"Take a Hike!"
Many anxious and stressed out people claim they don't have time to get the exercise, fresh air and sunshine that they need. They also say their time constraints prevent them from pursuing physical and spiritual disciplines that are known stress-busters (at least to some extent), such as meditation, Yoga or Tai Chi. We have a golden nugget for you here - what if you could combine exercise, fresh air, sunshine and meditation all in one? This is a simplified version of a walking meditation method that leads into the harmonized movement of the HARA method. All you need to do is the following: Commit yourself to walking for half an hour during the day - and make sure it's in the daylight hours (sunshine is hard to come by at night...). While you walk, focus your attention loosely on your breathing. Loosely means that you don't try to control your breath, you just try to stay aware of the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling. And that's it! Of course, all kinds of thoughts will come up, but you just ignore them. You'll find your mind wandering off at times. Just bring it back again gently to focus on your breathing. Warning: this method of walking meditation is addictive. You'll find yourself looking forward to your walks and guarding your walking time jealously. Then slowly you'll find that your walking will begin to influence how you walk and move at other times, and you'll be a lot less anxious and stressed.
Dr. Symeon Rodger
wwwByeByeStress.com