Understanding Mindful Walking Practice & Its Many Benefits

With stress, fear, and anxiety reaching an all-time high because of the ongoing pandemic situation, various mental health professionals have suggested practicing mediation as one of the ways to cope with your emotions. However, seated meditation isn’t convenient for everyone; especially those who are constantly on the move. For such people, the process of mindful walking would be more useful.

Mindful walking, also known as walking meditation, provides you with the physical benefits of walking (such as a healthier heart and calorie burning), along with active meditation, and mindfulness.

 

 What is mindful walking?  

Walking meditation originates from Buddhist teachings and it has been used as a technique for mindful meditation for years.

Mindful walking is a simple and comfortable form of meditation that can be particularly useful for those who struggle to perform general meditation and for those who don’t like sitting in one place quietly. Walking meditation basically means walking while being mindful of each of your steps and breath. For many people, this works better rather than practicing meditation while sitting with their eyes closed. 

 

The best thing about walking meditation is that it can be done indoors or outside in nature – in your garden, hallway, terrace, your balcony, a large room, the nearby park, or even the beach. The lane you choose to walk on doesn’t need to be too long as you are not focused on reaching a specific destination through this approach.

To practice mindful walking, first, take slow 10-15 steps along the lane you’ve chosen. Then, pause and breathe for as long as you feel comfortable. Once you feel ready, you have to turn and walk back in the opposite direction – the other end of the lane. When you reach the other end, pause and breathe again. Keep repeating this method for at least 15 minutes. Remember, when you are walking you must focus your attention on one or more sensations that you would generally ignore, like the movement of your hands and legs and the breath coming in and out of your body. Then, you can divert your attention away from your body to what is around you. It may be the simplest thing like the temperature of the wind, the smell of the air, or the feeling of the ground under your feet. Acknowledge each experience and savor it without engaging with it too much. Take in everything in front of you with your eyes and your mind until you start feeling relaxed. 

 

Walking meditation is a slow process and involves taking small steps. Thus, you shouldn’t walk too briskly. The most essential part here is to feel natural with your walking and not to make it exaggerated or stylized. 

 

By integrating walking meditation into your daily life, you can turn an everyday action into a tool for mindfulness and stress reduction. It is an acquired taste that requires plenty of patience and won’t come easily. But if you keep practicing it, even for short intervals in a day, you will slowly get used to it. Furthermore, mindful breathing or walking meditation can lead to various benefits. Here is a look at a few of them.

 

Benefits of mindful walking 

1. It helps you connect more profoundly with the environment

Mindful walking meditation allows you to be completely involved in the experience of walking. Through this approach, you will be able to connect with the earth beneath your feet, the air you are breathing in and out and the myriad sights and sounds around you at a deeper level. You will also feel more connected with the environment and sense you are an integral part of it. As you continue making walking meditation a part of your daily life, you will gradually realize that you are nurturing situational awareness from within. Rather than simply walking aimlessly, you will be able to develop your focus to be on your surroundings and on the experience of walking. 

 

2. It enables you to reach a sense of calm and being relaxed 

While walking is obviously helpful some can get bored with it after a while. Mindful walking, however, allows you to enjoy the pleasure of walking. If done properly, you can increase your oxygen intake by walking meditation while also reinvigorating yourself when you are down. 

 

While walking, you can chant “OM” or use some other positive phrases like "I am happy" or "I'm healthy" in short intervals. This may feel awkward initially for those who are doing it for the first time. But once you begin walking meditation every day, and follow the above-mentioned steps, you feel a sense of relaxation and calm from within. Once you are done with the exercise, you will realize you are fresh and more upbeat. 

 

3. You will understand your body better

A lot of us today are so involved with our day-to-day affairs that we have become alienated from our own bodies. Walking mindfully helps us stay connected with our physical selves and allows us to nurture a deeper connection between our mind and body. You will have a greater awareness and understanding of how you carry yourself as you walk. Furthermore, you will realize that your balance, stride, and posture express their own unique stories in the manner you walk. With this information, you will understand your body better and appreciate it more.

