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?
Kim this is such a great blog to read because it asks all of us to stop and feel how we go about our day. Well it made me stop and consider yesterday, did I walk up the hill on auto pilot or did I have any appreciation of myself or any joy in the activity. Looking back I can honestly say, I was on auto pilot the hill was very steep and my main concern was to just get up it. So I was walking completely switched off to my body. How many of us go about our day switched off from our bodies and only living from our minds?
With a hill there is an ‘up’ path and a ‘down’ path and how we move along the path offers a reflection and learning in how we move in life.
When we face an up-hill battle or way of living then we will always struggle but as you have shared Kim, life is completely different when we bring a True way of living in all we do and thus the battles of life become our Joy-fully looked forward to experiences as we are learning to deepen lives new foundations.
Reading this I had a flashback to when I lived on top of a very steep hill. I didn’t have a car at the time which meant when I went shopping I had to carry this up the hill. And for me this highlights the relationship we have with ourselves and our body/being because if I was feeling good about myself then it would be fine and if not then I would have this feeling of struggle and it being a burden. I am learning more and more, through the reflection and support of Universal Medicine, just how important our movements are in every moment.
Some people seek a comfortable life, others see value in overcoming challenges – but to me true beauty lives in the way we navigate from A to B. Instead of seeing life’s hills as a struggle, if we appreciate them as opportunities to grow and evolve we will relish any event that comes our way.
I love this Joseph … HOW we navigate from A to B rather than just getting from A to B. It is the how that is really important and if we allow it gives us an opportunity to learn, heal, grow and evolve from. To understand ourselves more and unpack and let go all that is not true.
Any journey can be a joy when your with yourself.
So exquisite to feel the absolute beauty you can sense
I have to say Kim, I have recently moved into a house with stairs and I am absolutely loving the fact I have to go up and down them many times a day! My legs have become stronger, I’ve become fitter and my mind is more clearer!
Whether we walk up a hill, complete some work or generally go about our daily tasks, doing it without push and drive really does make a difference.
Supporting the body with strength and endurance with cardio exercise is a must for vitality, and climbing hills is a great cardio work out. The body is meant to be put through it’s paces, to be worked, but not flogged to exhaustion.
I love walking and,like you, have found moving in alignment with the universe I don’t get tired. Previously I was tired at the thought of a busy day. Staying with myself and my connection to the all is what I’m learning even when it seems more and more is there because that too is just my need to have things on my terms.
I love to feel my body working and exercise is such a great way to feel how you can build a body that is strong and . ready to meet the world.
I’ve been feeling a lot of fatigue recently and yesterday it really came home to me about what energy am I choosing to run my body. But more than this. Yes I get food gives the body fuel to live but there’s so much more to us than our physical being, there’s energy and I notice when I use energy that isn’t inline with universal harmony I feel instantly fatigued. But when I’m aligned I am given all I need. This is something I’m going to observe more and really feel because feeling fatigue isn’t something I’d like to have long-term.
I love feeling my body from this gentle work out… I feel truly invigorated and more energised as a result.
To feel the immensity we are is gold, It is a marker to take into our day and from that point, expand and deepen.
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.
The spaciousness confirms the oneness that we are all a part of.
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 have always loved climbing hills. Yes they can be quite hard work to walk up, but if done gently and at a steady pace then the body is not stressed by the time you reach the top. And what a wonderful gift you have, of the expansive view and the feeling of vitality in the body that comes with the result of the climb. A great reflection of how life can be if we only choose to meet the challenge.
As Kim showed in this blog, it makes such a difference walking up a hill in connection with ourselves, ‘ 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.’
Kim, I love how you have simplified what love is and brought it into all aspects of your life. When we are with ourselves and being the love we are than no matter what we are doing we are making love.
It is true I have noticed how much more with ease I move when I am honouring being delicate. Hills, etc. are not the thing that gets in the way…cliffs maybe!! But any stress, tension ot tiredness often comes from how I am moving not what is ahead.
When we are in connection and surrendered to being at one with the light of our Soul we are the movement of God. There is nothing in this world that can compare to this sense of atonement and the divine power which represents the volume of Heaven we say ‘yes’ to reflecting and magnifying whenever we will it. We are so much more that we think and are currently living.
Recently I’ve been feeling a fatigue that’s wiped me out. The only way I’m able to do things is by being in tune with the movement of the universe. When I’m not, and I bring force in to get things done, and I’m done for!
To move in tune to a greater rhythm and not against it, is our true purpose in life. Such movement can be mastered in seemingly small daily tasks. There is no end to the grandeur, nor any act too small to achieve this. It is done by breath alone.
In my experience, walking in conscious presence with the body in every step offers a sense of spaciousness within. To pause at the top of a hill offers the opportunity to feel the marriage of this inner spaciousness with the outer, vast expanse of space we are constantly held in. All is one in that moment.
When we move deeply connected to our body nothing in life is too difficult or hard. Our body supports us in every way when we connect and listen to its guidance.
I love the simplicity of returning to our body and simply learning to make our head be with what our body is doing. As you say we can integrate this into our lives through the simplest of movements such as brushing our teeth, typing, opening a door, doing the dishes etc etc. It is all about being presented within ourselves as we do it and thus we can choose the quality in which we do it.
“we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.” This may well be the ‘secret to life’ Kim for it is all about the quality of our movements. When we are connected we are in the flow of life, being moved by the grandness we are a part of. When we ‘do life’, are disconnected, we are determined to create our own movements, going against the one flow for that gives us a sense of delineation. The latter though is always straining and an abuse on the body and delicateness that we are.
A beautiful reflection of being with ourselves in connection to our body and moving from here allowing the magic to show itself in all its glory from within. This is a metaphor for life and how we can live it it true harmony and flow with all around us and is very inspiring.
Hills offer us great views from the top. But most importantly, they offer a training ground for us being with us while we move up and down.
I now have an extra set of stairs as I have recently converted my attic into a new bedroom. I love the exercise going up and down two flights of stairs offers.
With a new job that means I am in the car a lot, or sitting down to meetings I am far less active than I used to be. The use of hills, stairs or simply walking around a city to get from A to B is most welcome.
I like what you say here, Kim, about life being like walking up a hill. If we are identified with struggle and resent what lies ahead we will be in contraction and misery, whereas if we stay connected and take every step with awareness of the quality of our movements, it can be an expansive and joyful experience – and we have the opportunity to appreciate the view and everything around us along the way.
I have started to once a day use the steps up to my apartment rather then the lift and its great – my legs get a work out, I get a bit fitter and its a chance to connect to me as I am doing it.
During a recent walk up a mountain, I saw a young woman making her way up the steep path. She was so beautiful, as she was so full of energy and clearly enjoying herself, and she seemed to be loving every step and had no difficulty in navigating the steep and rocky path. I could see in this woman a strength that was coming from her whole approach to life, and how she was not willing to let go of her playfulness and joy and love for people – regardless of how difficult the path of life may be.
Every part of what we see in the world is a part of ourselves we can fully love and embrace, then the world is truly ours.
There is a place for hills in every exercise routine, but it has to come from what the body needs or is ‘up for’ on a particular day. Yesterday I knew I needed to walk up my local hill in the morning, which I don’t normally do. With a sore back I wasn’t sure how I would go, but as we started the incline the ache in my back left! I am not sure why but it did reinforce how incredibly wise my body is and resting a sore part of the body is not always what is needed.
In your sharing lays the answer to not getting exhausted and hence living with true vitality.
This is such a great sharing as when we are with ourselves, totally present, we do bring our all and we are in rhythm with the all, but if we are not we go against the all, it is exhausting in itself without even climbing the hill.
When it comes to exercise we tend to trow ourselves into it without a proper building up phase. It is like we think when it hurts it is good and ‘no pain no gain’ yet when the true gold lies in the presence with our bodies, and in my experience it does, this cannot be a true way of exercising for us and we do need to lovingly build our bodies up so we can do what we need to do in our days.
True, Lieke. Expectations can be so harmful with fitness, if it means we override the body’s messages that we are pushing it too much too soon. I used to do this in the past, and it is no wonder I never enjoyed exercising until recently, since I have been able to stay more connected to what feels true in the body.
I have started to be more present and 100% about the way I live and I feel so much more joy and energy from this simple focus, I realised love is flowering through me and to do something half, half so, so, requires a lot of energy to dull it down! It’s been a reversal.
‘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.
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.
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.
So true Adele. Often, I find with things that I dislike, I reckon there is an opportunity for me to learn. I too used to dislike walking up steep hills for the same reason as Kim but now, I know I just need to connect to my body and move deeper with love.
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 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.
Very beautiful Joseph, I love what you’ve shared. I am learning to move my body in true movement throughout my day.
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.
True Kathleen, so much of how we perceive the world is through our preconceived thoughts, ideals and pictures. When we let these go, what is truly in front of us is clear to see with fresh eyes.
‘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.
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.
Landscape is something that can very easily remind us what we are here to do… that is, to not be here.
So gorgeous what you have shared Kim, I love this line ‘it’s impossible to get tired from love; it’s the ultimate health pill that supports every inch of our being.’ this is one pill that changes every part of our lives with its health giving qualities, with no nasty side effects.
A pill that comes from the inside, and not something taken from the outside to fix or make us better.
I have never liked hills even when I was young, fit and very energetic. These days I appreciate the difference though in struggling in life versus gently moving my body to keep my body vital for what is needed in life to do.
I love this blog as it is a good marker for when I walk up hills. When I am pushing/straining, I remember this blog and I connect back to myself and be super present and it is much easier!
A fellow hill walker I appreciate the connection to each breath that leaves you feeling the connection to the body and not the plight of getting up to the top of the hill. The view at the top offers the confirmation of stay in tune with the body!
Recently I have really started to enjoy walking up the stairs to our flats. Our flat is on the third floor and I usually always take the lift but lately once a day I am enjoying the time I have with me to connect with me as I walk up the stairs.
I have to say that I also appreciate stairs! I used to teach in a very large school campus, so much of the day I would be walking through the grounds and up and downs stairs for much of the day and it felt great for my body. When I transferred to a tiny village school that was all on one level I soon realised that I dropped a level of fitness. I was quite shocked to feel how out of condition I was when having to climb 2 flights of stairs recently… so I say bring on the stairs and hills!
It is amazing to see how there can be such a gentle and considered approach to something so big and challenging as a huge hill. And how this challenge is actually something that has helped you to grow and to understand yourself more.
Nature has a tremendous amount to offer Humanity at the moment. We should stop and listen.
I totally took this blog away with me when I went to LA recently – which has many hills. Each morning my husband and I would walk up a very steep hill – and it was fascinating to see how my body was each time and the changes that were taking place based on how I was living.
It also shows how every time we have something we don’t like to do in life, it can totally change when we change how we are in life. I have already many times experienced this – that the way I am defines how I experience life.
What a difference between moving while thinking and moving while remaining connected to the body. If we stay with the body we can experience much energy and joy. If we go into the mind our body gets heavier and our lives get harder.
The consistency and surrendering to the rhythm of life is something I am learning to accept is there and available to all. True movements rather than old relied upon movements that are in opposition to the energy of love.
What a beautiful example of how in connection we experience our natural way of joy and enjoyment.
Most of my life I have lived on hills, and every day has had a different feel to it with how I have walked down and up them. They can seem insurmountable at times and exhausting and yet at others like they don’t exist at all and it is easeful and a joy to walk them. I know now that it depends entirely on whether I stay connected with myself and in full awareness of my body and surroundings and not off in my head somewhere else, worrying or creating issues.
That sort of exertion does highlight where we are a bit tight, holding onto things… and its through the movement that they clear and we are left more often than not in deep connection with ourselves again.
