Counting our blessings

DALL·E 2

“Do not dream of possession of what you do not have: rather reflect on the greatest blessings in what you do have, and on their account remind yourself how much they would have been missed if they were not there.

“But at the same time you must be careful not to let your pleasure in them habituate you to dependency, to avoid distress if they are sometimes absent.”

– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7, Chapter 27

In this passage, Marcus Aurelius, the renowned Stoic philosopher, Roman emperor, and star of What Would Marcus Do, a much loved segment of Walk the Pod episodes of the past, highlights the importance of acknowledging and appreciating the abundance present in our lives.

It’s all too easy to become fixated on what we lack, and to believe that our happiness and fulfilment depends on obtaining these things. The reality is that once we get to our chosen rainbow uplands, we spot another rainbow upland! Just over the horizon with an extra unicorn!

And immediately, we adjust our happiness downwards to accommodate the JOY we will feel when we reach this new and shiny destination.

But Marcus reminds us that by taking stock of the blessings we already have and cultivating gratitude for them, we can come to appreciate the richness of our lives and find contentment in the present moment.

Perhaps we should scan the horizon only for genuine threat rather than opportunities, and instead pay attention to what’s directly in front of us.

This idea of inner independence is a central tenet in Taoist philosophy, as exemplified in the ancient Chinese text, the I Ching.

I Ching says that true fulfillment comes from within, and encourages detachment from the frustrations of life, alongside the cultivation of inner independence in order to find peace and contentment regardless of external circumstances.

As I explained in today’s episode, I don’t mind if my daily reminders of how to be a happy human in the world are based on a system that taps into the supernatural, IF the advice behind the tarot card, hexagram or tea leaves is sound.

I see these systems, rituals or games more like a trusted friend whose advice I can take or leave. An alternative way of looking at it is as a way to randomise snippets of good advice on subjects that I need reminding of regularly. Such as, for example, not to try to get too much out of a situation, to detach and remember not to strive too much for success.

Simply choose a sound direction, then keep turning up, doing the good work, fighting the good fight and be prepared to seize the moment when those fleeting opportunities come along. And crucially, be prepared to change course when needed, no matter the upheaval required to do so.

Both Stoicism and Taoism advocate for embracing abundance as a means of cultivating inner independence. This is not to say that we should ignore or downplay our struggles, but rather that we should recognise and be grateful for the myriad blessings in our lives, rather than fixating on what we lack.

By following this approach, we can learn to find fulfillment and contentment in the present moment, regardless of external circumstances.

So, how do we go about counting our blessings and cultivating gratitude? Here are a few ideas:

– Take part in GratiTuesday: Take some time once a week to write down a few things you’re grateful for, or voicenote a friend with your GratiTuesday thoughts. These can be as simple as noticing a beautiful sunset, a warm meal, or a good, tipsy laugh with a friend at the end of a long week. Reflecting on these things can help shift the focus to everything that’s provided a little light.

“No matter how vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”

– Stanley Kubrick

– Practice mindfulness: Pay attention to the present moment and all the good things that are happening. Take a few minutes each day to simply be present and notice the beauty and blessings in your life. Ignore, just for a moment, the cereal strewn around the place or the clothes that have been piling up all week. When the news is bad, look for the helpers, and try to help them.

– Show gratitude: Expressing gratitude to others can not only make them feel good, but it can also help us appreciate the good things in life. Take the time to write a thank-you note, say thank you in person or rugby tackle them to the ground to cover their upturned face with a thousand kisses, if you have consent to do that kind of thing.

– Give back: Helping others can also help us appreciate what we have. Consider volunteering or donating to charity. This series, I’m encouraging everyone to download trundl, the walking app that converts your kms into donations for charities including Dogs for Autism and the Trussell Trust. We hope it will be available outside of the UK before too long.

We have one week to go until the end of Series 33, dear Poddies, and I look forward to completing our topic of abundance.

Of course, I will need regular reminders to flip myself out of scarcity mode, so I dare say we’ll come back to this regularly.

You are warmly invited to join me next Friday evening at 6pm for our end of series wrap party, from 6-7 GMT. Find me in the Discord voice channel, for which you’ll need to join the Walk the Pod lunch time walk club, via patreon.com/rachelwheeley

References

Aurelius, M. (180 AD) Meditations. (Gregory Hays, Trans.) Penguin Classics. (2006)

Phillips, G. D. (2007). Stanley Kubrick: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi.

Series 33 of Walk the Pod is on the way – on abundance!

Photo by Vladimir Tomić on Unsplash

Are you ready to experience abundance on your daily walks? Join me on Walk the Pod as we embark on a new series all about abundance, and how to recognise and find abundance in our daily lives.

Starting on Monday, January 9th, I’ll be taking a daily stroll through nature and exploring the many facets of abundance – from gratitude and generosity to mindfulness and simplicity.

On each episode, we’ll explore practical tips and insights on how to cultivate more abundance in your life. Whether you’re looking to manifest more financial abundance, or simply want to feel more fulfilled and content in your everyday life, Series 33 has something for you.

I’ll be inviting listeners to send me their voicenotes about what abundance means to you. You can send me a message now, before the series even begins, so that I can share your thoughts from episode 1.

Leave a message

So grab your walking shoes, start your Trundl app and join us on the path to abundance. See you on Monday!

Two powerful principles to get you walking in 2023!

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

It’s accepted that walking is good for you, and unlike other sports, it needs very little by way of equipment. Just some trainers or boots, depending on the weather, perhaps some rainproof equipment and an umbrella. Although I have been amazed since I started recording a daily walking podcast to find that 95% of the time, I’m recording on the most beautiful day in the world, or an overcast day, but not in torrential rain. I can remember the number of rainy days on the fingers of two hands.

So when I recommend tools and tricks for walking more this year, it won’t involve a shopping trip. The greatest challenge is finding the time and embedding the habit. And it’s this principle on which I offer you the following walking principles:

No comparison

Social media is bad for the mental health because it gives us a raft of people to compare ourselves with, flipping ourselves into a scarcity mindset and making us crazy. OK, that might be me more than other people. But what I’ve found with everything, including walking, is that the more I am exposed to other people doing faster walking than me, the more demotivated I get. I do not enjoy logging onto an app to log my walk when the first thing it tells me is that my ex-girlfriend just won a medal for a 10K PB, when I like to travel at under 4 miles per hour.

