Running on Joy

Joy is...Real.

Mauricio (Mau) Díaz is a runner and storyteller whose zeal for adventure and exploration is epitomised in his creation, along with co-founders,Manuel and Daniel, of Aire Libre, a Mexico City-based creative project that hosts immersive running experiences in exotic corners of the world. Rather than seeing running as a purely athletic pursuit, Aire Libre uses movement to explore unknown territories and foster deep transformations, with a strong focus on cultural immersion. By his own admission, running has given Mau some of the most valuable lessons of his life, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to delve deeper into what a life spent on the move means to him.

Mau is someone who balances incredible wisdom with a playful curiosity in the world and people around him. Indeed, early in our conversation he quotes Picasso saying that it took him: "a lifetime to paint like a child”. Mau, instead, suggests that his memoir might be titled "A Life Spent Pointing": pointing to the horizon and the places he wants to explore next. Just as Mau encourages everyone to take a moment to pause and appreciate the present moment, I hope spending time with his thoughts encourages you to also perhaps discover the world through joyful movement.

Follow: @airelibre.earth @maudac

Discover: www.airelibre.earth

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Joy is...Inspiration.

Patrick Stangbye might best be described as a visionary. He is a competitive ultra runner, creative director, and an advocate for a life of essentialism, of focussing on what really matters. It’s a concept that drives his running, life aesthetic and creative projects: moving is to living is to communication. In essence, Patrick's is an existence driven by perspective and enrichment, and it is this perspective that I was keen to explore in this conversation.

We spoke about: Having a mountain sensibility; being fluid with our creative and athletic identities; running as a space for processing and presence; living slow and staying fast as a lens through which we can assess what is necessary in how we live and what we consume; the value of an aesthetic approach to functionality; how brands and running communities can work towards inclusivity and ecological accountability, and the power of curiosity.

@patrickstangbye

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Joy is...Omnipresence.

Simone Salvatici is a London-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound artist, and qualified sound therapist. One might say that he is a person on a constantly evolving, shifting journey, grounded in a deep and authentic commitment to sound. As a composer of instrumental music, Simone has released both solo and collaborative projects and has performed at venues, including Tate Modern, Sadlers Wells Theatre, the Natural History Museum, and the V&A, as well as International festivals. As a Sound Therapist, he uses his musicianship and aural skills in conjunction with experience gained from intensive studies, research, and immersive learning over the last few years to promote energetic and emotional shifts, using a variety of instruments from large gongs to tuning forks to synthesisers. Simone also now passes on his learning through Sound Therapy practitioner training.

Simone is an incredibly gentle soul who thinks deeply and speaks with great consideration and awareness of the resonance of the energy that we put into the world. It's a powerful conversation, which revolves around our relationship with healing: healing of the self as a pathway to healing others; attuning to the body as instrument and the power of communication beyond words, and the vital need for egoless play as a foundation for a more connected, intuitive existence.

@ssalvatico

www.sselvatico.com

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Joy is...An Afternoon Walk.

Jim Leary is an archaeologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of York. They previously held posts at Reading University and English Heritage. Formerly also a Field Archaeologist in Residence at Cambridge University, he has directed major excavations across Britain, including Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, the largest Neolithic monument in Europe. A passionate walker, much of Jim's research centres around the way that people moved in the past, and his new book Footmarks was published earlier this summer. Footmarks takes us on a restless journey that traces 3.5 million years of human movement, in turn exploring the relationship between our ability to travel and power. From early hunter-gatherers, to drovers and pilgrims, to migration, Footmarks shows us how movement has shaped our world. Archaeology, through this lens, is far from static. 

Jim is generous with his incredible experience and knowledge, with a distinctively un-monumental approach to history and an empathetic enthusiasm for re-animating the distant past. Our conversation makes a case for taking time to consider the mythic architecture of the landscape that surrounds us and re-connecting with a collective identity, forged through movement and storytelling. We are all, and always have been travellers, and our footmarks are something to protect and fight for.

Instagram: @jim_leary1

Twitter: @Jim_Leary

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This is the second post-journey interview of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and the British Pilgrimage Trust. FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health.

This July, our core team of four set out on a 200-mile adventure across St Columba’s Way in Scotland to raise money for the incredible work of the Venture Trust and, specifically, their new Outdoor Therapy Program, supporting the mental health of vulnerable 16 to 25 year-olds and ex service personnel. We were joined by over forty people at various points of the route, our aim being to break down what a runner, rider or hiker should look like and to open conversations around the benefits of a reciprocal relationship to nature and mindful, slow travel. 

Over the last few months, Running on Joy has been bringing you some of these stories, along with personal reflections and interviews with patrons and collaborators. If you feel inspired, you can find out about future FareWays projects and how to support our fundraising efforts at www.thebighoof.com/fareways. 

For this episode, I travelled to Kent where I spent a beautiful weekend re-connecting with Richard Hansell, an actor and artist who joined us, like Zoe, at the halfway point of the journey. You can hear a short conversation with Richard in Chapter 5 of this series, where we thought about his expectations upon joining the group. On a sunny Sunday morning a few weeks after the journey to Iona, we sat down over steaming mugs of coffee and shared our reflections on the quiet transformations that occur through intentional movement; connection to the landscape, and meaningful conversation. It's a meandering, philosophical conversation, which is, as we touch on, much like a pilgrimage itself: an ode to the kind of friendship that you make walking alongside someone. 

With thanks to: The Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust, Gravis Advisory, Fera GB and Firepot Food for their generous support of the journey across Scotland.

Image: Jessica Lauman-Lairson

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Joy is...Good Stuff with Good People.

