mindful walking workshop

Info and photos from this workshop

Week 1

Purpose

Give participants more insight into how the circle will work, deal with logistics, and build excitement for the upcoming weeks.

Goals

Know when the circle meetings will take place
Everyone gets a face and a name for the other attendees, and feel like they know them a bit
Everyone has a good idea of what the circle will be like
Everyone is excited about the circle!

Agenda

Introductions/check-in (15m)

  • Go around the group and give everyone a chance to introduce themselves. Example questions:
  • What is your name?
  • How are you feeling today?

Introduce the circle (10m)

  • Read out the purpose of the circle
  • This circle is focused on the simple yet transformative act of walking. Through various activities, we will walk with intention and purpose in various parts of Tokyo. The goal of this circle is to help focus your full attention on the world around you to see the wonder, awe, and beauty that we unknowingly walk past everyday. Each week will involve a discussion based on a short assigned reading followed by a mindful walk. The walk will have a theme and activity which will engage your senses and creativity.
  • What the intention is and what you are hoping the participants will get out of it
    • The world is full of distractions that seek to keep you in a state of anxiety. Our attention is being slowly destroyed which harms our ability to fully engage with life.
    • This circle will help slow you down and ground you in the present.
    • Help you be more mindful by engaging your creativity and senses that have been disengaged by contemporary life.

Ask everyone: What made you interested in joining this circle?

Explain how this circle will work (10m)

  • what we will do in the circles, on a high level
  • Assign homework, discussion topics for next circle, concrete activities

Outline for the 6 weeks:
week 1 - introduce the circle and ourselves, talk about what we hope to get out of this circle, and set dates to meet.

  • week 2 - TBA
  • week 3 - TBA
  • week 4 - TBA
  • week 5 - TBA
  • week 6 - TBA

IMPORTANT: the exact activities and structures are flexible. I will be responsible for making sure we have agendas and activities to do, but I will encourage everyone to help co-create how we run this circle together. it is by and for all of us, and we need to adapt its style to those who are participating.

Circle ground rules (10m)
  • providing a harassment free social experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, faiths, backgrounds. help us create a safe and non-judgemental space where everyone can show up as themselves.
  • This is a creative space. I want others to feel comfortable being playful. Let us tap into that childhood wonder we all have. This circle is as much about mindfulness as it is about being playful and curious.
Rules:
  • come to all meets. this is high commitment!
  • or if something urgent comes up and you can’t attend, let the group know ASAP
  • show up on time (we start the check in round sharp)
  • collaborate: this is a collaborative circle, and we all strive to work together with the group to create something together. we all agree to not hijack the circle to enforce our own believes or agenda.
  • would anyone like to add or change anything?
  • please raise your hand if you agree to these rules
Teaser Activity (40m)
  • Quite Contrary (20m)
  • Urban Lens (20m)
Set date and times (15m)

kizuna core team member
How to set: go one week at a time, and set the date and time. Start proposing from the list. If a person can only do part of that time, see if you can adjust it slightly to accomodate for them.
proposals
week2
week3
week4
week5
week6

Circles prom

kizuna core team member
Apr 12, 2025, 19:00
Venue TBD
Circle participants have first prio to joining this (then, other kizuna collective members)
Please note: Will have a separate price tag!

Inform about next step
  • commit within 24h by writing the host
  • when you committed, you will be invited to the kizuna collective discord, and a private channel for this circle.
Check-out (10m)

- Homework
- Quite contrary in a different area
- Urban lens in a different area
- What thoughts and feelings are you leaving today with?

Week 2

Purpose / Theme

Attention / History

Agenda

Introductions/check-in (15m)

  • Go around the group and give everyone a chance to introduce themselves. Example questions:
  • What is your name?
  • How are you feeling today? How was your week?
Homework 1 sharing (15m)
  • Quite Contrary
  • Urban Lens
  • Questions - How did these activities make you feel when you did them?
Discussion (30m)
  • First: Ask questions about people’s relationship with attention. Remind that this is a non judgemental space for reflection, connection, growing, and caring.
  • Read through the Twelve Theses on Attention together
  • Discussion: What stuck out to you in the Twelve Theses on Attention?
Activity 1 (30m)
  • First walk: Give history of park
    • burial sites, which received protection as a National Historic Site in 1928 , run throughout the length of the park, totalling eight in all
  • Appreciate the maintenance of a park. What it takes to care for this land.
    • Jenny Odell “Our very idea of productivity is premised on the idea of producing something new, whereas we do not tend to see maintenance and care as productive in the same way.”
    • Gardeners
    • Cleaners / Custodians
    • Irrigation Specialists
    • Ecologists & Biologists
    • Local Volunteers
  • Lets walk across this park while appreciating the work it takes to sustain such a beautiful space all year long.
Activity 2 (30m)
  • A walk to the shrine
  • A walk across the bridge, sitting down in the greenspace.
Check-out (10m)

- Homework
- Read the Twelve Theses a few more times. Let the ideas become more clear (write notes / share)
- I will post one more short reading / short video related to attention. We will discuss it next week.
- What thoughts and feelings are you leaving today with?

