“This, I posit, is the way humans have healed themselves from trauma for hundreds of years of human history, and it is only because so few of us walk anymore that we have to resort to office-based psychotherapeutic processes to produce the same result.”
–Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann wrote an incredible book titled, Walking Your Blues Away: how to heal the mind and create emotional well-being. Hartmann describes how walking creates a bilateral movement which integrates both the left and right brain: “The side-to-side motion, or bilateral movement, causes nerve impulses to cross the brain from the left hemisphere and back at a specific rate or frequency. This cross- patterning produces an organic integration of left-hemisphere “thinking” functions with right-hemisphere and brain-stem “feeling” functions. This integration is a necessary precursor for emotional and intellectual healing from trauma.” Hartman points out that while walking and performing a mental exercise, it can create the same “internal integration process” as other forms of psychotherapy including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), and Thought Field Therapy. He combines the simple movement of walking with a mental exercise. Hartmann has you recall a stressful/traumatic memory or a simple problem you have, while taking a walk (see the formula below).
Hartman suggests for his Walking Your Blues Away Session,
- Define the issue
- Bring up the story
- Walk with the issue
- Notice how the issue changes
- Anchor the new state When we engage in the simple activity of walking, + thinking about a past problem,
we can process stress and trauma in a healthy manner!
Note: Please contact a professional for help with a serious trauma
Walking Meditation
Ghandi used to go for morning walks and he would integrate meditation into his walks by saying “Rama” with each step he took. As I have mentioned before, meditation brings upon a relaxed state and gets you out of the fight-or-flight response. By combining meditation on your walks, you can get your exercise and relaxation done for the day. Take at least one 20-minute walk most days of the week. You can do this walking meditation by saying Rama (or any Name of God- Ex: (Yaweh, Adonai, Allah, Govinda, etc) silently to yourself with each step you take.
Peace on your walks,
Carly