Jacob Martin is a maker of things: of photography, of films, of podcasts, of adventures and, through the adventures, both micro and epic, of stories. One such adventure, of the epic variety, last summer, was to cycle 4,722 miles along the European Divide Trail from Arctic Norway to the Atlantic Coast of Portugal, a feat that only twelve people had ever undertaken before. It’s a trip that Jacob has documented in a beautiful photo book Strangers Make Good Friends – a fitting title for a trip that was as much about relationships as about endurance. 

Jacob is a self-effacing, quietly mannered character, and much of our conversation revolved around the magic of imperfection, both in art and life. Together we reflected on the meaning of home; the importance of friendship in telling stories; empathy and the necessity for respectful, compassionate debate; self-belief and cultivating a ‘hot ticket’ mindset, and how we can still cultivate awe in an age of media saturation.

On the back half, after getting into the weeds of the European Divide journey and how what we deem ‘civilisation’ isn’t necessarily civilised, we dwelt on the ethical responsibility of content creation; the need for mindful consideration of how we contribute to culture, and how we value and respect the attention of our audiences.

Follow: @mid_nowhere

Read: www.midnowhere.co.uk

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The first post-journey interview of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and the British Pilgrimage Trust. FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health.

This July, our core team of four set out on a 200-mile adventure across St Columba’s Way in Scotland to raise money for the incredible work of the Venture Trust and, specifically, their new Outdoor Therapy Program, supporting the mental health of vulnerable 16 to 25 year-olds and ex service personnel. We were joined by over forty people at various points of the route, our aim being to break down what a runner, rider or hiker should look like and to open conversations around the benefits of a reciprocal relationship to nature and mindful, slow travel. 

Running on Joy has been bringing you some of these stories, along with personal reflections and interviews with patrons and collaborators. If you feel inspired, you can find out about future FareWays journeys and how to support our fundraising efforts at www.thebighoof.com/fareways. 

This episode was recorded over Zoom a week after the ride across Scotland, and is a conversation with Zoe Davison who joined us at the halfway point of the adventure. It was a great opportunity to delve more into Zoe’s own story, as well as to capture her reflections on how she was affected by her time with the 'Big Hoof gang'.

Follow Zoe: @zoe.davison

With thanks to: The Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust, Gravis Advisory, Fera GB and Firepot Food for their generous support of the journey across Scotland.

Image: @idabridgeman_photography

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Joy is...one foot in front of the other.

Annabel Abbs is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction whose most recent offering, 52 Ways to Walk, is full of clearly presented science; snippets of fascinating history, and an enthusiasm for how walking and being out in the world can help us tackle many of life’s challenges. Another recent offering, and Annabel's first foray into memoir, Windswept: Walking in the Footsteps of Remarkable Women, tells the extraordinary stories of eight women who walked long distances in wild and often remote places as they sought their own voices, including Simone de Beauvoir, Nan Shepherd, Georgia O’Keeffe, Gwen John and Daphne du Maurier. Annabel's short stories and journalism have appeared in various places including The Guardian, The Paris Review, Tatler and The Daily Telegraph.

There are so many take-aways form this conversation, whether you are approaching movement from a. literary, medical, mindful or theoretical perspective. Annabel and I certainly spoke about walking but walking as both a metaphor and a method: how we find and become ourselves through walking; how we walk away, walk through, walk back and walk towards; how walking allows us to leave and how it shapes our arrival; how we walk for expression, for freedom, for joy; how we walk to stay alive. 

Follow: @annabelabbs

Read: www.annabelabbs.com

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Joy is...Curiosity.

George Bauer is a Melbourne-raised trail runner, currently living in the Highlands of Scotland. Having run marathons and informal events across four continents, he now partners with brands to co-host holistic retreats, using yoga, trail running and profound connection to the food we eat as ways to re-connect with ourselves and those around us. Most recently, his work has led him to co-found Sundays, a creative community connecting people with the outdoors and movement through inspirational experiences and storytelling. 

George is someone who moves and creates in different ways and a lot of our conversation reflected on how being fluid and intentional with our movement, listening to our bodies and our surroundings, can allow us to create space for ourselves; reflect on our choices, and explore how we shape identity. Through embodying the stories we tell, perhaps, when presented with opportunities, we can practise ‘contagious vulnerability’; trust in our voices, and take the less travelled path. 

Follow: @_georgebauer @startwithsundays @airelibre.run

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The third in-the-field episode of a series following the FareWays project, a collaboration between the Big Hoof, Running on Joy and the British Pilgrimage Trust. FareWays aims to connect people to the outdoors through long-distance journeys on foot and horse along the old ways of the UK for the benefits of their mental and physical health.

This July, our core team of four set out on a 200-mile adventure across St Columba’s Way in Scotland to raise money for the incredible work of the Venture Trust and specifically their new Outdoor Therapy Program, supporting the mental health of vulnerable 16 to 25 year-olds and ex service personnel. We were joined by over forty people at various points of the route, our aim being to break down what a runner, rider or hiker should look like and to open conversations around the benefits of a reciprocal relationship to nature and mindful, slow travel. 

Over the next few months, Running on Joy will be bringing you some of these stories, along with personal reflections and interviews with patrons and collaborators. If you feel inspired, you can find out about future FareWays projects and how to support our fundraising efforts at www.thebighoof.com/fareways. 

This episode was recorded at the halfway point of the journey, an opportunity for both reflection and anticipation of the miles already travelled and those that lay ahead. I hope you enjoy being a fly on the wall to the conversations. 

With thanks to: The Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust, Gravis Advisory, Fera GB and Firepot Food for their generous support of the journey across Scotland.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.