Walk back to you

Can you feel it?

The very last of summer is lifting up through the trees, the silver birch is shedding golden leaves; the season is shifting. Cooler, darker mornings, even darker evenings and advent calendars are in the shops as consumer outlets everywhere chivvy us towards Christmas.

It’s easy to look ahead and shudder at the coming of winter, but if you can focus on the now, you’ll find autumn has an abundance today these days seems to get lost in the rush towards the year end.

Perhaps it’s a consequence of globalisation that harvest time and its festival doesn’t have the role to play it once did. We are not so reliant on what grows around us and so we don’t focus on the gift of autumn. Which seems a shame, because it is a beautiful time of year.

Developing a mindful walking practice in autumn can transform your day, and it’s so easy to do. In theory!

When we walk, what do we do? Take the dog, plan our day, plan the week, think about what we’re cooking for dinner, doing at the weekend… we plan conversations, journeys, outfits, schedules. And yes, there’s a place for this, but ‘this’, this planning, this imagining, this playing out of scenarios… it’s all future projection. And you’re not there, you’re Here and a Mindful Walk is just that – being Here.

Catch up with your senses. Let them play.

Hear the birds singing, how they call to each other, how different they sound.

Look at the light, the trees, the leaves…

Feel the air on your skin, soft like downy cashmere with its final whispers of summer warmth.

Now isn’t that better than thinking about what’s happening in the office tomorrow and planning a conversation that may never take place, and certainly won’t be anything like what’s just whistled through your head, because, let’s face it… you’ll have forgotten what you’ve just planned to say by the time you get there.

And if you can’t shut up your mind, count. Count up to 100 and then start again. That silences ‘monkey mind‘ and gives you space to be. In the now. Which is basically what mindfulness aims to achieve.

Monkey mind will start jumping up and down, trying to get your attention. Before you know it, thoughts bob up. Bouncing up and down, demanding our attention. Just let them go and start counting once more.

I keep my Mindful Walk to the woods where I’ve become able to identify different bird calls. I know where the wind blows through a gap in the silver birch avenue, muzzing my hair. When the warm air lifts from the ground shimmering and rustling the tree leaves, I know the weather is turning and rain is likely. All this feels grounding. Connecting. And in between these observances I am counting, shooing away the mind’s obsession with the future. So I can be here. Now.

Let me know how you experience this. I find Mindful Walking really connecting and grounding, but I’d love to hear others’ experiences.

Mindful Walking in Short

1. Consciously disconnect from your thoughts by counting.
2. Count in blocks of 100.
3. If your thoughts butt in, just smile and return to counting. Where doesn’t really matter. You can’t get this wrong. No judging; this is playing!
4.  Let your senses have some fun. Smell the air. Listen to the birdsong. Feel the breeze against your skin, how it wraps about you.
5. Consider how it feels to be completely experiencing the present.

 

 

Ageing your yoga

This week I’ve read some very interesting yoga blogs, but one which really caught my imagination was by Amy is A Human  about the Economics of Teaching Yoga – Part 1 which in part examined the motivations of our students and our motivations as we move through the phases of our yoga life.

Like the year, our relationship with yoga changes as we spend more time within it. Amy’s motivation for learning yoga began with her desire to be as graceful as a dancer. When I began yoga it fed my ego, I enjoyed being flexible and was driven to perfect my asana – to be the best in class. (You should be able to hear my cringing now, but that’s who I was in my Twenties, focused of getting ‘there’ wherever ‘there’ was). It was only when I spent time considering my motivations that I started to see that what’s in front of your face isn’t the big picture.

Yes, the path ahead looks enchanting but in your rush to scamper forward you could be missing out. What if you just took the time to examine the path from a different perspective?

  

Squat down and you get a sense of the majestic carpet that is laid out before you. This isn’t just a path, it’s a work of art, completely unique in this point in space and time.

But what if you step off the path and step into the trees? And what if you look up into the branches?

Above you is a whole different world, right above your head. Stand on tip toe, look up higher and you get a whole different view.

Really lift up your heart and it’s as though the leaves are drifting over you, like floating under water.

And if you bring your attention to one leaf. Just one, slightly nibbled leaf you can see the beauty that radiates even in its near-death imperfection.

When I was younger I used to really push myself for perfection in asana. For me that was the goal.  Now I see asana as a means to strengthen and lengthen my muscles, create a space in my body so I can gain more in meditation. I focus on creating space and light in asana, I’ve stopped pushing.

Having had a full hip replacement last December I know there are asanas that are never coming back. But that’s ok. That’s life. Life isn’t about straight lines. You’re not moving from A-Z.  Look in nature. It’s all circles and spirals where imperfection is as beautiful as anything else.

Multitasking your meditation

Ask anyone what they imagine meditation looks like and they will describe someone sitting, probably in full lotus, with their eyes closed, their hands in a mudra and a smile on their lips.

But there is an alternative, an alternative which also helps you get a bit of sunlight and burn off a few calories. Multitasking meditation techniques, how very modern sounding! It is, in fact, very simple. A walking meditation.

And now the clocks have turned back, the nights are drawing in and some of us are feeling the call of hibernation like it’s being heralded by the sirens armed with a big duvet, a pile of DVDs and a large stash of strawberry haagen dazs (all right, that’s me), getting out in the daylight does us the power of good.

Meditation is tough stuff. Certainly the seated stuff challenges us fidgets. A walking mediation can come easier, and you’ll get a good walk if nothing else. So worth trying, isn’t it.

In these last days of Autumn where the leaves cling to the branches in that last gasp of golden glory it is almost as if we are on the tipping point of Winter coming, dancing on a rim where we weave around on the brink of two seasons as the winds warm one day, chill the next, Mists and heavy dews one day, icy car screens the next.. And so it is with mediation; one wanders in and out like a dancing leaf, like a waning season…

So a walking meditation, want to give it a go?

Find yourself a well-known walk away from having to cross traffic, glaring advertising hoardings and similar distractions. A nice park, a pleasant river walkway, a beautiful country lane…

Firstly, stand still and centre yourself. Feel your heart centred over your pelvis. Feel your feas well balanced and your shoulders down and chest broad. Feel the air of your skin, your breath slow and steady. Now, set off, taking slow, deliberate steps and practice being in the moment. Feel your feet in your shoes as you take each step, focus on relaxing your ankles, your hips, let your shoulder blades draw down your spine as you lift up your chest and breathe deeply. Focus on your breath. As thoughts pop into your mind, sweep them away, like leaves being blown off down your road. If you find ourself thinking, don’t give up, smile and let the thoughts go and go back to being in the moment. With the weather, with the tress, with the land about you…

After 20 minutes you are done and congratulations; 20 minutes’ meditation is no mean feat. How do you feel? Do let me know if you enjoy this as much as I do.

Letting go

This week at Yoga in 30 we’ll be focusing on letting go of tension in the neck and shoulders, two areas of our bodies where I know I store tension, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

We talk about having the ‘world on our shoulders’ and our troubles being a ‘complete pain in the neck’. Bad posture habits and sitting in one fixed position for too long just add to our niggling tension spots.

Thankfully unravelling some of that stored up tension isn’t difficult and some of the yoga postures we’ll be doing this week, anyone can do quite easily at home or at their desk.

Of course getting up and moving around is going to do a lot to relieve the tension we create sitting in one fixed position for too long. This time of year is perfect for getting out and having a good scuff through the leaves. 

You could practice some deep breathing while you are out there – in for the count of three; out for the count of four. Let that tension melt away, breathe out to the bottom of your lungs and breathe in clear fresh air. Which is exactly what I’m off to do now.