Can’t Go Outside?

July 29, 2019

I read a post today from a woman anxious to get outside while recovering from a car accident. “I miss my outdoors,” she laments. I agree, when we feel utterly nourished by walking in Nature, it’s debilitating to stay inside!

The same feeling predominates while we are waiting for our time for a long hike. Will the start date for our thruhike ever come?!!

I used to believe that the trail and the rest of my life were two separate worlds. While walking the Appalachian Trail, I acted as if my life on the trail, my trail relationships, and my daily activities there could never coincide with my life in Atlanta. I thought that I was either on the trail or off the trail and that there was no overlap. I yearned for the trail in between walks, thinking that my life at home just wasn’t fulfilling and that only hiking could give me the vibrant radiance I experienced on the trail.

I don’t remember exactly when I realized that trails and woods and shelters and trailheads are part of the same world as stores and gardens and houses and roads, interweaving and interdependent. Maybe it was when I realized that I used my headlamp every day and started wearing it all the time. Maybe it was when I got picked up by Enterprise Car Rental and drove back to Atlanta for a day to attend a seminar and to resumed my walk of the Benton MacKaye Trail a couple of days later. (And yes, Enterprise did pick me up and drop me off at the trailhead near Bryson City, NC!)

I wondered if I could create within myself the same colorful energy, sense of well-being, and connection with Life that came so easily on the trail wherever I am!

I did!

In yoga classes I had learned about the chakras, wheels of energy in seven levels of my physical body. I played with bringing them into mind as I walked on the seminary grounds near my house. I brought the color and the audible tone of each chakra into my walking rhythm, and, surprise! There was that sense of well-being, heightened awareness of connection, and energy of a trail walk!

One day, when I couldn’t take time for a walk, I played with the watercolor technique I had learned in Waldorf teacher training. The tones and colors of the chakras flowed out on paper, again energizing my whole body with a surprising sense of wholeness! I didn’t feel so stuck anymore. My creativity opened and I felt hiking as a wonderful time I could look forward to, but not as the only way to feel fulfilled. My resentment of city life ebbed.

See for yourself! Play with energizing your chakras with my Rainbow Energy Walk.

Rainbow Energy Walk

Click above for a free download of a 25-minute guided walk.

Also included on the page is a video demonstrating my Rainbow Energy Painting! Want to do it yourself?

Send me an email at regina@forgivenesswalks.com and request a lesson! I’ll even help you get the supplies you need to start your own practice of Rainbow Energy Painting!

It is possible to create the fullness and joy of being on the trail in other areas of life! Soon, you too will know that the trail and the rest of your life are all part of your one fulfilling world!

Here’s that page again:

Rainbow Energy Walk

Feel lighter
• Get your mind clear
• Wake up for your day
• Cool down from a busy day
• Feel more peaceful to enter your day

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