On Wednesday I shared the experience I have with walking with a Rosary. Another cool meditation tool for walking is walking a labyrinth.

I heard about labyrinth’s a few years back when I got very involved with studying Catholic Mysticism. After that I looked for opportunities to walk one, and while there aren’t many around here, there are a couple – one at Kingsfold Retreat Centre, and one at the FCJ Christian Life Center

I love walking the Labyrinth because there’s a slow rhythm, there’s mindfulness, and there’s peace. You go into the centre with something on your heart, seeking God’s will, and come out with peace. It’s a very long walk covering a very small space, and unless you’ve walked that particular labyrinth or pattern several times, you are always suprised at where you end up, at how the path unfolds. It’s kind of like life. I just wish I could walk life with the same kind of mindfulness as I walk a labyrinth!

This morning I stumbled on this article about the labyrinth, and thought it was a helpful piece to understand how it works and how to walk it. This article from Kingsfold is also very helpful.

If you want to find a labyrinth near you, check this Labyrinth Locator

If you want to read more about the Labyrinth, here’s a great book: Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth

Happy Walking!

Darlene

PS – you can even get a labyrinth on your iPod Touch (I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ my iPod Touch!) here: iPause

If you’re going to get in shape, it’s important to somehow keep track of what you’re doing and how you’re progressing.

Life is much more “mobile” than it used to be, and I find that I need something other than a notebook and pen, so I’m going to share some of the tools I’m using to keep track and keep me motivated.

First off, let me tell you about a fun program you can put on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  It’s called “My Weight Loss Coach“.  Now this isn’t an app for serious workout logs, but it’s a fun game-type application where you can keep track of steps walked, food eaten, physical activity done, and it also has games, coaching, quick challenges, and some great motivation tools.  It will track your weight and BMI and it makes keeping track fun.

Every time you enter your results for any of the categories, you earn “miles” (or kilometers – whatever you prefer).  The miles “take you” to great places around the world.  So far I’ve climbed Mount Everest, walked a marathon, walked the distance of a Formula 1 race, walked the length of Cox’s Bazar Beach, walked the length of the Suez Canal, and the length of the Murraylink cable.  It’s fun to then look these things up and find out more about these places.

Now, this is kind of a “fiddly” app.  You need to take a good few minutes to enter things in, so I usually log in every morning to get my challenges for the day, and then at the end of the day I log in my food and activity.  It’s also more of a “girly” app, with cute pictures and sound effects, so for you guys out there reading this, this would probably drive you nuts.

You can get a free version (My Weight Loss Coach Lite) but it won’t keep a running tally of what’s going on.  It’s worth spending the $4.99 to get the complete version.  Also, you’ll want to take a good hour or so to familiarize yourself with this before you start

using it.