strabrechtse heide – Take a walk!

I went out for a walk yesterday. Normally I have a plan where I want to go but this time I went without one. I decided to go where my feet wanted to take me, and let it be all about the journey, not the goal!

It was supposed to be a short walk, an hour and a half or so, but turned out into a 20km hike through woods and on the moor of the Strabrechtse Heide. Luckily I always take my backpack with me, just in case. As usual after a few kilometers I found my pace and what I call ‘adjustment to the world around me’, paying closer attention to whatever comes along and on my way, buildings, paths and nature.

Some years ago I followed a workshop Mindfullness. I was having issues with chronic hyperventilation at that time, and was looking for ways to treat it. Yoga helped me with it, but I heard about the benefit of mindfullness and was curious to learn more about that as well.

In short mindfullness means to be in the ‘now’. Not thinking of the past, not about the future, but focus on what happens right this moment, what you do, what you see, where you are. I was hooked right from the beginning. It helped me not only to get the hyperventilation under control, it became a tool to relax and find inner peace when I felt nervous or restless. Mindfullness requires no special equipment or place, it can be practiced in every situation, at home, at work, in a crowd or when alone. For me it works fantastic, especially in times of tension and anxiety, but also during my walks.

Walking in a mindfull way has taught me that there is so much more to see around me than I see at first glance. The great views, many colors of green, the changing pattern and colors of the sky. Even weeds are beautiful when you pay more attention to it.

Today I walked some new paths and some familiar ones. But the familiar ones looked new as well, now that I was walking them in a different season. Different flowers were blooming, grasses grew so high they were blooming too, and formerly bare trees now wore green leaves.

Memorial stone for the crew of the bomber that crashed here in WWII

On my way I also passed memorials of WWII. One was a stone with a plate to remember the crew of bomber that crashed there in August 1942.

The other one is the foundation of a hidingplace in the woods where 30 men hid from December 1943 untill September 1944. They hid in ‘Kamp Dennenlust’, as it was called, initially to prevent to be taken to Germany for ‘Arbeitseinsatz’, but later fighting as partisans. Also pilots who were crashed found a temporary refuge here. People from the small village Moorsel, where I had lunch today, secretly brought food if any was available. To see the remains of this camp and imagine how it must have been for them to live there, I realised once more how fortunate I am to be able to walk here in freedom.

Walks in these woods and on the moor are always peaceful and quiet, noises of daily life inaudible. The wind in the trees, singing birds, crickets and my own footsteps are the only sounds I hear. And this time a choir of froggs welcomed me when I came out of the woods and entered the moor. So funny. A few cyclists, walkers and a horserider were the only other people I met on my way.

After 4 1/2 hour I returned home, physically tired but happy, mentally refreshed and with enough energy to face another week. It was a great journey!

I live in a noisy household, and by that I mean that there is almost always someone or something that makes noise. Whether it’s people, music or television, it’s hardly ever silent when I’m at home. Somehow I’m the only one in this family who can thoroughly enjoy to be at home without having music or television on and since my time alone at home is very scarce it feels like a constant battle to claim those silent moments. And I do love silence so much! And although mindfullness taught me to shut myself off from most noises somehow, it doesn’t work in stressful times.

My first daily walks lead me through the streets of my hometown. Very nice, but mainly paved sidewalks. There is also a road that circles the village, approximately 8km long with a path for cyclists alongside, that I soon used to keep track of progress in distance and time. But there’s always traffic, not constant but it’s there, and so, though the countryside on the other side of the road is beautiful, there is always noise.

Luckily my hometown lies between the Strabrechtse Heide and de Grote Peel, two large nature reserves in Noord-Brabant. Woods, moor and heather are within walkingdistance from our frontdoor and so walking longer distances became not only a way to stay in shape, they became an escape from noise. And when noise was reduced to nature’s own sounds I was able to thoroughly enjoy my surroundings. It didn’t even matter how the weather was. Just being outside, looking around in a mindfull way, discovering hidden paths, beautiful views and extraordinary places was, and still is, enough to relax and collect energy.