Enter, Trundl. Trundle is a fantastic little app on which everyone is travelling slowly, and collaborating together to walk kms for charity and raise money for good causes. Trundl helps you give consistently to remarkable causes as well as access a platform for tracking your non-competitive steps. The non-competitive nature of Trundl is what makes it appeal to me. I’d highly recommend you download the app and give it a try. Plus, like other more competitive apps, it lets you record the pattern of your walk, so you can trace the shape of a kitten as you walk, should you be so inclined.

Don’t get bored

Walking can be boring and if there’s no awe-inspiring nature on your doorstep it’s hard to stay motivated, especially on gray and mis days. So my second principle is, don’t get bored. I would highly recommend making calls on your walks, or subscribing to book tape apps like audible, or podcasts, so that you have something stimulating to listen to while you walk. A Spotify playlist can also be a treat to listen to on a walk. If you’re really trying to pull some movement jujitsu on your brain, you could even make a rule that you’re only allowed to listen to your favourite podcast or playlist while you’re walking.

If one just keeps on walking, everything will be alright

Søren Kierkegaard

I can highly recommend the audiobook of Mort by Terry Pratchett, narrated by BAFTA award-winning actor Sian Clifford (Fleabag; Vanity Fair; Quiz). BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace; Shaun of the Dead) stars as the voice of Death. It’s truly excellent.

Very best of luck with your walking in 2023, and do share your own tips and principles in the comments.

Abundance

Series 33 of Walk the Pod will explore the topic of abundance.

An abundance mentality is the belief that there is enough for everyone and that there are unlimited resources and opportunities available. It is the opposite of a scarcity mentality, which is the belief that resources and opportunities are limited and must be fiercely guarded or competed for.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Zeno of Citium, who founded the school of philosophy known as Stoicism, believed that true abundance and prosperity come from within and cannot be gained through external means. He believed that living a simple, uncluttered life and focusing on one’s own personal development and virtue was the key to true happiness and contentment.

I my own life, I often fall into a scarcity mindset. I do not have enough money, time, biscuits… I have to flip myself into abundance. It needs doing repeatedly, and is difficult to achieve. I thought I’d kick off my thinking for the new series with a few ways to access abundance.

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty”

Socrates

Practice gratitude

Take time each day to reflect on the things you are grateful for. This can help shift your focus from what you lack to what you have. Share with friends or family on #Gratituesday.

I practiced this Gratituesday practice during lockdown with my sisters, and it helped. When you know you will be listing things you are grateful for every Tuesday, it does help you to notice them every day!

Focus on abundance, not scarcity

Pay attention to your thoughts and try to catch yourself when you start thinking in terms of scarcity. Instead, try to reframe your thoughts in terms of abundance.

Notice things which make you feel a sense of abundance in day to day life. A computer game with a vast array of quests to complete, a perfectly written first page to a thick book, a full fridge, a big ball of wool (!) all of these things can contribute to a sense of abundance.

Surround yourself with abundance-minded people

The people you spend time with can have a big influence on your mindset. Surround yourself with people who have an abundance mentality and who encourage and support your goals and dreams.

Practice generosity

Helping others and being generous with your time, resources, and support can help me to feel abundant. If I have enough to give something away, then I must have a great deal.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

Epictetus

What does abundance mean to you? I’d love to kick off the new topic in the comments with you, so do add your thoughts to this post.

I look forward to starting the new series next Monday 9 January. And if you haven’t listened to Walk the Pod before, do give it a listen.

Walk the Pod S24 E5 | Figuring out what we want – transcript

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Walk the Pod, your daily walking show where I take my podcast for a walk because I don’t have a dog, and you take 10 minutes out of the day to walk in nature and to pay attention to what’s directly in front of you. There are two squirrels chasing each other around a tree as I walked past. This is the first Friyay episode of Series 24, Walk the Pod. You are very welcome along, the sun is shining on the cycle path in SW19. It’s the most beautiful day in the world.

Boredom

I feel an in depth exploration of something coming on as we start this fifth episode of the series. Gaynor and Tati have raised the question of boredom with me. What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to cope with tasks that are dull and tedious and that we don’t want to do? Any advice from stoic philosophy they asked me and I have been trawling, the interwebs for Stoics on the Cycle Path insight into boredom and how to cope with it.

And I have to say I am struggling to know how to explain what I found. I want to thank Leaping Lord Stephen, who lent me a book called On kissing, tickling and being bored by Adam Phillips, which I read bits of and never really never really connected with it. But now, I feel I need to borrow it back from him again, in order to re-read it. I’m going to try to tell you in advance of reading some quotes from that book, what I think Phillips is getting at.

I think he is trying to tell us that being bored is actually very important for discovering who we are. And that one of the big problems of modern life is that we don’t allow ourselves to be bored for a second, we jump onto Instagram or we jump onto eBay or Amazon or Etsy or wherever we like to buy things. We buy things, we consume stuff, we put a podcast on, we stick on the TV, we do anything to stop ourselves from being bored for longer than about three seconds.

And in actual fact, boredom is a fantastic opportunity to work out what we actually want. One of the things that I read on my, on my trawl through trying to find things about this was that being bored can crystallise for us our heart’s desire. And so we should cultivate it. Maybe not boredom, but idleness in order to work out what we actually want to do with our time.

How we spend our time is how we spend our life. I think Annie Dillard wrote something slightly more articulate than that, ‘how we spend our days is how we spend our life’ I think. So, it’s our Stoics on the Cycle Path today. Not really a stoic, I think the longer I do Stoics on the Cycle Path, the more I realise that half the time they’re not Stoic philosophers at all, but you don’t mind I don’t think Poddies, if Stoics on the Cycle Path features Joni Mitchell or… Captain Tim actually sent me a quote from the film Gladiator for Stoics on the Cycle Path.

