Try meditation in motion for a new life perspective
WALKING is one of the best ways of keeping fit, though you might think of it as boring. Though that’s like thinking breathing is a boring way of getting air into your lungs.
It’s not surprising if you think walking is pedestrian. After all, you do it every day without giving it a first, never mind a second, thought. Even dedicated couch potatoes don’t think about the trek from bed to kitchen to couch. Attitudes to walking are really just familiarity breeding contempt. You’d be wise not to be too contemptuous.
I call walking “free medicine” as it’s a powerful, safe and natural way of boosting health in body and mind. You don’t need special equipment or apparel, apart from loose clothing and comfortable walking shoes. And it doesn’t take much to get you going. Just one foot in front of the other.
You don’t have to walk that far. You’ve probably been told a thousand times to take at least 10,000 steps a day for optimum physical activity. A pedometer or other device helps you check how many steps you take. I don’t wear one because I just know my OCD/ADD tendencies would have me checking it all day long.
Unlike running, and its slower cousin, jogging, you don’t have to walk fast to get health benefits. You don’t have to look like a cock-a-hoop rooster on steroids, as race walkers do. Their gait wouldn’t look out of place in Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks.
One of walking’s many benefits is that it’s weight bearing. In other words, you carry your own body weight when doing it.
Weight-bearing exercise boosts cardiovascular and pulmonary (heart and lung) fitness, significantly reducing heart attack and stroke risk.
Walking helps to manage conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure, which is epidemic in SA), joint and muscular pain or stiffness, and diabetes; it increases muscle strength and endurance.
There are ways to get more out of walking: walking up a hill or incline, walking with hand weights, or doing high-intensity interval training combining fast and slow walking speeds.
Best of all is walking “mindfully”. Zen and other Buddhist traditions stress mindfulness in walking as it turns walking into meditation in motion. That’s important because, contrary to what you might think, meditation isn’t something you do only when sitting still in the lotus position — if you can even get into it.
Years ago, I interviewed a visiting Tibetan Llama who was in SA to teach Buddhist meditation for health, and asked whether he meditated every day.
He looked quizzical. “My dear, with that question, you show me you have no understanding of what meditation is.”
“What should I have asked?” I said, a little miffed, since I thought I understood lots about Buddhist meditation.
He replied: “What you probably wanted to ask was: do I sit in meditation every day. Meditation is not something you do only when sitting. You should do it throughout life, even when making a cup of tea.”
For starters, walking mindfully wakes you up to your body. When communication lines are open between brain and body, you become more awake and sensitive to your needs, whether nutrition, restful sleep or exercise.
Mindful walking gets rid of all the “noise” your “monkey mind” makes as it darts through your grey matter’s neuro-trees.
When you walk mindfully your mind, naturally and easily, comes to rest — making it a restorative, regenerative, rejuvenating activity.
Mindful walking isn’t timeconsuming to learn. It starts with walking lightly on your feet.
Barefoot walking is brilliant for mindfulness, but not always practical. And while it may seem easier to walk mindfully in a beautiful setting, you may not always have the luxury.
It’s possible to walk mindfully with children. In fact, walking with children can be mindfulness in action — it makes you see things through new eyes; it gives you permission to lose your inhibitions: it’s easier to skip, jump and dance madly in public with a child attached to your arm.
Here are more tips to get you walking mindfully: Head up, chin tucked slightly in; Walk at a medium pace, so you can speak without becoming breathless — but keep speech to a mindful minimum;
Look around, focus on sights, sounds, and how your body feels;
Let your arms dangle by your sides and curl all your fingers slightly in;
Breathe deeply and naturally, like a baby; then “Let the earth carry you”. That way, you’ll learn to walk in the rain, not just get wet.
Mindful walking … starts with walking lightly on your feet