Cycling to a healthier mindset

July 05, 2018

Cycling to a healthier mindset

We live our lives in such a whirlwind now, so many distractions, deadlines, worries, dates and demands we forget to press the pause button and just ...breathe.

When my father died nearly two years ago I felt all emotions, I was angry, upset and shocked and I kind of just stopped. Stopped writing, stopped reading, stopped my allotment and so many other things, I was just numb. Until one day I got on my rusty old bike and took advantage of a cycle track near my house that wound its way up to the edge of the Sussex Downs.

It was the breathe of fresh air I needed, it gave me focus, it allowed me to vent out all the anger, the questions, the guilt that whizzed around my head. Believe me, I am so not like that normally. I can let things go, have no care or worries but all the time spent caring for my father in the lead up to his death it hit me. Grief is real, it just affects us all in different ways. Cycling kind of saved me until I was in a good place and eventually the bike was put back under its cover...gathering rust!

Anyway, things... life has crept up again to the point that I could easily slide down that slippery road to feeling numb again.

Im fine but last night after nearly a year I kind of snapped in a good way. I snapped into jumping on that bike again, remembering that feeling of working things out and allowing myself to breathe. The evening light was heavenly and the temperature was just right to go out and boost those endorphins.

The track was dusty, the breeze was warm and I felt free!

Silly really but just whizzing down the hills and pedalling like a monster back up again, stopping and taking photos of the most beautiful weeds, it felt good.

So what I'm trying to say is, don't forget to give yourself time to breathe, it might not be a short cycle ride for you but if a potter down the road is your thing then do it, our minds need to be fed with fresh air not just sounds and sights of the daily grind.

Breathe!