Glenn Berkenkamp - Walking with Glenn Berkenkamp: 35 Wellness Walks to Expand Awareness, Increase Vitality, and Reduce Stress

Copyright 2020 by Glenn Berkenkamp. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by
North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California

Cover art gettyimages.com/ArdeaA
Cover design by Jess Morphew
Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in the United States of America

Walking with Glenn Berkenkamp: 35 Wellness Walks to Expand Awareness, Increase Vitality, and Reduce Stress is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

This book includes recycled material and material from well-managed forests. North Atlantic Books is committed to the protection of our environment. We print on recycled paper whenever possible and partner with printers who strive to use environmentally responsible practices.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

Dedicated to walking.

And the stillness, feeling, seeing,

and understanding it can reveal.

And to Jack the cat.

For the gentleness he instilled in this project.

1. Walking: Advancing or traveling on foot at a moderate speed or pace by moving the feet alternately so that there is always one foot on the ground in bipedal locomotion.
2. Awareness: Knowledge that something exists, or understanding of a situation or subject at the present time based on information or experience.
3. Vitality: The capacity to live, grow, or develop.
4. Stress: A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.
5. Fun: Enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure.

M y parents were walkers. My mother still is. When I set out to write this book, I asked her what she receives from her walks. She shared that her daily walks not only energize her when she feels tired, but also provide her time to be more reflective and inwardly directed, even while taking in the world around her.

In my youth, we went for after-dinner walks, usually around the suburban block where we lived in northern New Jersey. My father, an avid photographer who taught me by example to notice and appreciate the world in all its many shapes, colors, and forms, would also take his own long walks, often accompanied by our family dog. He would walk during his lunch breaks at work as well, sometimes with co-workers and sometimes alone.

My brother has always loved to explore areas on foot as well, and to this day he will do so while vacationing, getting a good feel for the environment and its people.

So walking, or going for walks, is indeed something that I have inherited. And I consider it among the greatest of inheritances from my youth.

Over the years, my walks, and life, have deepened, ultimately leading to the writing and sharing of this book. May its walks and insights serve you well.

I ve taken casual walks, along with exercise-related walks and what Ill call guided wellness walks, with hundreds of people throughout the years. When I lived in Los Angeles, I watched as the dog walker industry came to be.

I was a people walker. It wasnt an official title, as there was no such thing as people walkers in 1990s Los Angeles, but it was something I greatly enjoyed, whether with friends, family, or clients.

Once, at a party, I overheard a guest tell another guest that they liked walking with Glenn Berkenkamp. It was an interesting sentence to hear. Many years later, while driving through Mill Valley, California, one of my favorite areas to walk in and explore, the idea of this book presented itself, along with its title: Walking with Glenn Berkenkamp.

I chose to keep this title because the title is not so much about a friend or friends, or even a past client, who may have enjoyed or benefited from our walks, but more the fact that wherever I walk, and whomever I may be walking with, I am always walking with me, Glenn Berkenkamp.

And so it is with you. As great an awareness outside of yourself, and within yourself, that you may cultivate, and however much you may change, grow, and evolve, you are still, and will always be while in this embodiment, you.

So as you partake in the walks presented in this book, you will walk with me, and in doing so, you will walk with you. In a most profound, interconnected, all-is-one manner, we are together, and we are also individuals. And the joy, beauty, and magic of it all is here.

In the pages to come, you will be asked to think about your physical walk, and your walk through life, and you will learn about my walk, along with some of my favorite walks taken.

You will be introduced to thirty-five wellness walks, along with an easy-to-use reference guide, Which Walks to Do When, which can assist you in selecting the walk, or walks, best suited for you based on your current physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual needs.

You will discover that many of the walks are not only beneficial to you as an individual but also beneficial and fun to do with others, including walking groups and children.

From balance-building/balance-revealing walks to gratitude and forgiveness walks, to seeing and listening walks, to meditation and centering walks and many othersthey are all very diverse. I encourage you to engage with each of them, and in doing so, allow yourself to awaken to the world, both within and around you, in new and exciting ways.

Walking is the best medicine.

Hippocrates

W hen you look at a pencil, what does it reveal? Does it say anything? Other than the brand and number grade it has marked on it? No. But you know very well what it can do for you, what it can help you draw, or figure out, or erase. Sometimes just holding a pencil or pen between our fingers can make us more receptive to useful thoughts and inspired ideas that moments earlier did not exist for us. For me, its as if Im holding a receiver or antenna in my hand.

And so it is with walking. Yes, theres exercise. And exercise is of tremendous importance and value, especially in a society that has grown increasingly sedentary. But this book is about another form of valuemore along the lines of stillness within movement, sensing and seeing, feeling, healing, and discoveryand of becoming free, or freer, and more connected in the process.

How do you become free and more connected while walking? By walking, and being truly present and mindful while doing so. And as you grow more present, expanding your awareness via certain types of walks and mental prompts, you will discover, often with the feedback of your body and a clearer mental state, how you are not free.