Walking with shoes or
barefoot using the WALK-RWD system generates different results. The effects
that are generated through the WALK-RWD system vary according to the type of
ground or road, and if you walk barefoot or with shoes.
Traducido al Español
In this post we will
briefly define the different types of ground that we can use to walk barefoot,
without suffering discomfort and enjoy our walks. Having direct contact with
the ground causes different sensations in the walker and also generates
different effects on the body, mind and spirit.
538-BAREFOOT
It is not the same to
walk barefoot on the sand or on the asphalt, even if they are cold, fresh,
temperate or hot.
From the origins of
Humanity and surely for several hundreds of millennia, our ancestors from all
corners of the world walked barefoot, on any type of ground they were traveling
on: valleys, steppes, mountains, plains, forests, savannas, beaches ,
estuaries, canyons, ravines, summits, plateaus, wastelands, deserts, hills, cliffs,
icebergs, steppes, jungles, glaciers, riverbanks, sand, coasts, marinas, dunes.
They were always in contact with Mother Earth, through the soles of your
feet.
In the same way that
we have been abandoning walking -helping us with other means of transport- in
the last millennia, so we have also covered our feet avoiding direct contact
with the different kinds of ground.
Walking barefoot on different types of ground are experiences that all people, men and women should have. Practices as unexpected and surprising as that of – I miss the opportunity to say it – to walk in the rain.
I will allow myself to recommend that you carry out some practices that I have done over the last few years, when walking barefoot on different types of ground.
We choose, according
to our possibilities and our desires, to make walks on the following type of
ground, without any footwear and without socks:
• Grass
• Asphalt pavement
• Wood floor
• Carpeted floors
• Granite or marble
floors
• Sidewalks and cobbled
floors
• Soft sand (hot and
cold)
• Coarse sand (hot
and cold)
• Clay soils
• Rocky floors
• Pebble floors
• Ground soils, dry
and wet.
• Smooth cement
floors
• Glass floors
• Ice floors
• Wet floors
Care must be taken,
of course, not to hurt the feet, or the soles of the feet, for being the
different floors: hot, cold, rough, pointed, sharp, spiny, uneven, angular,
difficult, acute, frozen, frosty.
Finally, it is
advisable to lie down for a few minutes on your back and also facing the floor;
and then roll over it, taking care not to hurt yourself, doing it carefully and
slowly; appropriate clothing.
The more direct
contact we make, during our walks, with our “earth,” the more energy flows
within us.
I invite you to walk barefoot from time to time and give you energy and power, through this absorption of “energy sap” by the contact of the feet with the ground, to our whole body, to the mind and the spirit.
The WALK-RWD system, in its integral application, is a practical and effective SIMULATOR that we can use to experience life in various vital events of human behavior, in different moods, psychological and cultural, observing our attitudes and decision-making, and also in the conformation of the character and personality of each walker.
Traducido al Español
The individual who knows (dominate) to be alone and enjoys loneliness, have emotional capacity to integrate healthily into society. Some one can recreate himself in his own solitude can get to know himself and consequently improve his understanding of the social environment in which he is immersed.
Walking is a free flow of our being that allows us to leave ourselves, and each of the walks we do, we can serve, most of the time, as a simile of our existence of life. Thus, walking alone is a practical and very effective analogy of real life, which helps us instruct ourselves to understand the meaning of our existence; it is a learning SIMULATOR for illustrations in how we can be independent, responsible and modified to make certain decisions for ourselves.
Moving forward while walking is a natural process that is performed during the application of the WALK-RWD system, in the same way that the process we face in the daily event of our existence is performed.
Walking alone is like an analogy of a discontinuous part of our life, of our experience of living. A walk in solitude can guide us in the comet of advance in our daily existence.
Walking in solitude allows us to reflect on our possibilities to perform away from external conditioning. For all types of life and at any stage that we go through, we have found ourselves alone; and in these circumstances of loneliness we have to talk with ourselves, questioning, encouraging, critics (self-criticism, usually not very convenient) and many other forms of examination -consciously and unconsciously- how we feel, with the ultimate object of publicity in what way we will take the next step in our socio-psychic-economic environment (See writing THE WALK AND THE LACK OF TIME that mentions important aspects about leisure time).
