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Welcome to today's walking meditation. Let's start by finding our feet about hips width apart and standing on a flat surface and really feeling down into your shoes or into the surface your feet are touching. You might find a big, full inhale. Really inflate the belly, the whole torso in every direction. And do that about three or four more times, letting the breath move and expand your ribcage. Preparing the diaphragm, preparing the whole body to move in a mindful way. Remembering that mindfulness really means bringing attention to, to each moment, so no matter what you're doing, you can be present with each moment. You might find that keeping your breath as part of the practice today would be helpful. And at points, you might even forget to consciously breathe. So we're grateful to the body to do that for us. On your next inhale, you might begin to find a gentle pace of walking. Even if you're walking around the house or moving around outside, being mindful of the space that you're working in. Make sure that you look out for traffic, bikers, things like that. But you might also start to bring in all of the other information around you. Notice the colors that you're seeing, the kinds of shapes that you're seeing. If you're in your neighborhood, you'll see different shapes of homes, of cars. You might see different animals. You might even go so far as to audibly or internally say good morning or good afternoon or good evening. Just making contact not only with yourself by breathing your feet on the ground, but with all around, all the elements around you. If you are feeling kind of tight across the upper chest and shoulders, you might bring your hands gently back behind you and interlock the fingers. It doesn't have to be very active, but just to open that space across the chest. If you are feeling a little concerned about falling, then lift your gaze, let your eyes come forward as much as you can. You might be finding your way towards a faster pace in your walking. And notice your eyes, the way they are glancing side to side to keep awareness for traffic, for animals, for changes in the sidewalk or on the road or in the grass. Be really mindful and feel in, feel the musculature of your eyes and what they're doing. What you might notice is they're scanning. They are moving side to side as you walk. They are scanning for your safety and security. And this move, this back and forth across the horizon is one of the reasons walking is so great. It's one of the reasons that we have found walking to be so important as Humans, the way we move, the way the brain is scanning to make sure that you're safe and secure. But also that eye movement, that back and forth across horizon helps to settle the nervous system. And we know so much science behind walking, like moving the joints, getting all of the connective tissue going, it's a very, very important way to keep our blood sugar low. They say it's important to take a 15 minute walk after each meal. One for digestion, but really two to help balance our blood sugar. And so I invite you to keep whatever momentum you feel that you're walking in now. And you might start to think about your feet again, bring a little more attention to the way you land your feet. As the heel strikes and you bring the ball of the foot down, notice if you can really put a tiny little bit of extra pressure down into the big toe as you go. Lots of us have different patterns in our feet. Some of us roll to the outer edge a little bit more, some of us roll to the inner edge of the foot, and some of us have one on each side. So feeling out balance, finding the balancing of how you're placing your feet on the ground, how that follow through moves into the body. And you might notice that if you're getting tired at this point, that your chest might be dropping in, you might be dropping the head a little bit. So again, open up the front of the chest. You might tuck the arms back behind you a little bit and keep the chest lifted. You'll feel that in the core. You'll feel the way the core contracts a little bit to hold the upper chest up. And that is wonderful. Keep your breath smooth and easy as you go. And if you feel your heart rate engaging a little bit, that's wonderful. But you can keep bringing your attention back onto your breath, slowing your exhale down a little bit if you feel too engaged or too excited in the respiratory system. And you might even find if you're feeling anxious about a thought or an experience that you've had at work or at home, maybe bring attention to how you're breathing. When you start thinking about that, what are your eyes doing? Do they move faster? Do they slow down? And the beautiful thing about walking is beyond just getting us up and moving, it really helps us process. And again, it takes us back to the way the eyes are scanning back and forth, side to side. Sometimes when we go to sleep, we notice that our eyes may be looking up into the mind. And so softening your inner gaze gently downward can be a wonderful tool to help settle the mind, we have a few more minutes together in this walking meditation. So I invite you to keep bringing attention back to your breath, back to feeling the way your feet move along the surface you're walking on, either barefoot or in shoes. And maybe even take your arms out wide. You could reach your arms up nice and high, could even clasp opposite elbows if that feels good. You might feel a little funny walking around like this, but we're only gonna be here for about another minute, so. Moving and feeling the body. You could even shake your arms out as you walk. Any expression, any movement, maybe even rolling the shoulders a couple of times. Feel what that feels like in your body. Let yourself really drop in and bring attention again to a really big, full inhale. And then as you exhale, you might wiggle your lower jaw back and forth a few times. And when you're ready, find a spot where you could stop and bring yourself back into stillness and notice. What do you feel in the moment? You might feel the heart rate. You might bring awareness back to the breath. You might even close the eyes for a second and thank yourself for taking this time to move your body, to balance all of the systems and to be present with yourself for a few moments. Have the best day.