How Creative Walking Tours and Sophrology Are Related

If you look at my offerings on my website, you’ll see that I’m a certified sophrologist, working both 1:1 and with groups. You’ll also notice a lot of information around Creative Walking Tours! At first glance, it may be hard to see what connects the two, but in fact, Creative Walking Tours and sophrology have much in common.

A Brief History of Creative Walking Tours

I came up with my version of mindful walking – Creative Walking Tours – long before I trained to be a sophrologist. The prompts were a combination of activities from a Creative Activity Guide I had put together for a 1:1 wellness program I was running at the time.

At first, the Creative Walking Tour was a freebie for my website, then I turned it into a 5-day challenge, and now it’s become a yearlong program with weekly prompts. Once my sophrology training started, I discovered how Creative Walking Tours and sophrology are related.

Five Senses & Body Awareness

One of the guiding principles of sophrology is body awareness. By becoming aware of the sensations in the body, we are getting grounded and calming the mind.

Our five senses are how we connect with the world around us. Our body awareness is very much related to our five senses. We use the five senses in sophrology to help anchor a person into a guided visualization and to build trust in the body’s abilities.

In Creative Walking Tours, we tune into the five senses to get into the body and into that connection with our surroundings. It can be easy to go out for a walk, mull over problems and then come home without having a clue as to what you saw, heard, smelled, touched, felt or tasted. By consciously running through our senses as we walk, we have a more embodied experience and come away feeling creatively stimulated.

The Beginner’s Mind

Another guiding principle in sophrology is the idea of the beginner’s mind, meaning experiencing things as if for the first time. Whether it be a sensation you have in your body or going through an exercise you have done in the past, approaching it with openness and curiosity can make it a new experience every time.

Similarly, in Creative Walking Tours, you may be prompted to pay attention to something you see all the time. By bringing your beginner’s mind to the activity, you are sure to discover new things and come away with a whole new appreciation. 

If I asked you to go for a walk and notice everything about the sky, you might think that it’s not very original or challenging. You see the sky every day, and you know how it looks. And yet, if you take the time to see it today as you walk and notice the nuances, colours, clouds, flying objects and sounds, you’ll likely come home feeling connected to the sky in a new way.

Positive Sensations and Gratitude

As you go through exercises and guided visualizations in sophrology sessions, you pay attention to your feelings and sensations. Then, at the end of the relaxation, you anchor all the positive feelings you have experienced. In doing so, this does a couple of things:

• You train yourself to search out the positive sensations
• You recognize that these sensations are always in you

The more you train yourself to pay attention to pleasant feelings and sensations, the more you naturally look for them. You’re rewiring your neural pathways through the magic of neuroplasticity!

One of my favourite prompts in my Creative Walking Tours is Unseen Beauty. It involves searching out beauty in the ordinary, the everyday or even the ugly. Once you start noticing the beauty in everything, you start seeing it everywhere! It’s the same positive virtuous cycle as the pleasant feelings and sensations in sophrology. As you begin to appreciate the beauty around you, things naturally seem more delightful. When you can find beauty in the imperfect and ordinary, you can change how you see yourself and your life.

Stress Reduction

Sophrology uses three main stress-reducing tools: gentle movement with intention, controlled breathing and positive visualizations. These tools are proven to reduce cortisol levels, stress, anxiety and fatigue.

Likewise, walking is one of the simplest activities we have to maintain our health, boost our mood and reduce stress. Add in some creative prompts to mindfully connect with your body and your environment, and you have a way to feel more positive about things in general.

If you’re feeling stuck in your head, doing regular Creative Walking Tours can help boost your creativity, inspiration and mood. Simply taking the time for yourself to pay attention to something else for a while and give your mind a break is an act of self-care.

If you’d like to experience mindful walking for yourself,  join me and a caring community of walkers from around the globe for A Year of Creative Walking Tours!

Go out on your first Creative Walking Tour using the PDF & audio guide I put together for you.

If you enjoy it, you may enjoy A Year of Creative Walking Tours, with weekly prompts to keep you walking in this new way!

Click the image or the button down below.