4. It bolsters concentration

One of the toughest things to achieve through meditation is to get rid of all distractions. With seated meditation, distractions are lesser as it is generally practiced in a quiet surrounding. However, mindful walking doesn’t have that luxury as you are likely to be in an environment filled with constant distractions. The sounds of traffic, people walking close by, the weather, birds, insects, and animals will all be posing a challenge to your mindful walking. Focusing on your regular thoughts and avoiding all the external distractions won’t be easy. However, once you get the hang of it, you will have greater control over your concentration. 

 

As you are hit with each distraction, you will force them away, bring yourself to the present moment, and shift your focus to your walking. Once this process is repeated several times, over and over, your mind’s ability to stay focused will be bolstered. The more you incorporate this approach into your regular routine, the more you will end up building your mental muscles. Gradually, over time, you will realize that your attention is better and you can be in the present moment much quicker despite the distractions. 

 

5. It widens everyday mindfulness 

While walking meditation may sound easy on paper, it is a tough skill to acquire. With continual practice, it will soon become a part of your being. Once that happens, you will find that mindfulness becomes integrated into other areas of your life as well and will permeate them with greater awareness. Remember that meditation walk can be performed anywhere and at any time of the day. Practicing it routinely will make it easier for mindfulness to become a part of everything you do. 

 

6. It helps you to slow down

One of the biggest benefits of mindful walking is that it enables you to pause and slow down. With this technique, you will be moving mindfully and with purpose. To achieve meditation walking, you will have to focus on your movements and each step must be taken with great awareness. In time, your movements will become more measured and graceful. You will soon realize that not everything is a race and you shouldn’t be in this constant hurry to reach your destination. Mindful walking is about being in the present moment; your breath, the environment, and each step you take are what require the most attention. Take your time and relish the prospect of not having the goal to reach any destination. You don’t need to move fast. All you need is to feel deeply about your present. 

 

7. It allows you to achieve the purpose of meditation

As mentioned earlier, mindful walking works perfectly for those who aren’t comfortable with seated meditation. This technique helps you to achieve the purpose of meditation while walking in a park, a beach, or even on the street. When you start this process, your goal must be walking for the sole purpose of meditation. Initially, your mind will inevitably wander. And that is perfectly okay. You cannot be frustrated as mindful walking requires dedication. Be aware of all the physical sensations or feelings and focus on them. Your understanding of your intentions will increase eventually as each walk will begin with a focused intention. Also, your ability to stay connected with the present moment will become better when you practice walking with clarity. Through conscious movement, one step at a time, you can slowly achieve the true benefits of meditation and make it a conscious part of your life.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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What Should Come First: Brushing Teeth or Morning Coffee?

Everyone has their own morning routine, but it’s safe to assume that a great number of these routines include a morning coffee and brushing your teeth. Or is it the other way around? The order in which you drink your morning mug matters because it could be harming your dental health. The acidity in coffee can erode tooth enamel and stain your teeth. It doesn’t mean that you have to give up your beloved morning ritual, but dentists say that it's better to brush your teeth first if you want to protect your smile.

The benefits of brushing your teeth before having your morning coffee 

Coffee is known to stain teeth. Based on this fact alone, one could assume that brushing your teeth right after drinking coffee is the most efficient way to keep them clean and prevent stains. Unfortunately, this is wrong. During the night, plaque accumulates on your teeth. This is a problem, as plaque allows stains to form more easily. Brushing your teeth before you have coffee removes the plaque, which makes it more difficult for the coffee particles to grab onto your teeth and stain them. 

 

As we mentioned, coffee is acidic. This means that brushing your teeth right after drinking it will weaken your enamel, which is the outer layer of the teeth that protects them from physical and chemical damage. By drinking coffee before brushing your teeth, you are essentially brushing more acid onto your teeth, which breaks down the enamel faster and makes your teeth more vulnerable to damage and cavities. “You don’t want to be brushing when your environment is acidic, it’s chemically abrasive,” explained Sonya Krasilnikov, a dentist at New York City’s Dental House. 

 

According to Krasilnikov and other dental experts, the best course of action is to thoroughly brush your teeth first thing in the morning, then have a cup of coffee, and finally, rinse your mouth with water to neutralize the acidity in your mouth.