Each walk offers us that simile of each of the possible moments where we are presented with different options for acting in daily life, which we can scan away from that crucial moment that many times we do not know how to react, or, we do not understand the True, how we should conduct ourselves. These moments of loneliness can instruct us before seeing ourselves immersed in these behavioral dilemmas – in solitude – that we can hardly find someone who can guide us in how and when. Only we ourselves must face these difficulties, and usually face them alone.
That simile that we can make of those crucial moments, through our walks, which during everyday activities, come upon us and suffocate us, can be summarized in the following actions:
• Alone we must start
the walk and decide the right moment of its beginning.
• Only we should
finish the walk and decide the right time.
• In solitude we must
decrease or increase the speed of our walk.
• We alone must
decide if we continue on one path or another.
• In solitude we must
make various decisions to read, write or draw, or simply keep in contemplation.
• Feel free so that
in solitude with ourselves we think about a specific topic; either we observe
the birds or any element of the environment that surrounds us.
• Our senses (the 5
external physicists and the other internal ones) must have them awake and
alert, without being interrupted by other people, to put them in conscious
attention to what we want to perceive, during our walk.
• In solitude, we can
and should decide, during the walks, if we talk, listen, see, smell, etc., in
certain circumstances and moments.
• During the lonely
walks, we will contemplate and perceive the things that please us, or we will
not do it, without having to listen to opinions about it.
The awareness of all
these small experiences in solitude – while we walk – will help us to better
withstand the conditioning of the social world, by the same awareness, but
also, because the walking system, coordinated with reading, writing and
drawing, we it releases during the time that we make the walk, embedding in our
essence a sense of satisfaction that exceeds that period, giving us confidence
in our attitudes, actions and decision making towards the complex and committed
world that surrounds and overwhelms us.
Let us now decide to make the next walk thinking that it will be a true analogue journey with our particular and intimate existence, with which we will learn to travel it with greater care and tranquility, because, at least, our decisions in solitude will be observed from another perspective.
In solitude, you walk along paths that lead you to your inner self, to know yourself. (See writings WHO DO I WANT TO BE? WHO I AM?; DRAWING, TO KNOW BETTER OURSELVES; DRAWING AND THRESHOLDISM, TO KNOW OUR INNER SELF) In it, in solitude, you can better understand each of your emotions, your feelings and attitudes, and their respective antithetical forms, to certainty and uncertainty, constancy and inconstancy, precision and inaccuracy, to security and insecurity, stability and instability, consistency and inconsistency, perseverance and neglect, possibility and impossibility, strength and fragility, tenacity and renunciation, discipline and indiscipline, firmness and weakness, mobility and immobility, patience and impatience, dependence and independence, decision and indecision, to differentiate between options and alternatives, voluntary decision and indecision, and thus many of those states of social conditioning, mood and psychological for those we go through and who constantly question us in life. The loneliness, while you walk, will help you build, consciously and unconsciously, your character and your personality.
Walking alone is an analog practice to experience life. Let’s grab the loneliness of the hand and accompany us with it on the next walks. Let us realize that walking with her can guide us in the daily affairs that bother us and sometimes suffocate us. During the journey, we can surely find similarities with some difficult social, work or family experiences, which we have not been able to solve and thus we can visualize a quieter existence.
I believe that
the availability of time and its administration is one of the fundamental
characteristics for the success of this WALK-RWD program, both for the purpose
of carrying out activities and leisure, essential for any action we wish to
carry out.
Traducido al Español
We always
complain about the lack of time, and this is a disconcerting perception that
arises more in the city than in the countryside. It seems that everyone lacks
time; time for everything, to do the everyday, to do something new, in short, we
lack time; however, paradoxically, on many occasions we hear people say:
“here I am, killing time”; and there is no need for someone to
answer: “Tell me where you left it, to make it come alive, and use
it.” Of course, the expression of killing time contains, on a greater
frequency of the times, on the one hand, trying to rest from the overwhelming
of activities, either by being repetitive (which generate fatigue or aversion)
or by being intensive in the effort that is destined (physical or mental), or on
the other hand, unconsciously free from boredom.
