For a very long time, I have avoided the power of woo. Let me explain. Over the years I’ve seen the impact of self motivation, leadership talks and self belief, plus seen (and experienced) the effect counselling and mental healthcare can have on the individual, and am of the mind that if it falls in these two camps, it’s good and beneficial, and if it doesn’t, it’s either a childish notion or a scam. I’m a bad old skeptic. So, like a good patient desperate to try anything that would help their condition (and would stop this watery stuff leaking from my face – I’ve been depressed and even back then, I felt something. This was a compressed ball of absolutely white hot stress), I attended a 9 week course of mindfulness.
Of the group, I was the only male, which consisted of a wide range of ages and reasons to attend. Run by two very calm, very warm mental health nurses or therapists (I suspect they were nurses, as I work with many – and thank you) this was a guided path through many different exercises to help control anxiety, introduce meditation and explore relaxation. I hadn’t slept properly in several months, was in constant pain, had started several new medications where previously I never took anything and been diagnosed with ulcers, all mainly down to ancestral DNA. Thanks ancestors, more about you later. One of the first things introduced was the use of lying down and relaxing, while a voice talked you through a body scan, which focuses on the awareness of your body parts from toes to head. Which I promptly fell asleep whilst performing, or relaxed, drifted off, passed wind and fell into a deep slumber, so I apologise if you were there and had to experience it, but it did help. Later, we moved on to meditation and the understanding of mindfulness, which allowed me to get a handle on what this actually was. “Living in the moment”, a term I had read many times but couldn’t visualise, until the realisation I was doing it, at times, on my own, whilst out on a hill, mountain or moor and totally engrossed in the sky, landscape or nature. And I recognised it for the mindfulness I seeking.
I was slowly adjusting, mentally and physically, had changed my diet and more importantly my outlook. Thank you to those who got me there.
About this time, as I couldn’t get away so often as the weather had changed or I was busy and feeling better again, I decided to use the weekends to explore and start to bag the hills in my local area, to try and reduce the number of hills and mountains left to climb. I was started to find my feet again.
Walking with the Wolf 