Walking Retreats

Walking for Health - thoughts from the Sierra Nevada, Andalucia

It's a fact well known since ancient times that walking is simply good for you. The Spanish take the afternoon stroll, like the siesta, most seriously - after all Hippocrates himself said that walking is a man's best medicine. Every day as the sun sinks over the mountains my neighbours, from toddlers to great grandmas, can be seen puffing up the hill or gently strolling down, arm in arm, chatting and
enjoying the evening air, ladened with the scents of orange blossom, thyme or rosemary. 92

The benefits to physical health are clear; less incidence of cancer, heart disease,
stroke, diabetes; but walking is also great for mental and spiritual health, and the activist Satish Kumar employs walking as an act of protest and non-violence -
extending those health benefits to the planet. It's a chance to be at ease with oneself or with others in a gentle non-confrontative way, putting one foot in front of the other, allowing the path ahead to unfold in comfortable silence or perhaps sharing thoughts, concerns and joys. No wonder that Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of walking meditation as a way to connect body and soul with the here and now, to generate peace within our body, our consciousness.

I have arrived. I am home.
In the here. In the now.
I am solid. I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.
--Thich Nhat Hanh

From Fiona @ Bootlace Walking Holidays
http://www.bootlace.com

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