on This Earth

This post starts the next phase of developing your connection with nature. It builds on the foundational skills from the first few posts. If you are new to the blog, I would encourage you to develop the foundational skills. They will help you sharpen your senses and observation skills, necessary for this phase. You can start with this post on connecting with the rain, linked here.

The foundational skills are based on 4 key principles:

• silence/stillness
• observation
• reflection
• acting on the reflection

The art of mindful walking focuses on the first two key principles. In the foundation phase, I encouraged those who want to start to find a spot to sit or stand. To be still and silent. In practising mindful walking, you won’t be still but silence is highly encouraged.

What is Mindful Walking

Mindful walking is the art of being fully aware while walking, engaging most if not all of your senses. It is knowing where to step, how to position and mold your foot and body as you walk. It is taking into account the terrain, the elements, the plants and animals around you. It is your mind being consciously engaging with the various signals and observations.

Background

I developed the skill of ‘mindful walking’ as a young child with dyspraxia¹. Given that I didn’t know I had dyspraxia, it was an instinctual survival skill. As a young child, I often bumped into things, tripped over myself, and generally had poor balance and co-ordination. I needed a way that overcome all of that and so ‘mindful walking’ came about.

Since then, this skill has helped me a great deal in my interaction with nature, especially on my nature walks. It has allowed me to gain a better appreciation of the terrain. I can see minute details on the ground that might otherwise go unnoticed. It has also allowed me to use senses beyond my sight to help me navigate and understand my environment. I hope that this skill will also help others.

In this blog, I will explain the technique that I have developed, focusing on the different elements of the technique.

Connecting to the ground

I often notice that when people walk, they look around and everywhere else but their feet. For me, I seldom know where my feet are and what they are doing. So, I focus my attention on my feet and the few meters in front of me. I show this in the video below. In it, my sight is directed downwards at my feet. My focus extends only to a couple of meters at most in front of me. I will stop to gaze up only if I need to get my bearing.

The ground is the foundation of my ‘mindful walking’ technique. By connecting to the ground, I find stability both physically and mentally. It reassures me that I won’t likely to fall and allays my anxiety.

The best way to connect to the ground is to be barefoot of course. Then I can feel every dip, the sticks and pebbles, the texture of the grass, the gradient of ground. The other choice is to wear barefoot shoes when circumstances precludes being barefoot. The reason for barefoot is that the feet are highly sensitive, detecting texture, pressure, shape, temperature and more.

When I walk, the sensory feed from my feet keeps me alerted to adjust my balance to the ground. Walking on a bouncy ground needs a different way of balancing from walking on a gravel path. I relish the various sensory inputs. The pressure and shape of the gravels pressed against my toes vs my heels. The tickling sensation of the different types of grass. The sticky sensation of walking in mud and the coolness of the flowing water as I wade through a stream. All these sensations ground me in the here and now, not allowing me to walk absentmindedly.

Limiting the sight

As mentioned above, I keep my sight on the ground in front of me. In doing so, I am limiting my vision to a confined space. What this does is help me focus on what matters most, i.e. my feet. Often looking elsewhere distracts me from knowing where my feet are. An advantage of watching the ground is that I can see what obstacles lay ahead and maneuver around it.

Watching the ground is a good way to train the sight to spot minute things that would otherwise escape notice. I have learned over time to spot the ants and spiders crawling in the grass or across the path. Or earthworms; it is sad to see them on the pavements as people and bicycles crush them underfoot. They also get dehydrated when the pavement gets hot. So I try to rescue them when possible.

Then there are the flowers; red and white clovers, bluebells, snowdrops, crocuses, daisies. And the occasional wild orchids. Those are thrilling to spot. The grass is another wonder. People often just say grass but in a square centimeter of grass, you can identify several different species of grass. I love the cotton grass as it blooms. And the tall sweet vernal-grass as it sways in the breeze. The mixture of clovers and daisies are often part of the green covered ground.

Yes, there are wonderful things to observe even as my vision is limited to the ground ahead of me.

First practice – Focus on the feet

To learn my technique, I suggest that you start at home or in a safe environment. For the first few practices, look down onto the path directly in front of you. Focus on the placement of your feet as you step one foot in front of the other on the path. Take time to notice how you feel. It might feel strange not to see beyond the few meters as your gaze is limited. Is it restrictive? Scary? Or natural? Record your feelings in your journal and reflect on why you feel that way.

Be aware of the ground beneath your feet. What do your toes tell you? What about your heel and the middle part of your foot? Do they tell you different things? If you are barefooted, what textures do your feet convey to you? Hot, cold? Do you notice the difference between your right and left foot? Record down your observations. Walk on different types of surfaces and record the observations for the questions above.

What you are doing is reconnecting your cognitive function to the sensory input from your feet. Because we seldom use these sensory inputs, it will take time to get used to the sensations. Take it slow and easy, at your own pace.

We will work on other senses once you have mastered this practice.

1. Dyspraxia is also called developmental coordination disorder, a life-long condition that affects co-ordination, balance, motor skills etc. ↩︎