Posts Tagged ‘walking’

Contrary to popular belief, meditation doesn’t have to happen alone in a room, in full lotus, body silent and still.

No, in fact sometimes the most satisfying meditations happen on your feet, outdoors and covering ground.  Certainly, by now, we are all aware of the benefits of walking.  It has been the foundation to many a weight loss program as it’s inexpensive, outside of a good pair of shoes, it can be done anywhere and anyone can do it.  But can we truly achieve a meditative state by doing it?

Many of us already enjoy walking for some meditative benefits already.  Communing with nature, enjoying fresh air and clearing one’s head, all wonderful aspects to a low-intensity, heart pumping activity that can be done right outside your door.

Up until about two years ago, I walked as I run, not to the beat of my heart or to the sounds of the surrounding outdoors, but to the ear-splitting tunes filling my head.  I will likely always need music to help move and motivate me through a run, but it only took one walk without my earbuds to convert me to the centring, perspective gathering benefits of a brisk walk in peace and quiet rather than a brisk walk, thoughts and mind overwhelmed by the intense beat of drums and base.

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I think by now everyone is familiar with Oprah’s revelatory January ’09 issue where she essentially came out of the closet about “falling off the wagon”.   While I, along with millions of others, have followed her weight loss battles over the past two decades, I found this admission, accomampanied by the before and after picture on the cover of her magazine, to be particularly admirable.

Given my own experience over the past six months or so, I found it resonated pretty profoundly.

I began this blog, or more accurately, plog (practice + blog), to provide some additional motivation to implementing and maintaining a regular practice schedule in addition to initiating a forum to connect with others plagued overwhelmed with good intentions.  At the time I began writing here over a year ago, I was close to the best shape of my life.  In the months following, my fitness continued to improve as I trained for two shorty triathlons, and when all was said in done after these events, the last being July 1st of last year, I was feeling- and looking- pretty darned good.

However, sitting here eight months later, for a variety of reasons and excuses, the story is dramatically different.  I am up two pant sizes… my practice is, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, undulating… and, between work, travel and winter, my usual training routine has never really re-gained any real traction.

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