Over the last few years I've had massive problems with low blood pressure. This has significantly compromised my ability to walk - which is my primary mode of transport. Walking has, for most of my life, been key to how I connect with the land, and with the cycle of the seasons. Not being able to walk far or reliably has been tough.
Not being able to walk has impacted on my sense of self. It's undermined my confidence, and my relationship with the land, and it's robbed me of a key part of my Druidry and this has been tough. However, in the last month or so, things have started to shift.
I'm fairly confident at this point that I've figured out what's been causing the problems, and alongside that, how to fix it. I think this is a body chemistry issue, and if I'm right, then solutions are available. Based on recent successful walking activities, the evidence suggests that I've cracked it. If that's really the case then all I have to do now is rebuild my strength and stamina so that I can manage longer walks.
It's given me back a significant piece of myself. Not being able to relate to my local landscape by wandering about in it has felt like an amputation. I feel more complete and more properly myself for being able to walk. There's joy in being able to get out into the world, with wonder and small beauties available at every turn. Before I got ill, walking was a major tool for dealing with my wonky mental health as well as it being a significant contributor to how I used to exercise. Low blood pressure is an absolute arse in that it makes physical exercise difficult and actually hazardous, but not being able to exercise makes everything worse. Living in a no-win scenario is not a mood improver.
There's an absolute joy in being able to walk further and more easily. I'm not as groggy first thing in the morning, and most of the time I'm not needing to use caffeine or sugar to boost my blood pressure in the ways that I had been. It's a huge relief. I'm starting to hope that one day I might be able to get back to the really big walks that were once such an important part of my life.
I feel like I'm properly back on the Druid path, after many years of being stuck. I literally have my feet under me, I can bodily walk my path in the way that I want to, and I'm absolutely rejoicing in this.
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