88 • happiful.com • August 2019
For that moment
in my life, I had
a purpose. I was
moving forward
and had control
email?’ Our esteem is so based
around what’s happening on our
phones, it keeps our eyes looking
down instead of up. Our eyes need
to be up in order to connect with
something – or someone – else.”
Walking in nature, says Jonathan,
helps us find solutions to problems.
“When you walk, endorphins get
released in the brain and you can
start being more solutions-focused
and strategically-focused,” he says.
“So is it about taking a four-
day week, quitting your job
to do something different, or
committing to take more breaks
during the working day? The
brain can work for 40 minutes
maximum and it then needs a
20-minute break, otherwise it
will not work effectively. I’ve got
more people to take more breaks
throughout their day, and their
efficiency and productivity has
gone up by about 60–70%.”
Jonathan would have done
anything for such insight 23 years
ago when he was in the grip of his
addictions – dependent on cocaine
and alcohol, blotting his pain afterMY LIFE-TRANSFORMING WALKS
The Lake, Wimbledon Park
This was the first place I started
walking, when I was in the thick
of it. There was something about
watching ducks just being ducks
that made me think: ‘It’s going
to be OK.’ I realised I could make
my journey as complicated as I
wanted, or as simple as a duck
following another duck. The big
message from that moment was
that life is for living.Wimbledon pond, around
the Common, to the
windmill and back
When you’re in drug addiction,
you’re disconnected with
everything, and it’s the scariest
thing – so one day I began
naming the trees on my walk.
They were like people I passed
each day, so it was a way of
reintroducing relationships,
and widening the scope to
realise there was more to life
than just what was happening
to me right then.Wimbledon Golf Club
Since my dad died four years
ago, I’ve felt great comfort
returning to the walk I did with
my family as a child. I feel my
mum, brother, and dad are
walking beside me. Sometimes
we need physical space to
tap into our past, and that’s
why walks are so important,
especially if you’ve done them
with someone who’s passed.
It’ll jog your memory about
things you’ve been through,
and conversations you’ve had.
There’s great wisdom, comfort,
and direction there, and it
reminds us who we are.losing his mum to colon cancer
when he was 17.
His problems started earlier, at
13 – “a little bit of gin here and
there” – to cope with being bullied
at school.
“The world didn’t feel safe. I
was bullied from the age of 10,
and when mum died, the loss I
felt was indescribable. I was so
angry because I thought she’d
endure anything. People say ‘talk
about your feelings’ but when the
pain is that deep, you can’t put it
into words. I was drinking, doing
cocaine, and smoking marijuana,
and then, at 22, when I was trying
to get clean, my brother died.”
The trauma of losing his brother
triggered an escalation of drug
use to catastrophic levels until
“a light switched on” inside
Jonathan. Realising he would die
if he did not seek professional
help, he entered rehab, arranged
counselling, and got sober.
Then in the weeks and months
that followed, he began walking
every day on Wimbledon
Common or Richmond Park,