PODCASTHappiness Break

Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.

How to Do This Practice:

1. Begin walking.
2. Bring your awareness to the present moment, noticing sights and sounds around you. When your mind wanders to worries or other thoughts, gently bring yourself back to what you notice around you.
3. See if you can notice the sensations in your leg as you take each step.
4. Continue walking this way as long as you wish.

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Dan Harris the host of 10% Happier, a podcast about mindfulness and other practices and thoughts that can support our well-being. 

Check out Dan’s podcast, 10% Happier:  https://tinyurl.com/48cxcbjm

Order his most recent book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-to Book: https://tinyurl.com/44cmjuvd

Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/danbharris

Follow Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danharris/

If you enjoyed this Happiness Break, you may also like:

Moving Through Space, With Dacher Keltner - https://tinyurl.com/5n8dj5v6

Check out these episodes of The Science of Happiness about walking and mind-body awareness.

How To Do Good For The Environment (And Yourself) (Walking, With Diana Gameros) - https://tinyurl.com/3zfhhpus

How To Focus Under Pressure (Mindful Body Scan, With Amy Schneider) - https://tinyurl.com/5fkdre2v

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experiences with mindful walking. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus

Help us share Happiness Break! Rate us and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — we all could use a break to feel better. That's where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day. 

Transcript:

Dacher Keltner Hi everyone. This is Dacher Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, where we guide you through practices to help you strengthen the things that can bring you greater meaning in life - from self-compassion to awe and wonder.

Today we're going to do a little mindful walking, about six minutes, with my friend Dan Harris. You may know him from his podcast 10% Happier. He also wrote a book by the same name. I recommend you check them both out, they've helped a lot of people.

Walking in general shifts our neurophysiology in many different ways. Elevating serotonin levels, and as a result can help with health conditions like hypertension and inflammation

Adding mindfulness to regular walking, studies show it can reduce our daily stress, it can lift up our moods, it can lift up our mood and positive emotions, and it can soften the edges of feelings of  anxiety and depression, which are on the rise today.

So open the door if you haven't already, step outside, and enjoy your walk with Dan.

Dan Harris Most of the time when we're walking or moving around in our daily lives, we're lost in thought, we're rushing, ruminating, planning glorious, expletive filled speeches we're going to deliver to our boss, whatever. In this walk, we're going to practice bringing our attention into the body. So as you get moving here, can you feel your hamstrings? Can you feel your arms swinging? 

Can you feel your feet hitting the ground? 

It's easy to get distracted, especially when you're trying to do this  out in the real world instead of  on the cushion. That's totally fine. This is great exercise for waking up in your daily life.  Whenever you notice you've wandered off,  just bring your attention back to the raw data of your physical experience. 

Maybe you notice some coolness or heat on your skin. You can go back to your arms swinging or your feet hitting the ground. If it helps, you can do some noting, coolness,  moving, tightness. 

Taking a walk is a great opportunity to be mindful of some faculties that we often take for granted, like seeing or hearing. Maybe you're walking through a neighborhood you've been in a million times. Can you notice anything new with your eyes or your ears? If you don't have sight,  just tune into what you're hearing. Maybe you're hearing something you haven't heard before. 

Every time you get distracted, it's totally cool. Just return to the  data of your senses. 

Maybe you start planning. Maybe you start arguing with somebody or criticizing yourself. 

Up and out. Just let those thoughts go up and out  and return to whatever is there to be mindful of. 

Here's a cool thing to tune into: Where do you feel the sensations of movement in the leg? 

Do some sleuthing. 

We live so much of our lives on autopilot, in sleepwalking mode,  staring into our phones like zombies. This is a radical act, taking a walk with no agenda, other than mindfulness, other than waking up to your life as it actually is.

Okay, I'm gonna stop with the guidance. But if you have more walking to do, you don't need me. Just tune into the sensations of your body, the inputs from the visual  environment, the sounds coming into your ears. And every time you get distracted, start again. Good luck out there.