Week 3

Purpose / Theme

Engaging your senses

  • Hearing, Seeing
Walk Route
  • Zenpukuji River / Park walk to Honancho Station (Marunouchi Line)
Agenda

Introductions/check-in (15m)

  • Go around the group and give everyone a chance to introduce themselves. Example questions:
  • How are you feeling today? How was your week?
Homework 1 sharing (15m)
  • Podcast thoughts
  • Rainbow walk
  • Questions - How did these activities make you feel when you did them?
Activity 1 (15 - 30m)
Sound noticing

“To hear is the physical means that enables perception,” Oliveros continued. “To listen is to give attention to what is perceived, both acoustically and psychologically.” - Pauline Oliveros
- You hear with your ears. You listen with your mind
- cover their ears with their hands for 20 seconds, and then ask them to remove their
hands. This action helps them to calibrate and focus on their sense of hearing
- We each take turns identifying a sound in our environment until we have exhausted all sounds

  • Ask them to listen to the sound that is nearest to them and then to the sound that is farthest from them.
  • Ask them to focus on the sounds they hear with their left ear and then with their right ear
  • Ask them to listen to sounds behind them.
  • Ask if there are any continuous sounds around them.
  • Ask if there are any sounds that are periodic (occur in a pattern) or random.
  • what is the loudest sound you can hear
  • what is the quietest sound you can hear
Activity 2 (15m)

- Rainbow Walk

Activity 3 (30m)

- Sound walk 2 repeat in new area

Quiet Walk (15m)

  • Prompt. After the quiet walk. Share

  • Observe something that makes you curious or sparks a question

  • Who made this?

  • — What did he/she want to communicate to us?

  • — Why is this object (or mark, or thing) here exactly?

  • — What is (or was, or could be) its alternative function?

  • — Does this thing remind you of some known artwork?

  • There are no wrong answers

Week 4

Purpose / Theme

Engaging your senses

  • Hearing, Seeing
Walk Route
  • Tokyo Port Bird Park
Equipment to bring
  • Sound recorder
Agenda

Introductions/check-in (10am)

  • Go around the group and give everyone a chance to introduce themselves. Example questions:
  • How are you feeling today? How was your week?
Homework 1 sharing (10:15am)
  • Thoughts of Pauline Oliveros Talk
  • Soundscape sharing
  • Questions - How did these activities make you feel when you did them?
Activity 1 (10:30am)

- Walk through the park with bird list

The Seven Pleasure of Birding (Birders: The Central Park Effect)
1. The beauty of the birds
2. The joy of being in a natural setting
3. The joy of scientific discovery
4. The joys of hunting without the bloodshed
5. The joy of puzzle solving
6. The joy of collecting
7. The unicorn effect (studying a bird before seeing it. It takes on a mythological status. Then seeing it suddenly in the wild and sharing that space with them)

“When I’m birdwatching, I’m not thinking about myself at all. And yet, I think that it’s a very intense experience of the self just in relationship to my surroundings. And it’s often in those moments that I remember really obvious things, like I’m alive, I will not always be alive. I live on the Earth. These really fundamental things that I think it’s easy to go a long time without remembering. So I would say, for me, the most ideal version of doing nothing is something where you can access that feeling as well.” - Jenny Odell

Activity 2 (11:15am)
  • Walk through the park with bird 5 S’s
Activity 3 (Optional)
  • Record 3 soundscapes
Activity 4 (Optional) Quiet Walk (11:45am)
  • Prompt. After the quiet walk. Share
  • Observe something that makes you curious or sparks a question
  • Who made this?
  • What did they want to communicate to us?
  • Why is this object (or mark, or thing) here exactly?
  • What is (or was, or could be) its alternative function?
  • Does this thing remind you of some known artwork?
  • There are no wrong answers

Week 5

  • Week 5 had no print out. We walked from Shin-Koiwa to Skytree. When we crossed the bridge over the Arakawa, we did a 30 minute activity identifying plants along the river.

Week 6

  • Week 6 had no print out. We walked around my neighborhood where cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Then we did some more plant identifying at a river nearby.
Your Image