Darwin's Reveries, Vapour Trails and Winter Jasmine

Darwin's Sandwalk Thinking Path (TedGrant/Wikipedia Commons)

I've been reading an interesting book called "How to Think About Exercise" by Damon Young and the School of Life. One idea particularly struck a chord with me as I have noticed it myself.  Young talks about Charles Darwin, who deliberately took several walks a day along a sandy lane ("thinking path") near his home - he did this in all weathers at set times of the day.  It was where he did his "hard thinking" as his son said when describing his daily routine later.  It is thought that certain movement which requires effort but not concentration can promote a meditative state of mind, allowing the mind to wander freely and join together impressions and ideas, promoting creativity.   
What is the specific link between walking and thinking?  The traditional NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) approach relates specific categories of movement (breathing patterns, eye movements, gestures) to specific mental processes (visual memory, internal dialogue, etc.).  Repetitive  physical activity is thought to relate to the more general state of mind and thus provide a more general context for our thinking processes.  When I met Patrick Browning, the hypnotherapist at Paul's Cancer Support Centre, I got very upset during one of our discussions, and he helped me by showing me how to tap my fingers on my knee - I stopped crying almost immediately which was a very strange sensation. I also remember a particularly bleak time after my surgery when I was depressed and feeling sorry for myself- I forced myself to go outside in all weathers to trudge/shuffle around Wandsworth Common - normally a 10 min walk would take me about 30 mins.  But it seemed like a small triumph every day, just to complete a circuit and get some fresh air along with a bit of movement. 
When I visited the Penny Brohn Centre a few years ago, we were encouraged to make small sustainable changes to our lives to improve our fitness.  One thing on my list was to walk to the station every day because I had got into the lazy habit of getting on a bus. Frequently the bus was full, late, and I loathe steamy buses in rainy weather but I had just got used to doing it and didn't realise how miserable it was making me.  It's only a 12 min walk so I made it a new habit to walk and don't even consider the bus an option any more.  
I know that you always read about exercise being good for you, but I really began to notice that my thoughts weren't necessarily worrying about the day ahead or anything in particular, they just swirled around gently and came to settle like a feather landing, giving a bit of space above them like having extra stretch room.  I do notice that sometimes I can come to a decision, nothing major, just the next step in some project.  I really treasure this time, just a few minutes before the madness of the day to not think about much.  As an added bonus, my experiments with mindfulness (click on the link to try the Headspace walking meditation podcast) have helped me notice small things en route.  For example, the other day I posted on FB a picture of some plane vapour trails which really looked amazing - there were about 10 of them at least, the air was so still and clear, and they fanned off into the blue horizon.  

Vapour trails, St. John's Hill, 25/01/16

Over the winter at a certain crossroads I catch a whiff of Winter-flowering jasmine in a pocket-sized corner park, a brilliant sweet scent above the exhaust fumes. There is always a bird or two tweeting in the trees or a local roof top, or crows eating their urban carrion (fried chicken or a piece of burger bun). Once even a squirrel on a tree in the main road - how did he get there? - marooned on a island of two trees.  One special day I saw a jersey tiger moth, looking very exotic by the railway track.

 Jersey Tiger Moth

These small walks allow your mind to be a bit looser and remove the focused mindset you often seem to need to get through a busy day.   In a similar way, the writer Haruki Murakami in his book "What I talk about when I talk about running" describes how running can free his mind: "Occasionally, hardly ever really, I get an idea to use in a novel. But really as I run, I don't think much of anything worth remembering."  

It is easy to forget that the mind and the body are closely connected, but good to remember that the word "heal" means "whole".  I like this quote from Young:

The point is not that we have to be Olympians, tracking personal bests with tailored dawn training schedules. We need not be the fastest, strongest or most agile. The point is that exercise can be a commitment to wholeness; to a life enriched and enhanced by physical and mental striving. Darwin was no professional athlete: but he knew about fitness and flourishing 

In Praise of Slowness

I've been thinking about Mindfulness and picked up a book from the library this week called "In Praise of Slowness" by Carl Honore (2004), which provides a thoughtful discussion about how our lives have speeded up, how we try to "save time" and are often "time-poor". I have attended several courses about Mindfulness while I have been recovering, which is all about attempting to remain in the present moment and not thinking about what is ahead or behind us; after all, the past is gone and the future we are imagining probably won't happen as we imagine it. This is a type of meditation which I have found useful to calm my mind a bit and stop certain thoughts going round in circles. 
After I first went back to work, I often found myself thinking "how am I going to get through today?".  The answer has been varied, but at first I found it absorbing to spend time in my tiny back garden after work, and to plant and nuture vegetable seeds.  I think it basically gave me something physical to do which was not too strenuous and did not require any detailed thinking, but was absorbing enough to reduce whirling thoughts about my illness. 

I have since expanded the gardening a little bit by volunteering at a small local patch of community garden, and through this met some very nice people and taken advantage of a few opportunities that would otherwise not have presented themselves; for example, a group of us were asked to go along to Hampton Court Flower Show to take part in a photo-shoot for a national newspaper.

I really appreciated and enjoyed the day, which enabled us to wander around the show gardens and talk to the designers and exhibitors before the Flower Show opened to the public.  I seem to have digressed a bit.  The point I was thinking about which I have found to be true is that in our world of "buy what you want when you want it" I have found infinitely more pleasure in watching my own peas and strawberries grow than just getting them from a shop and I really appreciate their smell and taste and all the more considering the hard work that goes into looking after them; fighting a battle against the British summer weather, either too hot or too wet, as well as pigeons, slugs, snails, mice etc.  In this way I have tried to slow down my thinking and as a bonus side-effect manage to produce a small amount of food for myself.   I don't think anyone has ever been as excited about a pea as I was when I saw my first pea pod ripening in that Spring a couple of years ago.  In a good vegetable year (not last year, unfortunately) I am able to have something on my plate almost every day that I have grown myself, it may be a few lettuce leaves, some mint or chives, a handful of blackcurrants or some lovely juicy strawberries or tomatoes.  I enjoy them one by one and really it has made a wonderful addition to my life.