When there is or
persists in the person a discouragement, reluctance or apathy -mood or
psychological – is a problem more difficult to solve, but not impossible. Even
with all the time, the individual is not willing to take a step to do anything:
he does not want to go for a walk. Of course, in severe cases, it is necessary
for the person to be treated psychologically and emotionally; however, if we
start from the idea that walking is not a mandatory activity, that is, if we
could truly feel within our being that going for a walk is to dedicate our time
(free) to what we like and not to something that imposed on us, we will have
taken a firm step to free ourselves from this pathological reluctance; and I
mention the word free ourselves because walking can help us to discharge from
that energy overloaded by our organism that prevents us from understanding, on
the one hand, our inner self (internal reality), what we feel and why we feel
it and, on the other, to know and understand the external reality. The WALK-RWD
system, applying it comprehensively, reading, writing and drawing, while we
walk, balances, compensates and harmonizes us in our interiority in relation to
negative emotions, and keeps us at some healthy distance from the unpleasant
concerns and relationships of all types (social, family, school, work, etc.).
Proper time management is one of the most important elements in the WALK-RWD system, as well as in all other important activities that we develop in life. We are worried about using it wrongly. Sometimes we feel that it is not enough for us and that it happens too fast, and other times that it goes too far. Sometimes we want to be doing several things at once, because time flies. Regardless of which situation we perceive, we must become aware of the here and now “Hic et nunc” (See writing THE “HERE AND NOW” WITH THE SYSTEM). Concentrate on our walk, in reading, and the best way is to ally with Mr. Time (Future writing WALKING AND FREE TIME. PART II). That our mind does not drag us into the past or the future, let’s stay with Mr. Time who accompanies us at every moment in our life, let’s enjoy your company in the present, experiencing the WALK-RWD system and learn to manage it.
I enclose 2 plastic works from the CHRONOPATENIA series, where clocks are observed that are puzzled and delirious for not being able to keep pace with Mr. Time. They are exhibited in light structures, with virtual montages, located where time has been passing with ease and transmitting its abundance. They have the purpose of highlighting and confronting the awareness of the time that the human being has used (the hours, the months, the years) repeating routes through those places.
358. CRONOPATENIA I
We must give ourselves time to find a “free time”, that friend we feel is far from us, and that sometimes we perceive him as an executioner with his deadlines or sometimes he refuses us. Let us talk to our inner selves and enter to review the “cloisters” that absorb our time and that prevent us from deciding independently (unconditionally) what we really want to do in our free time; to those blockages (obstacles) that we ourselves build, impediments that interrupt the passage to approach that friend and that close doors and windows to not let him in.
We must invite him -at free time- to be with us, not to be missed, to accompany our deep intimacy. He will advise us how to combat and banish from us that pretext that becomes an obstacle and our enemy: the “lack of time.” Do not let this adversary and the cloisters that we have built (labor, professional, scientific, intellectual, academic, technical, teacher, doctor, organizer, professor, manager, etc.) make us feel like a stranger in our own home.
Those cloisters that are so equal -among themselves- in this matter of the availability of time, that they are always needing all the time for them and other activities are spared, arguing that they need more time for them.
By stepping aside these “cloisters” momentarily, we will be able to locate that dear friend, the one who has hidden for many months, and perhaps years, the “free time”.
Later we will present the theoretical positions that have been manifested, to understand what free time, social time and leisure time, have meant for the human being, throughout different epochs (Future writing WALKING AND FREE TIME. PART II).
One question that we must ask ourselves regularly is: What activity will I use or waste time on? Of course we cannot know for sure. We must for that reason separate the times we dedicate to the “cloisters” to know in which of them we use it and to what extent. As well as evaluate the result of how we feel by taking advantage of our time in them: Happy, unhappy, satisfied or dissatisfied?
Now, since we have realized that that part of the time we require is there, it has always been there, we will achieve its availability towards us, in everyday activities, let’s eradicate that “shackle” from our lives: convince me that there is no lack of time, and so we can spend 30 or 60 minutes to develop a walk, which when combined with the structural activities of the WALK-RWD system (read, write and draw), will drive us to others levels of satisfaction, awareness and creation.
Let us seek immediately, and above all, the encounter with the “true” free time. Let’s make this search a vital opportunity.
364. CRONOPATENIA VII
Let us keep in mind that there are needs that we cannot avoid satisfying, such as work to obtain remuneration for sustenance, attention to our family, social commitments, cultural and educational development, and others; there are also certain conditions that force us to develop certain activities unconsciously, such as having our free time for entertainment, sports, television, which we must at least become aware of, and finally, we must remember that we must take actions concrete for what we are passionate about -or looking for passion- because that way we can help ourselves to have plenty of time.
