Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could heal your body, tone your muscles and boost your energy, all without adding any extra time to your day?

Natural walking, or “flow walking” as I like to call it, is a way to use every cell in your body with every step you take. It’s powerfully efficient full body movement, meaning that benefits abound even if all you do is walk around your office. And, it looks and feels great!

To get started, stand up and rock back on your heels with your arms raised high and back as far as you can go without falling. This wakes up the back of the body. Most of us walk with our front body, because the back body goes to sleep when we sit in chairs. Standing up this way and arching backward starts to bring the back of the body “online.”

The next step is to stand tall. Visualize your weight going down into the ground like an anchor and tree roots growing down from the bottoms of your feet. Then add a chord from the top of your head pulling toward the sky.

When you’re ready to walk, look in the direction you want to go. This is one of the secret ingredients. People tend to look at their feet when they’re “trying” to walk, but when we send our gaze in the direction we’re headed, we naturally lean that way and drop into a flowing gait easily.

What’s happening? The trunk of the body leaning forward under the influence of gravity starts the motion. When the back leg is needed, it is sent forward by a “push-off” from the back foot. When you do this, really spread your toes and “grab” the ground in front of you. Really connect with the ground as you pull it behind you, as if your legs are octopus tentacles that have attached their suction to the Earth. Feel all the muscles of your legs — and especially your butt — working it! It should feel amazing, and very different than what you’re used to!

This grabbing and pulling action further activates the back of the body. All these actions of the back of the body stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers the stress response. One specific effect of an active back body is that the diaphragm and the adrenals (the glands that produce adrenaline) are “massaged,” which has really begin to feel more, heal more, and slow down.

As you continue walking and as you land on the heel of the foot in front of you, roll fully through the whole arch and feel your natural “shock absorber” in action. The foot, ankle, knee, hip and pelvis is a spring mechanism that gives you a massage as it recoils from the ground. Our arms naturally swing back and forth,which adds a nice rotational motion to the vertical wave. Your “tail” will naturally wag. Can you feel it? Tail wagging is key — it sends the vertical wave all the way up the spine to the head.

Adding a gentle pulling of the pelvic floor and belly button toward the spine wakes up the muscles of the core and adds a pumping action that further massages the diaphragm and adrenals. We all know how important the core, but do we really know what it is? The core is more than muscles, it’s also neurologic connectivity, and natural walking is the best way I know to bring it and keep it on line.

When we move from our vertical axis, which is what “core” really means, the work of walking happens without tension in the limbs. The hips and shoulders are relaxed. The work of walking is done by gravity, our bones and the continuum of muscles we use when the intersection of the ribcage and the low back is activated (that’s the pelvic floor and belly button part). A strong, active vertical axis is the key to relaxed hip and shoulder joints.

Core activation, or moving from a powerful midline axis, is evidenced by smooth, elegant and coordinated motion through the whole body, kind of like swells in the ocean. With each step a vertical wave of motion blends with the rotational wave created by our limbs as they move from side to side. Walking this way moves every cell in the body, and our hips, shoulders and even the joints of the spine are mobilized and lubricated.

The result? Natural Walking will gradually shift your nervous system from survival to healing, you’ll tone in all the right places, and you’ll receive a micro-massage of your entire body, all day long. Walking this way invokes power, ease, healing, and flow! The impact of this state on strength, vitality and creativity is astounding.

— Michelle Veneziano, DO is a doctor of Osteopathic Medicine in Fairfax, CA

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How can sitting GIVE you energy?

How much energy would you have if your body could rest in a dynamic fluid state all the time?

To get started, choose a seat that raises your hips so they’re a bit higher than your knees. You can sit on the edge of your chair, or put a sturdy wedge or by rolled-up towel under your sit bones. The sit bones are the bones you feel when you sit on your hands.

Feel all the sensations that are happening. Feeling is the key. Feel your bones, especially the bones in your feet, and your sit bones, and their weight on the ground and in your chair. I curl my toes inside my shoes or notice how my clothing feels against my skin to help me attune to sensation.

Imagine your feet have roots deep down in the ground, as if you’re a seaweed on the ocean floor. Your body doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined. This sense of support can help release a lot of muscle tension throughout the body and help us feel more.

Further imagine a cord pulling the crown of your head toward the sky. That same seaweed rising gracefully toward the sun. When you reach the height that’s right for you, your spine will relax even more. You may breathe more deeply and more easily, and feel even more.

Roll slightly forward and tall in your seat and feel the front of your sit bones. There is something magical that happens when we rest on the front of these bones. It’s as if the spine can literally begin to spiral tall like a cobra rising from a basket. With feet firmly planted, can you feel the subtle waves that happen in your body as you imagine your “cobra,” or your seaweed, moving skyward?

Next, activate the pelvic floor. Just a little squeeze, no need to clench or hold. This action can really heat things up. Imagine that your vital energy is a fluid moving from your seat, through your spine, to the crown of your head.

The next piece is waking up the area around belly button. I call this area the “fleshy” spine. No need to grip, just make sure that area is active, and seeking to connect with the actual spine. When the belly is responsive and the trunk of the body is active and flowing, our hips and shoulders can completely release soften. See if you can feel that.

The last piece is the resting of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Your whole tongue. See if you can feel the soft part at the back of the roof of your mouth with the back of your tongue. This area connects to the parasympathetic nervous system, which supports feeling. The tongue is designed to rest here all the time.

Feel your heart. Feel your breath fill your entire body. Feel yourself rise as if floating. This way of sitting, of “being” in the body, can feel amazingly buoyant.

Eventually, alighting our bodies with attention this way can become second nature, and sitting tall and in flow can begin to feel effortless. It can feel less like work and more as if you are being “taken” by a powerful force.

Maintain the image of a seaweed rooted in and rising from the ocean floor, or a cobra rising from a basket. Feel the flow! The impact of this dynamic, meditative & enlivened state on healing, strength and creativity is astounding.

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