Be Well Walks - Richmond Green Grounding Walk

Hello, and welcome to Richmond Station and Point 1 of the BeRichmond Be-Well Walks bought to you by Soulhub.

My name is Andrew Cuerden and today I will be taking you on a very gentle 20min walking meditation around Richmond’s green spaces. The aim of this guided mediation is bring you into a more peaceful and joyful state of mind.

If you are not familiar with Richmond please make sure you download the map from the website.

If you wish or need to stop for any reason please pause the recording and I will be here ready for you when you return.

Just choose the appropriate track in relation to your point on the map and press play.

Let’s begin.

We will start by leaving the station and turning left. Ahead of you, by the stairs, you’ll see a street lamp with a BeRichmond sign containing the same QR code you used at the station. We will be following these all the way along the route. However you need only scan it once.

Welcome to Point 2 of the BeRichmond Be-Well Walk by Soulhub.

Please carefully cross over Richmond High St (The Quadrant) at the multi-coloured zebra crossing, and straight ahead of you, you’ll see Old Station Passage. Follow the passage down to check point 3. It’s usually quite busy around this area so take a few big slow breaths in and out through the nose as you make your way to the end of the alley, where it meets Parkshot road. Here at point 3 you will find a lamp post with the next QR Code, where you will turn left, and this is where your BE-Well Walk really starts.

Feel free to go to track 3 when you get to the lamp post at the end of Old Station Passage.

Welcome to point 3 (Old Passage Station) of the BeRichmond Be-Well Walks by Soulhub.

From here I invite you to follow the road over the railway bridge and down towards the Little Green. Once over the bridge you will soon see to the right of you the start of Little Green and further in the distance, Richmond Green….the Richmond Library will be on your left.

On this part of the walk I encourage you to notice the speed you are walking and consider that maybe you could slow right down, giving yourself permission to relax and take life at a more gentle and slower pace. You don’t need to complete the whole walk to get benefit so there is no rush.

Let people, cars and life rush on by…it’s not a race…. Life is about enjoying the journey, step by step, breath by breath, following your own path. So let others go about their business as they wish and in doing so allow yourself the freedom to move the way you want.

See you at point 4 outside the library before we cross over to the little green.

Welcome to point 4 (Little Green) of the BeRichmond Be-Well walk by Soulhub.

When you’re ready and there is a safe gap in the traffic, cross Little Green road (looking both ways of course) and head over to the Little Green.

As you begin to walk across Little Green, I invite you to walk as slowly as you can and as fast as you need to…

As you walk, take a few moments to place your hand on your heart and sincerely thank yourself for taking the time to spend with the most important person in your life…YOU! Yes the relationship you have with yourself is the THE MOST IMPORTANT relationship you will ever have. Like any relationship it takes time, investment, kindness, understanding, and gratitude to grow. Without a solid and satisfying relationship with yourself, it is inevitable that all your other relationships will be more challenging and less satisfactory.

Before leaving the little Green make sure you have given yourself a good dose of love, recognition and appreciation for who you are and what you are doing to become the person you were born to be.

Continue heading towards Richmond Green crossing Portland Terrace road where you will find point 5…see you there, when you are ready.

Welcome to Richmond Green…and point 5 along the BeRichmond Be-Well Walk by Soulhub.

Richmond is rich in many things… history, beauty, people and nature. Let’s explore it!

As you walk across the green I would like to invite you to start practicing what Buddhists call non-attachment or non-judgemental observation.

It is a mindfulness practice of being aware of what you are experiencing through your physical senses without naming or creating a story around what you are experiencing including your thoughts and emotions. It is essentially practicing be present with what is…rather than caught up in ones mental chatter.

To practice not labelling or judging anything takes some practice… so don’t worry if you can’t do it straight away or all the time. But even the practice of noticing ones own unconscious judgements, stories, beliefs is away of founding deeper peace and greater freedom.

Much of our thoughts and beliefs are not our own. We inherent them from those before us around us they may not always best serve us or others in our current lives…so it always good to be aware of the thoughts and beliefs that run our lives.

Let’s start by purely noticing what you SEE with your eyes around the green. What shape, s,colours and and textures can you see ins, the ground, the grass, the sky as well as the people and animals passing by.

Notice your thoughts and emotions as you visually explore your surroundings.

Notice how you may suddenly start making up a story about the weather or climate change or people or whatever. Do not suppress, push away or cling to these thoughts of feelings, just let them come and go like clouds in the sky.

