Haven’t we all heard of the phrase: be the best version of yourselves? It’s a cliched phrase but it does send out strong signals to your brain to work on your self to actually become a better version of yourself.

This is where Walk With Your Wolf comes, as it seeks to encourage the readers to walk and sort our issues at the same time. Walking has been highly regarded as one of the best forms of exercise and therapeutic as well.

Walking Therapy

Jonathon Hoban is one of the leading psychotherapists in London and he’s written an entire about a new form of therapy he’s perfected: The Walking Therapy.

Now, who would have thought that we now need a book that tells us how to walk, right? I mean, we all know how to walk. We all know how many steps to take. We all take our music with us and walk/ run to that music.

As much as I being a skeptic, I decided to give his book a go ahead, and I have to say that my mind has been changed. It took a while for me to get into the book, but Jonathan does put across some great ideas.

One of the surprising things he shares is that as a psychotherapist, he also shares his life story with his client (of course, when he deems it sensible to share). This is usually frowned upon in the realm of therapy, but for Jonathan, it works because his clients feel more open and end up sharing more. I’ve personally experienced this as well when I’ve shared something small from my personal life, the clients open up massively.

As Jonathan shares about his clients’ issues, he suggests to them to embark on a walking therapy with him. It is here at this moment that clients really start to open up, and not feel confined and restricted within the four walls of a therapist’s office.

Walking Diary

One of the things Jonathan suggests is to maintain a walking diary. I know a lot of people struggle with keeping a journal or even writing, but this can also be done on your phone. Just recording your thought processes will help you identify your thought patterns, and then you can easily work on what needs to be worked on. This is where you will be able to see how to work with your intuition to develop more confidence and gain power in your life.

Wolf

The book covers various aspects of life, such as self, shame, burnout, grief, addiction, and spirituality. Jonathan does a fabulous job of leading his readers through the process of walking. He lays down various questions to ponder over the next time we go out for a walk. He does advise the reader to preferably walk in parks, where you can connect with nature and reap the full benefits of communing with the earth. Walking in a busy city environment will be counterproductive.

Grief

The chapter that really helped me was the one on grief. When I walk today, I keep Jonathan’s words in my mind as I deal with the loss of my own father’s death. It’s been five years but grief takes its own time to play out in my life. As he says in the book, there is “no right or wrong way to grieve.”

Because he speaks like a psychotherapist, I can understand where he is coming from, and so his questions make a lot of sense to me. He has also helped me deal with identifying those triggers that cause me to experience grief, and thankfully that has worked out wonderfully well for me.

I would highly recommend this book to those who love walking and are also looking to sort out life’s issues. Even if you don’t have any issues, the idea of walking in moments of gratitude can be hugely beneficial. I would also highly recommend this to other psychotherapists who may use this treasure of walking as a way to help their clients.