Walking in Joy

At a recent Universal Medicine event on Esoteric Massage, Serge Benhayon presented that many of us don’t ‘walk in joy’. I understood what he meant in theory, but later on I wondered what this meant in practice. Now, my walking has improved one heck of a lot over the last couple of years, in that I have learnt to walk being present with, and connected to, my body and with everything around me. But was I walking in joy? . . .

On my recent walks I have pondered on walking in joy. This is what I have discovered:

• On my first walk after the Universal Medicine course I decided to walk in joy. I realised that I felt very light in my body. My stride was naturally long and my pace naturally brisk – effortlessly so. I could feel the joy of this and boy did I appreciate that I was walking with joy! I felt so at ease with myself and the world, as if the ‘world was my oyster’.

• One morning I also chose to walk in joy and I could feel that I was not doing anything other than walking. I was not thinking anything. I was simply enjoying being with my body as I walked, appreciating the feel of the sand beneath my feet, the patterns the waves were making on the sand and the clear blue sky. This also felt joy-full and gave me a sense of complete freedom, connection and openness (with myself and others).

• One day I noticed my legs felt very heavy and my body felt tired; I realised I was walking in the sadness of a book I had been reading that morning on human rights in Afghanistan. I had not even thought about walking in joy that morning, let alone done it!

• One morning a swallow flew right in front of me and then away up into the sky – I realised that my mind had wandered off to what I had been working on earlier that morning . . . so I pulled it back to my whole body again . . . only later on in the walk to have a Monarch butterfly fly in front of me, when I realised I had wandered off again – thank goodness for the reflection of nature! I understood that I could not be walking in joy if my mind was wandering off, and that the swallow and the butterfly were simply reminding me of this.

• One day I started choosing joy but lost the joy in my walk as I walked too far for my body that day and was very tired when I got home.

So I ask myself – why these differences in the way I walk? Why do I walk in joy one day and not another?

I understand now that the difference is choice. If I simply choose to walk in joy then I do – how simple is that?

I would like to express my huge thanks to, and appreciation of, Serge Benhayon for bringing this ‘walking in joy’ thing to my attention. I continue to bring this awareness to all my walks now: am I walking in joy, or am I walking in sadness, or walking ‘checked out’ (my mind a million miles away from the rest of my body) or in disregard (walking when I am tired)?

And what did I choose at the beginning of my walk, and do I continue to choose joy as I walk, and am I appreciating myself for walking in joy and feeling the joy in others?

This has been very revealing and a huge learning for me.

By Anne Scott, Qualified Yoga Teacher, Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer, Mediator, accredited Esoteric Healing Practitioner, Auckland, New Zealand

Further Reading:
Joy
Walking in Presence and Without Pain
The Wake of our Walk