Health & Wellbeing

58 The West Dorset Magazine, July 15, 2022 Health & Wellbeing Walking West Dorset

with retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade

FROME VALLEY TRAIL: 9th WALK

This walk is just over four miles around the water meadows near West Stafford. There’s usually parking space in the street by the Wise Man. From there head up the road and eastwards passing the gateway to the Manor House. A furlong beyond that, on the left hand side of the road, is the start of a track to the Dairy House. Here begins a path heading ENE across a field or three. It’s well trodden so you won’t get lost. When you get to Lewell Mill Farm, join a byway that takes you northwards crossing many bridges, footbridges, a ford with stepping stones and one large deep ford where the path makes a small diversion upstream over a bridge to rejoin the byway. Eventually the byway curves round to the northwest and wriggles its way up towards Norris Mill Farm. In one place there’s a really massive fallen willow blocking the route but it’s easy to walk round it. At the farm there are helpful signs on a barn pointing you in the right direction, towards Bockhampton. The path now curves southwest round the side of a hill, then heads west through Duddle Farm until it meet a steep slope alongside which you walk southwest to Bhompston Farm, then west again to Knighton Dairy where you join the road at Lower Bockhampton. Turn left and head south over the bridge (and many more) ignoring the turn to West Stafford and continuing southwards as far as Frome Farm where there’s a footpath that takes you eastward across a couple of fields and alongside a stream until you reach the road by a stone bridge. Turn right and head back towards the village, visiting the ancient Church if it is open, then back to your car.

youcantalk.net is a new wellness and mental health resource launched by Bridport-based duo Kerry Miller, pictured, and Alex Fender. It features lots of free resources to help people relax and take stock.

“I just wish I knew why I’m like this?” I hear variations on this theme a lot, and in private practice we have the luxury of time, so we can take as long as it takes to work this out. From the outset I ask a lot of questions; we talk about thoughts, feelings and physical sensations, current concerns, recent events, past events, diet and exercise, drugs, alcohol, day to day life, future hopes and dreams, and so on. Many people have complex and messy lives, or very demanding jobs, difficult relationships, and/or issues from the distant past that will have shaped them for better or worse. A thought that often strikes me is: “What would it take for me to feel just as bad as this person sitting in front of me now?’ One day of not drinking enough water? Followed by maybe two days of not eating, or only eating rubbish? Three nights without any quality sleep, followed by a day or two indoors without any exercise? Then add a hit of caffeine in the search for energy, or a drop of alcohol to relax, ease a craving, and/or some sort of illicit substance in the hope of a bit of an escape, or maybe just out of habit. Already the old biochemistry is really struggling, and the results can be quite confusing … a list of ‘symptoms’ that look and sound very much like anxiety and depression in fact. Or exhaustion, or burn-out, or an anger problem. So, without any external or historical source of stress (as if!) there’s already enough there to explain and understand a

Take care of the basics and

The West Dorset Magazine, July 15, 2022 59 Health & Wellbeing Meditation aids worth thinking about

Andy Cole is a reiki healer based in Middlemarsh. He specialises in planting for healing. As the summer creeps by the gardens are in full bloom and the bees and butterflies are a joy to watch, the old favorites of lavender and rosemary are buzzing with nectar-hungry bees. Agapanthus are starting to bloom, which is early this year. The height of them makes them a good addition to the middle of a border – they can grow to 1.3m, The deciduous varieties are hardier than the evergreen. The evergreen are better grown in a south facing border or against a wall providing additional protection from the weather, as with most plants a good mulch in the winter helps to protect them. The energies from this plant encourage you to meditate or to prepare for healing. The structures of these energies lift your awareness to a higher level. Other plants that will help in a garden for meditation are: Box: The energies aid in clearing the mind. This plant can be grown well in containers and it is very good for topiary, Broom: Provides clarity and concentration. Anyone who tries meditation knows how difficult it is to concentrate on this, as your mind wanders in and out of the day-to-day tasks going on in your life. Lobelia: Increases spiritual awareness and helps in the meditation. You would also require plants to aid relaxation, release tension and of course to ground you, which is a must with all spiritual activities. Some plants to help you relax are lavender, hypericum and asters. For tension release you could use potentilla, lemon balm, or ox eye daisy and to help with grounding yourself you can use Ivy, Comfrey or Curled sorrel. In today’s modern gardens there is very little space, but it is truly amazing what can be done in a confined area. An area for meditation, if possible, should be secluded and quiet except for perhaps the sound of running water or the movement of grasses or gently moving foliage. These subtle sounds help to concentrate the mind on your inner thoughts and block out the background noise of your surroundings. The garden provides an excellent place to undertake and receive healing, meditation, and is a must for mental wellbeing. We take the outside space we have for granted and never really consider how much good it does. How often after a bad day at work do we get home grab a drink and go and sit in the garden? We do it without thinking and whilst sitting there chewing over the stresses of that day, they begin to melt away. We have received the healing from the plants and the outdoor space it has helped our mental state of mind reduced the stress levels within our bodies and our spirits have been lifted. None of this we consciously did, but it happened anyway. You must ask yourself how and why these things happen.

COMING OUT: Agapanthus

then work on the big issues

whole heap of distress. Of course, that is all sitting within a tangle of evolved predispositions (absolutely not your fault), and then your own personal history (most often and mostly not your fault either), your social context (maybe some changes could be made here?), and maybe there are some beliefs about yourself, others or the world that don’t help. And the head might be getting very fast or very slow now, and the output of the brain may not be altogether reasonable? Then there might be a mildly challenging situation: car trouble, a crying baby, running late, harsh words with a friend or a colleague, looming exams, pressure to achieve a certain outcome in the workplace or someone you care about is ill. And there’s the evident truth that life can be unfair, bad things happen to good people and it can feel like very hard going at times. And then there are all of the habits you picked up along the way which, by the way, always make sense when understood in their original context, eg: over thinking, over exercising, over working, people pleasing, perfectionism to name but a few. Add it all together and now it’s very confusing. And you might have been prescribed something by your GP which is again, another thing for your body to contend with. We can untangle all of this together over time. What I would like to emphasise though, is that you can save yourself and your therapist a huge amount of time, maybe even years, if you just attend to the basics first: drink water, eat decent food, exercise a bit and chill. Honestly, look for the easiest problems to solve first and we can build from there. If these basics are not attended to, the ‘distress signals’ sent out by the body and brain in the form of thoughts, feelings and sensations could keep the best of therapists in work for years.