As I was walking at the gym track this morning I was watching the many people as they passed me; mainly runners and power-walkers. Keeping in mind that I don't like either of those exercise formats, the question that kept hitting me was, 'are they enjoying it?' If they’re not, why are they doing it? What’s motivating them? Especially the power-walkers. Maybe it’s because I don’t quite understand the point of power-walking (maybe that’s just me).
Why are they pushing their bodies like that? Is it because they have goals? Is it because it feels good? It didn’t look like it felt good (again, my own personal bias). It looked like they were on a mission, pushing their bodies to the limit. Were they enjoying the discomfort of pushing themselves? I can only hope they were enjoying it, or enjoying the end result of it, or feeling a sense of satisfaction at meeting their goal. Something that gives value to the moment.
Too often, we get caught up in the autopilot of our lives. We get up at 6am, drive to the gym, start the run. On autopilot.
A friend and I were discussing the value of disrupting your autopilot and the awareness that comes from that disruption when you choose a new path to wake you up and get you focused.
After driving the same route home for 2 years, what if you took a new route? You’d be paying attention, right? To the street signs, the traffic, the lights, and the stores on the street in an entirely new way - because it was all new. Your brain lights up with so many new changes to be aware of.
So how do I stay aware in my moment of walking when it’s so repetitive? According to Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, I should engage in mindfulness. And I think he is definitely on to something.
Thich Nhat Hanh and I have been spending a lot of time together; By that I mean I've been reading a lot of his books. The one thing that keeps coming back to me is his emphasis on enjoying the moment. Every moment. He claims happiness is always available to us, so I've been paying attention to how I can apply this in my everyday experience. This thought first occurred to me as I was walking on the gym track this morning, which is I how I came to try out mindful walking.
I wanted to enjoy my walking experience. There, already on the slow side of the track, I slowed my walk.
Thich Nhat Hanh talks about meditative, mindful walking as the experience of slowing your gait and focusing on each step, the feeling of your foot hitting the earth, the firmness of the step, the energy that ricochets up your leg, how your body holds itself as it makes the step. Every sensation of the walk is given your entire focus.
The goal is to feel and embrace each movement in your body.
So that's what I did. I emptied my mind and focused on walking. I felt my body as I took each step, focused on how my body was feeling as each foot hit the ground. And I just noticed. My right hip felt super tight and my range of motion felt off. My gait felt different because of it.
After a few minutes of this, I noticed my shoulders felt stiff as well, so I started rolling them. It felt like I was oiling my body up just like the tin man. Where was I creaking? How could I move to learn more about the feeling? What movement could I make that would ease the feeling and help it feel better?
After a few more minutes, I realized I wasn’t connected to my pleasure. I felt no pleasure in walking (an experience I had been building in past walks). So I slowed down some more. And then I slowed some more. And some more. I had to slow down a lot, actually. It was quite eye opening.
But there was a point at which, once I slowed my walk enough, I stopped focusing on where I was going and started focusing on how freaking PLEASURABLE it felt to be walking and moving my body.
As I continued the walk, I would lose focus on my mindful walking, causing my pace to gradually increase as my brain started speeding up. I would lose the connection to my body (bye bye pleasure) as both my thoughts and my body started racing once again.
My brain had to signal to me every few minutes: You sped up again, girl. Slow it down and let it feel good.
Allow yourself to just be. Invite in pleasure. By slowing down, you allow yourself to receive the pleasure of the experience. It's almost like you have to slow down enough for the pleasure to catch you. If you run to fast, you outrun the pleasure.
And isn’t that just like life? You don’t realize how fast you’re going or that you’re not enjoying it because you’re too caught up in where you’re trying to get to. All those thoughts of what you’ll do once you get there, whether that destination is a time (like 10am) or a place (like home).
The brain jumps ahead to plan. Every time I fell into that mindset I sped up my walking pace (on autopilot once again) and it stopped being pleasurable. I had to keep slowing myself down. I had to keep reminding myself of the present moment, of the feelings my body was experiencing.
I only went about 30 seconds before I would need to slow down again.
I got lapped tens of times by the same people. Old, young, runners, walkers, you name it. But I guarantee I enjoyed that walk more than anyone else on that track. And if I didn’t, I don’t care because I freaking enjoyed it. It felt amazing.
I moved my body. I worked up a sweat doing it, too. I probably activated every muscle in my body by allowing it to move so slowly and intentionally. And with good posture, no less, which surprised the heck out of me - it felt better that way, even though my posture is generally horrible.
I just wanted to be aligned and feel good. That was it. That was the mission. And that mission was absolutely accomplished.
By the end of that walk, I was swinging my hips loosely and just letting life flow.
And it felt good.
Instead of going to the gym and punishing my body with a workout, I rewarded it with a pleasurable experience that just happened to burn calories and build muscle. I got aches in new posture-related places, growing those muscles to hold me upright more consistently (because whoo is my posture terrible).
Walking mindfully made the experience of exercise pleasurable. And easy, but it absolutely requires focus. You can find pleasure and joy in a moment like this, but you have to look for it. And it takes some experimentation to find it.
And you have got to slow down. Take the time to experiment with what feels good. It will be worth it.