Speaker 1: Welcome to Destiny.
Speaker 2: Now here's your host, Cliff Dunning. So what do you
Speaker 2: do when it's cold, it's snowing, or it's raining, or
Speaker 2: it's just freezing. If you're living in those sub zero
Speaker 2: parts of the world, You gotta walk. You gotta keep walking.
Speaker 2: What's great about walking? Walking is the ultimate exercises and
Speaker 2: today we're going to be talking about it. It's funny
Speaker 2: because we've had these experts on biohacking. What's biohacking, you know,
Speaker 2: getting your health back, taking back your weight, your metabolism,
Speaker 2: getting in shape, staying healthy, staying well, extending your life
Speaker 2: the best you can. That's biohacking. It's funny because walking
Speaker 2: is the ultimate bio hack because it doesn't take a lot.
Speaker 2: You can do it pretty much anywhere. And the beauty
Speaker 2: of it and I talk about this all the time,
Speaker 2: getting out in nature, connecting with nature. So this is
Speaker 2: a very important program and it kind of goes in
Speaker 2: line with our biohacking series, but it's not part of
Speaker 2: the series. It's outside of the series. It just happens
Speaker 2: to fall in place with this new book called Walking Well,
Speaker 2: a New Approach for Comfort, vitality and Inspiration in every step,
Speaker 2: great title, And I got to say that. You know,
Speaker 2: we're always people are always talking about going out and
Speaker 2: pumping iron, reducing your caloric intake, cutting back on alcohol,
Speaker 2: cutting back on eating and sweets and so forth. I mean,
Speaker 2: we're in the holidays, my friend, and I'm a I'd
Speaker 2: love sweets. What are you supposed to do when someone
Speaker 2: puts an apple pie in your face? What are you
Speaker 2: supposed to do when they walk up to you with
Speaker 2: a freshly made eggnog which has rum in it? What
Speaker 2: are you supposed to do when there's gravy on mashed
Speaker 2: potatoes and stuffing and turkey and butter on your vegetables?
Speaker 2: What are you supposed to do? Turn it away? No,
Speaker 2: this is your time to celebrate. It's the holidays. I'm
Speaker 2: tired of these fitness experts telling us that we can't
Speaker 2: have goodies for the holidays. Of all the times of
Speaker 2: the season, of all the months of the year, the
Speaker 2: holidays are a time to rejoice, to enjoy some good food,
Speaker 2: a piece of pie, a candy cane. What the hell
Speaker 2: you know? If we don't get it now, we're never
Speaker 2: gonna get it. We're never gonna get it. We gotta
Speaker 2: have have a time in our lives when we have
Speaker 2: some sweets, we have some good food, and this is
Speaker 2: the time. It's the holidays, and so you indulge. And
Speaker 2: then it's all about what is your New Year's resolution. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stop eating sweets. I'm gonna it's just insane.
Speaker 2: We hurt ourselves, we upset ourselves, we traumatize ourselves with
Speaker 2: these insane rituals. During the holidays, it's time to indulge.
Speaker 2: And I'm serious. I had a girlfriend over the other
Speaker 2: day who made me a eggnog and we put some
Speaker 2: rum in it. It was wonderful. Oh yeah, And she
Speaker 2: puts sprinkles, some nutmeg. It was. She whipped it up,
Speaker 2: it was blended. It was almost like a big whip
Speaker 2: whipping cream drink. But it was not quite to that consistency.
Speaker 2: But oh god, did it tastes great. This is the
Speaker 2: time for indulging, So enjoy, enjoy a little bit of goodie.
Speaker 2: So but getting back to walking, I've always been a
Speaker 2: big advocate of walking, and like I mentioned, you know,
Speaker 2: getting out of nature. But if you don't, if you're
Speaker 2: not close to a park or you're not close to
Speaker 2: the woods, walk out around the block, get some air,
Speaker 2: connect and shift. There is something about walking or getting
Speaker 2: out and moving, which is a moving meditation. And I think,
Speaker 2: and we'll talk about this. When you are moving, your
Speaker 2: brain can relax a little bit. You're breathing in air.
Speaker 2: It's a great exercise. But also the longer you can walk,
Speaker 2: the more ability that you have to shift, to alter,
Speaker 2: to shift into an altered state where you are downloading information,
Speaker 2: you are problem solving, you are moving through trauma, you're
Speaker 2: moving through angst and anger and being upset. You know,
Speaker 2: if I've had a tough day, I've gotten in I
Speaker 2: don't rarely have disputes where I'm yelling or screaming. That's
Speaker 2: very rare. I don't think I've ever I can't even
Speaker 2: think of a time where I'm getting to that anger level.
Speaker 2: I just don't let it happen. But I do get involved,
Speaker 2: like everyone else in situations where you get upset or
Speaker 2: you're angry, or you're frustrated, and a walk will relieve
Speaker 2: you of that. You don't want to carry that emotion around.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't serve you well, and if you hold
Speaker 2: on to it, it can cause problems illnesses. If you
Speaker 2: hold on anger and frustration and trauma. Long enough, you
Speaker 2: can turn into illness, and they've proven this. But walking
Speaker 2: can help you download data that you need. And right
Speaker 2: now where I'm at, I'm in northern California. We have
Speaker 2: a mile temperature, but it's like in the forties. You know,
Speaker 2: what's freezing, thirty thirty degrees. I just don't do well
Speaker 2: in the cool weather. And so I bundle up and
Speaker 2: try to go for a walk and it feels great.
Speaker 2: And I'm downloading material, trying to you know, solving problems.
Speaker 2: Things are coming up, and I'm writing about it. I
Speaker 2: try not to bring my phone, but I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what I do. Have a recording feature on my phone,
Speaker 2: and what I'll do is if something significant comes through,
Speaker 2: like a chapter title or the few first section of
Speaker 2: a book, or an article, or solving an issue, I
Speaker 2: will talk about it. I'll record it. I had this
Speaker 2: happen to me on our recent trip to Mexico. We
Speaker 2: were at Chichiinitsa and the group was hearing a lecture
Speaker 2: from our tour guy, Mimo Gonzalez, and I had been
Speaker 2: there many many times, so I already knew what he
Speaker 2: was going to talk about. So I stepped away, and
Speaker 2: I was walking the length of the Great ball court.
Speaker 2: It's the largest ball court I think in the world.
Speaker 2: Is huge, huge, It's not quite as long as a
Speaker 2: football field, but it's close. It's not five hundred yards,
Speaker 2: it's more like three hundred or three and a half
Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty or more. And so I was
Speaker 2: walking and all of a sudden I heard someone clapping
Speaker 2: and there's an acoustic anomaly in that ball court, and
Speaker 2: they're all over that place, not just in the ballcarp
Speaker 2: but they're everywhere in that archaeological park. And all of
Speaker 2: a sudden I kind of shifted and I was like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, I need to talk about this. I
Speaker 2: need to write about this. This is extremely important. This
Speaker 2: is an engineering that was built into this place. So
Speaker 2: I quickly took out my phone, clicked on the recording app,
Speaker 2: and talked for a little bit about what I wanted
Speaker 2: to include in this chapter. And that's the beauty of
Speaker 2: a great example of walking, because I had been walking
Speaker 2: from the entrance and following the group, but you know,
Speaker 2: I was also kind of clicking into this special place,
Speaker 2: and so use that. Think about that when you are
Speaker 2: walking as a download and it's fabulous. It doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be creative. It can be problem solving, or it
Speaker 2: can be an Aha moment, or it can be one
Speaker 2: of a thousand things that you need to hear, or
Speaker 2: you need to experience, or you need to feel. So again,
Speaker 2: today's program is Walking Well, a New Approach for comfort,
Speaker 2: vitality and inspiration in every step, And my guest is
Speaker 2: Michael Gelb. I never want.