So if you’re, if you’ll forgive the fact that most of what I’m reading from the Stoics on the Cycle Path isn’t stoic philosophy, then we’ll all get along fine. Tim’s suggestion was ‘what we do in life echoes in eternity’, which comes from Maximus Decimus Meridius from the well known documentary film, Gladiator. He says, ‘say it in an Australian accent, and it sounds really deep.’

Stoics on the Cycle Path

Stoics on the Cycle Path today comes from Adam Phillips On kissing, tickling and being bored.

“Every adult remembers, among many other things, the great ennui of childhood, and every child’s life is punctuated by spells of boredom. Boredom is actually a precarious process in which the child is as it were, both waiting for something and looking for something in which hope is being secretly negotiated. And in since boredom is akin to free floating attention, in the muffled, sometimes irritable confusion of boredom, the child is reaching to a recurrent sense of emptiness out of which his real desire can crystallise. The capacity to be bored, can be a developmental achievement for the child.”

Now, whenever I’m talking about parenting, I’m also talking about self parenting so the child can equally refer to the modern adult. And I think what Phillips is saying here is, if we allow ourselves to become bored, and we don’t immediately leap to anything that can stop that from being the experience that we find ourselves having, we can really discover a lot about what we actually want in our lives.

And he goes on to say something along the lines of being busy, is the best way possible, of preventing anyone, including ourselves, from knowing anything about us. Because the busy person can be doing all kinds of things in order to be productive and efficient. But actually, none of the things they’re doing are providing them with their heart’s true desire, because they haven’t allowed themselves to be bored enough to find out what that is.

What I can see directly in front of me

What can I see directly in front of me? Well, I’m recording this a little later than usual. And oh, very much later, it’s two o’clock at the moment. And due to the beauty of anchor and modern podcasting software, you will be able to listen to this probably at about half past two, if you want to.

What I can see is the sun striking the grass just ahead of me beyond the railway bridge, and many houses that are just off the cycle path interrupting that light with shadows as I walked past a wrapper for a Ben & Jerry’s Peace pop on the floor and walking under the railway bridge now to find that the bottle of Lipton iced tea that somebody put there, and I mentioned in a previous episode, has now fallen over. That’s the big news on the cycle path today.

I can see a cyclist in the distance. Also a person pushing a pram, it’s actually very quiet on the bike track today. Few people walking around some tiny, beautiful flowers on a little tree here. Not quite sure what this tree is but five lobed flowers, beautiful white flowers with a little bit of I don’t know what you call answers could be anthers Poddies, I don’t know, botanists, please get in touch. Little little blobs of pollen on the ends of on the ends of the strands coming out to the middle of the flower. Good grief my botany is very bad, isn’t it? Don’t do any of the proper botany words. But you know, I’ve never been good at identifying trees or pups. It’s not something I excel at, unfortunately.

What a beautiful day though. It’s absolutely gorgeous out here. If you’re thinking of going for a walk today, get out and enjoy the sunshine. The birds are singing everywhere. It’s just lovely. And on Friyays, I offer you a formal invitation to join the Walk the Pod walking club. Please go to rachelwheeleyisfunny.com and join up for behind the scenes content. There are lots and lots of things you can enjoy. If you sign up to the Walk the Pod walking club you can see daily photographs from behind the scenes on the podcast of my actual life on Mondays through Fridays. You can join the Walk the Pod community message board which features a number of channels, including our film club, which will be meeting tonight to watch What We Do In The Shadows, our book club, our cloud spotting, cloud appreciation club, we have Poddies posting pictures of their favourite clouds from all over the world. It’s just, it’s a really lovely space, it’s a very good vibe. And if you are on social media and think that it can get in a bin, you’ll enjoy this particular social media platform because it is just, it’s just a lovely, friendly, happy space for walkers celebrating their daily walks.

Supreme Cross Border Selector, Nige of Galicia, shared a Twitter thread yesterday under the banner, ‘social media can not always get a bin’. And I think we’ve agreed collectively that if social media can get in a bin, you may be following the wrong people. So that’s me told. And I think there’s an enormous amount to be said, actually, for not following people who are trying to do the same thing that you’re trying to do. Because that causes inevitable comparison, and sadness.

Best thing to do is probably to follow people who inspire you. And maybe I just need to recalibrate who I’m following on these platforms. I don’t know. Oh, lovely. It’s really, really nice out here. Very excited to go back to my flat and have a cup of tea and a bit. And then I need to do some tidying because Captain Tim is coming around for the Walk the Pod Film Club. So gotta clean the place. And that’ll be the end of our first week of series 24. A whole week nearly over already. And this has of course, been my healing week. So I’ve been resting really hard. And I feel much better for it. The kids are on half term next week. And then towards the end of the week, I will be tentatively back to work. So thank you for walking with me. It’s been an absolute delight to walk with you on the bike track this week. I really appreciate you coming with me every day.

Outro

I hope you’re enjoying the pod if there’s anything you’d like to request on the pod, if you’d like to say for example, Rach, why don’t you put Stoics on the Cycle Path in the show notes for every episode so that I can also read what they what they have to say as well as listening to you – something I’ve been considering doing, or any other feedback, email, rach@rachelwheeley.com. Or you can go to walkthepod.com. And you can leave me 59 seconds of your beautiful voice as a voice note. I listen to every single one, I read every single email I get. I deeply appreciate every single email I get. Because I am a very needy content creator. So I absolutely love any kind of message or contact from anybody at any time. But I will be trying to cultivate idleness and boredom a little bit over the weekend and actually spend some time reconnecting with myself and what I actually most desire in that space. And I’d love it if you would do the same and maybe let me know how you get on. Take care of your beautiful mind, and I’ll be back with episode six on Monday.

Walk the Pod S24 E3 | Nothing lasts for long – transcript

WtP S24E3 | Nothing lasts for long

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to Walk the Pod, your daily walking show where I take my podcast for a walk because I don’t have a dog. You take 10 minutes out of the day, to walk in nature, and to pay attention to what’s directly in front of you.

