Design your own walking style !

Mindful Walking! If We Are Mindful, We Can Make Various Benefits Out of Walking! – Design your own walking style 😊

Does it sound different, to hear walking mindfully? Yes, mindful walking has a significant impact on our mental health too over and above the benefits it has on our physical health!

“Physical activity refers to all movements. Popular ways to be active include walking, cycling, wheeling, sports, active recreation and play, and can be done at any level of skill and for enjoyment by everybody”. 

The World Health Organisation(WHO) recommends walking as one of their daily recommended activities.

Walking lowers the risk of many life threatening diseases like Coronary heart disease, High blood pressure, and Stroke.

When we walk mindfully, we are combining the benefits of walking with mindfulness and we can see a big lot of improvements to our psychological and physiological wellbeing.

“The psychological effects of the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) are getting increased attention in scientific research, with mindfulness techniques being recommended as valuable strategies to relate to negative thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness training aims to make participants more aware of their automatic reactions on a behavioral, emotional, and cognitive level, by encouraging them to engage in daily meditation practices.” Further they claim that the practice reduced depression, anxiety, stress, and brooding.

Gotink et al., in his research article 2016.

How to walk mindfully?  We can begin walking, a little slower than normal, and walk as mindfully as we can. Mindfully means being aware of each footstep, the feelings at the muscles in our feet, legs, and our whole body, paying attention to our senses: hearing all the sounds around, the birds chirping, the wind blowing in the trees; smelling all those nice aromas we get from the flowers, cut grass; feel the gentle touch of the wind; see the nature around us, people walking there, sitting and chatting. Also, we can be aware of each breath.

When your mind drifts from walking and breathing, gently guide your thoughts back and continue walking for as long as you feel safe and comfortable.

Let me share my experience in making multiple benefits out of walking !

I used to combine twisting my hip while walking which helps in reducing the fat at the back 👍🏻. Keep the hands at chest level, gently twist your hip left to right and right to left and keep walking. You need not jog, just keep walking and automatically you will gain good speed!

And anyway we have to keep our fingers in some position right, why not in the form of a mudra?

I chose the Adhi mudra, bringing the thumb to touch the bottom of the ring finger and closing the fingers. (Adhi mudra may assist in the improvement of the health of the human body and may help in the management of stress levels)

You can even make the fourth benefit, that is if you are following any kind of meditation which is observing your breathing or observing the sensation in your body you can do that while walking 👍🏻

Walking + Twisting + Mudra + Meditation 😊

What do you think, come on, design your walking style as per your need and interest!

It might take sometime for us to get used for walking mindfully. If we are persistent, definitely we can.

There are research studies going on and they prove that the mindful walking has the benefits not only to physical health but also to our mental wellbeing. The studies have proven benefits on mental health which includes positive changes to anxiety, depression, and mood swing leading to life satisfaction!

Actually, in our busy world with lot of fear and worry where we are mostly emotionally out of control, we all can get benefitted from Mindful walking that promotes such improvements to out mental health!

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