The runner’s high is well documented with testimonials and scientific reasoning. It is the state of euphoria that overcomes the runner after a period of exertion. Athletes report a lapse in anxiety and a higher pain threshold. Strangely, it does not manifest in all runners. As a walker I am interested in the translation ofContinue reading “The Walkers High – Entering Flow”
Category Archives: Spirituality
Time to think philosophically about time
Sometimes when planning a walk with others, I have to gently remind and reinforce the rewards of investing a complete day in the endeavour. Invest time, Invest in yourself. Time is the only true commodity we have, and we have so little. Gift yourself 10 minutes 20 seconds and watch “To Scale:Time” . Be humbled.Continue reading “Time to think philosophically about time”
Personal Transformation through Long Distance walking
The Order is an enthusiastic proponent of distance walking. In the modern world it’s a hard sell to convince people to invest a day or days in a simple but long walking journey of which the fruits are mostly realised after the event and over time. This is a 2013 Australian study of long distanceContinue reading “Personal Transformation through Long Distance walking”
Understanding Landscape Understanding Ourselves
This snip is from David Wescott’s book “Camping in the old style” Page 11
Quote: Stephen Graham: The Gentle art of tramping
The less you carry the more you will see, the less you spend the more you will experience. In tramping you are not earning a living, but earning a happiness. There is perhaps no greater test of friendship than going on a long tramp. You discover to one another all the egoisms and selfishnesses youContinue reading “Quote: Stephen Graham: The Gentle art of tramping”
A Walking Meditation
Your walking journey will often take you to the uncharted edges. Consider this practice from Vietnamese Thien monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
Quote: Henry David Thoreau
“I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless Ispend four hours a day at least — and it is commonly morethan that — sauntering through the woods and over the hillsand fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements. […]the walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to takingexercise, asContinue reading “Quote: Henry David Thoreau”
Essay: For the full life experience, put down all devices and walk
To live with eyes on the screen is to be attached, stuck in the frame, taking in what is presented to us and re-presented to us again. But representation — even in fine-grained pixilation — is not experience. To experience is to perceive. When we look at a screen, we might see something, but we don’t perceive. To live life through representations is to live passively, to receive rather than to experience. It is also, we fear, to live the life of a follower.
Movie: The Great Walk
I commend this work by Clive Austin to the Order.
Walking as a Spiritual Practise
In reality, walking is about the slowest form of movement we can imagine. For the philosopher Frédéric Gros, “walking is the best way to go more slowly than any other method that has ever been found.” It is certainly not preferred by the driven or the busy; walking stands resolutely apart from things that propel. Commonly it’s the priorities of productivity and efficiency that overrule walking as dead or wasted time. Even the term pedestrian reeks of the dull and unmotivated. Regardless, the act of walking remains a very human one. It is an act of the spirit. For as long as human beings have inhabited this earth walking has been an act of longing and aspiration: we have walked to find home; we have walked in spiritual pilgrimage; we have walked to celebrate, to protest, and to commemorate; we have walked as a form of rest and recreation, and in pursuit of better health; we have walked to discover new worlds, to conquer new heights, and even to pray.
The Order Of Walkers 