Mindful Walking - Walking Challenge Day 2

Ready to unlock the magic of mindful walking? This is Day 2 of the free walking challenge, part of the Walking & Talking with Helen podcast. 

We’ll talk about transforming your daily steps into a journey of present-moment awareness, while getting going on a coached walk.

The tips in this episode will help you:

• Reduce anxiety
• Reduce stress
• Build healthy habits
• Not let life pass you by

HIGHLIGHTS:

Mindfulness is the secret weapon that will help you sleep better, reduce anxiety, and  appreciate the little things.

Weaving mindfulness into your walks is like a mini meditation on the go.

Find your zone, get focused on the present moment, and hit your stride  Walking helps you get healthy while reducing stress.

Pay attention to your surroundings. There’s peace of mind and happiness in the details.   

Higher levels of gratitude equal lower levels of depression.

A powerful ADHD mindfulness  tip is to do mindfulness in “bursts.”

Join the community: Use the hashtag #walktalkwithhelen to share your mindful walking journey and connect with others.

You can do this walking challenge outside, or at home, while mall walking, or at the gym.

There’s a bell at the halfway point, so if you’re walking outside you’ll know you’re halfway there and can turn around and head back.

THIS WALKING CHALLENGE IS FOR EVERYONE:
Beginner or advanced, this walking challenge meets you where you are.

Check out:
Day 1 - The lesser-known benefits of walking

Resources:
Break My Stride (song), by Matthew Wilder for a dose of motivation
Yoga with Adriene (YouTube). Stretch after your walk with Adriene and her dog Benji.

PS. You can start this walking challenge whenever you want. Share with family and friends.  

Transcript

Hello day two of our walking challenge. So before we get really going you're just going to start with your warm up. If you're going outside just head on out and start with a warm up pace. Now one of my favorite songs of the 80s - which of course is all of the songs of the 80s, is Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder.

 “Ain't nothing gonna break my stride, nobody gonna slow me down. Oh no, I got to keep on moving.”

That's what we're going to do during this walking challenge. We're going to keep on moving and actually if you find that song and play it before you do your walk, you will feel like keep on moving because that's what we're doing. 

If you're doing this inside, if you can't walk outside for many reasons, I covered some things you could do day one. But you could try mall walking. You can go early and walk all through the mall. You can walk around your house. You could go on an elliptical, rowing machine, treadmill, of course. A bike. You can march in place, step side to side, like a high knee march.

If you want to make it harder, bring your hands above your head. There's lots of things you can do. I have people who clean when they're listening to my regular podcast. So you can do that to clean faster, clean harder, or even if you're just marching in place and you want to increase the intensity, you can do walking lunges, squats, squat jumps, whatever you want to do. 

Since we're going to be talking about mindfulness today, mindful movement, check in with your body a lot and feel for spots that are tense. Areyour hands are tense? Your feet are tense? A lot of times we don't notice that our feet are tense. So you want to check in with your body and just kind of see f you can reduce and release any of those tense spots. You want to get a harmony between your body and your breathing.
When you breathe in, you get that fresh oxygen and then you exhale and then you can kind of feel for what spots are still tense and kind of reduce those a little bit. Another deep breath in. We're going to do a lot of breathing because I am, like I said yesterday, I am the queen of the breathing.

I remember one time… here I go with stories again… I went to the at a wellness clinic and they wanted to send me, of course for extra expense, to their breathing person. And I'm thinking, you know, I literally get paid to sit on a bike and teach people how to breathe. I think I got this. I don't need to pay more money for the breathing because I think I know how to breathe and relax breathing and all of that. 

Plus when I was 14 I started those progressive relaxation cassette tapes and I learned how to breathe when I was doing that because I was trying to sleep even back then.
Try to put your phone on do not disturb. When I used to exercise when the kids were little (or I tried to exercise), and something would happen and then I would get interrupted. And I'd get mad then I'd stop working out and I would go eat ice cream Because I'm like, can I not get just like 10 minutes to myself??

In a few days we’re going to do a walking meditation. I've done one before, so if you have not listened to the Walking and Talking with Helen podcast, I think maybe episode 16 might have been a walking meditation. 

