Scroll down to see the transcript of this episode.
How to do this exercise:
- Start walking.
- Bring your awareness to the present moment and notice the sights and sounds around you. When your mind wanders to worries or other thoughts, gently bring yourself back to what you notice around you.
- See if you can notice the sensation in your feet with each step.
- Continue on this path for as long as you like.
Today’s Happiness Break hosts:
Dan Harris Host of 10% Happier, a podcast about mindfulness and other practices and mindsets that can support our well-being.
Check out Dan’s podcast. 10% happier: https://tinyurl.com/48cxcbjm
Order his latest book, Meditations for the Fidgety Skeptic: How-to Book to Be 10% Happier: https://tinyurl.com/44cmjuvd
Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Danbaris
Follow Dan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danharris/
If you enjoyed this Happiness Break, you may also like:
Traveling through space with Dutcher Keltner – https://tinyurl.com/5n8dj5v6
Check out the episode on Walking and Mind-Body Awareness from The Science of Happiness.
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 by Amy Schneider) – https://tinyurl.com/5fkdre2v
We look forward to hearing from you. Please tell us about your experience with mindful walking. Email us at happypod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
Find us on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus
Please help us share Happiness Break! Please rate, copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/6s39rzus
We are living a mental health crisis. Between stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and burnout, everyone can use a break to feel better. That’s where Happiness Break comes into play. In biweekly podcast episodes, instructors teach research-backed practices and meditations that you can perform in real time. These relaxing and uplifting practices are lab-proven to help foster calmness, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more, and the latest science says they directly support your health. Masu. All done within 10 minutes. For a short break during the day.
Transcription:
Dutcher Keltner Hey, guys. Dutcher Keltner. Welcome to Happiness Break. From self-compassion to awe, here are practices to strengthen what brings greater meaning to your life.
Today, my friend Dan Harris and I will be doing a short 6-minute mindful walk. You may know him from his podcast 10% Happy. He also wrote a book of the same name. We recommend checking both. Both are helping many people.
In general, walking changes our neurophysiology in different ways. It increases serotonin levels, which in turn helps improve health conditions such as high blood pressure and inflammation.
Add mindfulness to your everyday walking, According to research It can reduce daily stress, uplift your mood, boost mood and positive emotions, and soothe the edges of anxiety and depressive emotions that are on the rise today.
If you haven’t opened the door yet, come outside and enjoy a walk with Dan.
Dan Harris When we walk or move in daily life, most of the time we are lost in thought, rushing, ruminating, trying to give a speech to the boss, in glorious cursing. I plan a full speech. On this walk, you will practice paying attention to your body. Can you feel your hamstrings as you move here? Can you see your arms shaking?
Can you feel your feet hit the ground?
It’s easy to get distracted, especially when you’re trying to do this in the real world and not on a cushion. That’s totally fine. This is a great exercise to wake up in your daily life. When you notice that you have wandered off course, return your attention to the raw data of your physical experience.
You may feel cold or hot on your skin. You can go back to swinging your arms and kicking your feet to the ground. You can use caution, coolness, movement, and tightening if that helps.
Walking is a great opportunity to focus on some functions we take for granted, such as seeing and hearing. Maybe you’re walking through an area you’ve visited millions of times. Can you notice something new with your eyes and ears? If you can’t see, listen to the sounds you hear. Maybe you’ll hear something you’ve never heard before.
Every time I get distracted, it’s so cool. Return to your sensory data.
Maybe you can start making plans. Maybe you start arguing with someone or criticizing yourself.
Up and out. Just let those thoughts flow and get back to what you need to pay attention to.
There’s a great thing to note here. Where do you feel your legs moving?
Please do some scouting.
We spend much of our lives on autopilot, in sleepwalking mode, staring at our phones like zombies. This is a radical act of walking with no purpose other than mindfulness and awakening to your life as it is.
Well, I’ll stop giving directions. But if you need to walk more, you don’t need me. Tune into the sensations in your body, the input from your visual environment, and the sounds in your ears. And every time you get distracted, start over. I wish you good luck.
