Tag Archives: exercises

Urban Forest Bathing

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It’s a near perfect sunny day for this 28th day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. The house was cool in the morning with cool breezes through the open windows. We are moving through the summer season. The trees are casting longer shadows, providing shade on my morning walk.I am living in an urban forest. Trees flank both sides of the street as far as my eyes can see. The guided forest bathing session on Sunday is still fresh in my memory. I am using it to practice wherever and whenever I am awake and aware to my surroundings. I do not need to make a special trip to a special place.

I try to remember the exercises and the questions. The first is where do I feel most at home. I do feel quite at home walking down my street towards the mall. What is moving? What do I hear? Traffic is the answer to both questions. The movement and noise do not bother me. They are what I am used to having lived on this busy street for so many years.

But it is the first time that I took notice of the many trees that flank both sides of the street and the shadows they cast. It is also the first time I felt the bodily pleasure of walking this street. This street is my friend.I feel safe and loved as if the branches are holding me in their embrace. In this moment I am content and happy.

MY LEFT FOOT

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Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

Well, I’m stumped about what to write about today. So I’m going to grump about my aches and pains. I’m at an age when that’s legal and my right. You’ve heard me talking about my plantar fasciitis on and off all this month. It didn’t just happen in January. It has been an ongoing thing for a long, long time.

I’ve had problem with my left foot for so long, I can’t remember where the pain started – heel or ankle. I know that I couldn’t do a lot of walking or running. I don’t do the treadmill at the gym. I got a tricycle to run Sheba with when she was a puppy. I couldn’t walk to work regularly without developing pain. I must have done ok walking as a nurse. It wasn’t walking continuously. It was go, stop, go, etc. I don’t remember experiencing any feet discomfort. That is except for the time someone ran over my foot with a stretcher with a patient on it. My little toe was broken. It hurt for months.

This time my foot pain started in the fall in my left heel. It got so bad that it was painful to walk from Fresco to the Dollar Store in Market Mall and even to my parents house which is only half a block away. I bought a couple pairs of new shoes, insoles and wedges. All to no avail. I was already doing stretches, heel raises, etc. Also to no avail. Then it popped into my mind that my problem could be due to poor body alignment. Social media and YouTube are wonderful sources of helpful exercises.

So after a month of doing some hip, arm and feet exercise, I’m getting relief longer than a moment. I had a wonderful ski out at Wildwood Golf Course. I did the whole outside perimeter. I was feeling it in my foot by the end. It was a little stiff and achy first thing this morning but with a round of exercises, it went away. It was not only a left foot thing. It was a left body thing.

Day 25 – the Ultimate Blog Challenge.