How to protect your teeth if you drank coffee before brushing them 

If you did end up having your coffee before brushing your teeth, there are a few things you can do to minimize the damage and restore the fresh feeling in your mouth. Firstly, dentists recommend waiting for at least half an hour between drinking coffee and brushing your teeth. This allows the pH level in your mouth to become less acidic and be restored to its normal, neutral state. After 30 minutes of waiting, brushing your teeth will be perfectly safe.

You can also use sugar-free gum to speed up the process. Chewing stimulates the production of saliva, the agent that helps restore the pH level in your mouth. According to Christina Meiners, a dentist at the nonprofit CommuniCare Health Centers in San Antonio, “Saliva acts as a buffer in that acidic environment.” 

 

In the meantime, you can still rinse your mouth with plain water to wash out the coffee taste and follow with flossing. This should refresh your breath and give you that clean feeling. 

 

Keep in mind that there’s no reason to worry if you mixed up the order and had your coffee first one morning. One slip-up will not cause much damage, just make sure not to turn it into a habit.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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3 Stress-Relief Techniques You Might Not Have Tried Yet

We’ve all read countless articles about how we need to cut back on work, sleep more, avoid stress and generally have a healthy work life balance.
 
We know we need to make changes, but this is the real world. We know that stress is part of the deal.

But wouldn’t it be nice if it was just a little bit easier to manage? If there were ways to help yourself feel less stressed in those pre-meltdown moments? If there were ways you could help yourself get through your day… while you’re going through your day?

Good news! There are, indeed various ways that we can de-stress.
 
An expert understands that most of us don’t live the most healthy lifestyles. And that sometimes it feels like we don’t even have time to blink let alone close our eyes and meditate. She teaches stress-relief techniques that are a type of meditation that she says people can actually “do in everyday life.”

The world has changed a lot since the cave-woman days, but our nervous systems haven’t changed very much at all. “Our bodies think that deadlines are the same thing as being chased by a bear,” she explains. “So, when we get stressed, our nervous system gets disregulated and we go into a fight, flight, freeze mode.The sympathetic nervous system is in charge of the fight and flight modes. When we get stressed it increases our heart rate and blood pressure. The parasympathetic is the system that makes us freeze. It lowers the heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate. 

Basically it’s what makes you feel calm. So, the goal of meditation is to find and keep the balance between your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.”

Take notice

Of course it’s ideal to have a seated meditation and mindfulness practice. To take even just a minute to turn everything else off and sit with your eyes closed, notice your breathing, and do a body scan so you can notice all your sensations—but that’s not always possible.

“If you can’t get a minute, there are ways to still notice your breath or notice body sensations, even with your eyes open,” she explains. “You may notice your heart beating really quickly, but you may also notice the calm sensation of the breath at the same time. So when noticing different sensations that have different qualities, you’re actually toggling between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems and creating balance. It’s a very quick, accessible way of self-soothing.”

She says this can be done anywhere; she used to do it on the subway in New York. It helped her stay aware of the chaos going on around her, but let go of the stress attached to it. “You can even do it while in conversations with people, if you get really advanced,” she says.

Use your sense of sense

Many of us see, smell, hear, taste, and touch innumerable things on a daily basis. We see our computer screens, smell the overpowering cologne  someone wears, hear car horns honking during our commute, taste the stale coffee in the break room, and touch the conference room door handle. It can feel like sensory overload.

But zeroing in on just one of your senses can actually be a point of mindfulness.

“Anytime you tap into one of your senses, you’re giving yourself a point of your concentration for your mindfulness practice,” she says. “You could pay attention to smells when you’re at a restaurant if you’re super stressed out at a business dinner. Just taking a moment to notice the smells, even in the midst of a very intense conversation, can help to regulate your nervous system. You have five senses; use them all.”

Remember: variety is the spice of life

Sometimes stress can make us feel like we want to curl into the fetal position. Other times, it can make us want to jump up and down and kick and punch. Most of the time we ignore those impulses. But she says we shouldn’t.

“Ask yourself: ‘What does my body need right now in terms of movement?’ and allow for yourself to do that,” she says. “Kids do this all day long. They don’t have a process around ‘Should I move my body?’ If they want to do jumping jacks and go bananas and jump up and down, they’ll just go do that. As adults, we have to give ourselves permission to take a minute to close the door. If you need to be in a restorative posture and lay down on the floor for a minute, you should do it. Even a minute makes a difference to your nervous system.”

