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?
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‘we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it’ This is a beautiful and grand feeling and in this we no longer feel separate or isolated for being in connection with our essence we are in touch with everything and everybody and this is an absolute knowing in every cell of our being.
‘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’ Very reflective and inspiring and an appreciation of the quality of our movements with the love joy and harmony that this brings us.
This blog is so simple and so wonderful. I can find myself tired and walking up an incline and then checking out into my head because of the physical strain I am feeling. But then I pause and connect, I focus on my body and breath. Do I need a longer pause? More often than not no, I feel with my movements as I move and the energy is there with me.
It’s now not just physical exhaustion that being connected prevents but all those mental thoughts that can make me feel exhausted by, ‘just at the mere thought’ of ‘having to do’. It could be a long essay, or a long meeting or journey. My reluctance to be present creates exhaustion. When I am connected measurements such as time or length disappear. What’s needed in every situation is always there if I connect and become aware.
When younger I enjoyed walking in the mountains (note not climbing) – I realised early that it was impossible to conquer these majestic peaks, but it was an opportunity to share something grand with them. The presence that comes from bringing a focus to our breath, and the step by step would keep me focussed on how I was in my body and that was the healing offered by the experience.
I love looking at hills, walking hills and enjoying the view. There’s always a clear perspective and that fresh air smell that can’t be bottled.
The perfect blog to read right now as I have just come in from walking in one of my paddocks, a very steep one and at this time of year, very muddy and slippery, so careful steps were paramount. And as I was walking up it and taking a rest every now and then, enjoying the beauty of nature all around me, I was reminded how things have changed from the days I would charge up the hill wanting to get to the top as quickly as possible and out of breath. I absolutely prefer today’s way of getting up the hill, in fact, anywhere in life.
I love hills, they are beautiful and majestic and enable us to see life from a different perspective when we stand on top.
Everything that we do not like has the opportunity to allow us to move deeper in love within ourselves, to move in the world but not be affected by it. It is a precious opportunity to encounter what we hate.
What I clocked reading this is that how you were on the descent, supported you on the ascent and how that can apply to so much of life. How we are during the day, can support how we sleep at night. How we breathe in, can support how we breathe out. How we are with one person, can support how we are with another. Gorgeous!
Yes an astute observation as it is so often that it is in ‘easy bits’ of life we relax our focus/connection and we loose our way.
When we walk up hills, we can feel how the body has to work harder, the circulation increases, the breath may change or the leg muscles may have to contract more. But when we walk up hills with connection to the body, we will know when to rest on the way and not need to push it at a speed that suits others but a speed that supports ourselves.
When we are connected to God, every hill is an opportunity… and as I am currently working on my body’s fitness I get to feel the difference between being grumpy about hills and loving them.
I love that feeling of a cardiovascular workout when walking up hills… staying with my body and feeling each step as I go, is a great way to exercise and stay present in the moment.
There is something beautiful about when we are in an intimate conversation with our bodies… our breath, chest expanding, blood pumping and feeling our heartbeat, a warmth in our muscles… and of course an opportunity to feel any aches and pains, providing useful feedback as to what is really going on and where we might need some healing or to review how we are moving in life.
I’m learning to love this too Rachel, for now, I am more a hill observer! But what i do love is feel my body with each step.
When we let go of pictures or of what we’ve heard something ‘should’ be like or even how we have done something before, there is more space to connect with how do I move now in this instance. And our bodies aren’t overloaded with what has happened in the past.
It’s possible to feel the beauty of everything – not from a mental construct or ideal but from the connection of our cells. This true movement sustains our heart.
Once we let go of all the pictures our mind feeds us about everything we can approach our day in a whole new light.
Beautifully said. When I consider it, it’s crazy to prejudge the day and my ability to respond prior to it happening. When I am open the day and I will unfold beautifully. This isn’t to say there won’t be learnings because there will. Each moment is full of opportunities to learn. How difficult/challenging or not these are is how open I am to feeling the love in the fact that they are there – even painful corrections- and how surrendered I am to myself within the process.
‘In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.’ And this changes everything in and outside our body, it is that simple.
This hill story reminds me of the steep stairs to my fitness club: If I walk them fully present with my body and pay only attention to my body and my breath, and don’t think, or worse, complain, these stairs are a joy to climb. Like everything in life.
Every judgement or reaction we have on a bastardized version of Living, is an opportunity for us to reinprint and live it back in truth.