Mindful Coffee Walk

Hi, and welcome to this short mindful walk. So you might have decided to get outside for a little break or perhaps you've treated yourself to a to-go coffee or warming tea. Either way, this is a perfect opportunity to take in your surroundings and to connect with the body. We spend so much of our time disconnected from the world around us, so this exercise is designed to help us come out of our heads and into our body. By bringing our attention into our body, we start to notice a little bit more of what's going on around us. We start to feel more present, and as we begin to feel more present, the mind starts to calm down a bit. So grab yourself, your coffee or tea or drink of choice, and join me on this short walk. So you can either continue walking as you were or just start to walk. You don't have to walk at a particular pace, whatever is most comfortable to you, but I'd just like you to begin by noticing the movement of the body. So as you walk, just noticing how the body moves, not just in the legs and the feet, but also the upper body. You might even notice your posture how you hold your body as you walk. Don't worry, it's very normal to feel quite self-conscious as you bring your attention to the body in this way, but just getting a feel for the way in which the body moves as you walk along, still aware of everything around you: the sounds, the things you can see, the smells, it's a very gentle focus in the body. And then as you continue walking now, just starting to notice the rhythm of the legs moving. Again, really important to maintain awareness of everything that's going on around you. Just continue walking in a very natural way but just noticing the rhythm of the left leg, right leg, left leg, right leg. You might start to notice the sensation of one foot touching the ground, pressing down, and the next foot. So that's going to be your anchor, your point of focus that you can always come back to as you're walking, either the movement of your legs or the sensation of your feet against the floor, one after the next. You don't have to walk in any special way. You don't have to do anything different than you usually do. It's just a sense of being grounded in the body, present in the environment around you, and continuing to notice the sounds, smells, the sights. So you can just continue walking like this at your own pace. At any time, if you realize you got caught up in thinking, distracted, just gently letting it go and bringing the attention back into the body, coming back to the rhythm of the legs and the sensation of the feet on the ground....