Speaker 1: I don't want to waste my time. I don't want
Speaker 1: to mist I want to get up this ride. I
Speaker 1: want to get.
Speaker 2: There's all forms of exercises that we discussed on a
Speaker 2: regular basis. Of course, there's yoga, tai chi, which are
Speaker 2: the more spiritual in some cases, transitional exercises that are motivational,
Speaker 2: but they're also good for extracting data and getting information
Speaker 2: and we leaving stress and strain. But what you believe
Speaker 2: there is a simple, very easy to do. And I'm
Speaker 2: laughing because it's so simple walking. Walking is a very
Speaker 2: fundamental exercise that we don't think a great deal about.
Speaker 2: And my guest today has written a book called Walking Well,
Speaker 2: a New Approach for comfort, vitality and inspiration in every step.
Speaker 2: My guest today is Michael Gelb. And I'm having Michael
Speaker 2: on the program because this book came across my desk
Speaker 2: and I thought, well, what's he What's he writing a
Speaker 2: book on walking? Everybody knows about it. There is so
Speaker 2: much to walking, and we'll learn about this today. Not
Speaker 2: only is it great for relieving stress and it's a
Speaker 2: great form of exercise, which we'll learn about. But one
Speaker 2: of the areas that I have discovered and when I
Speaker 2: do my walk, and I try to do a walk
Speaker 2: at least once or twice a week, is the fact
Speaker 2: that it can bring up creativity. It's actually great for
Speaker 2: inspiration and when I have a problem in work, in
Speaker 2: writing or whatever, if I set up kind of an
Speaker 2: idea ahead of time before my walk, I'll get answers,
Speaker 2: I'll get information and how does that work? And we're
Speaker 2: gonna learn know about that today. So Michael Gelb is
Speaker 2: a pioneer in the field of creative thinking. He's an
Speaker 2: executive coach and also an innovative leadership. He is a
Speaker 2: fifth degree black belt in Aikido and also a teacher
Speaker 2: in taichi. He's an exercise guy, obviously. So he's the
Speaker 2: one who wrote the book, which is actually it makes
Speaker 2: a great deal of sense, doesn't it. So Hey, Michael,
Speaker 2: welcome to Destiny. Great to have you on the program,
Speaker 2: Great to be with you. Thanks. All right, the first
Speaker 2: question is, oh, I want to mention also, you co
Speaker 2: wrote this book by with Bruce Fertman, and he's also
Speaker 2: an exercise guy who's study studies movement. But why did
Speaker 2: you guys get together and decide to write this book?
Speaker 2: You know, it's something that and we'll talk. Obviously there's
Speaker 2: a lot to this, a lot of dip to this book,
Speaker 2: which is fantastic. But here we are everyone's walking to
Speaker 2: get around and moving, and what was the inspiration? Did
Speaker 2: you have kind of an aha moment like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this has to be written. Talk about that? Yeah, sure, sure.
Speaker 3: So I've known Bruce, Bruce Fertman for more than forty
Speaker 3: years and he's a movement genius, like really truly gifted.
Speaker 3: You know, he got a full scholarship to Penn State
Speaker 3: in gymnastics back when Penn State was the leading gymnastics
Speaker 3: program in the country. Wow, just a great gymnast. He
Speaker 3: was really good at helping other gymnasts choreographed their routines.
Speaker 3: He had a natural gift as a coach and a
Speaker 3: teacher as well as a movement artist himself, and he
Speaker 3: became a professional modern dancer, and then he trained as
Speaker 3: an Alexander Technique teacher, which is how I got to
Speaker 3: know him, because I also trained as an Alexander Technique teacher.
Speaker 3: And my very first book is called Body Learning and
Speaker 3: Introduction to the Alexander Technique came out forty three years
Speaker 3: ago and it's still in print. And Bruce was very
Speaker 3: gracious when the book came out in nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 3: he invited me to his Alexander Technique training school in Philadelphia,
Speaker 3: and he was featuring a workshop with one of the
Speaker 3: original teachers who had studied with Alexander, named Marge Barstow,
Speaker 3: who's another amazingly gifted master teacher. So we initially can
Speaker 3: around how do you make movement easier? That's what the
Speaker 3: Alexander Technique is all about. How do you bring more
Speaker 3: grace and poise and comfort and energy and inspiration to
Speaker 3: your life every day?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: So roll the clock ahead, and we both study aikdo
Speaker 3: tai chi, all sorts of different movement modalities. We both
Speaker 3: teach these things, and I guess it was just it's
Speaker 3: only well, guess January of two, twenty twenty three, that's
Speaker 3: where the big epiphany that you asked about happened, because
Speaker 3: I was going back to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where
Speaker 3: I used to live, one of my favorite places in
Speaker 3: the world. He was my first visit after the pandemic,
Speaker 3: and Bruce heard I was coming back to New Mexico.
Speaker 3: He moved there a while ago, and he said he
Speaker 3: wrote to me, said, I have an inspiration on something
Speaker 3: that I think is really really important. He said, I
Speaker 3: think I figured something out about walking that can make
Speaker 3: it more comfortable and easier for everybody, for everybody. And
Speaker 3: I got to tell you, I was skeptical because it's like, Okay, sure,
Speaker 3: you know. I've been teaching all this stuff for years,
Speaker 3: and I love walking. I've been taking my clients for
Speaker 3: walks for years. I've written about it in previous books.
Speaker 3: So I was skeptical but open minded. So Bruce and
Speaker 3: I all got together and I said, in your basically said,
Speaker 3: treat me like a beginner. Just give me the lesson.
Speaker 3: Show me what you got. So he gave me this lesson.
Speaker 3: It was about forty five minutes, and that's when I
Speaker 3: had this amazing epiphany because I'm telling you my walking
Speaker 3: got easier and that since then has been easier. And
Speaker 3: I just thought, wow, if we could translate what you've
Speaker 3: come up with. It wasn't anything new, but what was
Speaker 3: new was the sequence he put it in. He put
Speaker 3: it in such a simple, easy sequence that literally, you
Speaker 3: can read a book. You don't even need illustrations, you
Speaker 3: don't need a video, you don't need to go on
Speaker 3: a seminar. You can read our book. And if you
Speaker 3: do what we suggest that you do, by the end
Speaker 3: of the first chapter, every step will get easier, and
Speaker 3: then it will just get easier, and we're energizing with
Speaker 3: every chapter after that. So that was the epiphany, and
Speaker 3: then we just decided we're going to do this together.
Speaker 3: And it was a fabulous creative collaboration where we pushed
Speaker 3: each other with one goal in mind, what will serve
Speaker 3: the reader the most, and we both feel exhilarated that
Speaker 3: that goal has been achieved.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it comes across well. One of the things
Speaker 2: I want you to explain, I hope you can explain
Speaker 2: is early in the book you describe I mean, because
Speaker 2: walkie is like breathing for most people, we get up
Speaker 2: and we walk around the house, we get out in
Speaker 2: the garden, we walk around the front yard. But one
Speaker 2: of the things that you bring up that's very interesting
Speaker 2: is the fact that people don't pay attention to their
Speaker 2: gate how they move. I want you to explain, if
Speaker 2: you can, why this is important and some of the
Speaker 2: steps that you introduce in the very first two chapters
Speaker 2: where you're paying attention to the movement, how you touch
Speaker 2: the ground, how you integrate with your environment. Why is
Speaker 2: that important?
Speaker 3: Great question, It's really important for so many reasons, but
Speaker 3: maybe the most compelling one is that for most people,
Speaker 3: the vast majority of people, their gait declines as they
Speaker 3: get older. They call it walking steadiness, and there's a
Speaker 3: direct correlation with a decline in your walking steadiness, which
Speaker 3: is the balance between the two sides of your body
Speaker 3: as you walk your two feet on the ground. As
Speaker 3: you become less balanced and less steady, your risk of
Speaker 3: death from all causes goes up dramatically. As you're walking
Speaker 3: steadiness declines. So, now here's why that's relevant. Whatever age
Speaker 3: you are, if you've ever had an injury, sprained your ankle,
Speaker 3: broken your leg, even it doesn't matter if it's your legs.