My name is Rachel Wheeley, podcaster and human in the world, trying to figure out how to be. There’s a squirrel just ahead of me on the footpath, the sun is shining on its white bib and it’s the most beautiful day in the world.

Welcome to episode three series 24 of Walk the Pod

What I can see directly in front of me

Somebody’s walking along just ahead of me with a bobble hat on and a backpack. A backpack which I think of as a sort of French style backpack, in that it’s a small bag with two long straps, which they are wearing over both shoulders.

When I was at school was very uncool to wear a backpack over both shoulders. So we used to walk around with half a tonne of books in our backpacks slung over one shoulder. And then we wonder why we’re lopsided for the rest of our lives.

I’ve decided, having come out of hospital the other day that I’m going to live to 100 or die in the attempt and very excited about that. Now I’m going to have to do some more regular exercise I think because walking is obviously wonderful. But it’s not cardio is it? You know, got to do a bit of I don’t know jogging or something. Maybe as we go on.

As a little brown pup on the cycle path and it’s got a massive stick in it’s mouth. It looks very happy about that, as it should be. It’s the greatest day in the world as a dog when you’ve found a massive stick, isn’t it? That’s the greatest thing ever.

I can just hear the bell in the Wimbledon Chase Primary School ringing there to bring all the kids in from the playground. And off they go. scampering in.

How the devil are you

How the devil are you, I hope you’re having a nice day. What day is it… Wednesday, beautiful day today on the bike track, sunshine, streaming down, warming my face a little bit. And I’ve got Stoics on the Cycle Path for you again, of course.

Very, very excited to be bringing you some Stoic philosophy again, having had many series where we didn’t because we sort of we exhausted Meditations. And what I needed to do was to start reading the book of letters that Seneca wrote 2000 years ago.

And I have started to read that now. So I feel like Stoics on the Cycle Path is a bit of a broader offering, then, What Would Marcus do? Which was the thing with the feature before. Now, I’ve had had some correspondence in from my ex BBC colleague Peter Sansun.

Sansun wrote that his favourite piece of stoic philosophy is by Jodi Mitchell. Sorry, if that sounded like I said Jodi, it’s because I sort of smudged the letter D from an N. I meant to say, Joni Mitchell.

Who, who sung in a song called Chinese cafe, ‘Nothing stays the same for long.’ Is that right? Is that the lyric? Hang on, can we just check that. Is it ‘Nothing stays the same for long’ or is it… No, ‘Nothing lasts for long.’ Nothing lasts for long. And she sings that multiple times in the song. Peter says, ‘It’s profound because it has at least two meanings at the same time. The surface says, ‘All things must pass.’

It also says that there is an infinitude of nothingness. Take that Jean-Paul Sartre. Now, I’ve learned very definitively about the infinitude of nothingness walking along this cycle path on the first section of the Deep Time Walk, which revealed that there was an infinitude of nothingness before anything that we’ve ever heard of happened on the Earth. There was a whole load of time when the Earth was just there was no real, no real life to start.

I’m just walking under the railway bridge. That’s why the sound is slightly different. Somebody has left a bottle of Lipton iced tea under the railway bridge today for reasons best known to themselves.

So thank you Peter for that. That’s Peter’s favourite piece of Stoic philosophy. The actual Stoics on the Cycle Path today is from not quite as unlikely a source as Joni Mitchell. But the combined brilliance of 1970s American psychoanalyst Carl Rogers, and Gabor Maté, who wrote a brilliant book called Scattered Minds, ostensibly about attention deficit disorder, but really about parenting. And I would also argue self parenting.

Stoics on the Cycle Path

This Episode 3 edition is from Scattered Minds, and I’m just going to read the whole section because I think it’s so brilliant. So Gabor Maté writes:

“In his book on Becoming a Person, Carl Rogers describes a warm, caring attitude, for which he adopted the phrase, unconditional positive regard, because he said, it has no conditions of worth attached to it. This is a caring, wrote Rogers, which is not possessive, which demands no personal gratification, it is an atmosphere which simply demonstrates ‘I care’, not ‘I care if you if you behave thus and so.’

So the first thing is to create some space in the child’s heart of hearts for the certainty that she is precisely the person the parent wants and loves. She does not have to do anything or be any different to earn that love. In fact, she cannot do anything. Because the love cannot be won and cannot be lost. It is not conditional, it is completely independent of a child’s behaviour. It is just there. Regardless of which side the child is acting from, good or bad.

The child can be ornery, unpleasant, whiny, uncooperative and plain rude and the parents still lets her feel loved. Ways have to be found to let the child know that certain behaviours are unacceptable, without making the child herself feel not accepted. She has to be able to bring her unrest, her least likeable side to the parent without fear that it would threaten the relationship. When that is made possible, absolute security is established, we can reliably expect emotional growth to follow.”

Now, I fell off my sofa when I read that for the first time because I thought to myself, yes, that is clearly, clearly the the answer to how to parent, something which nobody really knows. So they will just sort of muddle through and work it out as you go along. But when I read that, I thought, yes, that is, that’s how I’m going to parent. And indeed how I’m going to self parent, because we’re all self parenting as well as parenting – trying to help ourselves through the world, even while we’re raising small children if we are not raising small children is a perfectly valid choice of lifestyle.

So I hope you enjoyed that. If you have any thoughts raised by that particular episode of Stoics on the Cycle Path, or if you have a favourite piece of Stoic philosophy of your own, please get in touch. Email rach@rachelwheeley.com Go to walkthepod.com. Press the button marked ‘Message’ and leave me 59 seconds of your beautiful voice, or go to @walkthepod on Instagram and you can WhatsApp me maybe? I really don’t know where that works, probably.

But let’s, let’s see. If someone could try that out for me. I’d really appreciate it or tweet @rachelwheeley.

So there are myriad ways that you can get in touch with your Stoics on the Cycle Path suggestions.

And I’m really enjoying having Stoic philosophy back on the pod because I missed it. I missed reading from Meditations and I will I will be including many extracts from Meditations in this feature. As we go on.