A great way of understanding this is to think of your conscious awareness as the unlimited sky and your thoughts and feelings as the weather that is ever changing and passing by.

So become the spacious sky…aware of all that it encompasses.

I now invite you to go and TOUCH the trunk of a tree you are drawn to. Before touching the tree, kindly ask permission from the tree, like a human, if you can touch it.

As you are touching the tree, describe to yourself how the bark of the tree feels… Is it cold, warm, hard, soft, smooth, rough etc? Whilst you have your hands on the trunk of the tree, and if it feels comfortable and safe to do so, take a moment to close your eyes and take 3 really deep and slow breaths in and out…On each inhale through your nose notice what you can smell, taste and hear.

As you step away from the tree make sure to thank the tree for its beautiful presence.

Pause and resume once exercise is complete.

Let’s continue to tune into your sense of HEARING. You may want to stand still with your eyes closed or lowered to the ground. Listening to what you can actually hear with your ears rather than the voices in your head. Listen for birds, traffic, wind, animals or people. Search for subtle sounds as far away as you can and as close as your own breath. Remembering to just allow the sights, sounds just come and go without judgements or story.

Pause me for a few minutes while you do this…

Ok great…Let us continue diagonally across the Green to Henry VIII Palace. It can be quite a busy green so watch out for people of all ages playing games, resting or catching up with friends. I highly recommend taking your shoes and socks off (EVEN IF IT IS COLD) and walk barefoot on the grass. It has been scientifically proven to be one of the best medicines for the mind and body as it grounds and balances the body’s electromagnetic charge.

Again feel free to pause me…

Let’s get back to your ME TIME!

Again tune your non-judgemental awareness into your body…curiously and compassionately noticing what is going on in your body.

Whatever you notice…just let it be and even find gratitude for how your body has got you this far in life and is continuing to find ways to find balance, heal and grow.

Let’s notice how you are really walking? Is it heavily or lightly? Are you dragging your feet or picking them up?

Are you standing up tall with your head and chest lifted up high or are you slouching with head hung low?

How are your arms? Do they sway loosely alongside you, or are they tight and stiff?

Are your shoulders stiff and uptight. Is your stomach churning, knotted or jittery?

Don’t make any of it right or wrong, just observe for yourself.

If wish to try a little something…I suggest that you imagine your head, spine and chest being pulled straight up into the sky as you walk and that your shoulders are hanging and swinging loose by your sides.Also look up to the sky and take a big deep and slow breath, feel the wind and or sun on your face. Feel connected and part of all that nature is.

At this point, I’m going to leave you, and give you a couple of moments to be in your own world. And when you reach the end of the green you’ll see the signage for the next track at the entrance of Old Palace Lane. Point 6

Welcome to Old Palace Lane, Point 6 on the BeRichmond Be-Well Walk by Soulhub

This road will bend and guide you down to the river.

If you have just joined us, we have been tuning into our physical senses and practicing non-judgmental awareness of self and other whilst walking across the green. On this next leg of the walk we will be focusing more on our inner thoughts and emotions. So that you can offer any unwanted thoughts and emotions to the river, letting her carry them away.

Just to be clear… judgment, discernment and the power to choose from the contrast is what keeps us away from danger and enables us to learn and evolve. However chronic unconscious discrimination towards ourselves and others can be very destructive for all.

So let’s start by doing a body scan to explore and build a relationship with your body and the energy moving through it…aka your E motions

As you scan through your body I ask you to become aware of any feelings of discomfort or pain. No matter how slight or powerful, it’s is natural to block or distract ourselves from feeling such sensations. But for this short walk I invite you to become fully in-tune and present with them. I also suggest you try describing the sensations to yourself, using descriptive words such as: stiff, hot, sharp, stabbing, dull, numb etc.

Then notice any thoughts and emotions that arise from those sensations such as frustration overwhelment, resentment, guilt, stagnation, tiredness, For each part that is speaking to you and each emotion that you are feeling…send them gentle loving kindness and supportive thoughts like…I hear you, I feel you and I am here for you…Tell me what you need from me? Do not berate or ignore them. I invite you to start with whatever body part is speaking loudest to you. I will leave you to scan your body and emotions at your own pace.

Please press pause after the sound and resume on track 7 when you get to the end of Old Palace Lane by the river. Point 7

If by chance the river is flooding the tow path, do not let this interrupt your flow. Just turn yourself gently around and walk back to Richmond Green where we can continue.

Welcome to Point 7 - Richmond Riverside Cholmondeley Walk on the BeRichmond Be-Well Walk by Soulhub.