Speaker 3: It could be you broke your arm or your wrist.
Speaker 3: It could be an emotional trauma, which pretty much everybody's had.
Speaker 3: All of these things can throw off your gait. And
Speaker 3: let's say you broke your leg or sprained your ankle,
Speaker 3: and let's say you and I went to the doctor's
Speaker 3: and you got it treated, and now it's officially healed. Well,
Speaker 3: the immediate wound or injury might have healed, the bone
Speaker 3: might have healed, the ankle might have healed. But the
Speaker 3: distortion to your gate probably is something you're not aware of,
Speaker 3: and it will therefore be unconscious. And I know this
Speaker 3: not just from studying it academically. I know it from
Speaker 3: watching the people who walk by my window as I've
Speaker 3: been writing the book. And I have to tell you
Speaker 3: I really know it myself because I've been studying movement,
Speaker 3: practicing it how to improve it for my whole life.
Speaker 3: And I had a hip replacement and a knee replaced, wow,
Speaker 3: and the shoulder replacement. And what I what I guarantee
Speaker 3: you is if if if I didn't know what I know,
Speaker 3: I would look like this when I'm talking to say, well,
Speaker 3: you know, walking is good for you, and you'll feel back.
Speaker 3: So I don't look like that because each time I
Speaker 3: had these injuries and these traumas, with the go with
Speaker 3: the surgeries. I use everything that's in this book to
Speaker 3: recover and get stronger and more balanced than I was
Speaker 3: before the surgery.
Speaker 2: M hm.
Speaker 3: So I'm you know, I'm not saying this from some
Speaker 3: exalted thing of like I'm on some perfect state and
Speaker 3: I'm always moving. No, I have been through hell physically,
Speaker 3: and but I've come out of it. And and that's
Speaker 3: part of my passion for sharing all this because I'll
Speaker 3: tell you something. Here's here's a simple thing. Here's a
Speaker 3: just for free biohacking. You can call it if you
Speaker 3: want to call it a bio.
Speaker 2: That's a big term we've been using on the on
Speaker 2: our show, biohacking is. And that's why you're here, friend.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I'm gonna give just here's one you know,
Speaker 3: even if you don't read the book, even if you
Speaker 3: don't study everything that will change your life forever, forget that.
Speaker 3: Just do this one thing. Start doing this every day.
Speaker 3: Stand on one leg and then stand on the other
Speaker 3: one leg for one minute a day, every day. Because
Speaker 3: here's a really simple truth about walking when you walk
Speaker 3: in a normal gate, you balance on one leg forty
Speaker 3: percent of the time. But if you're not really able
Speaker 3: to balance well on one leg because of injury or trauma,
Speaker 3: unconscious distortion of your gait, your gate's gonna to keep declining.
Speaker 3: But if you specifically consciously focus on balancing on one
Speaker 3: leg every single day, you will strengthen your ability to
Speaker 3: balance on one leg and you will protect your gait
Speaker 3: as you get older. And if you want to try
Speaker 3: the advanced practice, you can try that with your eyes closed.
Speaker 2: Tell us about gate. Now, gate to me is the
Speaker 2: walking manner, yes, and rhythm and a rhythmatic pattern. So
Speaker 2: you're staying in this pattern, uh, And it's your whole
Speaker 2: body moving in rhythm with your legs, with your feet
Speaker 2: touching the ground right, yes, okay, So and people talk
Speaker 2: about the gate and the gate to me and I
Speaker 2: think you bring this up on the book, is this
Speaker 2: is your sacred rhythm. I'm using the word sacred rhythm,
Speaker 2: we said, And when you are out of this rhythm,
Speaker 2: and in the case of for you and I want
Speaker 2: you just talk about this real briefly. When you have
Speaker 2: a leg injury or you have a surgery, I have
Speaker 2: a lot of friends that not a lot. I have
Speaker 2: few people that are aging that are having a very
Speaker 2: common hip replacement. When you are having a hip replacement,
Speaker 2: you're thrown out of whack. Talk about your recovery, Michael,
Speaker 2: and any injury and why it's important probably to get
Speaker 2: back out in exercise walking again, to get back into
Speaker 2: that sacred rhythm.
Speaker 3: Beautifully stated, Well, it is a sacred rhythm, and it's
Speaker 3: it's a natural rhythm, and it's natural for you. So
Speaker 3: your natural gait, your sense of harmony with the earth,
Speaker 3: of the flow of your own body as you move along.
Speaker 3: It's something that makes the difference in every aspect of
Speaker 3: your life. How do you walk through life? It's a
Speaker 3: powerful metaphor. How do you walk into the room, how
Speaker 3: do you walk through your house? You know, some people
Speaker 3: go on a sacred pilgrimage. One of my clients went
Speaker 3: to Santiago de Compo. Stella recently called me up from
Speaker 3: the airport said can you give me some coaching on
Speaker 3: my walking before I do it? Twenty twenty every day
Speaker 3: this is officially sacred walk, but you're right. Our book,
Speaker 3: the idea is to make every walk a sacred walk.
Speaker 3: And what makes it sacred is really allowing your own
Speaker 3: natural flow, your natural rhythm to come forth. And if
Speaker 3: you're having a surgery, obviously do everything your doctor tells you.
Speaker 3: You know, they get you up walking right away after
Speaker 3: the hip surgery, same day. And the reason for that
Speaker 3: because they used to have you rest and they realize
Speaker 3: it made you much worse. No, you got to get
Speaker 3: out there and start walking. Do what the physical therapist
Speaker 3: teach you. They have a lot of wisdom and knowledge
Speaker 3: to help measure all this and get you fundamentally mechanically
Speaker 3: sound again.
Speaker 2: But what son I teach.
Speaker 3: You takes you to a whole other level that we
Speaker 3: could teach to the physical therapists and to the doctors
Speaker 3: that would improve their gait. And it's based on the
Speaker 3: combination of our study of the Alexander technique of Tai
Speaker 3: Chi I chigong. And really, I got to tell you
Speaker 3: another thing about Bruce. He moved to New Mexico more
Speaker 3: than forty years ago and he lives near this famous slope.
Speaker 3: It's where Jojo O'Keefe used to go to paint her
Speaker 3: amazing paintings. She used to walk along the slope. It's
Speaker 3: four and a half miles going up. Part of what
Speaker 3: got me interested in talking to Bruce in the first
Speaker 3: place about this and making an appointment to actually get
Speaker 3: together with him and show me what you got. He
Speaker 3: said to me. Look, I moved there. I was forty
Speaker 3: years old, he said. Now I'm seventy four, and I'm
Speaker 3: walking up this hill with less effort and faster than
Speaker 3: I did when I was forty. I think people might
Speaker 3: be interested in how I figured out how to do that. Yes,
Speaker 3: and we can talk about you know, what are the
Speaker 3: I'll give you the specifics if you want of what
Speaker 3: people can start thinking about now. Besides practicing standing on
Speaker 3: one leg, that's a more mechanical thing. But the key
Speaker 3: elements in finding your natural gait are the first three
Speaker 3: experiments that we guide the reader.
Speaker 2: To do in the first part of the Bubble. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about that, because I wanted you to tell us
Speaker 2: about how we discover our natural rhythm. And this is very,
Speaker 2: very early in the book, where you're having you know,
Speaker 2: you're touching the ground, you're moving, and you're feeling your body,
Speaker 2: which a lot of people don't even pay attention to,
Speaker 2: and why this is important for this sacred risk of
Speaker 2: them sacred walk, whatever you want to call it. So
Speaker 2: go ahead and give us a sense of how to
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 3: Sure, well, you just you just gave the clue, which
Speaker 3: is if you can feel it, you can heal it.
