Ambulation not medication: the healing power of walking
What do you do when your marriage disintegrates? You start walking. When your former husband dies at 48? You walk. When your daughter dies on the same day two years later aged 12? You walk. When your health hits rock bottom? You walk. When your engagement ends? When your life, business, world falls apart? You keep on walking, one step at a time, to find a new way forward.
For 15 years, Faye Smith ran a successful communications agency- until the sudden ending of her engagement and death of her father a few months apart.
Hope Walking founder Faye qualified as a Visit Kent accredited North Downs Way AONB Ambassador this year.
Healing power of walking
Faye explains: “It propelled me to join a trauma recovery community in coastal Kent in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. There I launched my business ‘Hope Walking’ this summer with the help of Visit Kent and the Kent Downs team. Hope Walking offers modern-day pilgrimages - wellbeing walks for women experiencing times of transition and loss, while utilising all the experiences and therapeutic techniques I have gained to support women.”
When the six-month recovery programme turned into two years during the pandemic, Faye discovered the healing power of nature, walking and cold-water swimming alongside women she met along the way.
“My new venture Hope Walking holidays for women, grew out of my own experience of the restorative impact of walking – across fields and in woodland, among the hills and by the sea, alone and in company – as I struggled with and eventually came to terms with a series of challenging life circumstances.
Growing up on the edge of the stunning Peak District National Park, I always enjoyed walking in nature, but I only discovered the deeply therapeutic power of ‘walking myself well’ after my marriage broke down and I endured a succession of bereavements.
Determined not to resort to medication, walking became an increasingly important part of my life, and I was out pretty much every Saturday and Sunday.
Several women friends were going through their own difficult experiences: some were separating or divorced and suddenly alone at weekends; some had other caring responsibilities; some were facing menopause and health issues.
Walking with like-minded others
One by one, they asked to join me, and my first Sunday morning women’s walking group grew and grew. As we walked, the natural environment and the rhythm of our movement would start to work its magic; we talked, sharing what and when we wanted to; we listened and supported each other both emotionally and in practical ways; we started to feel more resilient, able to cope and to know that we would come through safely and indeed stronger.
Faye [in blue] guides a women-only walk along the North Downs Pilgrim Way.
Time and again, walking has been the means to recovery of my own mental and physical health, enabling me to find hope, strength and a new belief in myself and in life when so much that was precious had been lost. I have created Hope Walking to offer other women the same opportunity to find hope and their own way forward, utilising my own experiences and the therapeutic techniques which have helped me recover.”
Walking in nature is good for the mind, body and spirit.
The physical movement- the very act of choosing to nurture ourselves this way- builds psychological strength. Walking alone is empowering, strengthening and creative. Walking in company side by side allows easier communication and counters the natural tendency to isolate which can ease feelings of loss and loneliness.
Health benefits
It improves our heart and sleep quality, regulates blood sugar, boosts our immune systems, eliminates toxins and increases endorphins, the happy hormones. All things which can be knocked for six by grief. Walking strengthens our bones and muscles, which increases feelings of resilience. The very act of putting our feet down in repetitive motion brings a sense of stability and calmness, while literally ‘grounding’ our most traumatic emotions.
While walking, we can visit meaningful locations and even reframe our grief by raising money for charity for example. We gain focus, take control back, and open the door to our emotions, the very motion is therapeutically allowing us to start processing.
“My sabbatical by the sea led me to re-evaluate my work and lifestyle: Hope Walking is the result. Last year I took the first step in this new direction by being trained to guide pilgrimages with leading charity, The British Pilgrimage Trust.
Bring your own beliefs
I started guiding modern-day pilgrims on ‘Bring your own beliefs’ experiences along the mother of all European pilgrim routes, the ancient Via Francigena from Canterbury to Dover, from where some continue the 1200 miles on to Rome. As we journeyed together, we set our intentions around an object. Something to pick up or lay down. Perhaps a change we wish to make or problem to solve. We press our foreheads on ancient stones, light candles, touch hedgerows, breathe sweet air, connecting deeply with nature, ourselves and each other.
Banned in Britain by Henry VIII in 1538, today there is a global renaissance of pilgrimage – 350,000 pilgrims walk the Camino to Santiago each year, 2.5 million make the Hajj. Pilgrim numbers, especially longer solo walks and among people without a specific faith motivation (60%), have seen a record increase since 2016. Since lockdown, pilgrimages have been described as the next post-Pandemic trend as many people have started to engage- sometimes for the first time- in solitude, stillness, silence and spirituality.
Faye introduces her first group of 21st century pilgrims to World Heritage Site, St Augustine’s Abbey in sight of Canterbury Cathedral after being trained as a guide by the British Pilgrimage Trust.
Kent’s Pilgrim Festival
Faye adds: “This September, I am honoured to have been invited to guide two walks at the Kent Pilgrim Festival, one just for women walking through any kind of grief and loss on 22 September, another twenty-mile challenge walk from Canterbury to Dover, the grand finale of the festival on 25 September for women or men of any and no faith. We will be blessed on our way by Cannon Emma at the Kilometre Zero stone and met by Martin Crowther of the Maison Dieu at Dover Harbour to get our pilgrim passports stamped. I am also leading a workshop on walking through loss and grief to find a new way forward on Saturday 24 September at St Mary’s church in Dover.
I was thrilled to hear Hope Walking has been selected by global travel company Walking Women, to offer the Way of St Augustine in October, a 19-mile two day walk from Ramsgate to the World Heritage Site of Canterbury Cathedral and we are looking at other routes.
I consider myself fortunate along my journey to have received valuable help from listeners at CRUSE bereavement care and SOBS: Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide. A charity I have partnered with over decades, Care for the Family has been brilliant, offering weekends and support days and bereavement befrienders from their widowed young and bereaved parent support teams.
Now I shall be training as a bereavement befriender myself this Autumn, so I can better help other parents through the greatest loss most of us can imagine- that of a child. Today you find me in the process of creating a far, far more sustainable, inspiring, healthy future than I could ever have imagined, dedicated to supporting as many people as I can on that journey with me.”