Let me just start by saying I have never liked hills. I always dreaded the pain in my body, the struggle to reach the top, the exhaustion that soon followed. I never understood why people would choose to put their body through such pain… for what? To ‘conquer’ a hill? To feel like they had achieved something? To feel they could make their body do ‘incredible feats’? It all seemed such a push and drive, with a lot of pain, without much to truly gain at the end of it, except perhaps the initial high of achievement and an inflated sense of self to make up for a deep-seated lack of self-worth that is not being addressed. Climbing hills seemed to me to be clearly about ‘proving’ something.
Come many years later and I have moved to a road that has an incredibly steep, long hill. I do have the option to walk a flat road one way if I so choose.
I had been pre-warned by a neighbour to take it slow and start by only doing half to begin with. So one day I stood at the top of the hill with a view that takes your breath away, and taking the advice from my neighbour, I started my half way descent.
I knew from past hill experience that if I went into drive I would be exhausted and out of breath, so I made a conscious effort to stay with my body and feel each step. I took in the view with every breath and with every breath felt the expansion within as I opened up to feeling my connection with my environment, the world around and within me – the undeniable Oneness with God felt in every cell of my body.
In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.
I came to a halfway point I had noted at the beginning and turned around. Now this part would usually be my most dreaded part, but not today in this solid connection I had built with my every step on my descent. I started on my way back up, still very connected and expanded, feeling my every move. I noticed that if I stepped away from this connection and my mind would wander to some mental issue, the walk felt hard on my legs, I would lose the consistency of my step and it would become unpleasant. Bringing back the connection, my breath became steady, my body expanded, I felt the immensity that I am – not just the physical body that is walking – and I kept moving with ease.
I have now managed to walk the full length of this hill many times and every time my enjoyment increases.
I began to see how life is the same process as this hill. When we are connected within to the light of our Soul/God/the Universe, we are expanded. We feel the delicateness of our bodies; we take note of our movement. In fact, we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.
I often appreciate how this is what making love truly is. It is in our every move in synergy with the whole that we are a part of. When we are present with this movement nothing is hard, a push, or done in drive. Life becomes about movement, joy and making love. We don’t get tired, for it’s impossible to get tired from love; it’s the ultimate health pill that supports every inch of our being.
This hill has given me an incredible marker for how I can live my everyday if I make my everyday about consistency, connection and God, and wow – what an incredible life is on offer if one chooses to love hills!
By Kim Weston, NSW, a forever student of The Livingness
Further Reading:
Exercise – it doesn’t need to be hard work
Enjoying my Gentle Exercise Programme
Self-worth and self-development – does it work?
607 Comments
I don’t have any hills near me but I do live in a flat on the 2nd floor. The stairs become my hill and being connected to myself helps hugely to not only do the walk but to enjoy it.
We may not walk up a hill but we walk many steps in a day. Learning to bring presence to those steps brings about a greater presence in connection to my body and hence in my day.
It doesn’t have to be only hills when it comes to body exercise. Those daily exercises many commit to, or visits to the gym, we can approach in the same way. Connect, be gentle, start slowly and respectfully bering aware of all around you and withinyou, and enjoy!
It seems to be a key to enjoying life. Because anything when done while connected can be enjoyed.
I grew up in a place that had four proper seasons and hills were an essential part of winter activities. We were not skiers, but cardboard boxes work great for sliding down snowy hills. Whatever you rode down be it snow sledges, toboggans or a box, all had to be pulled up the hill to ride down.
What a lovely description of your walking the hills with connection, ‘When we are connected within to the light of our Soul/God/the Universe, we are expanded. We feel the delicateness of our bodies; we take note of our movement. In fact, we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.’
Wow! a hill climb done in true energy will be the most glorious way to enjoy a walk as you have shared Kim. And then applying that to all our movements cements that way of living into the rest of our day.
Markers reflect how we are in our day. They support us to see and become aware of where we are at. They offer us the awareness and space to confirm and appreciate our loving choices or what needs adjusting to go deeper. Markers are needed to help us grow in the cycles of life.
I love walking up even just a slight incline as it allows me to check in with myself….am I walking with me and so adjusting my pace as I feel the rise in the surface I am walking on or is it an opportunity to bring me back as I feel myself starting to push through the extra effort it takes to ‘take on the hill’?
When I was a kid I absolutely loved rolling down hills. I loved the fact that I could never roll in a straight line and that me and my friends always ended up way off track, I loved the absolute abandon of the feeling of rolling down a hill and I loved the joy that I felt when I rolled. I loved the way that I laughed all the way down the hill and I loved the heap that I always landed in at the bottom.
The ultimate health pill, yes.
I live on a small mountain so walking most often involves coming up after going down.
Staying connected with each step and all within and around me, or not, is always what determines the quality of the experience.
I went for a walk amongst the hills of the city I work in yesterday, feeling my feet on the ground, being with each step, I love it, and love the connection I feel with myself as I walk – it makes me feel like a million dollars.
It’s the space that I get a sense of most of all when I walk, the vast Space from where we come from and are held in.
The spaciousness confirms the oneness that we are all a part of.
There is a hill nearby where years ago, I could run up, then more recently I could cycle up, and now I can only walk up without getting out of breath. But when I do it gently, honouring the body as I go, I can manage it, the air is clear and the views spectacular to make it worthwhile.
I love hills and love walking – they bring us back to our bodies so well.