Speaker 3: But you have to be able to feel it. And
Speaker 3: as you said, most people aren't paying attention. They take
Speaker 3: walking for granted, they take driving for granted. You know,
Speaker 3: most people don't think they need to go on improve
Speaker 3: your driving course. But if you've been out on the road,
Speaker 3: you know they actually do.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, one thing I want to just stop
Speaker 2: you for a minute, Michael. One thing that you bring
Speaker 2: up that I thought was very interesting and I want
Speaker 2: to do this, But you said, do not walk on
Speaker 2: heels when you're starting out and you're discovering your gait
Speaker 2: or our sacred pattern, walk on flat ground. Why is
Speaker 2: that important in the very beginning when we're introducing these fundamentals.
Speaker 3: Well, one thing I've learned pedagogically, and Bruce will back
Speaker 3: me up on this too, is we want to make
Speaker 3: it as easy as possible for people to learn and
Speaker 3: make progress. And say, ah, so set yourself up for
Speaker 3: success before you start climbing hills or stairs or going downhill,
Speaker 3: which is actually more challenging. Practice these principles on a
Speaker 3: flat surface so that you're minimizing the stress. Because once
Speaker 3: you can apply this on a flat surface, and it
Speaker 3: doesn't really take that long for most people to understand
Speaker 3: that there's something wonderful that's gonna emerge as they practice this.
Speaker 3: Of course, it's not just like you'll read the first
Speaker 3: chapter say Okay, I got it, and now I don't
Speaker 3: have to think about it again. I got to tell
Speaker 3: you to think about it every step I take. It
Speaker 3: has changed my level of mindfulness about my own walking
Speaker 3: in a wonderful way because I'm just getting more. I
Speaker 3: feel more with every step, get more feedback from the
Speaker 3: ground with every step, and I can make adjustments. That's
Speaker 3: the real thing, is making adjustments. Most people are you know,
Speaker 3: they're pounding the pavement if they know the walking is
Speaker 3: a great exercise, which it is. There's tons of research.
Speaker 3: They think I got to get my ten thousand steps,
Speaker 3: and they're out there striding forward to try to get
Speaker 3: those steps and looking at their watch or their device,
Speaker 3: how am I doing? And they're not feeling it. They're
Speaker 3: not connecting to it. And so what Bruce and I
Speaker 3: focus on is much more the quality of those steps.
Speaker 3: And when you improve the quality of each step, you'll
Speaker 3: want to walk more because it feels better. You won't
Speaker 3: have to worry about ten thousand steps. You'll say, I
Speaker 3: guess I have to get back from my walk because
Speaker 3: I have to actually call somebody or do something else,
Speaker 3: because you'll just want to walk more because it feels
Speaker 3: so good.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna take a shit or commercial break to allow
Speaker 2: our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will return shortly
Speaker 2: with my guest today Michael Gelb discussing his new release
Speaker 2: Walking Well. We'll be right back. My guest today is
Speaker 2: author Michael Gelb, who's written a new book on walking
Speaker 2: called Walking Well, a new approach for comfort, vitality, and inspiration.
Speaker 2: In every step, give us a brief hint as to
Speaker 2: becoming aware of how we touch the earth. Give us
Speaker 2: like one of the samples if you can sure.
Speaker 3: Well, they go in sequence, and it's really important to
Speaker 3: do them in sequence. So what I'll do is I
Speaker 3: will answer what you've asked, and I'm happy to say
Speaker 3: all three steps, sure, But don't I you know it
Speaker 3: comes with a caveat, which is, don't think you can
Speaker 3: just say Okay, I just go through those three steps
Speaker 3: and I got it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, because so the three steps.
Speaker 3: Are first, consider what would happen if you let your
Speaker 3: feet come down the way they want to without imposing
Speaker 3: any idea of how it should come back. And obviously
Speaker 3: what you need to do is go for a walk
Speaker 3: and explore that, and we guide you on how to
Speaker 3: do that, and then write in a journal or a
Speaker 3: notebook or talk about it with a friend, and notice
Speaker 3: how you feel. Most people feel, Wow, it's kind of
Speaker 3: a little awkward, it feels almost a little sloppy, but
Speaker 3: it's also kind of liberating.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Okay, so once you go through that exercise and you
Speaker 3: reach that aha, that feeling of wow, what's it like
Speaker 3: to let my maybe my feet no better than my
Speaker 3: analytical brain about what natural walking is? What if I
Speaker 3: turn them loose and let them explore? How fascinating. Then
Speaker 3: the second step is might be the most powerful one
Speaker 3: of all. What Bruce and I noticed, not just in
Speaker 3: other people but in ourselves is it pretty much everybody
Speaker 3: braces their foot and their ankle before that foot hits
Speaker 3: the ground. They stiffen up, they brace for impact. So
Speaker 3: go for a walk, then bring your attention. You know
Speaker 3: we have them. Do it first, Just check your right leg,
Speaker 3: right ankle, and foot.
Speaker 2: Am I bracing even slightly?
Speaker 3: Most people will discover, oh my god, I am, and
Speaker 3: I'm doing it on my left leg as well. And
Speaker 3: then you ask, what would happen if I just gave
Speaker 3: up bracing to prepare for impact? What if I didn't
Speaker 3: have to brace my ankles at all? And again, you
Speaker 3: got to go actually experiment with this. Go for it,
Speaker 3: we say on the twelve minute walk, that seems to
Speaker 3: be the optimum to really get it. Come back, write
Speaker 3: it in your journal, talk about it with somebody else.
Speaker 3: And I gotta tell you it's very humbling because we're
Speaker 3: the authors. And if we don't monitor it, we'll go
Speaker 3: back to bracing our ankles too, because we're all dealing
Speaker 3: with a lot of stress and there's a lot of
Speaker 3: tendency to want to hold on instead of let go.
Speaker 2: So are you saying that we're dumping our stress and
Speaker 2: our trauma and our fatigue and problems into our gait
Speaker 2: And this is where we're having incorrect walking.
Speaker 3: Everything everything, every stress, every bit of stress, every negative thought,
Speaker 3: every worry, every trauma. Every time you watch the news,
Speaker 3: and you recoil from it. The recoil is happening in
Speaker 3: your actual body in real time, instantaneously. It's held as
Speaker 3: unconscious tension, and it definitely interferes with your gait, It
Speaker 3: interferes with your breathing, It interferes with your ability to
Speaker 3: feel the joy of life. It doesn't really protect you.
Speaker 3: That's the sad part.
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 3: It's a it's an unconscious fear response that is evolutionary.
Speaker 3: It's it served for when you were being attacked by
Speaker 3: a predator, or if you were afraid of falling out
Speaker 3: of a tree and you had to roll up into
Speaker 3: a ball so you didn't break everything. It's that that's
Speaker 3: exactly we'll do now. But here's the thing that they
Speaker 3: don't realize is they do it like they do it
Speaker 3: just slightly every time, every time you turn on the news,
Speaker 3: every time somebody says something that upsets you, every time
Speaker 3: you're frustrated waiting in line at the not getting the service,
Speaker 3: whatever it is, you know, whatever it is, not to
Speaker 3: mention injury, not to mention real challenges in your life.
Speaker 3: Each of these things is held instantaneously in your whole
Speaker 3: body as unnecessary tension, and that builds up over the
Speaker 3: course of your life.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But the amazing thing is so you can go to
Speaker 3: all kinds of therapies, and I recommend them all because
Speaker 3: I think we all need all the help we can get.
Speaker 3: So you know, get go, get reky reiki, Go get ralphing,
Speaker 3: go get Alexander technique, Go get a massage, meditate, do yoga,
Speaker 3: do tai chi, do everything. But walking is something you're
Speaker 3: already doing every day. So what if you could turn that?