I love that feeling of being 1 million % at one with the movements of one’s body, the smoothness, warmth, flow and lack of distraction. The hill is a blessing for you, and also wonderful you have both the flat and the hill to choose from, to suit what is needed at any particualr time.
What a lovely metaphor, your walking the hill with daily life. It is indeed all about conection and keep on chosing this, especially when we drift into thoughts. For me it is a constant practice. It already starts in the morning with how I wake up. If I go into thought, it feels like my getting up starts with heaviness. But when I connect with my body and breath and do light exercises to deepen this, I get up with lightness and a big smile.
Sometimes it seems we create hills where none exist, to stress ourselves out. Perhaps if we followed your lead Kim and disregarded drive we would find an equal beauty between flats and any incline.
It is staggering to feel how different moving your body from your mind and from your heart are from each other. One is invigorating and fulfilling. Whilst the other is driven and merely about function.
I love the simplicity and frankness of this blog. It offers a simple change that can be felt throughout the day in a myriad of ways.
These changes are what offer us a deeper understanding of where and what we can connect to.
I love noticing how the angles of nature’s sturctures can have such a profound effect on an area.
Very gorgeous and wisely shared Kim. It is one thing for sure, that we can never tire from being moved by love, as it is in fact everything that truly sustains and evolves us so that our true potential is realised and lived.
and we can and do get utterly wiped out by being constantly moved by what is not love.
I love re-reading this blog when I have a bit of a task a head of me. Like today I have basically two days work to fit in today and the weather has turned really bad. So I basically have two choices. Totally check out, grit my teeth and get on with it, or stay totally present and focussed on the day as much as possible and treat it the same as your hill.
Well said Kev, it comes back to our choices of how we chose to move up the hill. In resistance or with support.
‘it’s impossible to get tired from love; it’s the ultimate health pill that supports every inch of our being.’ I love this, it is so true. Whenever we feel out of sorts we know we are out of love and it’s time to reconnect.
Wow it’s really amazing how much vitality we have when we are fully present. It makes sense that when we’re off wondering in our heads, it takes energy away from what we are doing so we get tired.
Universal Medicine has helped me to understand that before the word love is spoken or written, there is an alignment to an energetic source that each person makes. And so it is the source which actually determines the quality of that love being expressed. Which for me, explains how love can become bastardised, abused, and used to manipulate. Because true love and the kind of emotional love that keeps you feeling empty and needy are two very different expressions of the same word, showing that they have completely different sources of energy behind them. So it becomes clear with this understanding that to say that you love, is to show your alignment not by the word but by every other movement that you make, by every movement that surrounds that word, and that is how we all know what you are actually really saying.
I too love hills, I lived at the top of one for much of my life and I never tired of the magnificence of the view that I had every time I left the mountain. The feeling of presence and connection was always there, in that moment the view was first seen. You could not help but connect, as it asked you to embrace it. It is super amazing how this all works, as to embrace the beauty that I could see, I also had to embrace myself. An awareness that I was not aware of for much of my life, but aware or not, it was still happening.
Such a way of living is at our fingertips, literally. We can all feel that synergy when we stop and take in the beauty that is nature. But what is shared here is beyond the simple feeling, it is offering that these moments become our normal and we expand to be equal with nature and all that holds it.
When we see life as a constant opportunity to connect and go deeper with God, every part of the day is like jewel just waiting for us to shine it up. Whether we succeed or not is not the point but the commitment to this relationship and ‘going there’ is what makes our lives deep.
“In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves” – yes, because in connection we are (at) one.
I do enjoy observing nature’s landscapes as they remind me there’s a simple beauty in life of just being and not playing a particular role.
The love is in us. A pull we might have resisted, yet endlessly is calling us. When are we planning on answering? We might wanna schedule that soon!
I have recently decided to use the stair in the flats where I live rather than the lift and can really appreciate that the way I approach climbing them affects the experience I have of doing so. Not only that but I can feel the culmination of all my daily choices.
Walking the same hill over and over again will eventually train your body. The question only is, does the fitness come from a hardening of the body or like you described Kim, from an open, fluid, honoured body. What if actually only connecting to our body and being present is already an exercise for every cell and the muscles?. Even without hill ?
“In fact, we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.”
I was swimming today and was so much in the flow of the universe… It felt easy, I could have swam forever, as it was a gliding and not a with effort moving forward. Totally in sync with the rhythm of the sequences of the body parts moving. The most important part when starting to swim is- to push away from the wall. When this push is connected with me and my body, everything is already constellated to flow.
I remember as a child climbing a hill onetime, and feeling really grumpy and had a headache before I started the climb, becaude I was in a situation that I did not want to be in and had no apparent way to get out of it. But having got to the top of the hill, my mood had cleared and the headache had gone. It is so great when we allow our bodies to move in a flow that supports them, and then they just feed us back with so many benefits!
I’ve found that bringing quality to walking can actually support many aspects of my life.
I helped someone move house yesterday into an apartment on the third floor (no lift) so it was up and down the stairs with boxes , a couch and washing machine etc, if I am honest I was dreading it and thought that maybe it was going to be too much for me, but it was just one item at a time and I was focused on my breathing and took care with how I moved and how I lifted things and the job was all done before we knew it.
What you’ve written about your relationship with hills here can be applied to anything we don’t want to do – our tax returns, finances, difficult things at work, tricky or awkward conversations, decisions that we’re not sure about.. we put them off and make them far bigger and more impossible to do or start in our minds than they actually are that it’s no wonder we put things off. Life is a lot simpler when we ignore those thoughts of ‘too difficult’ and just get on with it and do it anyway: once we’ve taken the first step, we take another, and another, until it is complete, and then move on to the next thing. When we stay connected to our bodies, anything we’re doing is an opportunity for deeper joy and connection, and to do what we do, with ease.
I never knew hills were this wonderful and such great teachers – one step at a time, staying connected and being part of the all seems what it is all about to turn an arduous task into a joy and great learning.
“.. 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; “What a really beautiful sharing that is so real and an inspiration to be in connection with our body and the love and energy we are from and is something that I feel and relate to also.
I fully notice and feel the difference when I bring my focus to the quality of my breath, my movements and connection with my environment from this place and how this way of being with ease and flow is now to be my new normal.
I am amazed how the hills seem smaller over time, i.e. they get easier and easier for my body!
When we cherish our movements there no obstacle that can get in our way. Live disregarding them and our every day is a metaphorical mountain that we struggle to overcome. There is no need or glory in pushing through this way. Thank you Kim.
We imagine life to be an uphill battle, we push ourselves to achieve and reach the top. However what you’ve shared here is that this does not have to be the case, if we take life one step at a time we can take solid leaps forward with ease.
I’ve noticed it’s not so much about what I do but how I do it.
“In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.” This is so true, and the more we move in this way, the more we are inspired to do it.
It is a great thing to learn, to walk up a hill without going into push and struggle, it is a great metaphor for life.
My body has come to love the ‘bite’ that it feels that it gets when going up a gentle incline.
‘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!’ Beautifully said Kim .where we source our energy from is the key.
‘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.’ Free medication which reverses all ill health and yet we pretend that we do not know about it for so long and in the face of so many ills.
In relating this to all situations that we experience in life we can learn so much. Everything which feels like a challenge is an opportunity.
For me, being in connection with myself is the difference between a day that flows smoothly and effortlessly and a day that stutters along and often finds me being tripped up by the challenges of life. I have also found that it doesn’t’ take much to be in connection to me, just the simple choice to feel my breath flow gently in and out of my nose and with this gentle rhythm begin to take one step at a time, a step that is taken with every part of me in connection to every other part of my glorious body.
Kim you’re experience of the hill is no different to things that play out in our everyday life. But it is who we are in it that makes it hill or Mount Everest. Connection to oneself is the key.
Being connected in everything we do is part of loving and cherishing ourselves, ‘ 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.’
What I am understanding from your blog today Kim is that life can sometimes seem challenging or difficult or super intense and there can even sometimes be a sense that we are not even supposed to be here on this planet, such is the harshness of our surroundings, human relationships and the environment – this is the hill that we all live on which does seem at odds with our bodies and our being. However even in the face of this, we can choose to have a depth of connection and awareness with our breath and our bodies which supersedes this experience and allows us to move and live with ease even though the actual ‘hill’ has not changed (yet).
When we move in line with the universal flow of life we ‘make love’ or expand the love that already is there and that we are all made of.
No coincidence that in life we find ourselves in the exact situation required to challenge that which we hold onto and allows us to learn.
“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” – beautiful. Breathing gently gives us our connection and in this quality connection we walk, move, live life truly where our breath becomes our eye.
I agree totally Zofia – noticing changes in our breathing due to things around us can also reveal our own reactions and bringing a focus back to the quality of breath supports us to not be altered in reaction to them.
‘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 know this with getting tasks done – when I think about what I’ve got to do, that it’s all up to me to do it I get easily overwhelmed and have to rest! When I stay with me and just complete what’s there in front of me no energy is wasted and I am fine, I don’t get exhausted!
I have been studying something recently that felt like an uphill battle at first, but as soon as I surrendered to the process and made my connection to myself a constant bearing, it has been amazing to feel what is possible.
I have found that with consistency and allowing something to unfold rather than ‘pushing’ to achieve something, which includes walking up hills, then after a while what had seemed difficult no longer does and the awareness gained always surprising.
Very true Jonathan and equally that which can seem a challenge initially may be most deserving of our awareness and attention.
There is so much being communicated to us constantly on a symbolic level, all there waiting for us to open our eyes and see it.
I find it a real joy when I exercise in this way that is truly supportive of the body… especially if the hill comes with good views!
This blog has stayed with me and I remember it each time I go up a hill – especially when I start to go into push & drive, I stop, connect to me and then go on and feel each step and my body. I am much more with me and my body. Thank you.
Such a great sharing Kim. Taking it one step at a time and then reaping the rewards (the view) not only at the end but all along the way.
Taking it one step at a time and without drive or ambition is the way with hills and I have just been putting it into practice myself; I have three inclines at my feet when I step outside and how far down I go changes from day to day depending on how I feel in my body. And I simply love how quickly the body responds and how the muscles know just what to do when I cooperate.
When we are present with our body we can feel when it is true to move, or to stop and have a rest, our body speaks loudly, we just have to listen and honour its communication.
Our body speaks super loudly we just have to choose to listen to it. It never gives up but always supports us to come back to the love that we all naturally are.
Hills like life can be a struggle if we make it such, what you share beautifully is that when we choose to connect with our body and inner quality there is no struggle but a natural flow.
Exactly Samantha, life is only struggle if we chose it to be.
I love the fact of loving our movements when they’re in line with the universe. So if I’m not loving my movements this is telling me something and I can change!
When my life is on purpose it flows and I feel vital and full of joy – quite the contrary to when I loose my connection to myself when it becomes a struggle and blame the world for being ‘stuck in a rut!’
‘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…’ I love this line Kim – so very true, when we’re connected to ourselves and living our lives with focus and purpose we will never tire and life flows with ease.
Every steep hill is another opportunity to connect with ourselves and with God, to realise deeper how supported we are in life. How beautiful.
We are forever supported, all we have to do is first acknowledge it, ask for it, listen for it – and then appreciate it!
What you describe here applies to every area in life, it is how and in what quality we move that brings true flow to life and builds true strength in our bodies.
Yes I am so used to the struggle of life that now that my life has becomes quite amazing, I don’t always stay with this, I drop the appreciation of this and then find that I am again moving with a heaviness and sluggishness that no longer needs to be there.
Great that you recognize that you may drop from time to time, but what is really amazing is that you have the awareness to make the choice to appreciate and come back to this amazingness which is our natural birth right, and just bubbling right there beneath the surface.
