Walking Your Way to a Better Life

Author  KIMIKO was a fulltime 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