RECOMMENDATION: A concrete way to use our free time, and ensure that we do not lack time, is by developing a specific program, daily or weekly, where you can clearly appreciate the different periods, slacks, durations, regular and cyclic activities, work times, family activities, etc., in order to be able to perfectly outline the free time that is available, where all those activities that the person can freely assign the hierarchy and importance to themselves can be developed, and that of course must incorporate the WALK-RWD system, where you can reach your freedom by reading, writing and drawing, while walking.
A premise to develop this program is to abandon the mechanisms that we use in the work itself and that completely control us. Let’s avoid that this program is an extension of the work or its consequence; let’s prevent it from becoming a residue of it. The first thing we must do is remove the mandatory application of the WALK-RWD system; we will only have to look for ways to carry it out with pleasure, with passion. I think we can always find time to develop activities that we are passionate about.
It is important to have knowledge of the purposes and motives of why a person writes, both in his own and intimate manner and by traditional commercial and lucrative forms, since the practitioner of this WALK-RWD system could reorient his intentions and aspirations. I have already commented on the writing WHY AND WHAT TO WRITE FOR? that in the first instance, writing allows us to express ourselves and that would be a sufficient purpose, since it leads us to express our feelings and thoughts more sincerely, without any other objective.
Traducido al Español
For this reason, and although it is not the
intention of this blog to channel efforts through commercial and lucrative
scenarios, I allow myself, in a brief way, to describe these different purposes
and motives, for those who wish to venture along those paths of the writing.
Before that, I would like to define the words “purpose” and
“motive”, because between them there is a thin line that separates
them into their meanings. Purpose, according to dictionaries, is “Intention
to do something, purpose or objective that is intended to be achieved”;
while motive, is “cause or reason that determines the realization of a
thing”.
Thus, the traditional “purposes” of why
to write are, succinctly, the following:
1. Explain and describe. The meaning, value or
symbolism of anything, how it works or develops in space and time, why it
happens. Why something fails.
2. Persuade. To do anything, to be created in some
situation, opinion or idea, or action, to do something. To convince others
about personal ideas about something or some situation or ideology, to convince
about certain personal judgments about a book, food, images, impressions,
affections, etc. To persuade them to enroll in a course, vote for someone for
an administrative or political position, or buy a product or service that is
being advertised.
3. Inform. About the content of something. On a subject, fact, data, sensations, emotions, pains, feelings, people, events and news of general interest.
4. Investigate. About some ideas, opinions, questions; to examine how much your ideas and those of other individuals have changed about a particular issue; to ask questions that do not have simple answers; and thus share your thoughts, criteria and results, by reflecting on your writings and findings, with other people.
5. Share. Communicate your ideas, thoughts, reflections, judgments, reasoning, advice, warnings, concerns, meditations, speculations, about the important issues and topics that you have been working on and that become clearer in our minds as you write them.
6. Entertain and have fun. These activities of entertaining teaching and fun communicating can be developed as a primary and unique purpose; however, they can also be carried out in a shared way, that is, combined with the other 5 previous purposes, in addition to being used to induce readers on any topic considered important, doing so with humor, joviality and an agile and creative language.
7. Know ourselves better. By writing we let our unconscious out and that way we are more sincere in what we feel and in what we think.
Perhaps an activity that we could point out as a common denominator in the previous 7 purposes, is to teach, with its synonyms and derivations: educate, guide, document and instruct.
Now, on the “motives” of why it is written, we could well resort to what some writers have expressed, such as George Orwell, at the time mentioned that, leaving aside the need to make a living, “I think that there are 4 great motives to write, at least to write prose. They exist in varying degrees in each writer, and specifically in each of them the proportions vary from time to time, depending on the environment in which you live. These are the motives:
1. Acute selfishness. Desire to appear clever, to talk about one, to be remembered after death, to recover from the elders who despised one in childhood, etc., etc. It is a falsehood to pretend that this is not a very important motive. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, military, highly successful businessmen, that is, with the top layer of humanity. The great mass of human beings is not intensely selfish. After thirty years of age, they abandon individual ambition -many almost even lose the impression of being individuals and live primarily for others, or simply drown them in work. But, there is also the minority of the well-endowed, the volunteers determined to live their own lives until the end, and the writers belong to this class. Serious writers, who tend to be more vain and selfish than journalists, should be said, although less interested in money.
2. Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world or, on the other hand, in words and their right combination. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience that one believes valuable and should not be missed. The aesthetic motive is very weak in many writers, but even a pamphleteer or the author of textbooks will have pampered words and phrases that will appeal to him for non-utilitarian motives; or it can give special importance to typography, width of margins, etc. No book that is above the level of a railroad guide will be completely free of aesthetic considerations.
3. Historical momentum. Desire to see things as they are to find the true facts and store them for posterity.
4. Political purpose, and I use the word ‘political’ in the broadest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter the idea that others have about the kind of society they should strive to achieve. I insist that no book is free of political nuance. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is already a political attitude in itself. -And he ends by saying: I write because there is a lie that I want to expose… I see that I have made it appear that my motives in writing have been inspired only by the public spirit. I don’t want to let that impression be the last. All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there is a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible and exhausting struggle, like a long and painful disease”. So far Orwell’s words about why I write?
It remains in us, to validate each of all the purposes and motives that have been mentioned, in this and in other posts. The important thing is that we want to walk simultaneously with the activities of reading, writing and drawing, when we feel the urge to do so.
Sooner or later we will realize what our purposes and motives for writing, were as we walked.
One way to better appreciate and realize what
walking in our existence can represent is to make a metaphorical analogy of our
procedures and attitudes during any walk we develop.
Getting to walk is to move forward. A walk is
made up of a very large amount of options and simple activities.
Traducido al Español
Every time we set out to walk, subliminally
(unconsciously) we are meaning that we are going to move forward in any of the
paths we wish to do, in the emotional, physical, intellectual, in health, in
the affirmation of personality, creativity, work, love, in decision making,
joy, hope, money, willpower, self-confidence, freedom, tranquility, positive
thoughts, responsibility, and in any other attitude in which we want to
strengthen ourselves, and of course, evolve.
Each time we take a few more steps, we receive
new experiences, and each of these moments are creators of the next steps.
Each step you take is designed by those who preceded it, and this, when combined with the previous ones, will give form and sense to the next one, one by one; however, the conjunction of all of them will give the walk a perspective on where you are going. In the existence of a person, the set of attitudes and actions represent the conformation of the meaning of life, because the experiences that will be had in the future will be structured.
Attention should be maintained that the walks we
intend to do should be carried out with pleasure, because as in everyday life,
if our feelings and thoughts are negative, we will be undermining the path with
negative situations. A future road full of stones, holes, will always be risky
and we may have trips and falls.
Positive and healthy feelings and thoughts will
show us plain and pleasant paths.
Each of the stones or physical obstacles that
you encounter during each walk, can be represented with the different attitudes
or feelings that you lead through life: fear, guilt, pain, resentment, hatred,
and the 50 or more discomforts that we carry charging daily. We all have to evade
during our “walk.”
As we said, each step leads us along the path we
have chosen, and those steps can evade the stones and pitfalls with
opportunity, if we remain alert.
Each stone can cause us harm, in a different
way. Let’s circle them or jump on them.
Life is a laboratory where our attitudes towards her and other people, we are calibrating, and some of them we have to eliminate from our way of being.
When we repeat our walk along the same path, it is an analogy to our own existential behavior. We run into the same stones, that is, we have the same behaviors within our circumstantial environment. And all of them are the causality of happiness or suffering. The only thing we have to consider vehemently is that we will walk for the pleasure of doing so, that is, of accepting and loving ourselves.
I love my body and that’s why I walk; I love myself as I am and that’s why I move forward in life.
I like to walk, ergo, I accept myself.
***** Every step that is taken along the way is a new beginning and a new opportunity.
***** Every new moment in existence should be considered as a new beginning in everyday life.
Every time I walk, I feel that all that experience flows into my being. Any way I choose randomly? It is a source of answers and solutions.
Walking is moving forward, which implies direction and sense.
The fact of living is not only the fact of being alive, but that implies feeling, thinking, enjoying, knowing, etc.
Taking a direction is not necessarily choosing the sense of our walk, we can do it in one sense or the opposite sense:
Let’s walk with direction, but especially with sense and meaning.