When there is purpose in what we do divinity is felt.
Walking a hill could be a symbolism of a challenging situation in life. For me for instance I find it challenging at times to be with a lot of people and away from home and would rather avoid climbing the hill so to speak. But what I found is my life got really boring or you could say flat because not doing things out of my comfort zone. Climbing the hill brings focus, insights and learnings that just walking the flat road doesn’t do. Or at least not as quickly!
“I felt the immensity that I am – not just the physical body that is walking” This is so key. We are more than the physical body, but to feel this we need to stay in connection with the body, not wander off into our minds.
My body always feels vital after a gentle walk with the odd hill thrown in…it feels a super supportive way to exercise.
While the terrain is quite different in my neck of the woods I share your appreciation for the beauty of nature that surrounds us…reminding as you say of our own.
Yesterday I was walking up a slight hill that can be a bit challenging for me, I found myself frequently stopping and appreciating the stunning beauty of the sunset and so enjoyed my walk.
Presence is a beautifully expansive quality that allows us to feel and appreciate our movements. Lovely photo too.
‘…we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.’ The times when I am moving in tune with a far greater rhythm are the magical moments that bring me back to a child-like wonder. I can feel the expansiveness that this greater rhythm offers – the playfulness of the universe – and the joy that this being re-connected brings.
A “pill” that is hard to swallow for some as we get lost in the ideals and believes that deliver the emotional love as mainstream, so we are walking against the tide until we connect with our “Soul” and True Love.
The more we appreciate what our walk brings then the more we walk and the greater appreciation helps us walk consistently, so that we then get fitter and walk more!
Climbing for fun … I have never understood this! Mid-way through your blog my body felt a really lovely stillness and connection it knew what you were expressing and this naturally emanated within me. I could also feel my lungs and felt into when I was younger and for example rushing or walking fast etc how my lungs would always feel this .. they were showing me that I was not connected with me with God. So also a great reminder that when we do anything in connection, walking up a hill, making dinner, getting ready there is an ease in our whole being no stress, no drive, no push we drop into the flow. So if it feels this lovely, and from experience I know it does, why at times (or all the time!) do we continue to choose stress, push and use drive in life?
That made me remember the sharp pain in my lungs as well; isn’t it incredible what we put our body through?
Is it any wonder that we seek rewards, pots of gold at the pinnacle, sweet deals and nice words? For living without connection to joy in our body must create a deficit, a void that will be filled. So just like any natural law it seems we go out looking for substitutes to make us feel ‘good’. How beautiful Kim that you can use the very thing so many pursue to show there is another way that leaves a spring in every step we take instead.
We push ourselves so hard to achieve and yet the truth lies in us simply being. The more I can embody this truth the greater my connection to all the wisdom available in the space that surrounds us.
Beautiful Kim such a lovely reflection and inspiration “In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.” and the expansion in being part of the universe as one is the real gift we feel in connection to ourselves.
It is so beautiful what you have shared Kim how walking in connection is like making love, it is all about connection so that, ” Life becomes about movement, joy and making love.”
‘In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.’ This bodily experience is amazing in that all the concepts of how this is become so silly when it is simply felt in the body, becomes the body and from the body.
“When we are connected within to the light of our Soul/God/the Universe, we are expanded.” I loved reading this as it helped me appreciate the fact that the whole wisdom of the Universe is within me when I connect to my soul.
I agree. I find these words very gorgeous and a great reminder too David. Really it’s all there for us should we just choose to connect.
If I’ve got anything I look at and think it is going to be a long arduous journey I know I’m playing tricks on myself. All I need to do is stay present with each breath. I learn that I can deal with what comes my way and the less I’m hiding from responsibility the more I know I am fit for purpose.
Absolutely Karin, the breath is the movement that aligns us back to our true essence that knows the depth we are and the true strength we hold.
It is the push and drive associated with walking or running up hills that can make me shudder and say no thank you – but in reality if we stay with the body and its rhythm then the hills are just a flat on a slight incline! 😉
Very true. And we can listen to our body and adjust our pace and even the length of time that we walk. I find it always great to let go of rules, patterns and beliefs around how I move my body and exercise with it.
I can now say that I enjoy walking up hills too! I love the extra exercise that they offer and enjoy feeling my muscles work and build. On a recent trip to Barcelona I made a point of walking up my friend’s street that was on a steep incline a few times during my trip!
Walking on hills means no need for leg work-out at the gym. It’s an all in one workout. Add presence and we have a total body health and well being exercise for life.
I love the challenge that hills bring when we start to climb up them and then the grace of coming down the other side. Life too has its ups and downs but that ought to not deter us from how we walk our way through life.
Gorgeous analogy. Just recently I spent some time over east Australia and there were a lot of hills on my morning walk. This was completely different to the flat surfaces I am use to walking on in west Australia. I became very aware of my body and how I needed to move it in order to hold the quality in my walk.
Remaining consistent in our true commitment with our connection to our breath allows us to maintain the relationship however steep the hill maybe. The deeper we go with our self love the greater our understanding of the vibrations of the Universe and the way we can fight or embrace them.
Beautiful said Susan, consistency builds a solid foundation that allows another level to emerge.
With presence, every movement is a joy that keeps on giving, wether that be climbing a hill or attending to a customer. True movement doesn’t waste any energy, it continually builds more of itself.
And with this presence we can feel how to move and also when to stop. Always in honour of the body.
This is very important, knowing when to stop!
It is super important to stay in the reality of what the world is and has to offer, and how there is a multidimensionality to this life, but that multidimensionality must include the practicalities of life.
As hills become easier to scale, so too do distances reduce in length and duration. I’ve discovered that walking to my local supermarket in a neighbouring village, instead of driving, is no distance at all and infinitely more enjoyable. A distance I once believed too far to walk is now part of my regular routine.
‘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 is gorgeous and confirms how we continually expand the more love we give ourselves: We are given more, not less and can conquer what once seemed impossible.
This blog just makes me want to go out and find a hill and that says a lot for someone that has avoided hills her whole life! Come to think of it, I won’t have to look very hard, I have actually just moved to a new house and there is a big one that sadly I have not been brave enough to attempt yet. I think staying with yourself and with your breath, will result in just about everything being a godly experience. For how we move and breath is the key to returning to true quality.
Great point Sarah and it is lovely when this is felt in your body. I recently experienced a situation when I noticed my breathing had changed and it was from a feeling in my body rather than a thought in my head. The instruction then came from my body to restore my natural breath – felt so lovely.
A big part of being able to live life to it’s full potential is down to how we have prepared ourselves and our bodies so that we are ready for whatever is in front of us – whether it be a hill, or a challenge, or whatever it may be. If we’ve prepared and we’ve built an inner and outer strength then life is super simple.
Just one more thing to thank Serge Benhayon for as before SB, I would checkout totally when I had a strenuous physical task to complete, thinking that this was the way to get through it. Now though I can enjoy the same tasks by actually connecting to my body and being present with the task.
Movement in presence , being connected to the all is an absolute body experience and supports back to the true power that is within us. No surprise there are so many modalities, that bastardise true movement in form of hardness and speed and any kind of extremes.
The fitness industry, to call only one, works with optimising, shaping, achieving which gives that false strength and self confidence in the body. I used to go this path and I can share here now -my body being moved in a true way is much more vital, emanating, strong and sexy than every before. And the only sport I practise are walks in conscious presence.
It is never about reaching a certain point or destination- if you make it how far or high I walked for example you are connected to time instead of space. Moving in space, like you describe is pure magic. The judgement of how far we come needs to be knocked out, as it is always about quality and not quantity if you are moving in space, which is the realm we are living in. So why not connect to it 🙂
When we walk our bodies and not just our heads we can access levels of vitality and joy we never knew where there, this is a simple yet super powerful way of knowing who we truly are.
Like a secret gear you unlock, love changes the way we move and things flow. I have seen every hill of life as another unfortunate obstacle but today after reading your words Kim I am sensing that each dip and bump is a chance for us to choose Love. No matter what the situation, we can bring true care and understanding, not to mention sacredness and stillness. When we see life like this, hills become great gifts.
I love this, Kim – “Life becomes about movement, joy and making love.” What a beautiful way to live…
Beautiful real blog — sharing the science of energy in this instance on hills (nature). Which is offering us a pull up to see and feel more than our eyes can see. Stop playing limited video games and actually extend our view to see what is beyond what our eyes can see. That is truth and that to our body is absolute love.
Reading this blog made me feel how we turn many situations and issues in our life into giant hills of struggle when they could quite easily be made into a flowing smooth rhythm when we stay connected with our bodies while moving. It’s living in our heads that makes things feel difficult, bogged down, and draining.
“When we are connected within to the light of our Soul/God/the Universe, we are expanded.” Beautiful Kim thank you as we expand from within we also get to feel our every movement and learn to surrender to its joy and move with ease and clarity which helps us to not only support ourselves throughout our days but also be more aware of our surroundings too.
Oh how I am pleased your blog found me this morning 🙂 I could feel myself walking the hill with you, recalling the very physical memory of the many times I have walked up and down steep hills and remembering the different experiences in my body. I can see how this translates to life, how we can be drained when we over-reach, over-work and yet how there is an enormous capacity for work when it is in service to others, from a glass that is full and connected to a source that does not deplete.
The love and joy of our movement you share here is so beautiful to feel in the deep connection and presence of truly walking with the light of our soul. A real inspiration to be very aware of the quality of our every movement.
Love how you share your relationship with love through the Movement of walking.
I have a very steep hill near my house that I love to climb. I always take it gently, but it is a great marker that shows me very quickly how much I have taken care of my body or where I have let my rhythm slip since I last climbed it.
I love exploring my movements these days and how there are different ways to move. To be very aware and present and playful in allowing my body to find its own true way of moving. Nothing to do, no trying but surrendering within myself and my body, allowing for an amazing quality of ease, flow and lightness to come through.
a beautiful testimony to the power of movement when we are aligned to our essence and thus moved by our soul.
The hill is a beautiful analogy for life Kim, how quick we are to project an image of it being hard, yet if we stay with our connection and movements we can enjoy the space and appreciate the opportunities we are offered by every situation.
From the age of four I was brought up in a village that was built around a river with a hill on either side. To walk to the village shops, we had to walk down the hill and then back up to get home again. What was so lovely was that this journey to the shops, or to the church on top of the hill on the other side, was always taken gently. The whole atmosphere of the village was laid back and everyone wanted to share their gardens and have a few words. Perhaps this is partly why I have always loved hills and climbing them, taking it slowly and pacing myself and taking in all that I can and appreciating so much as I go.
Today, as I was walking up a hill, I felt myself tiring and starting to feel rather negative at the prospect of getting up the rest of the hill. I consciously relaxed my belly, which is the area of the body that is associated with acceptance and found that my irritation dissolved and I actually relaxed into walking up the remainder of the hill.
When we apply love to life and to every step we take, then no hill is too steep for our love filled body.
Thank you Kim, we are taught to give dominance to the mind, as you have experienced the true joy comes from being with the whole body. It’s a new concept to understand that the whole body has an intelligence, and also that by virtue of its particles it’s connected to the whole Universe. Suddenly the mind is looking very small!
I love this blog it can be applied to everything we do in life, let love reign by committing to stay connected to who we truly are.
When we feel our movements are in rhythm with God there is so much joy and lightness and that is actually our natural in life.
I agree, especially moving lovingly.
“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.” I see this as a metaphor for many areas of our life.
Opening up to our environment, to the world around and within us – to the undeniable Oneness with God is like a healing for every cell in the body. The cells become alive and align to the whole and its divine rhythm. All we have to do is surrender and accept this grandness in full.
