Male Announcer: You’re listening to From Pain to Possibility with Susi Hately. You will hear Susi’s best ideas on how to reduce or even eradicate your pain and learn how to listen to your body when it whispers so you don’t have to hear it scream. And now here’s your host, Susi Hately.

Welcome back to the podcast. With this episode I'm doing something a little bit different. And that is to take you on a journey of meditation for your run. I have a lot of clients who when they get out of pain, they want to get back into running. And they want to do it more mindfully and more connected with themselves and with their breath.

And then taking the concepts and the principles that they've learned from me through their process of recovery and healing, they want to be able integrate those into their running. So this episode is a meditation for runners. And walkers, you can utilize it as well yourself. And it will be to take you along through a mindful approach to both of these, running and walking.

So enjoy the process, see what arises. And if any questions or comments come up, then do send them to us at [email protected]. So with that, let's get going. This will be a 20 minute practice. So put on your shoes and let's head out the door.

Now, as you move into this run or walk that you're doing, connect initially to yourself. And feel your hands and your feet. Feel your arms and your legs. Feel your breath. Feel the inhale coming in, and the exhale going out.

Notice how you've been with your day so far and how your day has been with you. So who is the you that is entering into this run or walk?

As you head out, consider the intention of feeling your feet and being light. Being connected. And now come back to your breathing. Feel the phase of breath coming in, and feel the phase of breath going out. Notice the qualities of each of those phases. Feeling the rhythm between that inhale and exhale and the stride as your feet hit the ground, as you move through your gate.

And for a moment relax through your eyes and your forehead and the palms of your hands. And notice if the qualities of your breath changed at all. Or how the relationship between your breathing and your stride changed at all. And it's not that we're seeking a change, it's more of if you noticed one.

Feel the breath inside of your body and feel the air and the space around your body. Feeling the ground. Noticing the quality of the air, maybe it's crisp, maybe it's warm, maybe it's windy, maybe it's rainy. But notice the quality of that air that's around you.

Now notice your shoulders and your rib cage. Feel your pelvis and how your leg bones are moving in your pelvis. And then come back to your breath again. Feeling that breath and the stride. The inhale and the exhale.

Feel the spaces between your fingers. Feel the spaces between your toes. Feel the whole hand and the whole foot, both sides. And notice if there's any tension there. And can you allow your hands and your feet to continue to do exactly what they're doing but hold them with 5 to 10% less effort?

Feel your arms swinging and your legs moving. Feel your torso. And can you relax just a little bit more? So you're still taking the same stride length, you're going at the same speed, and yet with just a little bit less effort. Cultivating the idea of effortless effort.

Now notice your feet against the ground. Feel the distinct contact of each foot with each stride. What are you noticing about your feet? Coming back to the spaces between your toes. Maybe feeling the center of your heel, the ball of your foot, and the base of your pinky toe. Feel how they're landing on the ground with each stride.

Now notice your ankles and your calves. And what are you noticing as each foot hits the ground? What do you notice about your ankles and your calves? And your knees, the outside and the inside, the back and the front. How your knees are a midway point between your feet and your hips.

And as you feel your knees, let your awareness come into your thighs. The front and the back, quads and the hamstrings. And how the leg fits into your hips so that you can feel the entire chain from your hips through to your knees, down to your feet. Noticing what they're feeling like. What are you aware of?

Legs connecting into pelvis. Knees are the midway point between the hips and the feet. Feet connecting to the ground. Do your legs feel strong or light? Do they feel heavy, solid? Can you feel them? What is their rhythm? How are they connecting between your feet and your hips?

Notice if there's any excess tension that you don't actually need. And as you move through your legs, as you move through your stride can you use 5 to 10% less effort and still have the same result?

Now feel through your pelvis and into your torso, your abdomen, and your back. And how that space connects to your ribs. Noticing the qualities or how you feel through your back and your belly. How the breath moves through these areas as you continue to take a stride.

And then feel through your rib cage. How your ribs move with your breathing. How do the ribs feel as you breathe, as you move? Is there a bracing? Is there a freedom, a lightness, or any other word that you would use to describe your ribs as you're moving as you're breathing?

Feel how that connects up into your neck and into your jaw. Can you imagine relaxing through the skin of your face? The inner corners of your eyes. Experiment if you would like, holding your eyes really, really tightly, squinching them. And notice what happens in your pelvic floor or your abdomen.

And then squinch your pelvic floor really tight and notice what happens in your abdomen or your eyes. Notice what happens with your stride. And then bring a little more relaxation to your eyes and feel the response through your abdomen and your pelvic floor. Softening through your forehead and the top of your head.

Now notice your arms moving through your shoulder socket, the swing of your arms with each stride. Notice the quality of that swing. How are you holding your arms and your shoulders? Is there a tightness or a tension?

Is there a lightness? Is there a closing in or a closing down? How is it that they connect to your rib cage? To your breath?

Can you hold your hands a little more softly? Notice what happens to your stride or your speed, to your breath. Feel your whole body now, from the movement of your arms to the movement of your legs, to your torso and your head. Feeling your breath move through your body. Feeling both the space around you and inside of you as you take each subsequent step.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. In a moment my voice will fade away. You'll be cresting the 20 minute mark of your run. And allow for these sensations and these feelings to permeate through your movement. Allowing your breath to permeate through your movement. And when you are finished running or walking, notice what the result has become.

Inhaling, exhaling, feet touching the ground, legs swinging through your stride. Connecting breath, connecting body, connecting brain, and connecting being.

If you want to take these ideas of meditation and movement to the next level, then you'll want to check out my lifetime membership of Healing and Revealing Human Potential. Where you’ll have access to over 200 videos on movement, and of breathing, more running ideas, as well as very regular coaching with me with a whole slew of other people who are on the path of transformation and revealing their true human potential through their movement, their breath, and their being.

To find out more you can send us an email at [email protected].