10 Ways to Make Walking a More Powerful Practice

WALKING CAN BE A TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICE

Photo by Oak & Olive

One step at a time is good walking.
Chinese Proverb

Today’s letter is about our good friend The Walk.

Call a friend up and ask her to go for a walk and she’s in.

We love walking. We don’t resist her.

But do we revere her? Is she a “good enough” workout? Heck — does she even “count” as a workout?

Or must she be more fully propped up with earbuds and a podcast to make her legit time?

Let’s explore Walking and discover some fresh possibilities in this trusted practice which remind us she is more than enough.

Why do we walk?

We walk to:

Connect with a friend and chat through life…there’s something about how the conversation just flows so effortlessly.

…
Learn, earbuds infusing us with all kinds of possibilities, our fave podcast just dropped a new episode or we’re devouring a new read on our library ap.

…
Care for our furry friends or our kids or our moms, all of who we know will too benefit from some movement.

…
Be healthy and fit. It’s a boost to get the steps in if we’ve been sitting too much, and heck add in some hills or pick up our pace and walking becomes a bit better.

But we’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible with a walk. And I’d like to share ten different ways I have used — and often use walking to support creating the life I want.

Which one will you try this week?

1) Walk to shift (big) emotions

I saw the shame rising in me. Mentally I could “see” the old stories ready to taunt me. How could I hide? Retreat? I wanted to pull the covers over my eyes and pretend them away.

AND I know shame needs to be visible, to be exposed, to be seen. And so I walked. I acknowledged the shame that had taken over my heart space: “Hey shame, I see you.” I said.

But it wasn’t simply my heart, I could feel my body steeped in it.

Walking was how I allowed myself to make shame visible, but I wasn’t going to allow it to settle in. I kept walking. And allowed my body to shift out of shame.

Walking can support with shame, anger, resentment, frustration. See them. Name them. Allow them to move through you with a walk.

2) Walk to be without expectations (a.k.a The Jenny Walk)

My friend Jenny walks in nature because it expects nothing of her. She feels unburdened.

Who doesn’t know a burden or two? Or feeling everyone wants everything of you now.

The shoulders feel heavy, The heart like it weighs a 1000 lbs.

On my walks, I remember this. And invite in lightness into my body remembering that in this time, in nature or wherever, nothing is needed of me.

3) Walk to remember your pace

Each of my sons have a pace ranging from inertia to chaos. My husband, my clients, the characters on my Netflix series.

Everyone has their own pace. And I see how I can so easily adjust and move to someone else’s.

Matching the pace of others is skillful I know. And sometimes I can feel myself moving too fast, too slow. And I can’t quite connect to me in it all.

A walk brings me to my pace. To my own sense of rhythm.

What is your pace? And is it the same everyday?

Your pace can be discovered when you walk. Set down the “raise the heart rate” agenda and walk with this question.

Be patient. Be curious.

4) Walk to integrate.

We are body, heart, mind and spirit.

Our body is the only part of us live in time.

Meanwhile our minds are going a mile a minute, our hearts feeling all the things and our spirits soaring or tanking….

Walking allows, almost effortlessly a way to bring all of these important parts of us together — integrating our experience. Helping us return to a place of one-ness with ourselves.

To me, integration is a deep sense of processing where we invite all of ourselves in because all of us has been in the mix.

5) Walk to mediate

Recently a friend told me she can’t meditate. In her next breath she told me about her powerful walking practice (she’s about to do the Camino again), and I could feel that walking was her meditation.

Walking is her way of coming back to the moment, back to the present and to simply be with what’s alive now.

6) Walk to settle overthinking

I yield to overthinking so easily, my brain loves to roll around in the mud of the thing well beyond the amount of time it needs to.

Overthinking keeps me from taking action as she promises safe harbor and that eventually she’ll shore up an answer or the clarity I need. There is a part of me that feels safe in overthinking, and I know there is a point where my mind is no longer the best participant in my challenge.

So to settle my mind (and invite my body along) I’ll walk. In this kind of walk I like to walk for as long as I can, especially if I’m yearning for clarity or mental stillness, the longer I walk, the more things sort themselves out.

7) Walk to be with the unknown

I have been known to seize control more than once. Actually, control is an old pattern that sprouts every time I feel like it’s all up to me.

It’s an exhausting belief TBH — often I am required to take (my) part in the action, but to hold onto work or relationships so fiercely because I believe all will unravel is painful.

I need to acknowledging Mystery and remember it is Not All Up to Me.

Hauling my contracted self outside and beholding nature, especially the majestic 120 ft trees reminds me it is not all up to me. I can settle into “participation” in something larger, and see that so much around me happens in spite of me.

For what it’s worth, I’ve never received an email or text from nature asking me for help. All on her own she arrives. (It’s also not all up to you either.)

It’s a welcome dose of humility and perspective and invites in a curiosity to be a part of the mysterious collective.

8) Walk to insert spaciousness

I walk to remind myself that I am both connected to what matters — my people — my kids and I am separate. It’s both.

And on a walk, I can insert that spaciousness in and feel me, my body, myself, just me.

This practice is a welcome dose of sanity in holiday months when the house is full of my wee collective of 4 humans. I am a “we” and a member of this group which is 3/4 male and I am also Susan, woman, mother, and oh so much more.

Walking helps me feel the contours of me. And then, at those contours is space.

9) Walk to create margin

I work from home. And it’s my home.

To honor work and life and create margin between them I often walk around the block. I also work in time blocks and I’ll put margin between them as well,

Walking helps me delineate between the important parts of my life allowing me to feel into the larger weave of my life.

10) Walk to innovate

Sometimes ideas need space. They emerge, they’re full of life, and they want attention.

Some problems don’t have immediate solutions, or we’re locked in the old way of solving it yearning for a new approach.

Walk with your seed. Keep watering it with attention.

When we walk, all of our wisdom becomes more accessible creating the alchemic conditions for your magic to emerge.

How will you walk today?

Your Body, and walking as practice reminds us that our body is more than a machine, it’s the main instrument of our life.

May your body in this walking practice, bring you to a new place of reverence for what’s possible when we invite her in.