Walking London’s Green Spaces x TfL
Let nature calm you on a guided stroll through some of the city’s most serene spaces.
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Hi, and welcome to this special Headspace exercise. Designed for the parks and green spaces in London and bought you in partnership with Transport for London. So this is part of an active travel initiative encouraging you to take a new route to work, to home on foot hopefully out there in the natural environment and the scenery that London has to offer. So whether it's in the park down by the river, when we walk in nature, normally that's a shortcut allowing us to get out of our head and into our body. So less time caught up in our thinking and more time actually appreciating the space around us. And London has some incredible spaces to walk in. Now, the idea of this exercise is not necessarily to walk in a different way. You may find yourself naturally slowing down as we go through the exercise, but it's more about how you approach the walking, the process of walking, actually being more present so that you can appreciate the space around you. So the first thing I'd like you to do as you set off is actually just a walk at your own natural pace and not to do anything special, anything in particular, other than to just begin to notice the space around you. Where are you? What are the colors around you? Noticing the smells, the shapes, the sounds just taking the first 30 seconds or so just to settle into the space being more aware where you are. Now, inevitably thoughts and feelings are gonna come and go, and that's fine, it's natural. We want that to happen but as much as possible when thoughts tend to sort of catch your attention if you can just seeing them, letting them go knowing that you can come back to them later. And again, just coming back as you continue to walk now just being aware of the space around you. So as you continue to walk, now more settled in that space just taking pausing a short moment to be more aware of each sense. So just starting off with what you can see around you not necessarily looking at any one thing in particular. Just more present with the shapes, the colors. And shifting the attention to the sounds instead of where or what you can see or paying additional attention to any sounds. It may still be the sounds of the city that you can hear, maybe the sounds of the park Noticing any smells. Might be the trees, the grass, the flowers just becoming more aware of that space. And then just becoming more aware of that feeling of touch. So it's probably gonna be the feeling, the sensation of your feet on the floor, might be on the grass, could be on the path. Just becoming more aware of that sensation, it might be the arms by your side. Might be the clothes against the skin, could even be the breeze against...
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A former Buddhist monk, Andy has guided people in meditation and mindfulness for 20 years. In his mission to make these practices accessible to all, he co-created the Headspace app in 2010.
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Eve is a mindfulness teacher, overseeing Headspace’s meditation curriculum. She is passionate about sharing meditation to help others feel less stressed and experience more compassion in their lives.
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As a meditation teacher, Dora encourages others to live, breathe, and be with the fullness of their experiences. She loves meditation’s power to create community and bring clarity to people’s minds.
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Kessonga has been an acupuncturists, therapist, and meditation teacher, working to bring mindfulness to the diverse populations of the world.
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Rosie Acosta has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love.
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