I Walk Inspired
“Great walking, like life, is about excellence not perfection. Perfection is force and willfulness. Excellence is flow and willingness. Find the difference.”
From Sole to Soul: Daily Motivation for Inspirational Walking
Whether you are a newcomer to regular walking, a veteran, or a runner seeking to add the considerable benefits of walking to your running program, these daily messages are designed first and foremost to get you out there-to keep you inspired, motivated, injury-free, and committed to your walking.
And, walking is not only a tool for relaxing and strengthening the body. It can also ease the mind and free the soul.
These messages will support you in bringing more into your walking, by consciously preparing not just physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. By bringing this focused awareness to your walks, you can connect with an enhanced experience of who you truly are: not merely a human being with a soul, but rather a soul-a spiritual being-having a human (walking!) experience.
This multidimensional approach to walking will mean you get more miles to the gallon and recover quicker. You'll not only walk fitter, faster, stronger, and longer, you'll also walk deeper.
For those of you who already have an existing walking practice, you'll find ways for building upon the levels of freedom, peace, and expansiveness that you already enjoy in your walking. You'll be able to carry those qualities deeper into your life-into your relationships with yourself, those closest to you, and your walking buddies; into your workplace; and into your wider world so that all are infused with the joy and possibility you experience when walking.
I extend an especially heartfelt welcome to those of you that are beginning a new walking practice! Here you'll find enthusiastic and encouraging daily words to support you as you ease into your new walking program. I invite you to do so recognizing that it also has much to offer beyond the already significant physical benefits.
Happy trails!
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About the Community Leader
Meet Toby Estler
Toby Estler is an athlete-philosopher in the tradition of George Sheehan. He is an author, multiple marathoner, and ultra-runner, as well as public speaker, coach, and seminar leader. He also makes a truly remarkable leek and potato soup.
Walking plays a foundational role in his running life and, as leading competitive runners have discovered, walking offers many physical benefits, including: getting more energy and greater performance from your muscles and an overall more rounded workout. Walking targets the muscles in your buttocks, as well as those of your feet and shins, stretching and strengthening them further. Walking also serves as a great way to begin recovery after marathons and other distance events. In fact, Estler devotes an entire chapter to walking in his book, Running Home.
Running and walking have been the foundation of his own personal transformation from addiction to inspiration. In 1991, Estler emerged from Britain's notorious Wormwood Scrubs Prison with a powerful personal pledge: to make every day count. Running and walking have been at the heart of fulfilling that promise for the last seventeen years. Since then, he has served as a motivational coach to individuals and groups in both individual and corporate settings.
Estler holds a Master's Degree in Spiritual Psychology and often incorporates running in his life and business coaching work, training individuals and groups of all ages to use running as a foundation for personal transformation. He also uses his running to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with the Team in Training organization. Team in Training is on track to pass the $1 billion milestone for fundraising in 2008. In addition, he donates his time to Compassionate Communications, a unique partnership with Hallmark cards that pairs those wishing to offer support through writing inspirational cards with patients fighting life-threatening diseases.
One of the millions of runners and walkers that head out each day in search of peace, meaning, and inspiration, he can currently be found excercising along the beaches, rivers, trails, and roads of Southern California, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
"Toby Estler's revealing and engaging personal stories illustrate that the outer journey of life is a mirror reflection of the even greater, inner journey of the Soul. A captivating read, this book will inspire you to greater physical fitness and deeper spiritual growth."
Iyanla Vanzant, Author One Day My Soul Just Opened Up