Whether you have just joined us or have come from section 6 we invite you to find a bench or a place to sit for a few moments. If there is nowhere to sit perhaps just find a place to be out of the path of others.

At this point of the walk we want to encourage you to become really present and, if possible, fully allowing and accepting of whatever it is your thinking or feeling emotionally and physically. To find a place of letting go and non-resistance where everything can just be and flow

If you are sitting by the river or on the green, we invite you to use the analogy of the river and water as a way understand how to flow and navigate the twists, turns and obstacles of life.

Water teaches us that everything has the potential for contrast. That the soft, humble and yielding…can overcome the hard and rigid. Although water can very easily mould and comprise to fit any container, it cannot be squeezed and belittled beyond its own gentle boundaries.

Observe the river flowing as it passes you. How in flow are you with life? How do you maintain harmonious flow with others whilst gently maintaining your own boundaries and flow?

Just like a river supports the boats and nourishes all the plants and animals…what and whom do you nourish and support.

I want you to trust life like you trust your own breath…feel free to let go of things that no longer server knowing that as soon as you create space….new fresh things will come flooding in if you relax and allow them in. We cannot hold life as much as we can hold our own breath.

If you were a river today….what would the river look like?

Still and calm…?
Choppy and raging
Would the water be clear or a bit muddy?
Is it full of life and flow or is empty or blocked and stagnant?

So now think about what conscious and intentional things you could you do to change the state of your river and find more harmonious flow and clarity.

OR….you can you just be with it all. And notice it’s there and be OK with that. Making nothing right or wrong. It’s just there. Accept and make peace with the way the river is, knowing that it will in due course change of its own accord as everything ultimately does change.

Perhaps just the pure acknowledging for yourself of how you’re feeling is enough for today. The awareness that gives you power or choice.

And I’m just going to leave you here, to sit here quietly. Whether that’s for 15 seconds, or 20 minutes. However long you feel comfortable with being here in your thoughts, with yourself and the river.

And when you’re ready to move on, continue down towards Richmond, to where the path becomes cobbles. Here there’s a sign that says go towards the ‘Capital Ring, and Richmond Station’ at the end of Cholmondeley Walk. Point 8

Welcome to Point 8 – Friars Lane on the BeRichmond Be-Well Walk by Soulhub.

Here the path moves away from the river. It bends around past the car park and heads towards Richmond Green.

On this part of your guided walk, I want to invite you to bring attention to your breathing.

Think about the breath moving in and out of your body, and notice how slow or quick it is. Whether it feels erratic or shallow or slow and deep. Perhaps you have never really thought about HOW you breath. And as you’re walking along see if you can breathe a little slower, and I will guide you through a gentle breathing exercise that synchronises with your walking.

You are going to breathe in for 4 steps, hold your breath for 2 steps, and breath out for 6 or 8 steps and hold for 2 steps.

I will guide this pattern 4 times but please continue until you have had enough.

Breathe in for 4 steps
Hold…for 2
Breath out for 6-8 steps
Hold for 2 steps
Repeat

As you continue walking and breathing follow Friars lane and turn right at the grassy island onto King Street and along to Sebastians Italian Restaurant. Where we come to point 9.

Welcome to Point 9 – King Street on the BeRichmond Be-Well Walk by Soulhub.

As you stand here in front of Sebastians Italian Restaurant, in front of the Paved Court, which is an alleyway next to Aesop’s and Alianti Café.

This is the final part of our guided walk today…You can then choose to end your walk at Richmond Green, or finish back at Richmond Station.

As you walk down though Paved Court to Richmond Green past two telephone boxes. I invite you to reflect on your walk around Richmond today, and think about one positive thing that you felt in your body that you’d like to carry forward with you.

It could be a moment of peace, or a lightbulb moment of clarity about something in your life.

Maybe you loved the barefoot walking, or sitting on the bench by the river.

Whatever it was, allow that feeling to resurface and know that it can be accessed at any time.

You can allow the peace, the joy, the sadness, the anger to be here. No feeling is wrong or ever permanent, just information to guide you.

And with that, I’d like to thank you for walking with me, Andrew Cuerden and Be Richmond and to honour yourself for taking this time for yourself.

Self-care is not something people often do, so well done and thank you.

We will have further recordings throughout the year for you to return to, so follow us or Be Richmond for further announcements.

Last but not least, If you have found any part of this walk challenging and would like support, please do not hesitate to contact Soulhub.