Speaker 3: What if you could turn every step you take into
Speaker 3: a healing opportunity? Right, And that's that's what walking Well
Speaker 3: is all about.
Speaker 2: Right. We want people to obviously to buy the books
Speaker 2: so they can learn in the very beginning how to
Speaker 2: measure and correct any problems you're having with walking. But
Speaker 2: obviously the goal is to get in in a rhythm
Speaker 2: so that when you're walking, you're walking not only to
Speaker 2: benefit the physical And this is the beauty of this book.
Speaker 2: You bring in the higher levels and you're beginning to connect.
Speaker 2: This is what makes your book very special is and
Speaker 2: I want you to talk about this. When we are
Speaker 2: walking correctly and in harmony, then it allows us to
Speaker 2: release tension and talk about that and then talk about
Speaker 2: moving into the higher realms where you're getting inspiration and creativity.
Speaker 3: Sure, well, before we go to the higher realms, let's
Speaker 3: go to the feet and the earth. So and I know,
Speaker 3: let's see the beautiful You're making these beautiful gestures while
Speaker 3: you were describing the.
Speaker 2: I want to get out for a walk. Me too.
Speaker 3: So so just to give everybody the third step that
Speaker 3: really does ground this and sets us up for getting
Speaker 3: the inspiration and getting more energy and vitality from every step.
Speaker 3: So what if I let my feet come down anyway
Speaker 3: they want? What if I realize there's absolutely no need
Speaker 3: to brace my ankles and my feet in preparation for
Speaker 3: the foot to come down on the earth. And that
Speaker 3: leads to the real, wonderful physical discovery that human beings,
Speaker 3: like bears, we are plantigrades. So your dog or your
Speaker 3: cat is a digital grade. They effectively walk on their toes.
Speaker 3: Their paws are their toes. That's the paws are the
Speaker 3: names for dog and cat toes. But bears plant to
Speaker 3: means soul of the foot, so we grate along with
Speaker 3: the whole soul of the foot. That's what a bear does.
Speaker 3: That's why they look so comfortable and relaxed and powerful,
Speaker 3: and that's what humans are design to do as well.
Speaker 3: Our whole foot is designed to peel along the ground
Speaker 3: with every step. And you can't peel along if you're
Speaker 3: bracing your ankle for impact. So you see why there's
Speaker 3: a sequence here. But once you start releasing your ankle,
Speaker 3: you eat start peeling along. And we guide people to
Speaker 3: actually say peel, peel with every step they take.
Speaker 2: And this is.
Speaker 3: A really big experiential epiphany that our readers are having,
Speaker 3: which is when I let my foot really peel along
Speaker 3: the ground. We've met many, many people write to us
Speaker 3: and just tell us in our seminars, I felt more
Speaker 3: connected with Mother Earth than I ever have. I felt
Speaker 3: the support of the whole earth underneath me.
Speaker 2: You know. Tick not Han writes.
Speaker 3: A walk as though you're kissing the earth with every step,
Speaker 3: and Bruce and I say, yes, but make it a big, long,
Speaker 3: juicy kiss. It's not a quick one. It's a nice
Speaker 3: kiss of the earth. And then you realize something else
Speaker 3: that is profoundly inspirational and really transformational. Even though it's
Speaker 3: a good metaphorical advice that we tell you to stand
Speaker 3: on your own two feet, you know it means support
Speaker 3: yourself and life and be empowered and be independent. Good advice,
Speaker 3: but not at all possible physiologically or anatomically. You cannot
Speaker 3: stand on your own two feet. Your feet are part
Speaker 3: of you. You stand on the earth. So feel the
Speaker 3: support of the earth with every step that you take.
Speaker 3: Let your the sole of your foot spread out and luxuriate.
Speaker 3: With every step that you take. Not only will you
Speaker 3: feel more supported, but you'll also realize that the power
Speaker 3: in walking comes from behind you and underneath you. So
Speaker 3: what you realize is the way you go forward is
Speaker 3: not by striding forward, which is what I see people
Speaker 3: who are walking for exercise doing out my window. All
Speaker 3: the time. They're straining and striding forward, they're pounding the pavement,
Speaker 3: they're striking the ground, and they're further traumatizing themselves and
Speaker 3: the earth, although the earth can take it, but they can't.
Speaker 3: With every step, but instead, you start to feel the peel.
Speaker 3: You feel that the power is coming from behind you.
Speaker 3: It's your back foot peeling off the ground that actually
Speaker 3: moves you forward. And then if you release your ankle,
Speaker 3: your foot just gently caresses the earth right underneath you.
Speaker 3: Because now you're getting the power from the other foot,
Speaker 3: which has become the backfoot. So it's your back foot
Speaker 3: that is the source of the power. You don't stride forward,
Speaker 3: you let the earth propel you forward, and that's where
Speaker 3: it becomes. The next epiphany is when you put all
Speaker 3: this together. When you put these first three lessons together,
Speaker 3: people feel like they're walking happens effortlessly, and that's that's
Speaker 3: the next that's the real breakthrough. Uh. You know the
Speaker 3: word walk to walk, it comes from Welsh and Middle
Speaker 3: English origins and it means to roll along. Really that's
Speaker 3: what Yes, that's what it feels like when you're walking, Well,
Speaker 3: you feel like it's just happening underneath you and it's effortless,
Speaker 3: and that freeze you up for the inspiration, the aha,
Speaker 3: the problem solving, the connection with nature, the feeling of
Speaker 3: spiritual oneness. But it's grounded in feeling supported and connected
Speaker 3: to the earth.
Speaker 2: I want to mention that this book has been broken
Speaker 2: into three sections. Comfort, which is what we're talking about
Speaker 2: right now, Vitality, which is what we're going to get
Speaker 2: into shortly, and then fascinating enough inspiration and what Michael
Speaker 2: and Bruce have done is give us the framework so
Speaker 2: that we can and, as Michael is describing, give us
Speaker 2: a sense of this ability which is innate in us
Speaker 2: to get the most out of it, so that we
Speaker 2: are connected fully body, mind and spirit in our walking daily.
Speaker 2: So let's move into vitality for a minute, and I
Speaker 2: want to talk about one area that you get into
Speaker 2: with a great deal of detail, which is brief breath.
Speaker 2: Talk about that, well, it's really important. I can't get
Speaker 2: a row without it. But when we walk, I think
Speaker 2: it's more even. I mean, it's almost unconscious. It is unconscious,
Speaker 2: but to be aware of it also is important too,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yes, Well, one of my favorite AHAs in the breathing
Speaker 3: section is everybody familiar with apnea, which is an interference
Speaker 3: with your breathing. Sometimes some people suffer from sleep apnea,
Speaker 3: where they have problems with their breathing when they're sleeping,
Speaker 3: but most everybody suffers from some kind of apnea in
Speaker 3: their daily life, some interference with breathing, chronic sinus issues,
Speaker 3: mouth breathing, gasping for breath, shortness of breath. So I'm
Speaker 3: just pausing to really enjoy the beauty of an easy, full,
Speaker 3: happy breath, because it really is one of life's most
Speaker 3: exquisite effortless pleasures is just Bruce and I like to
Speaker 3: think of it as when you discover what we call, well,
Speaker 3: we don't call it. It's there's a name for it. It's oopnia.
Speaker 3: It's a really fun word, and it means natural, healthy breathing.
Speaker 3: So apnea is interferenced with your breathing. Oopnia is healthy,
Speaker 3: natural breathing. There's actually a word oopnia.
Speaker 2: I swear something like Willie Wonka's chocolate factory.
Speaker 3: I was so happy when I found that word.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you it's a real word.
Speaker 3: Uh. And and so then how do you access it? Well,
Speaker 3: both Bruce and I feel like natural breathing feels like
Speaker 3: you're being breathed. There's no effort, you don't have to do.
