Walking Your Way to a Better Life

Author KIMIKO was a full time housewife and mother of two children who at the age of 36 discovered the mental and physical benefits of walking properly. Born and raised in Okayama--a prefecture west of Osaka--she attended an all-girls high school and was later hired by the Tokyo office of a cosmetics company. At the age of 27, she took the recommendations of a customer and met a financially secure man of 32 who was being groomed to take over his family's business. Falling prey to her friends' urgings to "marry a rich man" and her own ideas of equating marriage with stability, she got married soon thereafter. Though her husband was faithful, kind, and hardworking, and she provided office work for the family business, she found her marriage wanting until she realized one day that she "had nothing for herself in her life." She felt her "sense of self slipping away." It was then that she decided to take a walking class.

Within two years Kimiko was teaching walking herself, refining the lessons she'd learned in other walking classes and applying life-affirming lessons to her process. Though the basics of proper walking technique and posture are outlined, the extension of spiritual growth and reaffirmation methods from applying them supply the body of the text. Some of the lessons KIMIKO discusses include:

• Turning on the Positive Switch -- Complimenting yourself throughout the day can elevate your confidence and spirit in everything you do
• Discovering the Beauty Within You -- Making a list of 100 aspects of your worthiness will help reverse the inner feelings of self-loathing and strengthen self-esteem
• Make Yourself a High-Class Brand -- Learning and applying the proper posture gained through walking will present an air of confidence and good looks that no amount of brand fashions and make-up can rival
• How to Be Treated Preciously by Others -- Don't short-change those things to which you treat yourself, otherwise others will shortchange you
• Walking Effectively to Activate Your Positive Switch -- The simple act of walking properly--head up, weight back, rolling your foot forward heal-to-toe--will cause a spiritual shift