Hi everyone. This is Dacker Keltner. Welcome to Happiness Break, where we guide you through

practices to help you strengthen the things that can bring you greater meaning in life,

from self-compassion to awe and wonder. Today we're going to do a little mindful walking,

about six minutes with my friend Dan Harris.

You may know Dan from his podcast 10% Happier.

He also wrote a best-selling book by the same name.

I recommend that you check them both out. They've helped a lot of people.

Walking in general shifts our neurophysiology in many different ways, elevating serotonin levels,

and as a result can help us with health conditions like hypertension and inflammation.

Adding mindfulness to regular walking, studies show, can reduce our daily stresses,

it can lift up our moods and positive emotions, and it can soften the edges of feeling anxiety and depression, which are on the rise today.

So open your door, if you haven't already, we're rushing, ruminating, planning glorious, expletive-filled speeches we're going to deliver to our boss, whatever.

In this walk, we're going to practice bringing our attention into the body.

So as you get moving here, can you feel your hamstrings? Can you feel your arms swinging?

Can you feel your feet hitting the ground? It's easy to get distracted, especially when you're trying to do this out in the real world instead of on the cushion.

That's totally fine.

This is great exercise for waking up in your daily life.

Whenever you notice you've wandered off,

just bring your attention back to the raw data of your physical experience.

Maybe you notice some coolness or heat on your skin. You can go back to your

arms swinging or your feet hitting the ground. If it helps, you can do some noting. Coolness,

heat, moving, tightness.

...