By Debra Bokur
Follow a path that leads to better health and greater harmony
Centuries ago, Greek physician Hippocrates wrote that “walking is man’s best medicine.” Perhaps he knew intuitively that someday science would prove him correct, crediting a regular walking program with a host of positive health benefits, including weight loss, muscle conditioning, improved cardiovascular health, offsetting osteoporosis, and lowering the risk for diseases including diabetes, depression, and heart disease. Whether you’re leading, following, or striding along alone, walking can lead you along a path to better health and a less-stress filled existence.
“Walking is a low impact activity that smoothly and repetitively works the major muscle groups of the body, legs, trunk, even arms, providing total body and aerobic conditioning,” says Mark Fenton, internationally recognized host of America’s Walking, and author of numerous books including The Complete Guide to Walking for Health, Weight Loss, and Fitness (The Lyons Press, Rev. Ed., 2008), and co-author (with Andrew Weil, MD) of Walking: the Ultimate Exercise for Optimum Health (Sounds True, 2006). Adds Fenton, who studied the biomechanics of walking at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “It requires no special gear, instruction, equipment, or location. It can be done anytime and any place, and at any intensity level, from intense power walking or rugged hiking to functional transportation and contemplative strolling. Research confirms again and again that even a moderate daily thirty-minute walk reduces the risk for a host of chronic diseases and an early death.”
REFLECT
It’s almost too simple: lift one foot up, put it down in front of you, then repeat with the other one. While it’s hardly complicated, the rhythmic motion of walking does far more than allow us to flirt safely with gravity. While intense fitness walking prompts the release of endorphins that deliver a sense of well-being – or even euphoria – spiritual walking conveys its own rewards, including the opportunity for contemplation and reflection. At least for the duration of our stroll, we are able to suspend the cares and worries that too often define daily life.
Labyrinth walking is one way to step into a contemplative state of mind. An ancient symbol that exists in many cultures, the spirals and turns of a labyrinth can be an image that represents the journey inward. The act of walking a labyrinth can be both prayer and an exercise in deep focus. Taking a single step at a time among a path of stones, tiles, branches, or sand, and pausing for contemplation before moving on, can bring an amazing sense of calm. And, while it does provide structure for contemplation, an organized labyrinth is not essential. The same benefits can be achieved by approaching any walk with mindfulness and intention.
“I feel that mindful walking is not for propelling us forward as much as it is for slowing us down. For many people, walking mindfully is more comfortable than sitting in meditation,” says Amy McDonald, who is widely recognized as an innovator in transformational spa programming. Before opening her own consultancy, McDonald served as spa and program director of El Monte Sagrado Living Spa. “Walking can be a form of meditation, especially in nature. Don’t be afraid to wait, and ask for an intention to come to you while you’re doing it. So often, we sabotage our own experience by demanding too much of ourselves. Just be okay with yourself and trust that whatever happens, it is usually more than enough for most of us.”
Fenton adds, “because walking is such a familiar, natural, and rhythmic motion, it not only provides the tremendous health benefit of reduced chronic disease risk and longer life, it is also a wonderfully calming and spiritually restorative activity.”
During a meditative walk, you may find answers to problems, or great inspiration. Fenton, who was, for many years, a competitive athlete who competed for the US Racewalking team, admits that slowing down is often still a personal struggle.
“I regularly need my walking to help me slow down and regain perspective,” he says. “Mindful walking is often the eye of a storm that is an otherwise hectic and sometimes overwhelmingly busy life; it’s the moment of calm that can help put it all back in perspective. Through walking, I have come to value a much vaster perspective on healthy lifestyles and the need for not just physical fitness but also social awareness and spiritual balance. My walking has brought me to [recognize]the need to create more sustainable, ‘walkable’ communities which are friendlier to foot traffic and thus environmentally, socially, economically, and physically healthier. In fact it’s nothing less than my life’s work.”
Tip: Begin each walk with a simple intention or prayer, and turn your thoughts inward as you move forward. Breathing deeply and regularly, set a slow, rhythmic pace that’s conducive to letting your thoughts free-associate as you contemplate a specific objective or simple mantra, such as Today, I move through the world with grace and thanks for all the blessings in my life.
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