Obviously this works best if you have the luxury of having an office or work from home, but locking yourself in the conference room or another open room for a minute is also an option. And if you’re not sure what your body wants,she recommends “putting on music and letting it guide your movement. Giving that to yourself can be really helpful.”

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10 breath freshening foods

Here's is a list of foods that freshens your breath

1. Water! Water! Water!: Water is a quick and an easily accessible remedy for rapidly making that breath fresh. And it is a simple tip to follow. Just swish and swirl some water in the mouth as if you are gargling ( but softly, not loudly) and drink it up or rinse it out. The logic behind doing this is when we get dehydrated, the saliva generated in our mouth automatically decreases. This is because our body tries to conserve moisture. Saliva tends to clean our mouth by diluting the bacteria. Bacteria and their by-products are responsible for that offensive bad breath or that a person might have. Therefore rinsing the mouth with water clears out these odour generating bacteria. Water is a short term but a super fast way of freshening up breath in a jiffy.

2. Oranges, sweet lime, lemons, kiwis, and all citrus fruits rich in Vitamin C: These help in keeping the breath fresh. Vitamin C is known to fight the bacteria. It is also an antioxidant - thus it helps in reducing the toxins in the body, this includes those produced by the bacteria in the mouth. You may have these fruits as whole or even drink up or sip on their juices.

3. Spices and herbs: These are super amazing at keeping the breath free of any malodour for a good period of time. Examples are cardamom (elaichi), fennel (saunf), spear mint, parsley, rosemary, eucalyptus, coriander (dhania daal),cinnamon( dal chini), cloves(laung) etc. From amongst these, the following are favorites with most folks -

Cardamom and Eucalyptus both contain a substance called cineole. Cineole has antibacterial, antiseptic properties and thus attacks the stinker bacteria in the mouth. With these harbingers of foul smell gone for good, the mouth feels and smells fresh. Cardamom seeds can be kept as such in the mouth and biting into them intermittently to release that typical delicate flavor and aroma of elaichi which most of us tend to like.

Parsley and coriander: These are rich in the green pigment chlorophyll which because of it's alkaline properties cleanses the body in a generic sense. It attacks the bacteria of the mouth thus rendering them ineffective. Chlorophyll also possesses detoxifying ability.

Cinnamon (dal chini): The essential oil present in cinnamon is antiseptic and kills the germs giving rise to bad breath.

Fennel seed (saunf) is an age old Indian remedy to keep the mouth fresh and the breath smelling sweet. Fennel is known to possess aromatic and medicinal properties.

4. Probiotics: Probiotics such as yogurt rid mouth of hydrogen sulphide. For instance Lactobacillus salivarius also helps in case of dental and gum related problems. It enables healing of the sores in mouth. Gum and teeth related conditions make the oral environment conducive to bacterial growth which in turn makes the breath smell lousy. Probiotics thus help those with bad breath.

5. Veggie land: Broccoli, carrots and cucumber are known to keep the mouth fresh by diminishing the bacterial content of the mouth. Chewing onto them floods the mouth with saliva.

6. Apples: When we crunch on to an apple, salivary secretion gets stimulated. This literally bathes the mouth and rinses out the odour generating bacteria in mouth thereby making the breath fresh.

7. Chewing gum: This also increases the secretion of saliva. Chewing gum helps in dislodging the stuck up food particles in the mouth. This prevents stink formation. Sugar free xylitol containing chewing gum is better than the sugared one.

8. Whole wheat bread: Consuming this prevents formation of ketones which otherwise get generated on a low carb diet. Ketones are secreted in urine, sweat and mouth and give a typical foul smell to the breath. Eating whole wheat bread helps checking ketones and in keeping the breath fresh.

9. Green tea: Green tea is rich in flavonoids. These reduce and prevent the adhesion of stink causing germs to the teeth. Cinnamon tea is in particular helpful in keeping the mouth and breath fresh.

10. Fibre: Fibre cleans the gut. One of the chief reasons of bad breath is poor sluggish unclean gut than the mouth. Fibre increases the fitness of the digestive tract. This prevents bad breath and helps in keeping the breath fresh. Target consuming 25 -38 gm of fibre everyday to enable this.