Yes Monika, this grandness that we are part of, that we come from whether we choose to consciously feel it or not! I often ask myself what I am expanding in this communal body and if it is respectful of the other occupants.
Yes to accept the grandness we are from. What I love is that tension that shares when we are not aligned, when it is giving us a small reminder that we have taken a wander but our essence, the grandness our essence is from is calling us home.
So gorgeously shared Kim. Making love with our every breath, our every move is precisely what we are here for. To magnify the light of God, which is who we are, in all we do… truly there can be nothing more Heavenly for us to be part of.
This feels courageous to attempt, and yet it is our natural given birthright.
‘it’s impossible to get tired from love’. But saying no to love, to the universe and God is very very tiring.
Whatever exercise we practise in connection to our body and soul is pure joy and always there is so much awareness on offer to us in that. I experience then, an absence of effort as well as a deep understanding of every of my movements, and this is an expanding experience worth to be felt.
I had this experience walking up a hill once, when I realised I was in the universe and there was not really up or down and it was my perception, as well as my legs that was influencing my experience of ascent. When I surrendered more to working with the universe my walk became much lighter.
That makes absolute sense Kim and is quite symbolic of life really, for when we walk through our daily life at a pace that keeps us connected to ourselves we are far more aware of and accepting of the world around us – as opposed to when we rush, we can often see the outside world as an imposition.
Making love ‘ 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.’ Living the truth of who we innately are.
“In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.” – I love what you are sharing here Kim – the connection is key to everything! And this is a great reminder for me to keep fostering the connection and my relationship with myself and my body.
Love it Kim! The simplicity of the connection is what transfroms a labour or a chore into a divine activity!
My early experiences with climbing hills was all about getting to the top and the feeling of being at one with everything around me – it offered me a sense of the grandness of life. I am now learning that life is not about achievement but how we are with ourselves in each moment – and then everything will flow and unfold from this connection, and as I do this I am finding I am an integral part of the grandness of life.
Being with my body and how it moves makes life simple and joyfull. Reading this was a great reminder and confirming that it’s worth being aware of my body. Thank you Kim.
Yes I have discovered as well that there is more loving and gentle way of exercising that really supports my body and does not punish it or push it hard (which is how I used to exercise) and I can maintain a high level of fitness and strength and flexibility without the no pain no gain approach.
I find that there are many obstacles in life and it is how I approach them and move through them that matters.
Walking whether it is up a hill or not I find is incredibly supportive to bring me back and feel the connection to myself and to multidimensionality. I find my rhythm which is in sync with the universe and then the question is ‘can I bring this connection and rhythm to every part of my life and if not can I clock immediately when and how I have dropped?’
‘In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.’ beautiful Kim – so lovely and empowering to feel.
I have a relationship with stairs now that is very different. I used to see them as an effort, and if I forget something the thought of having to go up again to get it irritated me. Now I enjoy taking one step at a time and use it as an opportunity to connect to how I’m breathing and feel my leg muscles work.
Moving with an awareness of being within and part of the all, allows us to feel connected with the all, we are particles not separate entities. Life is rich when we feel our connections.
‘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!’ Thanks Kim – love this!
In that connection you describe Kim there is so much space. This can be thought of as being empty but space is absolutely full of Love, of God. So when we feel that space within us which comes with our connection, we are in union with God.
So beautifully said Lucy! Thank you!
‘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.’ Very beautifully said Kim, feeling love and joy in the way we move in the world.
Everything is different when it is done in connection rather than pushing through or overriding what we have felt.
This is super inspiring, Kim. How simple is it to bring the mind and the body together in the flow of a movement, rather than bringing in dread and struggle?
Yes, I agree Janet, the struggle comes from our mind when its not in union with the body.
When we stop trying and surrender to the flow of life, we tap into a deep knowing within ourselves where everything is done in connection and honouring of our true nature.
Recently when I went for a walk, after only a few minutes of walking my lower legs started to ache and I realized that I was walking while in my head. When I realized this was an old pattern I stopped myself and walked feeling my feet and whole body. It was like my,legs were saying, no more moving in this energy.
I love how our daily awareness opens us up to the grandeur that our movements can offer and the learning we can grow and expand from constantly. Our movements tell us so much about our presence and connection to our bodies.
On the whole, our bodies are pretty exhausted and this is evident in the sky-high demand for sugar and caffeine. So why DO we push the body to a place where it needs something artificial to keep it going? Why are we so adverse to feel our sensitivity, our openness and love for people? Why would we prefer an exhausted, dense and pain-full body over and above a body that could deliver us joy, ultimate connection and love?
I give in… why?
Wow this really shows the shift in simply being present in the body and how supportive this is. Thank you for sharing your deepening relationship with hills and your body, and how you took the time to listen to all it was sharing with you. This can be applied to so many situations.
Love your description of making love as being aligned to energy and the pulse of the universe – a resounding yes to that.
It is not about anything on the outside or what we do, it is whether what we do is from love.
It’s a great reminder Adele – to make life about how we do things and not what we do. When we focus on the ‘how’, we are bringing our awareness back to ourselves and not what is going on around us.
This goes out in how I look at things as well. If we are struggling with something then how are we around it. Like hills, how are you supporting yourself to walk up that hill long before you are standing at the bottom of it. Do you see the hill or life as a challenge you need to overcome or are you looking at things as always a building point? I don’t train to walk up hills but I regularly exercise and stretch my body to prepare for my day. If what I do changes in that day then the way I am with my body also moves. You don’t hold yourself to an age, a limit, a belief of what can be done, you listen to what you body is saying is needed next and you move with that. Being strong in your body doesn’t mean lifting heavy weights, running fast or being rigid, it’s a call for us to be truly present in our body no matter how large the hill is and always be aware of that feeling.
‘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’. Love is indeed the best medicine and all we have to do is turn on the tap within and let it out to flow into every area of our lives.
Thank you for sharing just one of many markers in our connection to ourselves in the day. These markers no matter how big or small are great indicators of the level of vitality we are living. When we stop to register them, the pause moments do give us an opportunity to make more loving choices with our movements and words.
If we are not breathing our own breath and are not connected with ourselves, in what ever we do it is like going through life with a chain around our necks making everything more of a struggle than it needs to be.
And this – “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.” – How gorgeous to be in the flow of this – something to practice every day for me as well and when things feel ‘tedious’ or not quite right, we can just stop, reconnect, use the breath and start over.
I so love this statement Kim – ‘In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and part of the body as it moves.” It is very confirming and a reminder that we have a choice all of the time to move connectedly – or not.
Living in connection with ourselves on a consistent basis is indeed very wise and lasting medicine.
I have a bit of a thing about staircases. I find flights of stairs challenging particularly when I’m tired and rather than switch off I like to be fully present with my body and feel what is there to be felt. Then when my body rests at the end of the day it feels like it says, thank you.
This is a beautiful reminder Kim for everything in life that we feel is a challenge, to remain connected and very present allows us to feel the power in our movements that carry us through life with such love and care. I am now looking forward to my next walk that involves hills.
When we move in disconnection to ourselves, with our head and body in separation, the only outcome is guaranteed to be a huge stress and strain on our whole body. But moving in unison with every part of our body we will instinctively know when we are pushing it too hard and so have the opportunity to give it the attention and care that it is asking for at that moment in time. Listening to our body is such a loving thing to do; it simply makes sense to do so.
There is no escaping love ( although we may try), it is in our every move, our every bone, love is all around us.
‘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.’ – If everyone had a true understanding of what is here being said, it would offer an inspiration to apply it in our day to day living and by that reflect to all generations to come, how important it is for all of us to live in honour of who we truly are, a part of the whole.
Beautiful reminder of what love making truly is and accepting and saying yes to the grandness of being part of such a stupendous whole, the universe.
Love is the greatest medicine of all!
So true Andrew, it really is.
Love the title, and love the awareness you bring to life Kim. When walking up a hill we are reminded of the connection and purpose of our every step and how this can be either in or out of rhythm with our bodies and all around us. Everything in life offers us such expansive reflections when we are paying attention.
When life is easy (like walking down the hill) it is important to keep connecting with ourselves and working on ourselves, for if we only do this when life gets tough (walking up the hill) we are always lagging behind. So the questions more becomes are we willing to have a life that flows like that?
Walking on hills, like life, is all about how you approach it. You can feel it as a challenge to conquer, a struggle or chore or enjoy your breath and connection to yourself and all around you.
Brilliant Kim – and I know the hill you are talking about – it is a divine one to walk and feel the Godliness within and all around. And it’s as steep as it is delicious! You have to stay connected or you start running out of breath – my experience many a times 🙂
I too grew up hating hills, but I now can appreciate the consistency of staying present with my body when exercising and feeling what is needed at each step.
This article has not only made me revise how I walk up hills, but stairs as well.
Good point Kev.
There is a beautiful feeling of openess and grandness being at the top of a hill which is energising and brings so much vitality to the whole body.
It sounds a bit mad but my relationship with walking up hills has changed completely… I used to feel exhausted just looking at them and that was an attitude I had towards life. I now love the insight walking up a hill gives me: how my body is feeling, what the quality of my breath is and whether I have an added spring or a bit of resignation. Whatever I do become aware of holds a great opportunity to learn.
Although the body can get tired from working, long hours and so forth, it’s so true that we can never get exhausted from purpose or love, and our relationships/way of living can be constantly revitalising.
Life becomes so much simpler when we feel the rhythmical way our breath and body are “moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.”
When we are present and moving in and with the universal rhythm we have endless energy as we are moved by something greater than us. So simple, but we expend so much energy fighting against what is naturally supporting us and then wonder why we are so tired.
Consistency, Connection and God, beautifully simple and true. Choosing that as a foundation for everyday life and movement brings an ease and enjoyment, and the struggle disappears.
Isn’t it awesome when we get ourselves out of the way, stop complaining and take on a fresh approach to something we’ve historically had a so called ‘issue’ with for, what ends up being for no good reason. i’ve found this keeps happening for me, and it’s so cool.
The great personal trainer Beverly Carter taught me a lot about hills, and ultimately being present when I walk. Through the awareness of my breath I am present with each step, never putting my body second to my thoughts, but instead honouring the presence within.
Staying with ourselves as we move sounds incredibly simple… And really it is and yet the effects are profound and far-reaching… In fact, life changing.
I know that my body feels very different when I move in connection with it.
LOVE A NEW ASPECT OF VIEWING THE HILLS. It is beautiful feeling that we can look in a different way to so called ‘normal’ ‘accepted’ things.. That is very freeing. For often we have limited what certain things in life mean or symbolize. To see the depth of symbolism in for example a feather on the street, more than just seeing a feather – we can feel into what this is messaging us.. What is nature telling us with that feather? Now, that is a whole different view on things in life – a deeper one, one that allows blessings to be appreciated for what they are – as they are constantly in and around us..
When we let love to be our guide in life for sure we will be blessed by it divineness and will never be able to abuse in any way shape or form. The abuse we might experience in life is just the result from us not choosing for love in our lives but instead to live life from the drive to accomplish something from the mind.
“When we are present with this movement nothing is hard, a push, or done in drive.” What a wonderful life expanding way to live, every step up or down or along the path at work, home or play.
I can so relate to what you share here Kim except it was with stairs. I have 4 long flights of stairs to get to my workplace, and I would walk up them at the beginning of my shift (and get the lift down at the end!) Initially I would go very slowly and be out of breath by the top, however as you share, the more I was with my body and breathing in my own gentle rhythm, the easier the stairs became and I’m now no longer out of breath. Other staff are still gasping by the time they arrive at work. I used to harden and tense my body to ‘make it’ to the top too – a mind driven exercise rather than working from my body and how it feels to walk the stairs each day.
