The Walking Celebrant

© Written by Veronika Sophia Robinson

One of the quickest ways to improve the overall nature of your celebrant practice is to include a daily walk (and I don’t mean the one from the car park to the crematorium-chapel door or a wedding venue’s ceremonial space or the steps which quickly add up when you walk the length and breadth of a Sainsbury’s supermarket).

There’s no getting around it: many aspects of celebrant life are sedentary. We can spend hours a day in family meetings (as a funeral celebrant), or clocking up miles behind the wheel, or meeting up on Zoom or in cafés (wedding celebrant), and for other rites of passage too. Apart from in the depths of Winter when I’m more inclined to sit on the sofa (in the warmest room) to write scripts, I’ll work at my standing desk. During the Summer months, I work on the porch where I can periodically get up and walk around the garden or water some plants or gather some flowers or herbs.

 

Benefits of a Standing Desk
While walking isn’t the first thing you might associate with a standing desk, it surprised me how much walking I do (compared to when I’m seated). There’s a lot of natural movement that spontaneously happens when you’re stationed at a standing desk as you make micro adjustments to your position and comfort levels. What I also find is that if I am mentally searching for a word, instead of staring at the screen or out the window, I spontaneously start walking around the room. By the time I’m back at my standing desk, the word has landed.

 

Daily Walking
Although the benefits of walking are obvious for our physical well-being and fitness, there are other reasons to ensure it is part of your celebrant business model.

Walking induces feel-good hormones.

We each have access to different landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes. No matter where you live and work from, each environment has its merits.

 

How Do You Use Walking Time?
With each footstep you take, you can say/think positive affirmations to reinforce all the goodness you want to create in your celebrant work.

Maybe your walks are quiet times to disengage from social media, escape emails, find peace away from noisy kids or spouse.

 

Perhaps this dedicated time allows you to take in enriching content e.g. something mind, body and soul-related on Audible or a Podcast.

Maybe you engage in a walking meditation.

If you’ve had a full and busy day and there simply hasn’t been time for a walk, do you have a garden where you can walk barefoot and connect to the Earth?

 

Experiencing Your Environment
Each walking environment has the potential to ignite your imagination and therefore contribute to your well of writing ideas and ritual creation. What I experience walking through woods, across fields, up fells or by a stream in rural Cumbria will be different to a celebrant whose walks are atop the wind-swept cliffs of Cornwall or on sandy beaches in the Outer Hebrides. This will be in sharp contrast to a celebrant in a market village in Yorkshire walking by small independent shops or a celebrant strolling the wetlands of the Norfolk Broads or one walking the long, flat roads of Lincolnshire or celebrants in Manchester or Vancouver surrounded by the bustle of people, aromas from cafés, and the solidity of the concrete pavement. Nature may not be as prevalent in some parts of a city, but if you make a concerted effort to notice signs of life, you’ll find them everywhere: the determined dandelion through a crack in concrete, a crow hopping along, water trickling down a wall or a squirrel racing up a tree. Raindrops spitting on the sidewalk or a gust of wind hustling you down a cobbled street or the way dried grasses glow under the golden light of Autumn, all have the potential to ignite your inner creatrix (or creator!).

 

 

Walking takes us away from screens (though I am known to stop and take photos while walking) and helps us to look out at and engage with the wider world around us. Our brains light up as we breathe in air, and our eyes register light. As much as I love walking in full sunlight, there are times when walking at the edge of the day brings a certain charm that enlivens me. This afternoon, just about five, the first stars were out and there was a slip of a Moon hanging in the sky. Moments like this take my breath away. What does this have to do with celebrancy? Everything. Our walks (regardless of where we live and have access to) have a way of reuniting us with Nature: clouds, fog, mist, sky, sunshine, stars, rain, hail, snow, Moon, dirt, sand, soil, rocks, shingle shorelines, fallen feathers, crunchy leaves, pebbles, sea, lake, river, brook, pond, meadow, field, hill, valley, flowers, trees, moss, shrubs and more. These are our touchstones: reminders that the words we place on screens begin as stories elsewhere.

 

We are not separate from Nature, and nor are our clients. When we engage and consciously connect luminosity and language, elemental energies and creativity, we are more: we give more; we receive more. Even if we are an avid runner or cyclist, we could do with making time to slow down and live life at walker’s pace. Walking gives us pause. We see sights, and hear sounds, we’d otherwise miss when we move that bit faster. While dog walkers might already feel they’re getting plenty of exercise, walking on your own brings a completely different experience. Where possible, also allow yourself some ‘me’ time sans pooch.

 

Last Summer, my dear friend Angela (also a celebrant) and I walked the Great Glen Way in the Scottish Highlands. There was plenty of laughter and chat, but there were also comfortable silences where we could absorb the beauty around us for miles and miles (and miles and miles and miles!) day after day. Whether we engage in a long-distance walk or a mile or two, there is so much available to inspire, nurture and deepen our Heart-led Celebrant practice.

 

 

Where do you like to walk?

Veronika Robinson and Paul Robinson are a husband and wife team whose boutique celebrant training Heart-led Celebrants attracts people from around the world. Heart-led Celebrants has earned a reputation for excellence in celebrant training, and those who are certified exemplify the highest standards in the industry.

Veronika has been a celebrant for over thirty years (having trained in New Zealand in 1995), and is the author of many books including the popular Celebrant Collection: Write That Eulogy; The Successful Celebrant; Funeral Celebrant Ceremony Planner; Wedding Celebrant Ceremony Planner; The Discrimination-free Celebrant; The Five Elements.

Award-winning voice artist, Paul Robinson, has had a whole career centred around his voice and other people’s. He’s highly experienced as a celebrant, trained actor, drama coach, voice-over artist, singer, broadcaster, compère, and ventriloquist. Paul is an excellent communicator and teacher, and has a sixth sense about how to relate to individuals, groups and audiences.