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Trouble sitting still? Learn to practice meditating by simply walking in this practice guided by 10% Happier host Dan Harris.
How To Do This Practice:
- Start walking at a comfortable pace in a place where you can move without rushing.
- Notice your body moving by paying attention to your feet, legs, and arms as you walk.
- Tune into your senses by observing sounds, sights, temperature, and other details around you.
- Notice when your mind wanders into planning, worrying, or distractions.
- Gently return your attention to the sensations of walking and your surroundings each time you drift away.
- Keep walking with curiosity and allow yourself to stay present without needing to do it perfectly.
Today’s Happiness Break Guide:
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/324xtuut
Related Happiness Break Episodes:
Moving Through Space, With Dacher Keltner: https://tinyurl.com/5f58jp42
Walk Your Way to Calm, with Dacher: https://tinyurl.com/y8md2759
Making Space For You: https://tinyurl.com/yc42s6mv
Related Science of Happiness Episodes:
How To Focus Under Pressure: https://tinyurl.com/3hpah4ss
How to Find Calm Through Walking: https://tinyurl.com/43dr26re
How To Do Good For The Environment (And Yourself): https://tinyurl.com/26msewb8
We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experiences with mindful walking. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
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Transcription:
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.
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