Wellbeing activity – silly shoes

An activity brought to you by Mr Sweeney

I started working at Langley four years ago, having left a job at a standard Physiotherapy clinic. One big, and at the time, very exciting change was being able to wear our school PE kit as uniform. Smart, identifiable and comfortable – a nice add on to a new job. However, over the years of working at Langley I started to notice what I wore outside of work seemed to change too, as a result of having my mind up for me 5 days of the week. In taking on a new identity as a perceived ‘sports’ physio, other parts of my identity were fading away. One marked change was what I wore on my feet, as I now mostly owned proper trainers, rather than casual ‘not-really-trainers’ trainers. It might sound daft, but my wife noticed this first and asked ‘why don’t you wear colourful trainers any more?’. Next thing I knew we were in Chapelfield and I had my beautiful new kicks. May I present:

‘My silly trainers’

I am not one for marveling over possessions, but I do enjoy exploring hidden value in everyday things. Which I believe is another form of mindfulness, moreover practicing gratitude. These colourful Vans are not merely trainers. They:

• Remind me of skateboarding and snowboarding, which are two of my favourite sports and cultures. They remind me about…me
• Remind me of university, when I first started buying trainers that were a bit weird. a happy, identity building time of life
• In turn reminds me of when I first met my wife, as we met at university and we were both into outdoorsy adventure sports
• Make me grateful that I am fortunate enough to be able to buy such a silly pair of trainers – I can’t wear them everyday so they are a luxury item
• Make my kids giggle: ‘daddy in his clown trainers’
• Get me into random conversations with people who point them out
• They are my confidence boosting, memory provoking, talk to new people super shoes

Sometimes it is easy to dismiss what really makes things valuable. The price tag is not representative of value, it is representative of cost. Being mindful of what makes things valuable, leads to gratitude and subsequently identifies the reasons to try your best.

Why not have a go yourself. Choose everyday object or ‘thing’ that you love and take a moment to find value and meaning in it. An extra stretch would be to talk to your family about it, and spread the true meaning of ‘value’.