Walking Mindfully

Walking mindfully involves being fully present and aware of the body, allowing you to connect deeply with yourself and to quieten the mind. This practice can reduce stress, enhance mental clarity, and foster a greater sense of well-being. Join me in this talk and walking meditation, to discover the joy and tranquility of being fully present with your body as you move.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this talk on walking mindfully.

I'm Dawn,

I'm a coach,

I'm an author and a workshop leader and I also used to be an alexander technique teacher and this is what I'm going to be basing my talk on today because I spent years helping people use their body with less tension and more ease.

So why have I called this talk walking mindfully?

Well it's all about becoming much more aware of how we use our body.

When we walk,

Bringing our attention to the physical actions that are taking place.

But that's not all we can do.

We have the potential as we notice what we're doing to make small changes,

To do things slightly differently,

In a way that will allow the body to move with more ease and far less strain.

The body has evolved over thousands of years to move efficiently and effectively and unfortunately when we get caught up in our heads we can interfere with this.

So in this talk I'd like to introduce to walking in a way that's lighter,

Freer but does require our conscious awareness.

This talk is split into two parts.

So first of all I'll give you a number of ideas that I've got for walking with more ease and more mindfully and in the second half I'm going to do a very short walking meditation.

Make sure you've got space around you to move freely without falling over or hitting anything.

So let's begin.

Keep breathing.

So my first idea for thinking about moving more mindfully is don't forget to breathe.

I know this sounds so obvious but when we're walking it's all too easy to allow our thoughts to drift.

Perhaps we're thinking of all the chores we need to get done,

Issues with colleagues or family members or mulling over what we're going to do tomorrow.

We can get completely caught up in our thinking and the result is we completely forget about our physical bodies.

When we're caught up in thoughts that make us feel tense we often start to hold our breath and so without knowing it we can be walking around moving without knowing that we're holding our breath.

So notice where you're holding tension in your body as you walk and breathe,

Keep breathing,

Ease into that area.

Walk tall.

There can be such a temptation to shorten our stature by hunching ourselves down,

Shortening through the spine,

Collapsing and crunching down into the hip joints.

Start to be aware of all that wonderful space above your head.

Resist the temptation though to pull yourself up as you walk because then unfortunately you can start to create tension.

Rather think of this as being more like a gentle lengthening process in the whole body.

Lead with the top of the head rather than the chin or the chest.

Keep your eyes active and notice,

Look at what you can see around you.

Use your back for support.

When we're walking mindlessly,

So often our attention can become focused on the front of our bodies and this is especially true if we're in a rush.

Just see if you can notice this for yourself the next time you're walking along in a hurry.

It's almost as if we are pulling ourselves forward with our attention down the front of our chest but you'll stand taller if you start to use your back muscles in the way they're supposed to be used.

So here's how.

Take a step backwards and just notice how this helps you feel more aware of your back,

Maintaining this feeling of back awareness as you take a step forward.

If it helps you can imagine that you're almost gently falling backwards as you go forwards,

Not enough that you fall but just enough to engage your back muscles.

Keep the hip of your moving leg under your body.

Try to avoid throwing the hip of the moving leg forward with a straight leg as you take a step.

Rather softly bend the leg from the hip,

Knee and ankle joints,

Keeping the hip back under your body.

This will help you maintain stability as you move forward.

Use your standing leg.

Keep your focus on the standing leg rather than the moving one as you step forward.

When your attention is all on the moving leg your standing leg is already getting ready to take the next step and you'll be far more wobbly.

Allow the standing leg to lengthen and keep a firm connection between the foot and the ground.

Maintain this easy lengthening all the way up your body so that you're not sinking into the hip of the supporting leg.

Take smaller strides.

Take a large step forward and notice what happens to your lower back.

You'll probably notice a tightening or more tension in this area as well as in the hip which can over time lead to strain.

So get into the habit of taking smaller steps so that your body can move with more ease.

Walk lightly.

Peel your feet off the floor,

Heel first as the knee moves forward rather than bring up the entire foot in one go and think about placing it gently on the ground.

This way you'll avoid jarring your joints.

The walking meditation.

So standing hip width apart,

Take a few deep breaths and notice your feet on the floor and your head rising towards the ceiling of the sky and just take a moment to think about softly lengthening between these two points and you can also think about widening your body as well so you're not narrowing to become longer.

Thinking of three points of contact and your feet with the floor under the big toe,

The little toe and the heel.

Shift the weight until your weight is even between them.

So allowing the ankles to be movable.

Thinking of the knee softening and the thigh muscle releasing away from the hip joint and as I said earlier keep breathing as you're stood here widening and lengthening.

So as with the earlier exercise we're going to be allowing our back muscles to support us as we walk forward.

So take a step backwards and just notice how this helps you feel more aware of your back.

Maintain this feeling of back awareness as you move through the exercise.

If it helps you can imagine that you're almost gently falling backwards as you go forwards.

Not enough that you fall but just enough to engage your back muscles.

Allow your back to lengthen and widen just through thinking that.

There's nothing that you have to do,

Just have the thought that that's what's happening.

So just start to take a few slow steps forward as I'm talking,

Thinking about your back muscles as you walk and I'll bring your attention to different parts of the body as we go.

There can be such a temptation to shorten our stature by hunching ourselves down,

Shortening through the spine but start to be aware of all that wonderful space above your head.

Resist the temptation to pull yourself up,

Rather just think of it as being a gentle lengthening process in the whole body.

Use your eyes as you walk,

Look around you,

Notice what you can see.

Keep the line of sight up so that your head is up and you're looking around at eye level.

Allow the ankle joint to be movable and flexible.

Allow the knee to come forward a little,

Thinking about it pointing forwards and lengthening out of the supporting leg and the ankle's flexible so that the leg raises off the floor.

Keeping our attention in the supporting leg so that you're balanced and stable,

Allow the standing leg to lengthen.

Keep a firm connection between the foot and the ground and maintain this easy lengthening all the way up your body so that you're not sinking into the hip of the supporting leg and notice the hip feeling free and spacious.

Take a step forward,

Softly bend from the hip and the ankle joints,

Keeping the hip back end of your body.

This will help you maintain stability as you move forward and then place the foot down a little way in front of you,

Not too far.

The bigger steps you take,

The more tension you'll create in your lower back.

So taking short steps forward so that you can walk with more ease and all the time thinking of gently lengthening up through your body.

So take a few more steps forward now,

Thinking of bending the knee joint,

Using the back muscles to support you and lengthening and widening up through the body and you can also think about walking lightly.

So again,

Just keep on taking steps forward slowly,

Deliberately thinking of all the points we've covered so far,

Mindfully being aware of every part of your body.

Think of the back supporting you,

Feel your back muscles working for you,

Your joints,

Your ankles,

Your knees and your hips are free and spacious as you move,

The knee bending and pointing forwards.

Lengthening up as you move as well as widening,

Looking up as your head moves into that space above you and your attention in the supporting leg.

Taking small steps and then walking lightly by peeling your feet off the floor heel first as the knee moves forward rather than bring up the entire foot in one go.

Think about placing it gently on the ground.

This way you'll avoid jarring your joints.

Taking a few steps forward,

Feeling light,

Spacious,

Lengthening and remembering that you're doing this with body mindfulness,

You're moving with ease.

So now you're all set to go.

For many,

Walking is a way to get mindlessly from one place to another but we can start to use our body more mindfully.

So thank you so much for joining me on this Walking Mindfully.

I'd love you to join me for more talks,

Courses and lives.

So have a look at my profile,

Follow me if you haven't already done so and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Bye-bye.