What can I see directly in front of me? Well, I can hear some crows, I expect you probably can too, at the top of this tree which just looking at the tree in terms of trying to work out what kind of tree it is, don’t think this is an oak tree has very small buds on the ends of all the twigs. So that’s not an oak tree and I’m looking at the ground see if I can identify from the brown leaves.

What kind of tree it is,

But I don’t know. I feel such a failure.

I’m not good at identifying trees, particularly in winter time. It’s quite difficult. Well, that feels positively Spring like today. It’s absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous weather. Nice warm, just a slight breeze, it’s beautiful.

I can see a little dog walking along slightly ahead of me – a little brown dog with its tail curled over his back. And it’s on one of those leashes that is like extendable, coming out of her a red handle, I can hear the ThamesLink, just about to go over the railway bridge.

There it goes. And looking up into the sky. It’s quite a lot of blue. Not so cloudy today.

Numbers game

Not cloudy at all. Now, speaking of paying attention to what’s directly in front of me, I was playing a game this morning, which was based on a game that I play with the kids sometimes when the kids are particularly not enjoying being outside, which they sometimes don’t.

We play a sort of numbers game where they have to spot numbers in the environment and the one who gets the highest number wins, which usually results in child three racing off to find a lamppost with one of those ‘don’t let your dog foul the pavement’ signs on it, which has a fine of £1000 in the UK.

And that usually wins the game because you can’t you can’t beat 1000. That’s very difficult. And the rules for that game are, you’re not allowed to use telephone numbers and the environment because obviously, those are absolutely gigantic numbers and would spoil the game. But the game I was playing with myself this morning, when I was coming back from the school run the first school run I’ve done since I came out of the hospital.

Consequently, a school run absolutely tuckered me out was, can I find the numbers 1 to 10 in the environment. And can I take a photograph of those numbers in such a way that the numbers themselves are beautiful to look at in sequence. So I was trying to do that this morning. And that’s quite fun, I recommend that to you. And it’s funny how playing that game does help you to pay attention to what’s directly in front of you because you start to notice what’s around you in the environment.

So that’s my that’s my top tip for paying attention to what’s directly in front of you for the day and if you want to send me your number sequences you can do so. The best way to do that is to join the Walk the Pod walking club and stick them in, probably the #walking-and-wellness channel, I would say would probably be best.

But there are various other ways you can get them to me if you don’t want to do that you can send them to me in all the ways I just said really you can email them to rach@rachelwheeley.com if you want to, and I will be delighted to see your your numbers in the environment – maths fans.

I mean that’s not even maths that’s just numbers but you know anyway, so that’s something to do if you’re having a walk today and you’re not quite sure how to entertain yourself while you’re on your walk.

I forgot to say that you can’t use car number plates for the 1 to 10 game. The 1 to 10 numbers game requires you to use your imagination a bit more than that, so that’s the rule for that one.

Sorry about that if you’ve started already and I’ve ruined your fun, but number plates are no good.

Outro

Thank you for walking with me today. This has been Episode 3 Series 24, Walk the Pod. Thank you to everybody who’s got in touch with me to say Rach, you sound like you can breathe again on the pod.

It’s really sweet of you to get in touch with me to say that, I really appreciate it. It’s very kind of people to to notice. I thought the most the most impressive thing was that people were getting in touch with me before to say Rach you need to sort your breathing out, because that did actually make me pay attention to it in a way that I had not been.

But I really appreciate everyone who’s got in touch to say, Rach, you sound like you can breathe again. And that’s good. So thank you. I’m delighted to be able to breathe again. I’m delighted to be able to podcast because there was a point in the hospital where the things they were saying they were going to have to do to help me, we’re going to make podcasting nigh on impossible. So really very grateful to still have the power of my voice and the power of breath.

Huge fan of breathing, highly recommend it if you have a gratitude practice. I encourage everybody to include their ability to breathe in that because whilst it is rather a given and rather obvious when you start to lose it, it’s rather worrying. Kind of, kind of important.

Lots of love. Take care of your beautiful mind this afternoon and I’ll be back with Episode 4, Series 24. Walk the Pod tomorrow lunchtime.

Listen to this episode

https://anchor.fm/rachelwheeleyisfunny/episodes/WtP-S24E3–Nothing-lasts-for-long-e1e5ghd

Become a Patron!

Walk the Pod Series 24 Episode 2 – Transcript

WtP S24E2 | Do not fuss

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Walk the Pod, your daily walking show where I take my podcast for a walk because I don’t have a dog. You take 10 minutes out of the day, to walk in nature and pay attention to what’s directly in front of you. My name is Rachel Wheeley, a podcaster and human in the world trying to figure out how to be. I’m on the cycle path in SW19, Wimbledon, as a cyclist zooms past on the bike track to my left.

Kids are whooping and hollering in the Wimbledon Chase Primary School to my right. And the trees are resplendent above me with their little buds. No leaves, but those little buds promises what’s to come. absolutely delighted to be here walking with you again this lunchtime as a very tall person comes towards me with a tiny baby attached to their chest by means of a sling and somebody behind them pushing a pram.

I’ve got Stoics on the Cycle Path for you today, Poddies. Not Seneca today, but Marcus Aurelius, another wise person who knew how to survive 2022 2000 years ago and will be paying attention to what’s directly in front of us of course, as we always do.

Welcome to Walk the Pod.

Paying attention to what’s directly in front of me

My lovely friend Ariana sent me a message just now saying it’s mild out and it is mild out. So actually, it’s really quite pleasant out here today and can’t see the sun. It’s kind of grey and mis. Or at least it looks grey from inside but it’s actually actually warm. And I can see a tiny speck of blue sky. A little pinhole in the clouds shows me that the blue sky is still up there. And there’s some kids kicking a football around on the field. The Thameslink train is going over the railway bridge in the distance very much business as usual on the cycle path this afternoon.

There are 1000 million scooters parked up just inside the chain link fence in the primary school and walking past a prescription on the floor sure we’ll see what it’s for. I don’t know whether Can you read other people’s prescriptions? I think if they’ve dropped them on the floor you can cite slight dizziness other thing I don’t know.

