Posts tagged with 'walking'
Holiday, friendship and “meditation retreat” (seventh post)
25th March 2009
And here's a briefer seventh Moroccan post looking a little at the internal "meditative methods" being used by various of us in the desert. So at the lunch siesta today I asked our group what they had been doing in their heads while they were walking. One person talked about …
Draft SIGN non-pharmacological depression treatments guideline, 2nd post: exercise
13th September 2008
In yesterday's blog post, I gave some background to the SIGN guideline on non-pharmacological management of depression as well as details of how to download the draft guideline or see a webcast of the seminar where the draft guideline was presented. On the day of the seminar itself, last Wednesday, …
Walking retreat - second reflection
6th May 2008
Mindfulness - the mindfulness I experienced walking and camping in the hills was different from what I was expecting. This triggered thoughts that I classify under four headings: a.) mindfulness and simplicity. b.) what makes mindfulness helpful? c.) mindfulness & creativity. d.) the value of other altered states. I could …
Walking retreat - first reflection
5th May 2008
First thing on Monday morning. How delicious, warm, beautiful to spend last night in our own bed with darling Catero. Bliss. My body softens and settles. So how was that four nights camping in the mountains and climbing the nine Munros? I drove north thinking of adventure, connection and mindfulness. …
Third day of the "walking retreat"
3rd May 2008
Saturday morning, the Frigate Café, Ullapool. This is a great cafe. Catero (my wife), Kieran (my son) and I were here last autumn when we came up for a long weekend. Kierie, who's in his 20's, and I climbed two Munros, Conival and Ben More Assynt in quite high winds. …
Second day of the "walking retreat"
2nd May 2008
Friday morning - I wake at about 5.00am and lie for 15 minutes or so listening to the weather and doing a savouring exercise for the past, the present, and the future. The past: remembering yesterday, the two deer, the white-splashed ptarmigan flying so fast along the contour of the …
First full day of the "walking retreat"
1st May 2008
I wrote a post at the beginning of the week entitled "Looking ahead to the walking retreat". Now it's happening - Thursday morning 6.30am. It takes some effort of will to emerge from the only-just-warm-enough sleeping bag, put on more layers of clothes and bring this little computer back to …
Looking ahead to the "walking retreat"
28th April 2008
It's Monday morning. On Wednesday I plan to head up to the Fannaichs, a group of hills near Loch Fannich about 4½ hours drive north of Edinburgh - up into the 'real' Scotland. I'm feeling fairly nervous about it. Is this really the time of life for a 58 year …
Common sense isn’t common
3rd January 2008
Common sense isn’t common, at least with healthy behaviours. The vast majority of us know that we should eat sensibly, be a reasonable weight, exercise regularly, not abuse alcohol, and avoid smoking. Do you know what percentage of people actually follow all this obvious advice? A survey (Reeves and Rafferty …