Hirofumi Tanaka, PhD
Hirofumi Tanaka, PhD, professor and director, Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin. His study was published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
When you are feeling blue, do you ever take a stroll to walk it off? If you do, you may be just a few proverbial steps away from practicing something called walking meditation. Not only does this walking technique have the power to beat depression that is deep enough to send you to a psychiatrist, it is actually more heart-healthy, more stress-busting and a lot less strenuous than traditional aerobic fitness walking. No special equipment or exercise clothing is required either. Just put on a pair of comfortable shoes, and let’s go…
First, take a tip from a study from Thailand in which walking meditation, which was given a slightly aerobic twist, provided more cardiovascular and psychological benefit than regular aerobic power walking. Before you go for a walk, warm up (and cool down after your walk) with a few basic stretching exercises. Then…
In the Thai study, participants repeated a term that, as Thais, was meaningful to them—“Budd” with each upward swing of the arms and “Dha” (Buddha) with each downward swing. For you, if you happen to be a spiritual type, you might want to choose a word or term from your own tradition. If not, choose any word or phrase that is uplifting for you, such as “Peace and serenity,” “Easy breezy,” “It’s all good,” “Sunshine and rainbows”—even the name of a pet or someone dear who gives you joy.
In the Thai study, a group of women between the ages of 60 and 90 who had mild-to-moderate depression were taught this walking technique to see whether it could benefit older women in general who had gotten into an emotionally down and sedentary lifestyle. The study recruited 45 women who all received full physical examinations and then were divided into three groups. One group received no supervised walking activity. Another group learned and practiced traditional aerobic fitness walking, which involved brisk walking and arm swinging that was intensified as the study progressed. (That’s the sort of energetic, chin-up, no-guts-no-glory exercise walking that many of us do in America.) The third group learned and practiced the walking meditation described above, and this was intensified as the study progressed not by having participants quicken their pace, but by having them hold weights in the form of filled water bottles.
Both walking groups practiced their walking regimens three times a week for 12 weeks. Participants in both of the walking groups also did the same warm-up and cool-down stretching exercises before and after each walking session. Walks were 20-minutes long for the first six weeks and increased to 30 minutes for the last six weeks.
At the end of the program, the participants received physical exams again. No major change except for an increase in weight was seen in the group that did not receive any type of walking exercise. Improvement in fitness and overall health were seen in both of the walking groups, but—here’s the exciting part—there were some really fantastic benefits seen in the walking meditation group…
The researchers commented that the findings from their study were similar to those reported in other studies of mind-body exercise regimens, such as tai chi and yoga.
So, if you need to lighten and brighten your day and want to stay fit without breaking a sweat, here’s a kind of light and relaxing walk you can take with a happy song in your heart.