Stoics on the Cycle Path

We were talking yesterday about friendship. Seneca was advising his friend to be very slow, to make a friend to spend a good while passing judgement on somebody before accepting them as a friend. But then to embrace them wholeheartedly.

And today’s Stoics on the Cycle Path is from Marcus Aurelius. Now another very, very wise person who I’ve often gone to for advice. Marcus Aurelius wrote a book called Meditations, which essentially was him just jotting down things to himself. sayings that he’d heard from other places. Wise mottos he had picked up from around the place and at the beginning of Meditations, he lists all his mentors and people who’ve given him wise advice over the years.

And he just kept writing these things down until you had books and books and books of them. This one is from book six. And it is the 27th entry in book six. He says,

“How cruel it is not to allow people to strive for what seems to them, their interest and advantage. And yet in a way, you are forbidding them to do this. When you fast that they are wrong. They are surely drawn to their own interest in advantage. But it is not actually so well then teach them show them do not fuss.”

And this is a big theme of Marcus’s Meditations, the idea that he should just be a good person. Don’t wang on to other people about how good you are. Or try to try to sort of humble brag your way through life, explaining to people how wise you are just just demonstrate it by being a good person.

And here, I think he’s saying, let other people pursue whatever seems right to them, even if it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to you. And that is pretty good advice, I think because we can expend an enormous amount of energy wondering why other people do and say all the things other people do and say. It’s, ultimately, wasted energy that we’re never gonna get back. best just to think well, different people like different things. Get on with our own lives.

If you have a favourite piece of Stoic philosophy, do share it with me because I’m very happy to share other people’s favourite bits of Stoic philosophy. And let’s see whether we can glean any wisdom together out of it.

You can email: rach@rachelwheeley.com. You can go to walkthepod.com and press the button marked ‘message.’ And you can leave me 59 seconds of your beautiful voice. You can go to my Instagram @walkthepod you can press the button marked contact. And I was really hoping that will take you to my whatsapp, but apparently it isn’t quite that straightforward.

But see if you can see if you can navigate that. Nigel of Galicia very kindly had a go at that for me yesterday, it doesn’t entirely work. I’m gonna keep working on it, but he’s gonna keep working on it

Daily walking is good for you

it’s nice having a walk. I don’t know whether you’re in the habit of having a daily walk away from your desk at lunchtime. But I highly recommend it. If you’re listening to this podcast while you’re indoors, that is allowed. I’m not going to ban you from listening. But I would much prefer you to use the podcast as an excuse to get out the door at lunchtime have a walk.

Only listen to the podcast while you’re walking and just see what happens. I think you might be surprised by the mental health and physical health benefits of daily walking around your local area particularly if you have some nature around you. And particularly if you have a dog.

I don’t have a dog but I might just take my podcast for walks as if it’s a dog. That’s a normal thing to do. I can see loads of pups in the distance over there. My favourite type of dog little brown dogs are not good at identifying dogs, little brown dogs saying hello to each other.

New kittens on the block

Also, very excitingly, have some kittens, new kittens on my block where I live. So I was watching them this morning. One of them which is white with grey splodges likes to sit under the hedge and watch people walking around. And so it goes and sits in its usual spot every morning and has a good has a good look at everybody whilst keeping nice and safe under the hedge so that was entertaining.

And then of course we also have many squirrels that live where I live so I always have fun watching them as well. I managed to get a picture of one this morning, but it will my lens clips going if you know lens, it’s like Instagram stories, but it’s for Patreon. So, the pod walking club got pictures of the squirrel.

Every squirrel is called Peanut by the way, I don’t know whether you know that. But I’m got the pictures of peanuts this morning. So it’s quite proud to have captured it. One of them is have a picture of a squirrel the other one is a half a squirrel as it leapt out of the out of the shot as I was trying to take a second picture of it just walking under the railway bridge now as you can probably hear sound changes ever so slightly.

It’s kind of windy today. So if you’re getting a lot of wind noise I apologise why I’m trying to trying to baffle it with my very high tech solution of the cuff of a gardening glove which I’ve cut off the bottom of the said garden glove and have looped over the bottom of my phone in order to create a bit of a baffle from wind noise. This is what this is what 10 years of BBC sound engineering teaches you how to baffle with noise from your podcast. That was not time wasted, was it?

Outro

Anyway, listen, I think it’s time I went now I’ve got to go and do a few errands. But um, because I’m not working this week, I’m resting this week. Getting better from the surgery I had a couple of weeks ago. And so I’ve got a few errands to do not actually working afternoon. But thank you for walking with me as ever.

And I am going to be back tomorrow with another daily episode of Walk the Pod. So remember, if you want to take me up on my challenge, to listen to the next episode, on a lunchtime walk, and then you can always report back to me how it went. And one of the ways that I mentioned earlier you can also tweet me @rachelwheeley if you like that sort of thing. So take care of your beautiful mind this afternoon. And I look forward to speaking to you again tomorrow.

https://anchor.fm/rachelwheeleyisfunny/episodes/WtP-S24E2–Do-not-fuss-e1e3rh0

Walk the Pod Series 24 Episode 1 – Transcript

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Walk the Pod, your daily walking show where I take my podcast for a walk because I don’t have a dog, you take 10 minutes out of the day, to walk in nature and to pay attention to what’s directly in front of you.

My name is Rachel Wheeley, a comedian and human in the world trying to figure out how to be. Welcome to Series 24. Very, very excited to bring you this brand new series, a series which I’m recording while I’m off work. I am not working at the moment because I am sick.

Now I’m not 100% sick, not bed bound sick, but I was in hospital last week following some breathing difficulties I was having in the previous few series. Some of you pointed out to me at various points, Rach, you need to sort your breathing out because it’s getting a bit worrying.

And I’ve now had it sorted out but I’m resting because it takes a while to recover from surgery it turns out, despite my hopes that I would just bounce back and be back, completely better by this point. It’s not quite that simple. So I think I sound okay, I sound well but I’m I’m tired, I’m tiring easily. And so I’ve got to take it a little bit easy.

Leaving the flat

So I’m starting recording this episode in my flat and I’m going to open the front door now step out into my little patch of grass outside my flat and lock up, obviously, very important.

