Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
As you join me on my pilgrimage it's day six,
The end of day six and I'm walking across England following the Michael and Mary energy currents and these energy currents,
It's mainly been following the Mary current as I've made my way from Cornwall and I'm still in Cornwall at the moment and today I've been following the River Fowl.
It's been very meditative and very peaceful actually,
My body is complaining,
I'm weary,
That's a good way to put it,
My muscles are weary,
I've got sore feet,
I've got a blister on the bottom of my foot and I'm tired,
Very tired and I knew today was going to be a shorter walk and it felt absolutely appropriate that that was so and I just listened to my body and my body was like yes please make this a slow and restful,
Quiet,
Gentle walk and that's exactly what I've done and it's been quite nice because it's mirrored actually,
Particularly the final part of the journey as I was following the edge of the River Fowl which is where the Mary current goes along,
It was really quite peaceful following the river and feeling that this was a really ancient path,
It felt like an ancient place in space,
Really hard to put words on but it did and I know the route I followed was along the old coach road that would have taken people up towards London but to be honest it feels like it's much older than that,
Just had a feel to it and as I get to St Cuby's which is Tregany Church which is the end of my travels today,
I am reflecting on how I am listening to my body,
It's been actually a great lesson for me,
My usual way of being with my body is to sort of use it as a vehicle and to push it and I've noticed that when I did that the other day,
What was it,
Day four and I was running out of daylight and I was pushing things and the next day I really suffered,
I had blisters,
I was exhausted,
My body felt really weary so it's been good to take things easy,
That's been a really good way to listen into the body,
It's been good not to push myself today,
It's just me listening in and reflecting on what feels right and it just occurred to me that I don't often do that with my body but I often don't do that with my mental well-being either,
Often I push myself mentally,
Maybe I'm thinking about things,
I've got lots on my mind,
I'm worried,
I'm anxious,
I'm stressed and I'm in that revved up whirling thinking,
I'm designed to be in that space for a short period of time,
A bit like I'm,
You know,
My body is designed for short bursts of energy but not giving myself some downtime and not allowing myself to heal mentally and to settle is not good for my mental well-being,
In the same way if I was to push on through the pains in my body,
That wouldn't be good for my physical body either.
So today as I stand by the church,
You can probably hear it's out of,
The schools are coming out at the moment so there's a lot of exuberant youngsters around and about,
Today as I reflect at St Cuby's,
It really is this recognition and reminder that it's absolutely right to listen to my body,
Physical body is absolutely right to listen to my mental state and to allow downtime and balance out the times when I push myself either physically or mentally and then I give myself a bit of downtime as well.
So today it has been all about balance and my request to you is that you just reflect on this for yourself,
Do you push through physically,
Do you allow your body to heal,
Do you push through mentally,
Do you have sustained day after day thinking and anxiety and worry that has you in a heightened state of tension because if that is you,
That is not healthy,
That is not sustainable,
That is not the way to live your life.
So today is all about listening into yourself both physically and mentally and noticing if it's time to give yourself a bit of downtime,
Listen into those signals and respect them and look after yourself both physically,
Spiritually and mentally.
