The Walking Guru – Self Empowerment in Action

If you go to your Doctor for stress related problems, she or he will likely tell you that perhaps the best treatment for stress is Meditation….

In our culture we are not educated to practice meditation. For many people it results difficult to sit down and be quiet. The mind is always busy.
Walking Meditation is a simple playful way to learn to direct and calm down your mind during Aerobic Walking exercise in the nature.

You approach relaxation from both sides: physically by using your body an adequate way and mentally by learning how to focus your mind. Meditation is not hard work, nor is Walking. It is easy. You learn it by regular training. Even 5 Minutes regularly are good to get started.

I teach Walking Meditation in different ways, according to the clients current understanding and openness. We combine  stretching and  breathing exercises, direct the focus from mind to body, do core muscle exercises to adjust body posture, use metaphors and visualizations. Information on how the body, metabolism, hormone system, fat-burning work help at the beginning to understand how the ¨system¨work and satisfy the mind with facts.

The actual meditation starts with becoming aware of the nature of the mind which is always busy thinking –  like a ¨monkey mind¨ moving from one issue to the next problem. Once you become aware that you can have control over your mind once you learn how to temporarily let thoughts go and find tranquility and peace is the step to relaxation and stress release. There are a few simple little exercises that help you to do so: observing your thoughts, just walk and wait for the next thought to come. ¨Label¨ the thought (business, family, health concerns, planning future, pondering about past…) as if you would drop it into a drawer and wait for the next thought to come…..

One step is learning to release the tension. We do a stretch and then focus on the tension in the stretched body part. Now we do a breathing exercise to learn how to release the tension.

¨The elevator exercise¨ is a step to learn direct your mind and at the same time have great physical benefit. A core muscle exercise using the image of an internal elevator helps you gain inner strength, a flat belly and cope lower backpain. You straighten up you body posture from inside. The physical posture has a positive impact on your mental attitude. You gain inner strength.

Once the mind starts calming down you become aware of your abilities beyond pondering over problems to find new solutions and choices that you could not imagine before. You might see problems as a hint to change something and take decisions that fit for you rather  than a never ending range of clouds preventing you from seeing the sun. Once you start the routine, only 5 minutes regularly, you quickly change from tension to release, from monkey mind to being in the moment.

For a little Audio Intro to guide you into Walking Meditation please email: emailmanuela@gmail.com or call 310 600 5144!

Enjoy the walk!