How You Get There Matters – Dianne Shepherd.

We all know what it’s like to have a stress filled, hectic day. Just last week I had a whopper of one myself.

On some level I knew I was creating a mess of things. The weather couldn’t have been nicer; just perfect for a walk in the park, catnap in the sun or eating an apple under a tree, but I didn’t even give myself 10 minutes of time-out. I went along cramming task after task in, mind racing, ego completely in the driver’s seat. I did not experience my day, I performed it. IThere was no wonder, no awe, no joy; gratitude was not even in my orbit. Did I even breathe?

Needless to say, by 7pm I was a cranky, exhausted woman.

When the ego gets the upper hand on any given day, things go south fast, and it can be a real challenge to turn it around.

The key is, I was feeling lousy because of all the DOing I was doing. There was very little BEing and experiencing, and that directly affected how I was feeling.

The power we have to create our lives is immense. So much of creating the lives we want is to ask ourselves how we want to feel, and to BE that. The practices in life have to be simple, practical and powerful. Too much DOing can take away from that simplicity and land you in a bad day fast!

In celebration of that, I thought I’d share one of my all time favorite daily practices with you here. I call it “How you Get there Matters.” It was inspired by two powerful books I love: Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth, and Stella Resnick’s The Pleasure Zone.

The practice:

1. Pick a part of your day where you are going from one place to another on foot. I often do this on the trip from my car to Wegmans. If you are a student, maybe the trip from dorm or apartment to class…

2. Give yourself about 10 extra minutes than you normally do.

3. Turn off your phone!! You can go a few minutes without Facebook, okay?

4. Take a few deep cleansing breaths (just like we do in Down Dog!) This helps you land in your body.

5. Rub your hands together vigorously for a few seconds and see if you can feel the energy in your hands.

6. You are ready to start walking. Try go half the speed you normally would. Pay attention!

7. How much can you notice? What’s underfoot? Gravel? Leaves? pavement? Dirt? Can you feel the texture as you walk? Notice the air, how does it feel on your face? Is it windy? Is the sun shining? Are the stars out? Just take in as much beauty as you can. The idea here is to give this short walk your full attention without judging, analyzing, worrying or stressing.

8. Give yourself a Namaste nod. Well done!