You’re going to find your rhythm. Find your zone. Your zone is when you feel really good. You've got to the point where you can hold on to this pace for a while , and you feel how strong your legs are, how strong your body is, everything's connected, you're breathing, you're getting lots of oxygen, and fueling your body with that oxygen. You're releasing endorphins, the happy chemical that happens when you exercise. You're just in that zone you want to get into that zone and clear your mind. That's what's really important right now. For us just to clear our minds and really connect with ourselves.
You're going to sync your walking to your breathing and your thoughts. So let's breathe one more time. Deep breath in through your nose, relax your stomach, let it poof out. Nobody's looking. And then exhale through your mouth, pull your stomach tight, and if you want you could even do some small stomach contractions while you're breathing out just to get that diaphragm of aware that you're doing something down there.
Last episode we talked about the different benefits of walking. You may not have heard it, so catch episode 1 and also refer your friends if you feel like anybody would benefit from this totally free challenge. I'm not selling you anything. I have nothing to sell, which makes it a lot easier. I just want to help out and I want to create new habits and get us all on the same track.

You don't have to start January 1st. You can start whenever you want. You can start in the middle of the night. You can start tomorrow. You can start next week. You can start whenever you want. If you do want to support the podcast and the challenge, I have a donation website Ko-fi.com/walkandtalk. And you can donate three dollars, five dollars, whatever you want to do or not. Because it's all good. 

Some of you may be like me in that we. are not real good about being in the present. We're going to find practical ways, real life ways, that we can be more mindful and not just with walking, but with other things.

And we can be more in the present. When I remind you to bring your shoulders down, I remind you to breathe. That's also mindfulness because eventually this will become a habit. Sometimes when you're stressed or let's just say you're walking fast, you're going up a hill, your shoulders are going to want to naturally come up by your ears, but that keeps you in a state of stress.

You're going to bring those shoulders down away from your ears. And that's part of the mindful walking. 

When I taught spin, everybody would work really hard, but feel good about it. They would work hard, come out feeling relaxed and happy. They weren't working hard and angry.

I always reminded them to connect with their body, to relax, to get into the music. I wasn't the focus. The music was the focus. Their bodies connecting to the music was the focus. And they just felt so good afterwards. Their minds were free and their minds were clear. And that's what we're going to work on here, doing it during the challenge and then doing it in our daily lives when we keep moving.

To be more present is to be aware of our breathing. So breath awareness, focus on your breathing to stay present. That also works if you're getting stressed or anxious. Focus on your breathing, slow down the breathing.

When you're walking, when you're doing things, where you feel like you're not connected, you're not present, your brain is floating somewhere in space, focus on that breathing.

Then engage your senses, engage your senses with each step. Note any sounds or any sensations, any smells. We live kind of in a farmish urban, that's not a real word, but a farmish urban area and sometimes we smell cows. Do you want to know a trick for that? It’s to take an essential oil, eucalyptus or peppermint, maybe put a little bit of oil or moisturizer on and just dab it at the outside of your nose (not inside).

And then you won't smell the cow poop or anything else you might have in your area. But you're going to focus with every step on engaging those senses. You're breathing, then engaging the senses. And then repeat a calming phrase with each step, so that you can get yourself in that zone. What is calming to you? You could, say good vibes, good vibes. You could say relax. You could say, breathe. You could say I'm grateful. There's a lot of things that you can say to yourself -something short, just to get into the rhythm, to put yourself in that mindfulness space.

Take another deep breath in now through your nose, and exhale through your mouth. Roll those shoulders. Remember to go through the techniques of being present, so your awareness of your breathing, using your senses, and then some kind of mantra that helps you get into that zone.

Mindful walking helps lower your stress hormone levels (your cortisol levels), because you're not stressed, you're reducing stress, and you're not thinking as much about reducing stress as you are increasing calm. Apparently, they say, the gurus, that when you say something negative, like “I don't want this,” then your mind doesn't hear the “don't” and it only hears “I want this,” which I don't know if it's true, but you know what? It can't hurt to try it. 

So think about maybe instead of “I don't want to be stressed,” you think about I want to increase my calm. I want to increase my well-being. I want to feel harmonious. Think about saying words like that to yourself in order to reduce those cortisol levels and to get your mind into mind-body harmony.

Sometimes it is hard to stay focused for long periods of time. If you have a hard time getting into mindful walking now, just do it for like five minutes and then think about something else. And then go back to the mindful walking. You're kind of doing intervals of mindfulness so that way, you don't completely get out of the mindfulness state and you don't get overwhelmed and just stop. It's okay if your mind wanders. Maybe that's the time for you to not be mindful.