Got to lock up properly.

And here we are right now I am on the road, just outside my flat and proceeding towards the bike track. Very exciting to be going back towards my beloved bike track for the beginning of a brand new series. Welcome to walk the pod.

Welcome to Series 24

If you’re new to the podcast, welcome along. I’ve been Instagramming my butt off. So I hope that a few people have come to listen to the show having found my Instagram account. Social media can get in a bin obviously, but Instagram seems to be okay. It does seem to be doing my head in a bit less than some of the other ones. So I’m sticking with that.

Apologies for any coughing on the podcast

Now I’ve got to apologise in advance for any coughing and spluttering if that happens on the episode today. I’m not 100% better and still a little bit prone to the occasional coughing fit. But I’ll try and keep that to an absolute minimum, Poddies, obviously. How the devil are you. I hope you are having a good day – Monday the beginning of a new week. And as you can hear, the kids are out in the Wimbledon Chase primary school playground, whooping and hollering and running around, which is always lovely to hear.

It’s the most beautiful day in the world

It’s the most beautiful day in the world, the sun is shining.

And there’s lots of fluffy clouds in the sky.

Couple of vapour trails and there’s a little bit of a breeze as well. A little bit breezy today as I walk past a Type II mask on the floor. This is going to be the next problem we have to deal with is how we cope with all of the masks and all of the little tiny bits of lateral flow device tests that are all over the place now. Got to clean all of that up at some stage. Not the pandemic is over yet. But you know, it’s gonna be it’s gonna be an ongoing issue.

An oak tree, in bud

Walking under an oak tree, which has got some beautiful sticky buds on the end of all the branches. Which is exciting because it’s like, this is the new the new spring life that’s going to be exploding onto the scene in a few weeks time. So really, really exciting to see that. I was reading an amazing article by somebody called now can I remember her name? Beronda Montgomery who wrote this article, which was saying that in the winter, we get to see the naked trunks of the trees.

And what we can see from the naked trunks of the trees, is basically the history of that tree. The architecture of the trunk tells us so much about the trauma that that tree has suffered in the course of its life. And the point she was making is that trees don’t rush to heal from trauma, they take their time. Quite often, they’re trying to balance sort of protection of a wound from the environment with the sort of ongoing restructuring that it might want to do in order to avoid rushing to heal a wound to quickly and cause problems in the long term.

And I read that article on a day when I was considering whether I go straight back to work or not after my time in hospital, whether could I actually do a day’s work? I mean, I probably just about good. I read this article, and I was like, No, absolutely not. I need to take more time to heal because the the impact, the long term impact of rushing back to work could be significant in ways that I can’t really predict.

For those of you who who haven’t been following this entire story, I was suffering from some breathlessness. Like, for months and months I’ve been suffering from breathlessness and people listening to the podcast have noticed me taking this huge deep breath in the middle of sentences.

And it all came to a head a couple of weeks ago, and I went to hospital and was diagnosed with subglottic stenosis, which basically means my windpipe was narrow, which all stems back to an operation I had when I was 15 months old, apparently, which is absolutely insane.

But that apart from anything else that just goes to show that something can have a kind of a long term impact on your health.You know, I mean, it’s kind of, not really when you think about it. But apparently, that’s what’s happened.

Chatsworth Avenue

Just walking past the end of Chatsworth Avenue in the Wimbledon Chase Conservation Area. Anyway, I wanted to welcome you all very warmly to a new series of the podcast. I’m so excited to be bringing you a new series, I’ve got some new things I want to include. In every episode of this series.

There’ll be 15 episodes, five episodes a week, Monday to Friday, daily walking episode for you. My challenge to you is to take a break from your desk at lunchtime. Use the podcast as a reason to get out the front door. Don’t listen to this podcast in your house. Tell yourself you’re only going to listen to this podcast whilst on your lunchtime walks. And I’m going to bring you Stoics on the Cycle Path which is the new What Would Marcus Do? For those who remember the series where we read from Marcus Aurelius Meditations everyday? Well, this series I am going to be adding in other Stoic philosophers. So I’m going to call it Stoics on the Cycle Path instead, that’s okay. And today’s Stoics on the Cycle Path comes from not Marcus Aurelius, but Lucia Seneca.

Stoics on the Cycle Path

This is from Lucius Seneca and is from a letter that Seneca wrote on friendship.

“I would encourage you to discuss everything with a friend, but first of all, discuss the person themselves. When friendship has just begun, you must trust before friendship is formed, you must pass judgement. Most people pass the judgement after the friendship is formed, violating the rules instead of making him their friend after they have judged him. Contemplate for a long time, whether you shall grant a person your friendship, but when you have decided to allow it, welcome him or her with all your heart and soul.”

So Seneca goes on to talk about in his letter, the idea that you should talk to your friends as you talk to yourself. Now in order to talk to your friends, as you talk to yourself, you need to choose very wisely the friends you wish to keep because friends not just everybody we meet, you know, Facebook would tell you that friends are anyone you’ve ever met, or random people that you have worked with 20 years ago, you know, all of this thing, but actually actual friends like real friends, we need to be quite discerning about who we decide to have as our friends. And arguably, I think Seneca saying we need to spend quite a bit of time deciding whether someone is going to be our friend or not, before we decide that they are going to be joining, joining us in that in that way, and then sort of throw yourself wholeheartedly into it. I think it’s the point he’s trying to make. Which is interesting.

You know, the modern world kind of suggests that we just sort of casually make acquaintances and all of those people are our friends. But Seneca is arguing that we need to be a bit more careful.

What We Do in the Shadows

And I’ve been watching a brilliant TV series recently called What We Do In The Shadows, the Walk the Pod walking club is actually going to be watching what we do in the Shadows, the film, which is a 2014 film on Friday evening, this week, but I’ve been watching the TV series as well, because I’m saving the film for Friday Night Film Club having not seen it before. And in that series is an energy vampire. And I’m fascinated by this idea.