I do like these simple examples in which so clearly is shown that letting love in your life does has its effect, not only in how we are with our body and climb the stairs, but also how this is reflected in the open and deeply connected relationships we build with all the people we meet.
“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.” Wow Kim how beautiful and what lovely appreciation very inspiring and so true, a great sharing.
We either align to the ‘breath of God’ and all that is true within us, or we align to all that is not of this truth. Does this not then give an indication as to why we as a humanity are so ‘out of breath’, i.e. exhausted? We are taking in a breath that is not truly ours to breathe and in this state what we breathe is pure poison to our body and to the environment it is breathed back into by virtue of our expiration. If we are truly concerned and willing to arrest ‘global warming’, then it starts with taking a very honest look at the breath we choose to breathe.
It is so humbling to feel the simplicity of this responsibility that we all have, equally.
Well said, breathing our own breath inspired from our inner connection, for as you say if we are not we are breathing in everything other, and that can leave us breathless and uninspired. The relationship with our breath informs us every moment.
I have felt this on a hill as well – how much it is a reflection for how I approach things in life, tricky things, things I would like to avoid. When I don’t dramatise the situation there is an ease within the body, I find I stay present, in connection to my cells and, now you mention it, at one with a far grander existence than the confines of my body. On the other hand, when I dramatise, such as lie down on the hill and wonder how my body will make it to the top (see how descriptive I can be there?!) then it takes me twice as long and is incredibly draining.
When we are able to feel the true power of our movements, and how each one determines the next, exercise takes on a whole new meaning. No longer will we focus on pushing on for the prize, getting muscle bound or ‘fit’, but on moving knowing that we are already ‘it’. When the results of our choices are clear – the learnings before us are easy to heed. But when we distract, cover up and numb what we feel we get trapped in these patterns. But all along the true measure of our fitness for life is the quality in which we live. Thank you Kim for sharing this beautiful learning.
Gorgeous Kim, I will approach my next hilly walk in a whole new light thank you.
Hills are a great way to connect us back to our bodies and to feel the struggle of life, if it is indeed there to be felt. I have lived in a few hilly places and would hate having to walk back up the hill – often it felt like a struggle, but looking back some days seemed easier than others but it never occurred to me that there was more to learn from the experience.
In connection there are no hills or dales.
What a gorgeous reflection you are offering the world with your inspiring and deeply beautiful blog. I always appreciate simplicity and with your blog you have expressed so much very concisely and deeply. It will be a joy to read your blog again Kim – and to see your lovely smiling face at the end.
Being present in all that we do means all that we do is felt differently.
There is always something for us to learn about ourselves from something that challenges us.
” it’s impossible to get tired from love; it’s the ultimate health pill that supports every inch of our being.” And it is limitless and without end.
The beauty and simplicity of walking hills and how we can move with the flow of life and everything is very special to feel here Kim and such a beautiful sharing of our movements our mind and how we can make such different changes all the time to our lives with the quality and presence we choose. Very inspiring .
Thanks Kim… And it is being aware when the push comes in, just continually clocking this, and eventually, what was such an ingrained habit starts to drop away
When we are connected to ourselves, life becomes a seamless flow and everything is possible.
Hills in nature mean many different things to me when I think of all the hills I’ve stood on over the world – deserts, woods, ravines, all offering a beauty and a perspective of a greater world.
This feels true Carmen, after listening to the science of symbolism by Serge Benhayon yesterday what you have shared makes a lot of sense. They seem to offer another level of viewing the world, standing above a situation and observing what is happening.
Beautiful Carmel and I would add, a beauty and a perspective of a greater world within also.
When we do things truly in connection with ourselves and bodies it makes such a difference and feels so different .. very cool.
Absolutely gorgeous to read Kim thank you for sharing , I am inspired to make love while I am walking hills and also on the flat.
When we understand life to be a constant learning and evolving the ‘hills’ of life can be recognised as great moments of reflection and opportunities to explore our potential to grow and expand.
I love the analogy you have used here Alex. Anything that may appear ‘challenging’ often has a beautiful expansion that unfolds if we stay open to the deeper message within it all.
I used to love running up and down hills when I was younger- there was such a joy in being in my body and feeling what it could and could not do. Hills are fun.
The beautiful thing is that there is a multidimensional part of us, actually it’s all of us and bringing this into our body and feeling it expand us allows us to have a whole new relationship with life. There is joy and learning in walking up a hill – for example , thanks Kim 😉 and applying this to everything we do would be so powerful, an extraordinary way to walk through life.
Your blog has really inspired me to walk hills in an entirely different way – and it has made such a difference! Thankyou Kim – from someone who used to hate hills!
There is a place in New Zealand that I said I would never live at because it is too windy and too hilly. I may not be able to do anything about the wind but I think the hills now will be easily taken care of.
I can feel how strong you are in mind and body. Embracing all of life, especially the bits that seem challenging, is quite an incredible way to live.
Every movement either keeps us with our breath or takes us away from our breath, so when walking up hills as you have shared Kim, we are to honour our movements, breath and how much vitality we have.
Doug I know what you mean, when we stay connected to what ever we are doing there is that sense of true joy, when we are just in the motion without connection the feeling of pain and struggle comes in.
“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.” This is so beautiful to be aware of, being present with our movement makes such a difference.
I love these simple yet profound lessons in life, that if we are not paying attention to our body or have a negative mindset, will pass us by. We can continue to see metaphoric or real hills as hard work or a struggle or we can see them as a way to fine tune our movement within the universe.
So true, we can either separate from that awareness of ourselves as a body within a body or not, one is so much harder than the other yet we always have a choice.
This homeostasis you speak of Kim signifies that in connection with our bodily system and its coordinated response that we can turn what can be a functional head driven movement into something infinitely more joyful and harmonious.
What a metaphor for life! If we remain consistent and present with ourselves throughout the ups and downs of life there is less drama and less effort. All it takes is a little bit of willingness to be aware of what is going on.
Can we walk beyond the hill? When I read this article I have a sense that it’s not just about a hill. There is a preparation that can take place or you can support yourself with. As is said it’s not about ‘conquering’ the hill but about being truly present with your movements and how that then supports us no matter what the terrain. So when it comes to exercise or anything, how are we supporting ourselves when we are not ‘with’ what we are focused on. Like walking a hill, is there something else that is needed to support, a deeper level of presence to see that maybe we feel we need to do more strengthening at a particular point or we need more rest at another point. What I see is that every point is a point to reflect on, to bring something deeper to and truly connect to the flow that is there for us. Every part is a part that is there to truly be lived and if not then who is walking you?
I used to try and get things right the first time and do things quickly. But what this blog shares is that it is about quality. It is about taking our time and doing so in a way that supports us – much like climbing a hill and gradually supporting our bodies and listening to them.
I love your approach to life Kim, it is the quality you honour in every moment and not a goal you aim for.
I love that honouring the quality, something I have been working on in my life too, is the quality of my movement, the depth of quality is amazing when we are connected and present with our movement. Something I have just began to explore.
Kim I will never again claim a hill unconscious as what you have presented is so inspiring that I am looking forward to make my own experience with going to the top of the hill – wonderful!
This reminds me of being in the gym – we can make it a struggle, pushing our bodies or simply enjoy the quality of movements and feeling of our body in motion of its true quality.
Michael that’s a great point you make about pushing our bodies or enjoying the quality of movement. I have never seen it that way, I have always got caught in the having to push your body, no wonder I have never truly enjoyed going to the gym so have always avoided it.
When we are in our heads then this adds strain and complication to everything that we do but when we are with our bodies, this makes whatever is is that we are doing easier and eventually more joy filled and loving. So it’s very simple, keep reconnecting back to the body, over and over again.
Great reminder Alexis.
Placing one foot in front of the other in presence allows for a deep connection to ourselves which is a deep connection to God. That’s all it takes.
There is a hill near to where I live that I love to walk up as often as I can. My body and I always feel great afterwards, as we get such a good work out on every level 🙂
I used to live with my young daughter hard up against beautiful woodlands that went steeply up in places to the highest point of nearly 1,000 feet and we used to have such fun in the woods walking up the steepest parts which in some places seemed almost vertical and we would hang on to plants to pull us up the steep bits. And the best bit was sliding back down on our bums supported by the rich deep leaf mold as we slid down giggling out heads off with the dogs running around us. Hills can be enormous fun.
I love how this conversation highlights that any reaction, any unpleasant experience can be similarly reflected upon to find the precious gift of revelation. We are shown that we are out of sync with the harmonious flow of the all we are a part of and pointed to how we can bring our relationship round to one of synergy and love once again.
Indeed Golnaz how empowering it is to observe & connect to our physiological and psychological responses objectively in this way.
Do we climb hills to conquer or ‘have one over’ nature and the earth or do we climb hills to be inspired by nature and the earth ?
I am loving walking up the hills around my home, the feeling of my legs getting some great stretching exercise, and it also feels great to monitor my body and how it feels, am I getting breathless? Is my heart racing too fast? I have atrial fibrillation so I cannot overdo things, but gently walking up a hill feels good all round, and I stop for a breather whenever I need to, there is no push to get to the top.
What an achievement Kim! The fact that you listened to advice when offered and then focused on yourself as you walked taking it all gently, not seeing it as a competition, rather a pleasure.
Love is definitely the best, and cheapest medicine.
Climbing the hill to reconnect and to embody one’s Soul seems an impossible hill to climb but as I climb this hill and I stop and look at where I have come from it is without a doubt it is worth every step I have taken.
Yes worth every step and it is one simple step at a time.
So true that when we are connected to life, the bigger picture, nothing feels challenging or hard – there is no struggle, we simply do what we’re there to do, getting on with it and doing whatever is next and in front of us. We can either accept and enjoy life, or struggle against it and resist it. It always comes back to our choice.
Walking in the Lake District in the UK has lots of big hills, they are like life when walking to the top; there are hard and easy parts. The walk is filled with lots of moments of reflection of where you have come from and where you are going.
Its quite amazing how we can have certain dislikes or difficulties with some things in life – and then God presents one to us – for us to realise even with the things we dislike there is a relationship or sense of understanding that we can come to with it.
I love the sentence : “In connection, one cannot help but feel every breath and the body as it moves.”
It is so true and putting this into practise the body has the opportunity to heal itself.
I’m finding that the more I climb hills in my locality the less breathless I get – my body is getting used to the regular exercise and my legs love the stretch
“if I make my everyday about consistency, connection and God” put so simply as an everyday way of being in life that can turn things around, it is well worth the time getting to understand what connection, God and consistency feels like in ordinary, everyday circumstances.
Great observation to apply to life for our every movement will be in connection with us and in true flow or will be a deviation from this and require effort and force.
Years ago I suffered with asthma and hill climbing of any description would bring on the shortness of breath, then I discovered that if I walked totally with every step that I did not need the inhaler.
One of the nice things of being in a hilly area are the sometimes breathtaking views we can have. In my experience we can get used to the incline and over time it becomes less onerous and more familiar.
“we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it” – This is gorgeous and so true. There are certainly two different paths we can align ourselves to, one that’s in line with the flow of nature, the universe, science and deep care and the other may still look the part but allows for gaps of irresponsibility and distraction. It can feel sometimes like we’re swimming against the tide and life is absolute chaos, but what if we actually were?
There is no feat too high and no hill too steep when our whole body and being is invited to the party.
I remember walking in the Himalayas some years ago – the grand-daddy of all hills. My companion and I did the same walk, but our experience was quite different. Mountains can be implacable and hard when treated in one way, or they can show us that there is something incredible and inspirational to share and that is the journey I embarked on. Sure enough they were generous to a fault with the richness of the experience. It was not about reaching the top, it was about every step along the way.
