Hi, it’s Dr Denise, down in my wood. I was talking to a couple of people about the Cotswold Way. This is one of these walks that you can do that can take several days. A good number of days to do. I was talking to Guy, and he said he met some people on the walk, and they said they’d started off from Cheltenham.
When he saw how far they’d gone, he said well goodness what time did you set off. They’d set off in the dark and he said are you on day three now? And they were on day two. They were going at a very brisk pace.
We were talking about how that’s the pace you often do when you are younger You are keen to get going and complete things As we are older, often when we walk, we’re a little bit slower, but it’s not just because of age. I think we actually appreciate the journey. It’s not just about reaching the destination as fast as we can.
When you are rushing around, being as fast as you can, you literally don’t have time to smell the roses or look at the bluebells or notice and listen to the birdsong. I think that’s one of those nice things about getting older, that we realize you don’t have to rush. To do things as fast as you can and often taking the time to do things properly to take a slower approach is much more beneficial.
What I’d like to encourage you to do is the next time you go for a walk, not to think of it as a hike and you need to see how fast you can do it, but actually just to notice the things that you can see, the different trees, the different bird songs that you can hear. And maybe it is also about other tasks that you’re doing in life.
Do you have to clean something as fast as you can? Or is it actually quite nice to take a little bit of time and pay attention more to what is it that you do? I think that’s one of the things about becoming older, is we pay more attention and we notice things. Does this resonate in any way? I’d love to know if it does, and if so, please leave a comment. Until next time, it’s Dr. Denise. Bye bye.
