Walking is a great weight-bearing exercise for all ages. Go outside, take a deep breath of fresh air, throw your shoulders back, and take your first step. Feel your mood sweeten without screen distractions. Walk with a tall, elegant attitude, a just-right gait. This is a true life-savor, and saver: pleasurable, uplifting, and sanity restoring.
At my age, balance is especially important. I exercise balancing by walking curbs on roads without traffic. Focusing just ahead of my feet, arms out for balance, I take step after step. Some days I am surefooted, sometimes I’m wobbly. I try to just focus on staying on track. Thinking about my steps or judging my performance interferes with flow, and what might otherwise be a dynamic meditation, a faster, fun version of zen traditions.
A third way I incorporate walking and meditating is my invention of the psych hike. I use this practice when my head is full of thoughts to sort out a conflict of some kind, a quandary: Should I pick “A” or “B”? What’s the better way to handle a problem, or direction to take? Adapting the “aware ego process” I learned in Voice Dialogue study, I use my walk─ and the road too─ to listen to voices ruminating inside, competing for attention, and for my vote. I fully listen, and speak out loud whatever thought is being ‘voiced’ in my mind in a way that centers me, clarifies things.
Here’s the practice in a nutshell: Beginning in the middle of your pathway, choose a subject to attend to. Then give voice to your thoughts as they come up. When one side of the issue begins presenting its argument, move your body to the right or left side of the path. Stay on that side until one of two things happens: (1) You get silent, feeling a pause for the moment. Move back to center path, awaiting any further ideas to arise, any further side moves. (2) An opposing side/voice inserts itself into your sorting process, taking over. Cross over to the opposite side of the path and continue airing this differing POV. When you sense the next shift within, you’ll either move back to center, or to the opposite side again. Repeat!
Try to not identify with the egoic, arguing voices. Instead, just give them room to be heard in a non-judgmental, respectful manner. Let your movements be organic, natural, honest, zig-zagging you with the shifting of inner prompts. Try to embrace all the points of view, and breathe through any discomfort. This Deep Listening Technique really moves energy. While physically moving your body, choreographing a trail dance, you’re also shifting energy in your mental, emotional, spirit and subtle bodies. You’re clarifying what’s ‘alive’ in you right now, what matters most. Discover which “primary” voices and beliefs you’ve identified with and which you’ve “disowned,” influencing whether you feel powerful or vulnerable. Acknowledge archetypal characters on stage or in the wings of your psyche: Child, Parent, Teacher, Rebel, Responsible One, Artist, Know-It-All, Lover, Ruler, Higher Self. Uncover the fascinating ways they interact to affect your life.
I get a stress recess whenever I invite the alchemy of opposites to unfold, as I talk my walk. It’s off the emotional teeter totter, out of the mind-chatter and onto the trail of well-being and healthy living. By the time I’ve listened fully to all reasoning voices, I’m walking fully centered on the path. And? I’m centered within myself, balanced, aware, invigorated.
Get walking! Even at home in your house, it can be a welcome salve-ation. Want to know more? I’d be pleased to help you exercise your options for truly being well. Shining deLight, Marcia