Colin

Now the energy vampire in What We Do In The Shadows is called Colin, and is the kind of classic Energy Vampire, a white balding, middle aged man who bores people that he’s talking to, to death, literally, with his tedious conversation now, I would argue that there are many other kinds of energy vampires. Or you could say Emotional Vampires out there people who, people who are extremely charismatic.

Charismatic energy vampires

So it’s, it’s not always boring people to death, you can be an extremely charismatic energy vampire. I think the thing that classifies energy vampires to me is somebody who has lots of problems and takes responsibility for none of it, putting all of those problems onto other people who have let them down in various ways.

And those people will continue to find that people let them down. And something which I’ve been very interested in over the last couple of years is the extent to which there are people you meet, who for whom nothing is a problem, they make heavy weather of precisely nothing at all. Nothing that you do, can possibly bother them, nothing that happens to them can possibly bother them.

And they find ways of exploring. They find ways of exploring the joys available in the situation available to them, as opposed to dreaming of joys in a situation that they are not placed in. And then there are other people for whom the things I do as a casual acquaintance are very problematic to them, they make very heavy weather, if at all, this is terrible thing that you’ve done, oh, you’ve really let me down, you’ve really made everything awful, you’ve ruined my life.

And then, it’s just interesting that that there are some people for whom that is never something they would say, and other people for whom that is always something they would say. Thus, we find ourselves surrounded by emotional and energy vampires.

And I think it’s, it’s just, it’s just fascinating that Seneca, writing 2000 years ago, knew about this, and has written it all down for us to read. And yet none of us really are aware of it. So that’s just something to think about. Today.

That’s your stoics from the psychopath section today.

Get in touch

If you have any thoughts about that, you can email me: rach@rachelwheeley.com, you can go to walkthepod.com you can press the button marked message and you can leave me 59 seconds of your beautiful voice on friendship, emotional Vampires or anything else is makes you think of and I’ve managed somehow in a way that has completely broken my WhatsApp account, but I’ve managed somehow to put my WhatsApp account on my Instagram so if you want to send me a voice message, which is longer than 59 seconds of your beautiful voice. You can go to @walkthepod on Instagram, press contact, choose the WhatsApp option and you can leave me a voice note there.

This may have put my mobile phone number on the internet for all to see. I’m not entirely sure. It’s certainly broken my WhatsApp account because it now won’t let me into the original WhatsApp account. I’m only allowed into the business WhatsApp it down. But look, I love you guys and it’s worth it. Okay, so leave me a voice note via WhatsApp if you’d like to.

Outro

Well, I’ve walked most of the length of the cycle path and most of the way back and I feel fine. So that’s very good. I think that’s a very good start, I apologise again, for coughing, spluttering and generally not being quite 100% on this episode, but I’m keen to bring you this new series. And I think it’s worth pushing through any sort of temporary problems in order to get the new series up and running.

A formal invitation to join the Walk the Pod walking club

So thank you so much for walking with me. As ever. I want to make a formal invitation to you to join the Walk the Pod walking club because it’s ideal to get in at the beginning of a new series so you can take advantage of the new series energy that there is on the Discord server, go to rachelwheeleyisfunny.com and join up on the walking club for daily Lens clips behind the scenes of The Walking of the podcast. For access to the Walk the Pod Discord server, where you can chat to walkers all over the world and seasonal postcards from the cycle path which I have posted this morning to everyone in this in the walking club in the moment but it is not too late. He joined up today. I will send you your very own seasonal postcard from the bike track today.

Take care of your beautiful mind.

I have a an Eleanor Roosevelt, quote to leave you with which is “Happiness is not a goal. It’s a byproduct of a life well lived.”

I’ll speak to you tomorrow

S35E14 | Nature for two hours a week – Walk the Pod

Nature can be highly beneficial for the mental and physical health, and you only need access to it for a couple of hours a week. — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rachelwheeleyisfunny/message

1. S35E14 | Nature for two hours a week 12:08
2. S35E13 | Local nature 11:27
3. S35E12 | Nature deficit disorder 11:06
4. S35E11 | Ecopsychology – proof that nature helps 13:04
5. S35E10 | What counts as nature? 11:35

Walk the Pod Christmas Special

S35E14 | Nature for two hours a week – Walk the Pod

Nature can be highly beneficial for the mental and physical health, and you only need access to it for a couple of hours a week. — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rachelwheeleyisfunny/message

1. S35E14 | Nature for two hours a week 12:08
2. S35E13 | Local nature 11:27
3. S35E12 | Nature deficit disorder 11:06
4. S35E11 | Ecopsychology – proof that nature helps 13:04
5. S35E10 | What counts as nature? 11:35

In this episode of your daily walking show, Walk the Pod, Rachel Wheeley takes her podcast for a walk because she doesn’t have a dog. Rach invites you to take 10 minutes out of your day to walk in nature and to pay attention to what’s directly in front of you.

I’m back with the third bonus episode for Christmas 2021. My good friend Nick sent me some satirical musical numbers which, in his words, he didn’t know what to do with. I said, I know what to do with them, let me put them on the podcast; the Poddies are going to absolutely love this stuff.

Enjoy these two songs from Nick, Smells Like Christmas Spirit and The Metaverse.

BBC Sounds Podcast Radio Hour: Hitchhiker Special

Me and Anne-Marie Luff looking hoopy af

42 years ago tomorrow (Wednesday, 8th March, 1978), a radio series called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was launched on BBC Radio 4 at 10.30pm. The author, Douglas Adams, was disappointed with the timing of the broadcast, as the timeslot was guaranteed to turn the programme into a ‘cult’ with a small but dedicated audience.

Happily, the programme gained a very large mainstream audience, and spawned books, a second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth radio series, a TV show and two films to date.

This week I was delighted to join Anne-Marie Luff at Radio 4 Extra to record a special ‘Podcast Radio Hour’ tribute to Hitchhiker’s at 42. Do give it a listen! We recommend a raft of wonderful audio fiction podcasts, including Diary of a Space Archivist, We Fix Space Junk and The Strange Case of Starship Iris. Anne-Marie and I also chatted to Mark Steadman, creator and host of Beware of the Leopard.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fx18