And then you're going to go back to the mindfulness again. Meditation while moving is really amazing. A lot of us do meditation when we're laying down or sitting. I usually like to do it laying down, but there's something magical about moving your body while you're clearing your mind and really becoming more mindful.

Maybe it's just me but when I vacuum, I find vacuuming super relaxing. So I'm going to come over to your house and vacuum. Vacuuming is that repetitive motion. Same thing as spinning is very relaxing. Showering. There's something magical about the shower. Walking, gardening, mowing, any repetitive motion like that can really help get you into the more present space.

Express some gratitude while you're walking. Let's just say that you see something. I like sunsets. Sunsets sometimes make me cry because they are so beautiful. If you see a sunset, if you see a sunrise, if you see a cat, if you love cats, if you see a cute dog, kind of tie that into the gratitude that you're able to walk, you're able to get out there.
This is what you're seeing. And you're so grateful to see that dog, or you're grateful to see the sunset. You're grateful to see the green grass. 

Add that gratitude to your mindful walking. And also do some mindful observations. Notice the intricate details that are around you. Someone may have a really nice designed front yard. Or, maybe you'll see, a snail has left a really cool pattern. Or look at the flowers and see the details. Start to notice those things. That will really help also put you into a more relaxed, mindful and present state.

There are so many therapeutic effects of nature, and we don't usually think about those. Nature helps decrease our cortisol levels, which increases our calm and also gives us that overall feeling of well-being. There's something magical about being exposed to green spaces or seeing trees, seeing the water, a lake or an ocean.
And it really helps boost your whole mood and really your overall well-being. Notice the scents, notice the colors, notice the textures. Oh, look at this season. It's spring. These things are growing. It's winter. I see snow. Observe the nature around you. If you're in a more urban area, you can go to parks, city parks and gardens. One of my favorite things to do is to go look at street art. If you're in an urban area where they have street art, and you'd be surprised if you don't think they do, you can actually Google it and find out if there's street art and maybe there's even a street art map. And you can walk and find the street art.

There's plenty of beauty and creativity to be found in street art. And it really helps you feel better, more relaxed, more energetic. When you don't just walk past the street art, but seek it out. Find it. Imagine the details. What went through the artist's mind?
What are they creating? Not just regular graffiti, but you know, street art. It's pretty amazing. The detail and the thought process that goes behind that. And then you can look for water features. There's rivers, there's fountains, there's ponds, there are so many intricate fountains.

You can pay attention to those. You can connect with nature that way, even if you're not directly in the middle of nature. 

You can show me what you're seeing. You can show all of us what you're seeing about your walk. You can take video. I'd love to see your surroundings. You can take picture of your shoes. You don't have to take video. That would be really cool. And it keeps you accountable. If you commit to the walking challenge, then we can stay accountable together. Use the hashtag: #walktalkwithhelen.

We're going to touch on something that I learned when I was doing research for this episode. I had never heard of this before and it is called forest bathing. If you live near a forest, you might have bathed in the forest, but that's not what we're talking about here.

It's actually a Japanese tradition. Forest bathing is more about slowing down and engaging all the senses and the sights and the sounds and the textures.

But it's when you're in a place where you're surrounded by a forest or surrounded by the ocean or surrounded by farmland. That's as if you're bathing in it, you're surrounded by the quote unquote water. You're bathing in that whole experience. And that can really help you increase your mindfulness when you're out there walking.
Still feel your mindfulness when you do get home or when you stop walking because you might be walking indoors Try to keep that mindfulness with you. And if you want to do like an online yoga class.

I love Yoga With Adrienne. You could just even do that for 10 minutes and you can stretch and relax and just give yourself a longer period to stay in this mindful moment. I'm going to do another walking meditation. So catch that if you can. 
Just feel how good your body felt today. Feel how strong your body felt today. Feel clear your mind felt and just your body is humming with the happiness of moving. Your mind feels free. Your mind feels creative.

You're less stressed, less anxious.

Our senses are awakened. You're walking. You're breathing, feeling grateful, even feeling grateful for the simple things like your feet or your legs, feeling grateful that you're able to walk. 

And I'll see you tomorrow.