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?
622 Comments
You could replace every experience with this. The clue is that because hill climbing will immediately become painful, unpleasant, etc you are basically forced to be connected, be with you breath, present.
Also the reason why people like activities like climbing the Mount Everest (apart from the recognition part): if you are not fully present with all your movement, be in the moment you will slip and be dead.
We could replace hills with for example with hard work: like order picking in a meat factory at minus -1C degrees. Work I did for a while because I ran out of money (another story). If I did not chose to be with my body, with my movements, with my breath, the work would become very unpleasant, especially when I would allow thoughts in like “what am I doing here, me with a University degree?” “This pays badly” “This is boring, I need a creative challenge”.
Instead I chose to fully commit, considering it a full day Yoga program, just being with my body and breath, being very present with my moves. I enjoyed it.
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 never liked hills much, I felt they were too tiring on my legs and I would have to push my way to get up it. That’s probably because all i focussed on was the hill and not my body and how to support it by staying connected with it. It was always about striving and pushing to get through it. Now I walk up hills and really enjoy the feeling of staying connected with my body, focussing on my breathing and getting toned at the same time!
Same thing here Susan. It is great way of exercising, being out there in nature as well.
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.
“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.
…and being with ourselves, being with our breath every single moment. Yes Vicky!
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.
Give me a hill any time, what story and beautiful way how one walk can transfer into a life Kim. If we can connect to it in a walk, which is a must in a hill walk, we could do it in any other part of our life as well.
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.
I love this sense of being in tune with a far greater rhythm – the rhythm of the Universe maybe. How powerful we are that we can choose to go against it – and how much responsibility we have to work in harmony with it.
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.
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.
Very beautiful indeed Kehinde. When we run on love we don’t get tired energetically, though our body can feel tired physically.
“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.