A ‘do it yourself’ guide to walking coaching
Walking coaching, is a walk with a thinking purpose.
Research shows that walking can significantly boost thinking, lift mood and increase creativity. To paraphrase John Muir “In every walk with nature we receive far more than we seek”. To help you get the best out of your thinking walk follow my 3 step guide:
Start with a question or problem that you want to gain further clarity and insight on.
Using the psychological phenomenon of priming you will be helping your brain notice the images and symbols in your environment that link to your theme and by noticing them it will help you to open up further thinking.
Slow your pace down, this is not a hike or a normal walk.
If you are rushing through your route, you will not be giving yourself the time and space needed to pay mindful attention to all that surrounds you or to explore your thinking. Ideas will bubble as you start to use the landscape as a metaphor or guide for your thinking.
Pay mindful attention to the world around you: the big and the small; where there’s order or chaos.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” Henry David Thoreau. I once took a writer with a looming deadline and writers block out into the Derbyshire countryside for a coaching session. She was fixated with the boundaries and freedom she saw in the landscape. Each gate we unlatched or field we crossed became significant in freeing her thinking. By the time we’d entered the top field, our highest point on walk, she looked out across the vast open landscape and saw her book’s structure with vivid clarity.
My final tip is to think about the practicalities:
1. choose your route with care, find spaces that will inspire and a walk that you can physically complete with ease.
2. dress appropriately! Blisters, being too cold or wet will get in the way of your best thinking;
3. bring healthy snacks, I love these cocoa, nuts and date balls; and drink plenty of water so you can nurture yourself inside and out.
4. Bring a notebook, so you can jot down your key thoughts
Follow my guide and I hope as Thich Nhat Hanh says in his beautiful Walking meditation that each step will make a flower bloom under your feet.
