Thoughts on walking to free your light
+ writing as a form of reverence
Over a decade ago, I took a job as a postal delivery woman for Royal Mail. The job arrived during a transitional phase in my life (of which there have been many). Although it was unrelated to my career or creative dreams, something in me said yes.
It was tough at first, with early starts and cycling to work. And because I was new and therefore slow, it took me five or six hours of walking each day to complete my round. I walked for four to six hours a day, five days a week, for eight weeks (by which time my situation had changed and I moved on). At the same time, I was surrounded by incredibly inspiring women who were very sporty, active and into fitness, one of whom I lived with. So, alongside my job, I also went on long runs, mountain hikes, attended regular yoga classes and danced. My life was one of movement and activity, and I became fitter than I could remember being for a very long time.
By the end of my time as a walking postie (I never got a van!), and moving out of the home I shared with my fitness friends, I was aware of how utterly radiant I felt. I was shining like a bright sun on a summer’s day, radiating life-force, and people noticed. I felt magnetic.
On a recent coastal walk at the weekend, as I moved through the clifftop landscape from A to B with a warm, medium wind blowing around me, I witnessed the cleansing of my thoughts and emotions.
With each step, I became more ‘in-my-body’, emptied of thought and filled with more joy and energy. The sea, salt, wind, sun, and sandy shore were all working their magic on my psyche and soul. The space around me and within me cleared, uncovering what was always there. What people in Japan call ‘Kokoro’ - the intelligent heart and feeling mind; something I’m learning about from the perspective of a culture I know little about, through
’s book of the same name, Kokoro - Japanese Wisdom for a Life Well Lived.Although I was immersed in the field of Heart Intelligence for over a decade, and am aware of kokoro from a Western perspective, there’s something I love about the Japanese descriptions of the kokoro (there are many). Particularly, that kokoro is like a window and “If the window is clouded with heavy, negative emotion, the soul’s light cannot be projected into the world”1.
When the light of the soul is projected into the world to reveal the kokoro, the intelligent heart and feeling mind, it can be felt by others. This is what I believe happened during my brief time as a postal delivery woman and on my recent coastal walk, as well as many walks before that. I walked my way through clouds of mind-chatter and negative thoughts and emotions. I walked my way emotionally and energetically clean, which allowed my soul’s light to radiate.
My walking and hiking adventures feel like an embodied impulse to bring myself as nature into nature. They also fuel the need of my adventurous spirit to be in the world, exploring. I can then return to my pen/pad/screen refreshed and cleansed with pockets full of magical things that I encountered on my way. That then translates into words or creativity of some form, or whatever I give my attention to (which at the weekend was a new lamb tagine recipe).
WRITING AS A FORM OF REVERENCE
What I’ve learnt about myself through decades of creating and writing, is that I cannot write without physical movement, and I cannot move without pouring my renewed life-force and light into a form of creativity that I feel called to. When I don’t honour this cycle (just as when I don’t honour my menstrual cycle or cycles of rest and productivity), stagnancy occurs.
The magic I gathered on my recent coastal walk inspired me to write as a form of reverence for the natural world. To create my own kind of creative prayer, like the Ancient Celtic Prayer from last week’s Tiny Prompts (click to play with the prompt while it’s still available).
When I write with reverence for what I see, feel, hear, and sense, I am in connection with the object of my attention from an internal place of deep respect and awe. This helps to form an energy between us as we both become known, which is the gift of writing as a form of reverence.
The process (or rather journey) of walking can change us, just as the ‘process’ of creative expression does in the moment-to-moment experience of creating.
The simple act of walking can be a way to free our light, allowing it to pour through our creations.
And practising writing as a form of reverence can help us feel connected to the natural world and the aliveness in all things.
Let the light pour through.
With love,
Jane x
Try writing as a form of reverence for nature using this writing prompt:
Quote from Kokoro - Japanese Wisdom for a Life Well Lived, Beth Kempton, p. 38.
Beautiful! thank you for sharing these thought provoking words.
Thanks for this wonderful piece, Jane , in particular "the kokoro is like a window and “If the window is clouded with heavy, negative emotion, the soul’s light cannot be projected into the world”¹.". I had never it put into words before. Thank you. I needed to write it right now.