I have started to love hills but for another reason. Having trashed my body with strenuous exercise and false beliefs, my body insisted for years that I when I walked, it must be slowly and preferably only on flat surfaces. However after years of walking like an old lady my body is now calling for more action, it is now urging me to walk faster and it is loving the challenge of hills! Incredible to really feel just how specific the body is about what it needs and to really honour it’s wishes.
Kim you have shared a very simple truth and yet it is one that has the power to change the world. ” When we are connected within to the light of our Soul/God/the Universe, we are expanded” and it is because most people are not connected that life has become so incredibly contracted. We scuttle around on auto pilot looking for the answers, when everything is answered by one thing and that one thing is connection. Connection takes care of every-thing.
“Why i love hills” – i know that when i am truly connected to myself, it’s possible to love. To love everything.
I find the joy of walking in conscious presence is the fact that it is I that is walking and as you say no push or drive is involved but to joy of moving in love , thanks for sharing .
Yes, and we are capable of doing much more without getting exhausted.
This is a suberp analogy to life. I too used to find climbing hills very challenging, always leaving me out of breath and with aching legs. However, the deeper I have learnt to connect to myself, take care of my body and value myself, the easier it has become to climb. And so the easier it has become to tackle the difficult issues in life, one step at a time, with a gentle breath, intention, awareness and body aligned.
I live at the top of a hill, and there has been much learning from it! If there is any sense of rush or checking out in my head, the hill feels like climbing Mount Everest, leaving me out of breath with legs aching. When walking ‘with me’ in conscious presence, the revers is true – an easy light-footed walk with the birds ‘singing their socks off’ in celebration!
Thanks Kim, it’s amazing to feel how dedication and consistency in one area of our life, such as the way we climb a hill, can then become a foundation for and lived in our whole life.
Sometimes we should examine whether we live with life or against it, or said differently, are we accepting of the natural design and flow of life or do we ignore the natural rhythms and just wanna have it our way. The experience will be different although doing the same thing like climbing a hill.
This makes me laugh…. what if making love in the true sense of the word, was the answer to our exhaustion and our anxiety?
Reading this blog made me appreciate how far I have come from the drinker, smoker who never walked anywhere to someone who loves the connection and enjoyment felt each time on my daily walk.
I can feel how this applies equally to everything we do in life as if it were a hill for us to climb – doing it present with ourselves and our body means it becomes effortless as opposed to striving to climb a hill makes it just that.
Do we cringe at how hard the effort is going to be to do something a bit challenging, or enjoy each step, the warmth in our limbs, the connection to our breath as we work hard on something worthwhile?
There are many things in life that I can also see as a potential foreboding obstacle I have to conquer. Just that hardening of my body, holding my breath and focusing on a goal outside of me is enough to get my body to get anxious and uncomfortable regardless of what the item is, bring in an extra emotion and reaction and a recipe for an unpleasant experience.
Great revelation here about the importance of being connected with our body and that “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.”
Power and responsibility come hand in hand and yet so many of us are happy to take the power but turn away from the responsibility. But this is just domination and superiority at the expense of another and not the all-inclusive and all-encompassing power we feel when we live life with our innate responsibility.
I find my walk to and from the train station on a work day is an awesome reflection of my relationship with myself and the world. There are some days its a joy and others where my legs feel like lead. Either way it shows me how i have been living and is a support to show me where I can make adjustments and changes to deepen and surrender into myself more.
I have a similar experience Lucy when I walk to work. If I’m bored, wanting to walk faster to get it over with, or listen to music, phone someone, it’s because I’m not wanting to feel a tension that I’m carrying. If I just stick with it, and allow myself to feel it (instead of trying to distract myself and not feel it), it dissipates. Walks are such a great reflection of how we’ve been living and what we’re really feeling.. it’s hard to hide from ourselves on a walk when there are no other distractions.
I love this Kim. I have always loved walking up hills, even though my body sometimes gets tired, but I have always been able to take my time and stop when I needed too. I can even remember as a young girl writing about an experience I had walking up a hill, having had a bad headache before I started my walk, and how much better I felt by the time I got to the top. Being at one with nature is a sure way to support us to come back to our connection with our body and has the potential to change the way we feel, both physically, mentally and emotionally.
I’ll never forget a walk I went on a few months ago. I was feeling very connected to myself and to the bigger picture of life as I came to this part of the walk that I often do and I remember so clearly taking that connection even deeper and I then literally FLEW up this hill. It was amazing! My feet hardly touching the ground as I was literally carried up this hill. I have only just scratched the surface of the power of the connection to God – but in these moments I can feel how immense it is. So yes, I share you love of hills…and when I don’t love them, then it shows me where I am at.
The perfect thing for me to read this morning. I have found how especially supportive what you’re talking about can be when I am in a period of intensity at work or similar. It is a return to the connection with every single movement that supports the body to do amazing things – far more that we might think possible – whether it be walking hills or big days at work. Our bodies are designed to work and serve and if we support them they can do miracles.
And there are no fireworks with these miracles just a pure steadiness that is heaven walked on earth.
I find that I get tired, well exhausted when I am fighting the truth I know and see that is within and before me. So I get the choice to fight this, like fighting the hill, or to work with it and see okay how can I be more loving, what am I being shown etc.. then things start to shift. Or I can get frustrated, try to get things my own way and lash out at the world. The choice is always mine and there to be made.
I have always loved climbing mountains and hills – the steady meditative pace, the conscious presence of keeping my feet steady, the focus on my breath, the feeling of my body using different muscles and of course the view from the top!
‘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.’ – this is gold, Kim. Beautiful to be reminded of the ease with which we can move, a movement that flows in rhythm with the universe, as opposed to against it, which brings dis-ease throughout our entire body.
The effort we think that hiking up a hill requires is exhausting in itself just thinking about it. Too often I let that put me off doing a task that when I bring all of me to is actually enjoyable and not exhausting because, as you so beautifully, point out, ‘… it’s impossible to get tired from love; it’s the ultimate health pill that supports every inch of our being.’
We can walk and think or we can walk in connection – the former sets us up physiologically to use more energy than is needed whereas the latter allows a flow and an ease that feels lovely.
I too never liked hills and never saw the point, but I can now understand, I was never connecting to my movement, my mind was all over and I was just focused at the end point not connecting with my body and the movements. I am going to give this ago when i am next around hills.
Absolutely a beautiful blog. I also loved what you shared “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 notice this with the steep steps I climb every day to take me over a bridge. If I am not present with myself and focusing on getting to the top I always get out of breath. If I remain in the moment it is totally different. It doesn’t matter when I get to the top, but I probably get there quicker than when I am trying.
When I was younger I used to walk for hours at a time every week over hilly terrain and was super fit. Many years later i returned to the place i used to walk and tired to go up one of the hills and realised just how much less in shape I was – where as before it was simply to scale the incline, this time it was much harder and i really had to take my time and not push. It made me realise that when we support ourselves to make sure we are fit and prepared for what is needed in life, then we need not strain to do it, but when we come across something that is more challenging, we don’t need to push to perform just as well, we can give ourselves the space and grace to do it in our own time – be it a hill or a challenge in life.
When we are accepting life as it is we can also accept the challenges and unpleasant things (hills) we encounter and instead of struggling with it (at least not too much) we learn and grow and even can take it with humour.
“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.” there is no doubt that with this understanding and appreciation of ones breath that the quality that we choose for our breath is very different and whilst we may forget to bring a quality to our breath at certain points the solidness of the foundation that you speak about is unshakable.
I too love the reflection that a hill offers. In connection with our body and breath it can become effortless – simply one step at a time.
The things we like or not like – maybe it is the disconnection we in truth don´t like before we project that dislike on any aspect of life.
Great point Alex, and as this blog well describes this is the difference between function and joy.
Very good Alex – I feel this is it – the dislike of not feeling connected and bringing this disconnectedness to our life, making it seem as if life or aspects in our life is a struggle. And it may well be so that there are challenges however when we are able to stay with our breath and our connectedness to ourselves and the all, even those struggles can then be explored from a different perspective.
You’ve described an awesome approach to any ‘hill’ – literal or figurative – we might try to conquer/climb in life. Is it such a struggle after all, or can we find our ‘flow’ in any given situation and our way of walking might require a slight adjustment?
As a child I grew up surrounded by hills and I loved the valleys that accompanied them. To me they were magical and at the same time eerie, especially when the mist was caught in the valley and I was looking down on it. I never tried to conquer them I respected them and took them slowly. This was at a time when I was riding so I would respect how the horse moved in rhythm to get to the top. I find it interesting that people feel they need to conquer mountains, put their lives at risk and push their body to extreme when they can just enjoy the majestic beauty that they have to offer.
‘In fact, we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.’ our movement can bring us to appreciate just what we are part of all the time. Allowing yourself to walk with you and you can walk with the whole of the Universe.
This blog should be at the heart of every campaign to get everybody out exercising and how much of a pleasure it can be when we stay connected to our bodies and don’t go into override mode.
This is the key. Exercise with connection. I am working on this a lot at the moment – committing to staying connected to my body rather than going into the over-drive….or, interestingly, the under-drive (is there such a word?) What I mean is finding that balance between doing enough to keep fit and build the body to be stronger and so that it can support me more, but then not pushing it. It’s a delicate balance – but I have found that the body knows which is which, so actually all we have to do is listen.
And that is one of the problems we have with exercise and the lack of participation in it, we are shown only two models, the slumped on the couch and the fitbod. But actually what we need lies in the balance, not pushing to hard but being active, enjoying our bodies and enjoying the movement.
I can relate to what you share Kim to life in general. When we connect to ourselves and the universe and take one step at a time, we can complete anything with flow rather than struggle, And even if it feels like a struggle, pauses on the way, will support us to feel what we’re been shown or offered.
‘When we are present with this movement nothing is hard, a push, or done in drive’ I regularly walk up moving escalators at tube and train stations, Why? Because, i can, and while I can, I will. On days when I’m tired, I let the escalator work for me.
Hills are an amazing reflection of taking one step at a time and in connection with the body that is, after all, doing all the work. In unison it can never be about drive, push and strife but in the enjoyment of the all we are a part of and the blessing that is our body and its particles.
I had a friend who used to imagine she was walking on flat ground when she was walking up hills, well this most certainly didn’t work for me, but focusing on my breathing and remaining aware of feeling my feet and the sway in my body as I move makes the hill not an obstacle or something to avoid. “In fact, we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.” And I love this Kim “…love; it’s the ultimate health pill that supports every inch of our being.”
I have always found peoples facination and determination to conocour feats like climbing mountains, even to their death, really interesting. What is it that can drive us to such extreams of physical exertion outside of ourselves that we cannot find within?
This is awesome to read. I have my own hills which aren’t hills but say an assessment to write that if I worry about if it’s any good or it being scrutinised by people paid to scrutinise it I falter. But I know enough to know that when I am with what I write as I write it, as I feel my body as I write it, perhaps what I dread can be a hill that teaches me movement joy and making love.
“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.” Love this Kym and so relevant for me at the moment as I have just started to include in my morning routine a walk up a hill, I have always avoided this hill yet in the last month I have embraced it and have been really surprised that it has not felt like it is killing me! – in fact like you have also noticed when I am connected to me the hill feels a joy to be on and effortless.
‘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.’ So truly making love starts with truly loving ourselves.
Vicky that’s the simplicity of it all, “truly making love starts with truly loving ourselves, so its a process we have to work on.
I have found for any project, including climbing hills, that if I go into any type of drive I get tired very quickly. I can then use adrenaline or caffeine or many other strategies to overcome that so I don’t notice the tiredness until later but I could simply start without drive, just purpose and then I get tired much more slowly.
