Monday, July 11, 2016

My Own Spin on Kinhin for Diverticulitis, Back Problems, and Anxiety


My family and I for some reason decided to get healthy all at the same time which is rather odd because we are all never on the same page at the same time, but this time, we are. Which is a good thing, because I have major back problems and diverticulitis so my back and stomach are always hurting and the doctor said that I needed to do some exercising to help relax all my muscles and to stay healthy. He had also said that I needed to do some form of meditation or yoga to help with stress and anxiety. The stress and
anxiety affect the diverticulitis majorly and makes it feel like it's ripping my stomach in half.

To accomplish my goals, I decided to put my own spin on a form of meditation called kinhin. In Buddhism, kinhin is the walking
meditation that is practiced between long periods of the sitting meditation known as zazen. My family and I aren't Buddhist which is why I am saying we put our own spin on things. If you are doing the kinhin form, you are supposed to be meditating on how your body is feeling and noticing everything about what your body is doing while walking until you are no longer thinking about anything and generally you will walk about 20 minutes. 

What we chose to do was go walking after dark and choose a route once we got to the end of the street. Well, the way it ended up happening was that we didn't get to leave the house until 10 p.m. but we did choose the route at the end of the street. But, what we didn't realize at the time was how much of a distance we chose to go! Instead of meditating on the body we decided to listen and see what all animals we could hear. It was really nice and relaxing. I realized you miss out on a lot of things when you don't take the time to pay attention and just listen to your surroundings. We ended up hearing so many different animals!

 Of course, when walking with other people it is hard to stay silent and just listen, so we all ended up talking and sharing stories. It was bringing the family closer together, something I had been missing since the kids have gotten older and started hanging out with their own friends. 

By the time we made it home we had blisters on our feet and was tired to the extreme but we had a blast while exercising and getting healthier. The most amazing thing, in my opinion, was the kids asking when we could do it again!



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