Fearlessness and Weathering the Storm for Peak Performance

I want to share briefly about fear and how a simple tool like walking meditation can allow us to step outside that fear and gain greater clarity and relaxation.

If we have too much fear we will struggle to be fully happy and free. When we have little to no fear, when it's more in control, we can be peaceful. With peace in our bodies and minds, we aren't beset by worry and anxiety, and we have more clarity, creativity, better relationships and more positive emotion. We are more free. Fear can zap our energy and zest for life and it kills peak performance. Because we are never right here but always somewhere else, stuck in the future or the past.

Too often we sit and try to 'out-think' our problems. We think, and think and think. This is difficult and fraught with danger. Sometimes we need to step outside the noise and clutter, for a moment, to reconnect with our bodies, calm our minds, and bring insight - - we need to learn how to seek shelter from the storm, and limit its damage, to come out the other end refreshed and focused.

I think - I know - walking meditation is a great tool for this, and I think we should all have it at our disposal in our toolkit. A toolkit for clarity, relaxation, peacefulness - for our health and happiness and for our peak performance. We have years and years of built up habit energy, when we walk we are accustomed to merely trying to get to the next place. Thinking of what we are doing next and when we get there, we just do the same thing - thinking of what's coming next. Because that's all we've ever done, and we miss an important chance to refresh, refocus and regather our thoughts and feelings to tackle our future problems and opportunities with a renewed spirit, zest and clarity.

Now this is challenging. No doubt somewhere along your walk you will tell yourself that this is boring, a waste of time maybe, even useless. You may ask “What am I doing, I could be being productive," - good. I know this because that's what I did my first 15 walking meditations. We are going up against years, 20 years, 30 years of habits, so this is natural. I learnt in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Monastery when I was visiting my monk brother. I thought it was so strange, all these people walking so slowly, for what? But 3 months of practice later, after finally letting go of negative thoughts and perceptions that would only lead to me not learning something that could possibly make my life freer, fuller, better - I realised why it's so important. That's why I started running soft sand walking meditations on Bondi Beach in Sydney, because it can make a really positive difference to your life.

We walk every day, if we are lucky enough -- we walk to the office, to the Uber, to dinner, to yoga, maybe even to our meditation class -- why wait until you get to class and why practice sitting meditation every morning if you don't integrate into your everyday life. Why not use it as an anchor or a vehicle to be more alive, more curious, more clear and more engaged?

How

We arrive with every step. It is the practice of arriving. We arrive with every step, not just when we get somewhere. As we will just cultivate the habits that mean we are just waiting to get somewhere else, and thus we never arrive.

We use it to STOP. In the stopping we cultivate wonder. Not that we will get more, but a wonder that we already have enough. Stop - what's happening right now? Delight in the now. Then proceed.

“I have enough.” We don't have to run anymore. We look around. We breathe, we feel.

PLAY TIME

Use the anchor below when your mind wanders - and it will. That’s okay, don’t be hard on yourself. Just come back to the anchor again and again. Play, experiment, be light. I’m loving this quote by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the pioneer of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), “a lightness of being and playfulness are key elements to the practice of mindfulness, because they are key elements to well-being.” Just be light with your practice.

Play, see what works and see what comes up again and again. Is it boredom, fear, a future project, a relationship? Observe it, smile to it, and come back to the anchor. Remember this is a tool that will allow you to come back to these ideas with a renewed clarity and vigour.

1. Feel your feet touching the ground and bring your attention to that again and again. Just walk normally. Relax your body. Shift from an attempt to get somewhere. Dip fully into the pleasure of feeling your feet, and see what happens. This is a practice to find delight in just walking - - feel and breathe. 

Take note of what comes up when you practice walking. Are you restless, frustrated, bored? What are the thought patterns that are emerging? How do you feel afterwards?

Any questions or challenges? Email me at evanjsutter@gmail.com or let me know via WhatsApp.

Ev