I can relate to this Kim. A couple of months ago I started walking up and down a long set of stairs as training for my body to build up bone density. What I’ve noticed is how much more difficult it is when I push. When I drop my connection and start to breath through my mouth instead of my nose or when I take on the drive from the others around me who are running past me, 2, 3 at a time. It’s not easy doing this set of stairs but it’s even harder when I disconnect from what I’m doing in order to meet an expectation.
Your post has reminded me that I need to bring more of this awareness to my everyday, and work less on meeting expectations, and more on the connection with myself and what I’m doing in that moment.
“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,” Yes this is super inspiring, growing up with a belief that life always has to be a struggle this other option seems so delicious and I am going to give it a go to move more and more in line with rhythms of the universe and God.
I have never looked at hill walking like this before, and have had my fair share of struggles with them – now I know why, and it makes sense that we can either choose to struggle or not by being present.
Yep and that goes for all aspects of our lives doesn’t it, how we approach life and all that it brings.
How much of the ‘struggle’ in our lives is actually self created? Do we go into a conversation, work or parenting kids already preempting that it’s just ‘too hard’, when in fact it’s our movements that introduce this and configure problems to occur?
When we are connected “we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it”. This is a great point to remember whenever we start to feel that any aspect of life is getting on top of us.
Thank you, Kim, I love this blog – I hated hills most of my life and now look forward to the ascent on my daily walk, at the beginning of which I simply say to myself, ‘let my heart lead the way’ and from this I stay aware of my body, how it feels and what it is telling me.
Kim, this feels very true; ‘we love our movement for we are moving in tune with a far greater rhythm and not against it.’ I have noticed how I can rush and this makes my body feel achy, it is exhausting and there is no joy, I can feel how I am in these moments against the natural flow of the universe.
I love how you describe that Love is in every movement – that makes much sense, knowing that Love is who we innately all are, our being.
Like anything, when we approach a hill one step at a time, enjoying the connection with our self, the quality of our movements and the beauty of nature around us, rather than reaching our destination, the journey flows and is not arduous for our body. If, however, we make it about getting to a certain point, reaching the top, it will not only be much more exhausting for our body, but we will miss so much magic along the way.
Isn’t it ironic how the things we may dislike in life can often be a hidden treasure box, offering us enormous learning and wisdom.
I like this Alison ‘a hidden treasure box’ so much to learn from what we are averse to.
So true – and if we allow ourselves to explore that we can find this treasure which will enrich how we live our lives and most likely even offer to explore further and further.
What a beautiful blog and how much it shows how much your attitude and openness (energetic awareness) can transform your life.
How glorious it is that we can connect to our soul, God, and the universe through walking and moving in connection to our body. What a blessing this is for your neighbourhood and our planet each time you walk this way.
I too have never liked Hill-walking, but now live in a part if the country full of hilly streets and country roads. ???? The more I stay present with myself the easier hill-walking has become. Great inspiring post, thankyou Kim.
Great blog Kim thank you. I too find this with my walk to work how much there is a flow, lightness and ease in my movements or if there is a strain on my body and heaviness.
I get this, I live on a hill, when I think oh it is hill, it is hard work etc, when I stay connected to my breath and walk lightly, connected to the vastness that is available, the whole thing is very different experience.
I can easily relate to climbing hills. How I used to do it and how I do it now are vastly different. I get to climb up and down a very steep paddock daily and at present it is a paddock of mud and very little grass so if I am not with myself in every step that I take I am liable to find myself sliding all the way back down, painfully so. This is the same in my life; if I am not present as I move through life the end result will often be a trip, a fall or a slide, and yes, often painful as well.
This is a beautiful metaphor – I have been there as well. Certain activities require awareness or they go pear-shaped.
Great example Ingrid and I fully concur – if I am not present in my life I will be offered ‘reminders’ to reconnect…
Beautiful to feel how you built the consistency and connection on your downward descent and then maintained it when you turned around to go back up. Feels like an amazing analogy for life how by committing to building a consistency in our rhythm this supports us when things get harder as we have the lived experience of being in true connection.
Everyone has no doubt experienced being at one with our surrounding, in an ease of movement, and then also experienced the struggle. Perhaps we should not so easily dismiss these as just occurring, but situations that happen according to our own awareness in how we move.
This is a great way to understand that how we are in our relationship with our connection to our Soul and how we move can support us to do even those things that we have previously been fearful of – this feels truly beautiful.
I too have never been a hill walker, never liked the experience of getting to the top, but hey the view was pretty much always worth it once I got there, but maybe that was because that was the focus and I never really tried being present in each step and enjoying the trek itself.
That makes sense… when we are focussed on the goal we miss out on every step that takes us there and I am coming to realise that it is here that the magic of life resides.
Just stayed in an apartment block, four flights of stairs and no lift. And the walk to the flat became easy, one because I didn’t see it as a problem, and two because of the way I walked, fully present with me.
Yes, physical exertion for a purpose can be very easy.
‘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’. Beautiful Kim and all we have to do is connect to it.
I am beginning to develop a relationship with love and how it feels in my body (expansive would be one word that comes close) and this love is so very different from the modified version that is encapsulated in saccharine moves and greetings cards.
“Life becomes about movement, joy and making love” – beautifully true… and without true love in my life Kim, I am lost and at a loss.
I love the feeling of walking up a hill and stretching my legs – I used to play squash when I was younger and cycling before that, so was always pretty fit. Now gentle walking is my thing and I’m hoping find a swimming pool nearby that I can use for some gentle swimming. Exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous, but it needs to be in my life and taking a dog for a walk is a good way – apart from the regular stops at trees and other pee spots…
Every morning I go for a 50 minute walk and it seems to involve a very steep uphill walk the whole way there and back – guess that can’t be possible so must be quite up and down. When I first started this walk a year ago I couldn’t do it all and what I could do was quite a struggle. Now over a year later and a year older I marvel at how simple it is and how my levels of fitness have improved.
I don’t push my body at all on this walk, it is actually a delight these days and feels really supportive for my body. I also feel the flow and expansion you have described and have a daily marker and precious time to check in with myself and my husband who I walk together with.
What I got from this is that when I focus on all that is in front of me I can easily get overwhelmed, the thoughts come in and it can be a slog. However, when I stay with my next step (not the next 100) I am able to take this easily and by having done that in a quality the next steps are easier and soon I am at the 100 step point but it hasn’t been a slog.
I use to despise hills; I would complain every time I had to walk up one….
I recently realised it’s only because I was thinking about the top, rather than being present and taking my time. I did an amazing walk the other day and although some stuff came up for me on the upward incline, I was so blessed when I saw the view and I feel my general attitude has changed towards hills.
I love how you describe being present with your breath and the support this gave your whole body. Such a simple act can have such a profound impact on our lives.
Yup… there is nothing complicated or difficult about developing our awareness of our bodies through our breath and this gives us amazing insight into the way we are living.
That is a wow worth talking about Kim. I too can easily recall just how painful walking up hill could be, but since practising the Gentle Breath Meditations and making some huge changes in the way I live, walking straight, up and down is now an absolute pleasure. Every day I appreciate to the max how beautifully my body flows when I walk in connection to my inner light and joyful qualities.
Walking up hills or stairs lets you know where your body is really at, and then at least you know.
Hahaha very good Heather – and with this knowing then comes the opportunity to reflect and choose anew.
There is so much on offer – so many life lessons – if we are open to it. Look what you learnt from a hill!
This is gorgeous and a lighthearted blog with a very simple profound message here about the hill walk being like how we live our lives. I like you avoided hills all my life, anything that exerts the body or is a physical effort. I too live in the hilliest part of town, funny that. Each hill walk, I bring my full presence to, I feel my whole body and allow it to move in its power, mmm something that I could bring into all areas of my life all the time, and not just for a few select moments like a hill walk when I’m called to it.
Great topic Kim!
“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.” I love this line, love is the ultimate pill, when we move with love in our thoughts and movements we are free to move to the rhythm and pulse of the Universe.
I can very much relate to your blog Kim, having been one to avoid the hills. Nowadays I see it as a great opportunity to get a feel for where I am at and by that, honour whatever my body is telling me, whether that is to take it really easy or actually move in a faster pace.
There is opportunity to create space and love in your body (and life) or to breathe out of rhythm and become the harshness of emotions, turmoil and physical extertion. A hill is a great reminder to stay focused. Life may seem like a hill but if each small step is chosen with connection you walk with God – held in love with those small steps being combined conquer life and the hill.
This can be applied to anything in life. It’s the awareness that we bring to it that makes all the difference.
How interesting that your enjoyment increases the more you walk the hill Kim. Ordinarily one would hear that, with repetition the task/process could become boring or at least mundane! – therefore there is more than a lot to say for bringing a present and connected quality to the action, as it clearly turns things on its head and completely away from common perception, expectation or assumption.
I have noticed this too when I work in a shop and am standing up nearly all day. If I lose connection with myself my legs begin to feel fuzzy round the ankles and this feeling can spread up into my calves if I do not reconnect and keep myself together.
This is a very beautiful Kim – to be in synergy with that which we are part of is simply making love – all of the time by choice in how we move – harmoniously or not.
“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.”
I love it, the ultimate health pill is moving in connection with the all, which is making love.
This is an absolutely gorgeous blog Kim, you have covered a lot of ground. I particularly love this sentence . . . “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.” . . . well said.
When we are connected in full to ourselves, we truly are connected to the all, and this is very evident in your gorgeous sharing Kim.
Kim what a beautiful example of the fact that in life its not what we do but the quality in which we do what we do. It’s a great reflection to have today as I go about a busy working day.
One connected step at a time. I love this blog as an analogy for life.
Beautiful Kim, I love what you’ve shared. When we choose to stay connected to ourselves, our breath and our body, every movement we make feels in flow with our environment and the universe.
Chan our connection is the key, when we are in connection to our body, self and breath then our every movement becomes part of the flow, the flow of the Universe.
The experience of being consciously present with our body is what allows it to be the joy and ease it ought to naturally be.
I so love how we can learn so much from the simple things in life. Thank you Kim.
Connection is the key word, when we are connected to all that we are, to our innate divineness, we feel the expansion and life becomes a joy.
I often try to walk hills without gasping for breath, just breathing through my nose.. easier said than done and what I have found is I really have to slow down and not push… I have to do the same in life!
What I love about hill walking is the reflection that unless we stay connected it immediately becomes hard work and a struggle. For me building my consistency and stamina has transformed the way I walk hills and I really appreciate the opportunity to be with my body and enjoy the flow of my movements.
There is a lot to explore and understand about the physiological difference when we perform a task fully present in the body (in the moment it is sometimes called), compared to when we get caught up in the mind. Perhaps there is a lot for us to learn about how we exercise and that to be accepting of our bodies this type of training is what we all need. Exercise where we don’t push but feel and enjoy.
Great point here that we can choose which energy we do the same task in and one will drain and strain the human body and one brings vitality and vivaciousness to the body and the being.
Great point on drive – I’m still working on this after many years of loving that feeling of pushing myself. Which reveals a lot about how I chose to live. What surprises me most about when I kick into drive is what my legs feedback to me. We can still do things we did in the past that require physical output, but they can be done in a less driven, more gentle way.
To return to one’s true self, one’s Soul, is to be not at the top of a hill but of the highest peak in the world and at the same time being in the world.
This is awesome, approaching life from connection first it would seem changes everything.
Kim, this is really interesting to read, ‘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.’ I had an experience recently where I was with a friend and our children, there was a really steep hill, my friend and I were talking and slowly with great effort plodding up the hill, it felt like hard work, we looked up and the children were at the top, they had climbed at the hill joyfully and with no effort, they had fun, were connected and it felt like they had danced up the hill – amazing to feel.