Speaker 3: You actually don't have to do all kinds of breathing exercises.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've studied lots of different forms of breath work.
Speaker 3: Many of them are great, and I'm not saying don't
Speaker 3: do them. What I'm saying is you may not need them.
Speaker 3: Because one of the wonderful things that happens when you
Speaker 3: start walking naturally is it naturally starts to regulate your breathing.
Speaker 3: When you find that natural, sacred rhythm, you're inviting the
Speaker 3: natural sacred rhythm of your own inhalation and exhalation. There
Speaker 3: is one practical thing, and I love both Bruce and
Speaker 3: I love giving really practical advice. A lot of stuff
Speaker 3: is very subtle, and you have to study it and
Speaker 3: feel it and take your time and write in your journal.
Speaker 3: But there's a couple things I like to tell people
Speaker 3: you can just either do or stop doing. So we
Speaker 3: already said. One thing you can do is stay on
Speaker 3: one leg every day. Another thing you can do is
Speaker 3: keep your mouth closed and breathe through your nose. They
Speaker 3: might say, well, I have sinus problems and blah blah blah. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but what happens is if you just make it a
Speaker 3: practice whenever you remember to gently close your mouth and
Speaker 3: invite the air in through your nostrils. The more you
Speaker 3: invite that, the easier it gets. Now in the book,
Speaker 3: we give some practices you can do to acupuncture points
Speaker 3: that help open the flow and the sinuses. We have
Speaker 3: a great practice on how to flare your nostrils like
Speaker 3: a horse. But the most beautiful, simple, elegant practice is
Speaker 3: just walk with your lips together and let the air
Speaker 3: come in through your nose, invite it in and then
Speaker 3: let it out again. And in the beginning especially, don't
Speaker 3: walk so fast. People are getting exercised. They're walking so
Speaker 3: fast that they start panting and they're breathing through their mouth.
Speaker 3: Don't walk that fast if you can't keep your mouth closed.
Speaker 3: And there's you know, the science behind this is overwhelming.
Speaker 2: We interviewed.
Speaker 3: Richard Brown and Patricia Gearbarg, both very accomplished medical doctors authors.
Speaker 3: They're the founders of Breath Body Mind. And it was
Speaker 3: also really blessed to interview Patrick McCown, who wrote The
Speaker 3: Oxygen Advantage and you know these you know where the
Speaker 3: James Nester is best selling book on breathing, Well, those
Speaker 3: are his two main sources. And they both become friends
Speaker 3: of mine, so I know you I know Richard Brown
Speaker 3: and Patricia Gerberg personally, spend time with them, go to
Speaker 3: their home. Patrick McCown was so gracious, I'd zoomed with
Speaker 3: him a number of times. But if I sum up
Speaker 3: some it all up, you can go back, because you
Speaker 3: can go in the book. There are the references if
Speaker 3: you want to read the science behind why this is
Speaker 3: so much better for you. We've got it. But if
Speaker 3: you want to just the simplest thing you can stop
Speaker 3: doing is stop breathing through your mouth when you're walking,
Speaker 3: keep your lips closed. Then if you want to practice
Speaker 3: one actual breathing exercise when you're not walking, that will
Speaker 3: help regulate everything and give you the most benefit with
Speaker 3: the least effort. That's coherent breathing, which both Brown, gerk
Speaker 3: Bard and also Patrick McCown all advocate, which is very
Speaker 3: simply allowing the inhill for five point five seconds proximately
Speaker 3: and the exhale for five point five seconds.
Speaker 2: And that's it. Now you can do.
Speaker 3: There's all sorts of other patterns you can do, and
Speaker 3: there's box breathing, and there's whim Hoff breathing, and there's
Speaker 3: a lot of you know, pranayama. You're doing it through
Speaker 3: your all good. I've done it all I practice I
Speaker 3: actually I practice a lot of it, and it's all
Speaker 3: really good. But what's the simplest that will have the
Speaker 3: most immediate benefit in your life, in the vitality that
Speaker 3: you feel every day. The simplest thing is keep your
Speaker 3: mouth closed whenever you remember, breathe through your nose and
Speaker 3: then if you want to practice something, practice coherent breathing.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a short commercial break to allow
Speaker 2: our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will return shortly
Speaker 2: with my guest today, Michael Gilb discuss I seen his
Speaker 2: new book Walking Well.
Speaker 3: Gaze up on the Sky Christmas on mind somewhere from
Speaker 3: a plaza pie above, there's a.
Speaker 2: Song of travel. My guess today is Michael Gelb, who's
Speaker 2: written a book called Walking Well. We all walk, we
Speaker 2: all get outside and do our exercising, but this is
Speaker 2: a different way to look at motivation for walking and
Speaker 2: some of the inspiration you can get from taking a
Speaker 2: daily walk. As we come to the conclusion of our
Speaker 2: time together, I want to talk about the inspirational aspect
Speaker 2: because I think that you tap some of the Eastern
Speaker 2: philosophy here where through the movement of walking, we're also
Speaker 2: when we're in rhythm in our walk, we're also able
Speaker 2: to tap the higher levels of consciousness. And you give
Speaker 2: great examples of Leonardo da Vinci and many of the
Speaker 2: great thinkers, artists and scientists of human experience walking for
Speaker 2: their inspiration. I want you to talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about that and give us a sense of how that's
Speaker 2: achieved and at what point if you can during the walk,
Speaker 2: we achieve those stants of higher levels of consciousness.
Speaker 3: So if one tried to write a book about geniuses
Speaker 3: throughout history from all walks of life who didn't like
Speaker 3: to walk, it would be a very very small book,
Speaker 3: because you look through the history of genius, which I
Speaker 3: have done throughout my career, and they all say walking
Speaker 3: is the thing. Walking is the way. If you want
Speaker 3: to get a great idea, go for a walk. If
Speaker 3: you're frustrated, if you have a challenge or a problem,
Speaker 3: go for a walk. The ancient Latin phrase is solvetour ambulando,
Speaker 3: solve it while walking. Hippocrates said that walking is the
Speaker 3: best medicine. But of course, when we started this project
Speaker 3: and we're going to write a book about it, having
Speaker 3: previously written a number of books about Leonardo da Vinci,
Speaker 3: including How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, I went
Speaker 3: back to Leonardo's notebooks and I said, okay, what did
Speaker 3: Leonardo write about walking? Because people generally consider it to
Speaker 3: be maybe the great genius in human history, and so
Speaker 3: not only does he advocate walking, especially walking in nature,
Speaker 3: as the best means for getting inspiration, which he says
Speaker 3: in multiple places in the notebook, and he tells a
Speaker 3: student take a break, go for a walk when you're
Speaker 3: struggling with a technical issue when a painting. But the
Speaker 3: thing that really rocked my world in a most wonderful
Speaker 3: way was to discover that it was Leonardo da Vinci
Speaker 3: who invented the pedometer, right, it's not wild, And then
Speaker 3: Thomas Jefferson, who came up with a pretty good idea
Speaker 3: of life libert in the Pursuit of Happiness. Jefferson said
Speaker 3: that walking is by far the best form of exercise.
Speaker 3: And Jefferson invented a pedometer.
Speaker 2: Well, it was his, the one that clipped onto the
Speaker 2: belt and every bit a movement calculated a step or something.
Speaker 2: I forget.
Speaker 3: He was a very inventive guy at Jefferson, as was
Speaker 3: as was Leonardo. But it's also poets and authors and musicians, philosophers.
Speaker 2: It's hard to find.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to find a great genius who didn't say, yeah,
Speaker 3: I got my best idea as well walking. But here's
Speaker 3: the thing that's true, even if you haven't read our book.
Speaker 3: So but seriously, you go for a walk anyway if
Speaker 3: you because even if you don't walk as well as
Speaker 3: you will after you read our book, walking is still
Speaker 3: one of the best ways to get a breakthrough idea.
