Have you ever seen those reels where someone is going for a stupid walk for their stupid mental health?

I do that.

Whenever I feel lethargic, flat, unmotivated or just over all crappy – I go for a walk. I find the sweet spot for me is about half an hour or so to really start to feel free again.

The struggle I face with walking, is my dog is twelve years old. She has stage five leukemia and an old back injury that flares up from time to time and she is on daily pain medication, twice a day. So when I walk her, it is limited to a set circuit and time frame as she does begin to slow down towards the end of the walk.

We’re working on fitness – Nahla sees a physio every 4-6 weeks to help her with her mobility and the level of fitness she has now vs when we started has increased ten fold, but this little ol’ dog mumma feels guilty when I go for a walk without her. Also, her walks involves A LOT of sniffs, a term I recently discovered is called ‘reading the pee-mail’ which I love, and a slow walk doesn’t get my blood pumping to lift my energy so it is a bit of a give and take there.

Otherwise – Barre Pilates. Oh, my lord do I love a Barre class. I was a dancer for a long time and Ballet gave me so much freedom within the structure.

I grew up in a chaotically free home.

There was NO structure in my childhood. I was left to run free and do literally whatever I want, every child’s dream, right?! Wrong. I wasn’t free because my parents were present, I was free because no one was looking after me. I had minimal guidance and even as I reached my teenage years, there was no structure in my home life.

Today, as an adult who owns my own business, runs my own company and schedule, I thrive on structure. Calendars and planners are my jam and I really put this down to the comfort and freedom I found in dance. I realised when I was dancing, how rewarding hard work was and how much of a dopamine release I got from a job well done.

So yes, I thrive under structure and routine, walking frees my energy as a spiritual person and Barre class, well that’s mostly for the booty gains.

SEGWAY!

I am slowly coming back into myself after wedding planning. Organising a wedding was actually really difficult for me, I loved the day but my engagement was unnecessarily stressful which I have struggled to deal with mentally a bit. However, slowly but surely I am coming back into wanting to write and sit in spirit, sharing what I know.

So watch this space.

Lots of love,

Sarah x