An Awareness Walk is all about the art of NOTICING. In the early hours of the day, when the world around you is silent and new, step outside into the garden, onto a balcony or into the rooms in your home. Job 12: 7-10 NIV 7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? 10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind” Walk slowly, deliberately. You are going to use all your five senses as you walk so start by being aware of the light, the warmth of the sun, the touch of the air, and the colours around you. Then begin to notice greater detail in patterns, shapes, thickness, the shades of colours, the contrasts, the juxtapositions and how things relate. Touch and feel, pick up stones, twigs, earth, leaves and hold them gently. If you are comfortable doing so, take off your shoes and walk barefoot. Try to stop thinking and simply to be. Let everything drop away and instead try to be totally present to what is reaching you through your senses. Begin to notice smell more acutely, the scent of growing things, of the earth itself. Listen to the range of sounds, your own breathing, far off distant sounds, those which are close. Look for something, an object or an abstract thought, that might draw you particularly – that may speak to you about where you are in your life at the moment. You may want to bring something back with you that you found particularly significant or that you enjoyed. At the end of the walk you might like to journal your experience of the awareness walk, pasting whatever you have brought back with you into your journal, or if it’s too big, take a photograph of it, print it and paste it into your journal.
