A Phenomenoligical Experiment about A Metaphorical Journey Enacted as a Literal Journey

The exercise involves plotting a point on a map.

The nature of the point is irrelevent.

It should be somewhere that you have never been before, somewhere you have not been in a long time, or some place that has significant emotional resonance for you.

Before You Go:

You must do 3 things.

Pack 5 things in a bag, satchel, or backpack. This can include food or water for your journey.

Take an item of food, some sweet treat, or reward, a dougnut, a cookie, a slice of cake, a slice of pie, something that you would enjoy eating and tasting, something that you might look forward to at the end of a hard day. Take the item, and place it in the fridge, or on a counter - somewhere where you can easily imagine it when you cannot see it.

Next, crucially, take a small item of significant emotional resonance to you. This should be something that represents a part of you that you do not like; a part of your history that you would like to forget, a person that you would like to forget. Something you can do without, that for some reason, until now, you have been unwilling to part with. Ideally it should be small enough to fit in your hand. A small coin, a stone or a ring. Something that you could easily put in the smallest pocket that you have on your person.

Once you have prepared these things, you may, if you so choose, draw a map to the location you have chosen.

It is important that you do not rely on satellite mapping or professional OS maps.

When you have prepared this, you must set out on your journey.

Take as much time as is neccessary.

While on your journey you should do the following things:

First, think about the emotional weight of holding the item in your pocket.

Reflect on it. Think about what it means and how it feels. Think about the memories or the person it relates to.

Second, think about the sweet treat you have waiting at home. Think about how much it will mean to you when you arrive back after your long walk. Imagine the taste, and how sweet it will feel to consume your reward. Think about how much you want that sweet tasting thing at the end of your journey.

Third. Greet every stranger you pass. This can be as simple as a smile and a head nod, a tip of a hat, a wave, a small greeting, or even, if you are willing, a small conversation.

While walking think about the world around you, and the feeling of your body. The feeling of your feet against the ground, the feeling of your legs as they move, piston-like. Think about the air that you are breathing, the animals, and the sounds, and the sky. Think about how these things make you feel, and how they make you think about the object in your pocket, perhaps differently.

Do Not Turn Back. Do Not Look Back.

When you have reached your destination, you must perform a ritual, and bury the item. Under stones, or in the long grass, or under a box. Say a few words: a poem you prepared, say goodbye to a person, say goodbye to a past version of you. Say some thing honest, heartfelt, and transformative. Something you would not say to another person, or indeed, to the person you are saying goodbye to. Say it to the wind, and bury the object.

Then, return home.

On the return journey, if at all possible, take a different path. Try to find a new way and think about the following:

Think about the sweet treat that is waiting at home for you, the thing you did this for. Think that you have experienced something emotionally cleansing, or cathartic, or painful, or cleansing; but at least that sweet treat is waiting there at the end of your hard journey.

Think too about the weight of the absence of the object in your pocket. Meditate on your having given something away, and having moved on.

Think about that object and its presence in your heart, and the weight that it was pushing on you.

When you have thought about that, and you return home, think as you step in the door. Think about how excited you are to taste that sweet thing. 

Then, when you enter, take the object - the cake or the sweet or whatever it is, and give it away. Give it to a family member, or a pet, or a loved one. Give it to a neighbour. Whatever you do, realise that you cannot keep it, and it was not for you.