invaluable to all – yourself, the people you work for, the people around you. everyone in fact.

I wonder if there is any chance in the future, in the “new normal” as it is being called, that a recognition of the benefits to be gained from activities such as this will become a strategic part of business models and company operations. We can always hope!

lakeside reeds

My Walk this Week 186 – Following a Theme

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

Working Patterns

Pattern is all around us but sometimes it is more noticeable than others. Earlier on my walk this week I focused on the textures around me. However, it was the patterns that were in my sights for these shots.

You may think that I have an unnatural interest in barbed wire – and you may be right! If you would like to see where this interest comes from, please visit the fibre page on my other website – alastair-duncan.com (There is something weird going on with the home page menu on this site which I will sort out asap).

More images from this walk can be seen on Instagram and/or the StillWalks Facebook page and Twitter.

Swansea Canal-30

Allowing Time

Following my re-focusing photos in yesterday’s post, I would say that time is also needed to see different view points and understand a given situation. 

In slowing the shutter speed and giving time for the water to flow past, the bike becomes clearer – and all because a little more time was given. I try, these days, not to get into a panic if there doesn’t seem to be enough time to do everything – there is only so much you can do.

Bike in Water

Bike in Water

Lakeside Views and Workday Walking

This urban lake is situated in Swansea’s Enterprize Park at Llansamlet and I have been meaning to take a StillWalks recce walk around it for a long time. I had a meeting to go to at the Mercure Hotel which is very close by and so I took the opportunity of going early and taking my camera with me.

The people working in the area are very lucky to have such a lovely spot to relax during a break and take a little exercise – I wonder how many of take advantage of it?