The path worth following is already calling

Lea Appleton smiling with arms crossed and wearing a denim jacket.

Find the courage for what's next.

Start here

Find Yourself

Something is shifting. Maybe it's loud, maybe it's quiet. A pivot, a question, a season that doesn't look like the last one.

The shift is worth following and begins with noticing. It begins with slowing down enough to see where you actually are.

That's the practice here. Mindful walking, time outside, paying attention. I've spent years at it, and I make things from the noticing—a book, a journal, a card deck, letters from the path—to walk alongside you in yours.

You're not the only one finding your way. Come walk.

Companions for the Walk

#1 Amazon Best Seller in Walking

Walking & Wayfinding:

Create Your Own Mindful Practice, One Step at a Time

“This book can be a day-to-day companion, not only on designated wayfinding walks but as we move through the hours and moments of every day.”

—Reader review

Available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Find your format

Also: Contributing author, chapter 20, "Walking Towards Well-Being: Wayfinding as a Mindful Practice" in Confident You: The Raw Conversations—Real Stories of Courage, Healing, and Redefining Confidence.

Available in paperback, ebook. Coming soon in audiobook.

Coming Next

Two new companions for the walk are taking shape:

The Wayfinding Journal: A Year of Walking Questions | a perpetual journal with a question a week that moves through Wayfinding as a practice.

The Wayfinding Card Deck | 52 cards, one for each week of the year, to carry, draw, and reflect on along the way.

Both of these are in the making. The journal will launch in Fall 2026. Sign up for Wisdom from the Wilderness. You'll get the monthly newsletter and you'll be the first to know when the journal and the card deck arrive.

From the Trail

I write about walking, the outdoors, and what I notice along the way over at the Hip Hiker Blog.

Walking & Wayfinding

An introduction to mindful walking. I’ve been thinking about walking and wayfinding for a few years now. I wrote a book about mindful walking (Walking & Wayfinding: Create Your Own Mindful Practice, One Step at a Time ISBN #979-8990113404) and I have been contemplating what that means on most of my walks since then! What I think is great about walking mindfully, is that I don’t believe it needs to be far, for a really long time, or even has to be in nature. Mindful walking ca

Mar 17

Lea's feet wear gray hiking shoes with bright aqua laces standing on cement next to gravel.

Why I like to walk

The best part of my (mostly) daily walks is getting outside. When I go out for a walk I am outside of my small office, which sometimes feels confining, and into a much larger, open expanse. Clouds, a breeze, trees, and sidewalks often feel more welcoming than my desk! Without walls and a roof, my walks themselves become the containers for my experience, finite in time and infinite in possibility. I imagine them like the Mason jars my mom and gramma used to make jam...they get

Oct 27, 2025

Lea standing the steps in front of the General Store in Kennedy Meadows.

The Story of My Hip

And how I had to learn some patience. Three and a half months after my total hip replacement surgery I found myself at the General Store in Kennedy Meadows, CA, a resupply place along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in the High Sierra mountain range in California. My first backpacking trip post-hip replacement surgery. While most everyone we met along the trail were headed to their next stop along the PCT, my husband I were hiking five miles and calling it a day. I was a little

Sep 4, 2025

Hi, I'm Lea.

I'm a writer, a walker, and the author of an Amazon #1 bestseller in Walking—Walking & Wayfinding: Create Your Own Mindful Practice, One Step at a Time.

I'm also a certified coach. My training is in helping people find their own way toward the changes they're reaching for in their life, their work, their sense of direction. That work grounds the way I think and write about walking and wayfinding.

Wild Wayfinding came after years of real work with real people and a decision to build something around what I'm doing now.

When I'm not writing, I'm outside. I garden. I photograph nature. I hike. I believe the trail teaches things the desk can't. And whether or not you ever walk one with me, you get the richness it brings me in everything I make.