Speaker 3: I've been guiding my clients to walk for inspiration since
Speaker 3: the beginning of my career. However, something really powerful, really important.
Speaker 3: Everybody knows now that besides verbal intelligence and mathematical intelligence,
Speaker 3: there's also kinesthetic intelligence, in other words, body intelligence. You know,
Speaker 3: somebody like Lebron James has a very advanced kinesthetic intelligence,
Speaker 3: and this is something you can develop. You can develop
Speaker 3: like if you start peeling when you walk, you'll feel more.
Speaker 3: Your kinesthetic sense will be sharpened. We can take you
Speaker 3: through and in the book we have meditations to feel
Speaker 3: your body more so you strengthen your kinesthetic and your
Speaker 3: propriceptive sense too. They go together. Kinesthetic is your sense
Speaker 3: of weight, position and movement. Appropriateception is knowing where parts
Speaker 3: of your body are. So if I close my eyes
Speaker 3: and I try to touch my nose with my index fingers,
Speaker 3: I can do that. It's my kinesthetic sense that moves
Speaker 3: my fingers lets me know where to go, and it's
Speaker 3: my pro perceptive sense that lets me know that they're
Speaker 3: my fingers and where and that it's my nose, it's
Speaker 3: you know. The word pro perceptive is the same root
Speaker 3: as proprietary. It means that's how you know, it's yours.
Speaker 3: But here's here's the real aha, the sense that is
Speaker 3: responsible for your real gut feeling, for your knowing it
Speaker 3: in your heart of hearts, feeling it in your blood,
Speaker 3: in your bones. Which is what people always say when
Speaker 3: they get a breakthrough idea with their intuition. It's the
Speaker 3: interroceptive sense. It's the interroceptive sense. It's the inner literal
Speaker 3: sense from your gut, from your bones, from your heart,
Speaker 3: and from your blood. And when you walk well, when
Speaker 3: you find that natural, sacred rhythm, you are more in
Speaker 3: touch with your gut. You're more in touch with your heart,
Speaker 3: You're more in touch with your bones, You're more in
Speaker 3: touch with your with your blood. So it's not that
Speaker 3: you have to get some inspiration from somewhere way out there. No,
Speaker 3: you're quieting the noise, you're quieting the interference patterns. You're
Speaker 3: letting go of the unnecessary, unconscious tension, so your own
Speaker 3: true inner wisdom can shine forth. And that that's the
Speaker 3: real source of inspiration.
Speaker 2: Wow. The books called walking Well a new approach for comfort,
Speaker 2: vitality and inspiration in every step. And my guess has
Speaker 2: been Michael gilb talk about walking meditation. This is something
Speaker 2: that I that I've never understood quite well because when
Speaker 2: I meditate, and I meditate it on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: I have to be quiet and still my mind. But
Speaker 2: as somebody who's written about walking, do you have a
Speaker 2: an approach to walking meditation? Is that a mindset that
Speaker 2: you begin as you enter the certain state of walking.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's simply setting an intention and a theme for
Speaker 3: a particular walk. So the simplest one could just be
Speaker 3: feeling the earth with every step, just for example. Another
Speaker 3: one could be keeping my mouth closed and enjoying the
Speaker 3: feeling of breath as I walk. Another one which I
Speaker 3: love is listening to the sound of the birds as
Speaker 3: I walk. And there's a lot of research showing that
Speaker 3: just birds song transforms you from a stressed state into
Speaker 3: a state of happiness. It's one of the simplest, most beautiful.
Speaker 3: Or you can walk along and just listen to all
Speaker 3: the other sounds you hear, or the colors that you see,
Speaker 3: or say I'm going to look at you aides of
Speaker 3: green today, or my theme today will be trees. And
Speaker 3: by the way, you can also you can also just
Speaker 3: to be you know, I got to confess. Sometimes I
Speaker 3: just put on soul music and I go for a
Speaker 3: dancing walking meditation, but I still am sure that I'm
Speaker 3: umbracing my ankles and peeling along, and then I'm more
Speaker 3: in touch with the earth and I have more rhythm
Speaker 3: in my step, and it's just a wonderful way to
Speaker 3: be happy. So we put all these All of these
Speaker 3: are in the book and many more actually different themes.
Speaker 3: And the most profound one is the one that we
Speaker 3: begin the book with and we end the book with,
Speaker 3: and that is something we were initiated into from.
Speaker 2: An original American source. H N.
Speaker 3: Scott Mamma Day, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet
Speaker 3: who in one of his books shared the sacred chant
Speaker 3: of what we call the in English the Navajo people,
Speaker 3: but they're really the DNA people. And it's about walking
Speaker 3: in beauty. It's about making every walk a sacred walk.
Speaker 3: It's about feeling connected with the earth, about making your
Speaker 3: life more beautiful through walking. So the final meditation in
Speaker 3: the book, we guide you through this sacred chant.
Speaker 2: It's called the Night chant.
Speaker 3: And it's it's it's very powerful, and it's it's it's
Speaker 3: the climax of the book.
Speaker 2: And we so are you. Are you chanting in your
Speaker 2: head as you're walking, You're kind of rolling this sound
Speaker 2: and it becomes just part of your whole cycle of walking.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's like a mantra. Like a mantra. It's a
Speaker 3: it's a Native American mantra, but it's got a lot
Speaker 3: of mojo. And of course you could just take a
Speaker 3: line from it, or two lines from it, or you
Speaker 3: could take your favorite mantra and you could coordinate it
Speaker 3: as you walk. You know, oh, nahma, shivayah, whatever works
Speaker 3: for you. Because the other great thing about this too
Speaker 3: is you're your own best teacher. Truly. Our job is
Speaker 3: to provide you with these periments that we've been doing
Speaker 3: for our whole career and then put it into walking
Speaker 3: so that you can get more out of every step
Speaker 3: you take and every breath as well.
Speaker 2: What's a good routine? In the book you say you
Speaker 2: suggest walking every day, But what's a what's a routine?
Speaker 2: If you can't walk every day for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: That you feel is important, Well, that needs to be
Speaker 3: calibrated by each individual for themselves. Having said that, what
Speaker 3: I would recommend is if you possibly can take a
Speaker 3: walk before breakfast, before breakfast, before breakfast, get outside and
Speaker 3: get some sun. It helps to set your circading rhythms.
Speaker 3: It starts your day with the serotonin boost that you
Speaker 3: need to be alert and function well throughout the day.
Speaker 3: And it helps to regulate you for when you go
Speaker 3: to sleep at night, so you get a more natural
Speaker 3: melatonin production when the lights go out and there's darkness.
Speaker 3: And the other great time to walk is after dinner.
Speaker 3: This is a tradition in many cultures around the world,
Speaker 3: the post prandile stroll. So it turns out that a
Speaker 3: gentle walk after dinner really helps to regulate your digestion,
Speaker 3: and so that's optimal, but that might not work with
Speaker 3: your schedule, So figure out what works for you. The
Speaker 3: other thing about it is don't be limited to the
Speaker 3: thought that I'm going on an official walk. This is
Speaker 3: an official walk. Okay, I have my smart device and
Speaker 3: I'm counting my steps. Part of what you'll get out
Speaker 3: of the book is no walking into your kitchen.
Speaker 2: Walk.
Speaker 3: You know, there's all this advice in these books to
Speaker 3: tell you to walk more like park your car further
Speaker 3: away from the front entrance and walk. Don't worry about
Speaker 3: Shortney walk every week. So we advocate that as well.
Speaker 3: But when you walk well, you're gonna want to do
Speaker 3: that instead of thinking, oh my god, I don't want
Speaker 3: to have to walk that far, and any think oh
Speaker 3: I get to walk that far. Great, You'll want to
Speaker 3: do it so you don't have to worry about a regiment.