Walking is a brilliant way to increase our connection with our body, whether it’s up a hill or on the flat. Personally I love the view point from hills too, and that you can see such a wide expanse of the world – it gives me a different perspective on life and reminds me we’re part of something big here.
Cool… this is like a double bonus, Meg. The benefit of the walk and the way it can build our relationship with our body and then the awe and wonder of feeling our place in ‘something big’.
I work in a building that has nine stairwells and ten floors and eleven lifts; out of which Seven are fire lifts and not normally in service, four passenger, and three goods lifts. On bad days, for the building, I have had multiple lifts malfunction. Which means climbing stairs to get to the motor room on the roof. My phone has one of those health apps that count your steps for walking, running and stairs. My best was 93 flights of stairs in one day. I spent the whole day chasing lifts. But, I like the stairs, it is a place to reconnect to myself.
I love what you have shared about being aware of our body and in presence with movements based on love and joy… this is a deeply beautiful way to move through life in rhythm and connection to ourselves and the world around us.
I enjoyed this walk with you and sharing that it is the way we walk not the route that makes all the difference.
Absolutely, well said Mary.
When I visit my Dad in Cornwall, I used to dislike the steep hills to and from his house, but actually now I really enjoy feeling how they support my body to tone and become stronger in a short space of time. I am not able to race up them, but taking them steady and stopping when I feel I need to is great.
A walk along a lane where I live that has a stunning view is a great marker for me as to where I’m at in my relationship with God, Soul and the Universe. Reading this gorgeous blog makes me pause to reflect and deeply appreciate the love and support which is always there around us reflecting who we truly are when we choose connection.
I have come to realise this with doing physical work, the more I don’t stay connected, the more exhausted I am at the end of the day. It is like having to cary extra unneeded weight up the hill, like carrying a six pack of beer up the hill to drink whilst enjoying the view, when connection and water is all that is needed.
This is a beautiful example how something that we dislike can be something we can learn from.
Yes and it offers us the opportunity to explore why we dislike it in the first place ….
A beautiful example of the body moving and communicating in one flowing and expansive movement at a time. Simply gorgeous thank you Kim.
I love this Kim, a very tangible reflection of life in general. The difference between moving my body in connection and moving my body by outer influences are polar opposites. One leaves my body alone, I feel vital and that nothing is too big, and my day just flows yet the other leaves my body tight, hard, anxious and it feels like I’m gripping the steering wheel and holding on.
This blog shows to me that when we are in conscious presence with our body we are in rhythm with the whole, the whole we are from and belong to. And when we live to his rhythm we cannot but be in respect of the capabilities of our physical body and adhere to that.
Yes I agree Nico being in conscious presence shows us that we are inextricably linked to everything else and that we have a responsibility to play our part in sustaining the quality of the whole environment around us that we live in and with.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your connection to being with yourself and climbing life’s hills. Something we can all walk.
I used to hate going to gym too and would get angry if pushed to do something I feel too much for me. But now I really enjoy gym and the change is similar to what you have described. When I connect with my movements I know what would support me and what wouldn’t and being present to my movements is the key to feeling a support sustain my body.
Great example of (and metaphor for) how connection conquers even the steepest hills – in our geographies, and in our lives.
Beautiful, Kim. I get the feeling that when we say we love doing something truly, it could be that it’s actually not the activity itself, but it is the love in making that we feel in our body, in flow with what holds us, and this gets magnified when we are in nature as our surrounding confirms that flow without as well as within.
“Why I Love Hills”- thank you Kim your experience confirms that when there is a love within, there is a love in all.
Thank you Kim for your sharing. I can relate to what you are saying about hills having recently done a bush walk on quite a steep hill and not being sure I would have the stamina to walk back up! This walk was a great lesson for me as I learnt that when we are connecting to our physical body and not drifting off in our minds we can achieve much more than we imagined.
I enjoyed reading this infinitely beautiful article – reminding me of the many times in the past when I have struggled to walk to the lighthouse perched on the top of a hill – but in those days I believed I had to push myself to do it. As has been reflected in this sharing if the consistency and loving connection are in place it can be done with relative ease – yes indeed, surely the hills are alive with the sound of music – divine music that is if we but choose to listen with our inner ears.
So gorgeous Kim – the view from the top of this particular hill is very sweet. For what you reveal is it’s not the hill (or life) that is the issue here, but the drive to complete and ‘get there’. Take this out and you’ll discover the body is made to sweat and work hard. When we move with glory of Love as our source we are replenished and supported in the most beautiful way.
‘When we move with glory of Love as our source we are replenished and supported in the most beautiful way.’ This is beautifully expressed Joseph.
Hills are a great simile for what happens in life and show us how we can easily do everything that needs to be done when we stay connected.
I also live in a very hilly area and when walking I love to feel the presence within and connection that is needed to allow my body to stay in harmony with the environment around me. So much is felt when I stay with each movement and not focus on the destination. I agree with what you say, “I often appreciate how this is what making love truly is.”
Love your article Kim. Movement in connection with the body and breath is true Yoga. With this connection you can feel the rhythm of God in motion and there is no taxing of the body or exhaustion.
Wow a complete turn-a-round with your relationship with hills! Amazing. This is a testimony to how your relationship with you has changed. I love what you have shared here ‘the undeniable Oneness with God felt in every cell of my body.’ And yep the view from hills (depending on where it is!) is pretty amazing.
It makes quite the difference, walking ‘with you’ (as you talk about in this blog) or ‘without you’ (i.e. not being present, pushing to get up the hill etc…).
I have done both and highly recommend the walking with you model :-).
Ha! I agree Sarah – the ‘walking with you’ model is one I would highly recommend too. The whole body feels much lighter and fluid in every movement as well as deeply connected with every footstep and the quality in which they touch the ground.
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. So beautifully expressed and so spot on Kim, your sharing allows us to be there with you and feel God through your deep connection on your walk.
This shows that being 100% with our body is nurturing and re-vitalising and it is when we allow ourselves to be in our head visiting different demands, future commitments or unresolved issues from the past that this is what is truly draining and exhausting. So amazing to feel the difference – thanks Kim.
We can view life as climbing the hill, pushing through, exhausting ourselves but it being all about the hill. Or we can be ourselves in every moment regardless of whether we have a hill to climb or a flat surface.
Yeah so true. Is life about the hill, or is life about looking after yourself first and foremost.
Well said Nick exactly so – is life an upward struggle or is it in connection with deep self-love and self-care.
Very well said Jennifer. The choice is always ours struggle or no struggle – it may seem obvious yet so many of us choose the struggle!
I love hills too Kim. I live in a hilly suburban area and love walking the pretty short steep inclines for a few reasons, particularly because it shows up immediately if I am ‘walking me’ or not. If I’m busy thinking about other things or walking to another’s pace I immediately get pain in my lower back as I start to push myself up the hill. If I’m totally with myself I simply take one conscious step at a time with no discomfort or breathlessness.
When we hold any images about how we are in any situation we go into a drive to get through it, and by being connected first those images disappear the drive is replaced with purpose. So our walk becomes about nurturing the body and the vitality that is available through our connection and feeling “the immensity that I am – not just the physical body that is walking – and I kept moving with ease,” then our walking is turbo boosted from heaven!
Amazing blog Kim, it’s amazing the beautiful life we can have if we choose love – I very often feel a wave of deep settlement every time I connect to that feeling. It’s very difficult to put in words but the feeling is just incredible.
“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. ” I absolutely love what you have shared with this blog and love this line in particular, it is a myth buster about what making love is. So awesome to read and feel.
How great that hill didn’t put you off moving to your new home… imagine what you would have missed out on! A beautiful blog Kim, thank you for sharing here.
Like you, I have never enjoyed walking up hills because of the pain and discomfort in doing so, but now having read your blog I will never approach hill walking in the same way again!
No, I agree and remember this as child I would feel how arduous it was to walk up a hill.
I grew up in a part of the world where hills were the common sight and now live in a country which is almost totally flat. The lack of hills were the stand out point of initially coming here and I came to appreciate just how majestic the hills are and how when you choose it can help in reconnecting to your own majestic-ness
This is a really different relationship with hills and movement. Most of the time we climb a hill to get from A to B and in that, we are not focussing on all the movements in between – but what resonates about this sharing is how we can totally change our relationship with everything based on our movements.
A beautiful progression to a deeper awareness with your body and letting it lead the way and being the ultimate teacher in your life and your return to love. Thank you Kim – an inspiring read.
“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”.
Such a great sharing Kim. Having grown up in the Netherlands where there are no hills my first visit to New Zealand was a whole new experience with going for a walk. I wasn’t used to hills at all! Even though I had not always liked the super workout going for a walk was, I soon started to love it because I noticed how much more with myself this environment asked me to be. As you shared, not being present with your body is super exhausting when walking hills!
This is such an inspiring blog. And so practical.
“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.”
I love it. Will it be hard, a push or a slog, or will it be joy and love – our own choice.
‘When we are present with this movement nothing is hard, a push, or done in drive.’ these are beautiful words and a solid reminder to always move in harmony with all that is
When I move hard, or push or am driven the magic of God will always give me a message, a reminder to connect back to moving in away that is in harmony with the Light of my Soul.
As humans we seem to live life with one of two options – either we survey the rise of a hill only to collapse at its foot and give up before we have begun, or we charge to the top completely gung-ho and so desperate to be recognised and prove something, we forget everything else in the process. Kim you have given us a third option and that is to simply move in obedience with the flow of life and allow this pulse to guide our walk on the terrain beneath our feet, however undulating this may be.
And what a needed third option it is… for the first two both achieve the same result – A wrecked human being either emotionally or physically. Mind you, the third option not only negates the trauma that the first two provide, but it can be very fun! in fact, you could say it can be hill-arious.
I love your play with words here Michael, and so very true a very needed third option, a way of life that allows us to enjoy and appreciate no matter the terrain or circumstance.
Thank you Liane Mandalis for sharing this aspect that brings in the simplicity of all aspects of life when we move with the obedience of the flow.
‘…move in obedience with the flow of life…’ is so beautiful. Reminds me how insects go vast distances in the air currents and are neither buffeted or exhausted. Obedience has been a word I associated with a fight to be outstanding and separate from blending into one’s surroundings. Like I had to be seen. But what if it is through obedience that one gets to know who one truly is?
Beautiful Kim.
I have the same relationship with stairs. If I am bogged down in issues or even simply not present with how my body feels it is a real struggle to ascend. But when present in myself, feeling joy-full and lovely I feel from my heart a support that almost pulls me up the stairs with ease and my legs don’t hurt at all. There is far more to fitness and exercise than just repetition (or lack of) certain movements that allows us to move freely in our bodies.
I feel that too Leigh, sometimes I walk up two flights of stairs at work and I’m breathing heavy, my legs ache and I’m exhausted like I’ve run a marathon (not that I know what that is like)… but when I focus on how my body feels walking up the stairs, where I place my feet and what I am thinking about I don’t feel tired.
That is the same for me too – if I walk or do things without connection to my body first, things feel much harder and quickly tiring, yet in connection to the breath and the body, staying present to what one is doing everything does flow so much lighter and a rhythm can be established supporting the flow,
But when focusing on my movements my chest opens up and I have felt pulled up the stairs, it’s pretty cool.
I can relate to this, especially when I have had knee problems. When I am conscious with every movement, the body responds differently to the everyday tasks we ask of it, and the movement is effortless. So it does highlight the question, what’s really going on with the body when we exercise in manner which goes against what the body wants to do, or is capable of.
Very good ????
Beautiful Miss Weston, absolutely beautiful.