Speaker 3: That's the beauty of this. When you walk well, when
Speaker 3: you talk naturally, when you're in the process of finding
Speaker 3: your own sacred rhythm, you're just gonna want to walk.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna have to make it as an exercise.
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to say, let me do something else
Speaker 3: besides walking, because it feels so good.
Speaker 2: I don't want to stop. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It becomes a part of your existence. As we close,
Speaker 2: you have a chapter, it's chapter nine called walking for Transformation.
Speaker 2: I have to ask you about that. I didn't get
Speaker 2: a chance to really look at that chapter. But what
Speaker 2: is the transformation? I mean I can kind of get
Speaker 2: a sense of it, but there there more to the
Speaker 2: obvious physical benefits.
Speaker 3: Well, it's thank you for saying that, because it starts
Speaker 3: with the physical benefits. And my master's degree is in
Speaker 3: psycho physical re education. Bruce and I come from a
Speaker 3: perspective where physical and mental and emotional and spiritual aren't separate.
Speaker 3: It's part of what the people, the wonderful, brilliant people
Speaker 3: from the Hoffman work call the quadrinity spirit, mind, emotion, body,
Speaker 3: and you can work with the whole system. We can
Speaker 3: work intellectually and get ideas. That's why we wrote a
Speaker 3: book with we hope is logical and make sense and
Speaker 3: is backed up by references and science. And the idea
Speaker 3: of the book is you read it, you say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: that makes sense. Let me try that, and then you
Speaker 3: do something with your body. You do that with your body,
Speaker 3: and you're going to feel something. It's called pleasure. It's
Speaker 3: called joy, it's called happiness, it's called gratitude. It's called connectedness.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: When I feel that connectedness and I'm in this natural
Speaker 3: rhythm with my body, I feel connected to everything. That's
Speaker 3: what people call spiritual. When the separation between my seeming
Speaker 3: separate self and the whole universe disappears, that's enlightenment, that's nirvana.
Speaker 3: So instead of seeking that directly, because I can tell
Speaker 3: you it doesn't work. I tried.
Speaker 2: Seak it in directly by.
Speaker 3: Just bringing presence to this moment to the next step,
Speaker 3: and you may just be surprised at how could it
Speaker 3: really be that simple?
Speaker 2: Could it be that easy? Fantastic walking? Well? Uh, for
Speaker 2: those of you who want to get a copy, it
Speaker 2: just came out, I should say it came out in
Speaker 2: mid September. It's available on Amazon and wherever you get
Speaker 2: your books. Did you do an Amazon Did you do
Speaker 2: an audible version where you narrated the book?
Speaker 3: Yes, there is an audible There is a an audible version.
Speaker 3: It is on audio because a lot of people want
Speaker 3: to listen to it while they're walking.
Speaker 2: That's what I was gonna say. It's a perfect tool
Speaker 2: for you know, getting your exercise as well.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And I will mention to our listeners that you can
Speaker 2: also go to Michael's web page. It's Michael Gelb g
Speaker 2: E l b dot com Michael Gelb, and I would
Speaker 2: imagine you have more information on that website. And do
Speaker 2: you have any videos or zoom presentations that people can
Speaker 2: also see and get a sense of who want to
Speaker 2: go beyond the book?
Speaker 3: Yes, So there's Michael Gelb dot com which is a
Speaker 3: great place to start. And there's a link to everything
Speaker 3: on Michael gelb dot com. Okay, we also have another
Speaker 3: website which we specifically created to support people who are
Speaker 3: reading the book, where we have actually created it's all free,
Speaker 3: free videos illustrations that go with the book, and that
Speaker 3: is Walkingwell dot com.
Speaker 2: Oh excellent, okay, fantastic. Hey, well, real pleasure having you
Speaker 2: on the program, Michael. I enjoyed it. I think our
Speaker 2: listeners get a sense of the importance of walking because
Speaker 2: such an innate thing. We all walk, but do we
Speaker 2: walk well? Which is a perfect title. So hey, continued
Speaker 2: success and thanks for joining me. My pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 2: It's funny. It's simple as walking is. There are ways
Speaker 2: to make it even more rewarding and impactful. And I
Speaker 2: was looking at the first part of this book and
Speaker 2: it's about part of a chapter, it's about half a chapter,
Speaker 2: three or four pages where he describes how to set
Speaker 2: your foot down in a manner where you get the
Speaker 2: full effect, you get the full healing benefit material to
Speaker 2: do a good walk, to walk correctly, to walk more impactfully.
Speaker 2: And I didn't think, I thought, well, what the hell
Speaker 2: is he talking about? Well, I'll tell you it's important.
Speaker 2: I actually, you know, did a little half balock walk
Speaker 2: with this technique. It makes a difference to pheil I
Speaker 2: walk on the tip of my feet. It's weird, how
Speaker 2: I and I've always kind of walked like that since
Speaker 2: I was a kid, and people used to tell me
Speaker 2: it's because your parents pulled you, always being pulled forward,
Speaker 2: come on, come on, And I wasn't able to walk,
Speaker 2: so I developed this odd gate, I guess you could
Speaker 2: call it. But I've had a chance to read this
Speaker 2: book portions of it at least, and there's a correct
Speaker 2: way to walk, so check it out. Walking well a
Speaker 2: new approach for comfort, vitality, and inspiration in every step.
Speaker 2: It's not a huge read, but it's a kind of
Speaker 2: well designed and I appreciated Michael coming on the program. Hey,
Speaker 2: I still have a spot left in our upcoming Easter
Speaker 2: Island Rephnui Tour March fifteenth through the twenty third. You know,
Speaker 2: if you're a couple, if you have a girlfriend, boyfriend,
Speaker 2: if you're in a relationship, or you just want to
Speaker 2: bring a friend along, come out and join us. We
Speaker 2: are pretty much full. We had one person that dropped
Speaker 2: out because there are schedule. They had a conflict, but
Speaker 2: we're packed. We're only taking nineteen people. It would be
Speaker 2: twenty one with a partner, and it's with Ed Barnhard.
Speaker 2: He has surveyed the island a few years ago, just
Speaker 2: before COVID, and he knows a lot of spots that
Speaker 2: are not widely known by the locals or by other
Speaker 2: tour groups. And that's because he's done a survey of
Speaker 2: the island and use some high tech to unveil some
Speaker 2: unique areas of that special place. So come out and
Speaker 2: join us. For more information, go to Earthacients dot com,
Speaker 2: Forward slash tours. Make it a Christmas present, Make it
Speaker 2: a gift to yourself to join a small group of
Speaker 2: people in an intrimate look at a fascinating place with
Speaker 2: those massive moi. Those moi are multi ton sculptures. We
Speaker 2: don't know really who carved them. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: other really odd aspects of that island that Ed will
Speaker 2: present to us. Come out and join us March fifteenth
Speaker 2: to the twenty third, twenty twenty five and make it
Speaker 2: a gift to yourself, or just join us for the excitement.
Speaker 2: Earthagents dot com Forward slash Tours all right, that's it
Speaker 2: for this program. And I think my guest today Michael
Speaker 2: Gail presenting his new book Walking Well as Always, a
Speaker 2: team of Gail Tour in Hollywood, Mark Foster in London,
Speaker 2: and everyone who makes this thing happen. You guys rock
Speaker 2: all right, take care of be well and we will
Speaker 2: talk to you next time.
Speaker 1: Oh. I don't want to waste my time. I don't
Speaker 1: want to waste my mind. I want to get off
Speaker 1: this right. I want to make it burn.
Speaker 3: Give me jeez, I a mom.
Speaker 1: I ready to go go alone, go any oder the mouth.
Speaker 3: You let me alone alone, ohlone.
Speaker 1: I don't hate you, don't.
Speaker 3: Aware your task gorpen my heart. I'm good, I said
Speaker 3: to hell, and you might be another we had d