Focused steps bring compound benefits for fitness walkers.

"The first step is always the hardest," we tell ourselves when we try to make changes in habits or lifestyle patterns. "Once I find my stride, I'll be fine." We talk of "getting our feet back on the ground" when life "knocks our legs out from under us." We remind ourselves to "take one step at time" when we get impatient with our progress in reaching goals.

The phrases are so much a part of our language that we hardly hear the individual words. But when you take a step back and listen carefully, you hear reminders of the power of walking to motivate, heal, and restore stability. The words we use daily reflect the importance of walking in our lives. Unfortunately, the words have become largely symbolic.

In recent decades, industrial advances have distanced us from our own bodies and the alignment of muscles and minds that creates wholeness. Modern conveniences -- cars, elevators, televisions, and drive-up windows -- have made us increasingly sedentary. At a time when medical research promises that just 30 minutes of brisk walking daily will produce significant benefits in health and fitness, we have fallen out of step with our bodies. Polls report that only 40 percent of American adults achieve the minimum level of exercise for a healthy lifestyle. Twenty-five percent don't exercise at all.

Among those Americans who do exercise, walking ranks as the favored fitness activity. At least 65 million Americans walk for exercise, according to surveys. Seventeen million identify themselves as "frequent" walkers. The popularity of walking is obvious: the sport is simple, inexpensive, and readily accessible.

My own first steps into fitness walking came a dozen years ago on the sidewalks of my neighborhood. A self-defined klutz, I'd spent my life on the sidelines of fitness trends, convinced I wasn't meant to be athletic. But walking crept under my defenses. Walking seemed so simple. I had no idea that those initial steps would launch an expedition. Step by step, walking drew me into an adventure that traveled unmapped corners of myself. Instead of a klutz, I found a woman who liked feeling active and strong. For a time, the journey carried me into regional and national competition as a master's-level racewalker. It transformed me into a crusader, teaching walking classes at a neighborhood recreation center.

Focus on Your Breathing

"Breathe!" I'd urge, as I fell into step with students who signed up for walking classes offered at Amazon Community Center in Eugene, Oregon, through the city's Office of Recreation Services. "Pull the air deep into your belly. Focus on your breathing. Count your steps with each in and out." As I talked, I'd hear inhalations deepen. Shoulders relaxed. Walkers stepped forward with strength and energy. Mind and body traveling the same path.

Circling the track beside students, I realized that not only competitive walkers depend on mental training for a successful performance. Even an activity as simple as fitness walking becomes too hard for many people to sustain without the mental skills that bring feet and head into alignment.

Unless you've discovered an easy way to leave your brain on the doorstep when you go out for a workout, you're probably familiar with the problem. Feet go one way and head another as soon as you hit the sidewalk. Fragments of last night's conversation circle through your mind. A checklist of things to finish before Friday replays relentlessly. The mind drags you around a tiring loop of old issues and concerns that eventually slows your step. You return home laden with mental memos and to-do lists, when all you really wanted was a break. No wonder so many people stumble and trip on exercise programs. Until we learn to aim mind and body in the same direction, the path to fitness frequently wanders into a dead end.

As I taught walking classes and maintained the pace of my own racewalk training, I learned to rely on positive self-talk, breath awareness, and mental imagery -- the tools of athletes and meditators -- to move safely through the sabotage of self-doubt and mental babble. Words that had become mindless cliches emerged as tools of mindful motivation: One step at a time. Set your own pace. The first step is the hardest. As I explored new territories as a competitor and fitness instructor, I discovered the power of words, imagery, and breathing to sustain physical effort.

"At least I'm out here moving," I remind myself mentally when my head swifts with complaints about how hot it feels or how slow I'm moving. "I'm taking steps, moving forward, making changes." The words block out distracting thoughts and keep me motivated with reminders that if I'm moving, I'm not stuck, not stagnant.

When mind and body come together as partners instead of adversaries, walking workouts travel a path from sole to soul. Gradually, my workouts achieved a merger of inner and outer movement. Steps and focus forged an alliance that restored connection between parts of myself that had been at odds for many years. The route that began on neighborhood streets led me to a new self-image and to a deeper knowledge of myself.

"I am here and I am walking," I tell myself when I find my mind planning dinner or dredging up chores. "I am strong and I am fit." The words form a strong cadence with my steps that clears my focus and brings me present. Mind and body moving forward together. A few years ago, the words sounded awkward and untrue. To see myself as "strong and fit" seemed like a fantasy. Now, the same words resonate as a core truth of my identity. They have changed the course of my life, leading me away from classes and competition to travel a new path as author of The Spirited Walker: Fitness Walking for Clarity, Balance, and Spiritual Connection (Harper SanFrancisco, 1998). With personal experiences, interviews, and practical exercises that blend sport psychology with meditative tools, the book maps a route to emotional and physical well-being for fitness walkers.

Even without the use of affirmations, the benefits of bringing mind and body together in daily walks go beyond the positive physical impact that walking has on blood pressure, cholesterol levels, bone density, cardiovascular fitness, and the body's immune system. Exercise that delivers aerobic benefits can also strengthen mind and spirit.

Tools of Transformation

Because body, mind, and soul are intricately connected, like the contents of a single cell, the movement of one part affects another. Any change influences the whole. Fitness programs that involve mind as well as muscles prepare walkers to reach new points of view. The focusing skills that help us stay on a fitness path become the tools of transformation that move workouts beyond heart rates and calorie counts. When walkers combine mental focus with physical effort, fitness walking becomes spirited walking. Workouts restore a sense of wholeness and alignment.

Millions of people fail to find that path to alignment because they haven't learned the mental skills that strengthen fitness resolutions. They haven't discovered that if they can talk themselves out of a workout, they can also talk themselves in to one. It takes a merger of mind and movement to keep workouts on track.

Walkers who complain that they don't want to "work" their minds by focusing when they go out to walk often undermine their success in achieving both relaxation and an effective aerobic workout. Cardiologist Herbert Benson, a cofounder of the Mind-Body Medical Institute affiliated with Harvard Medical School, discovered that the repetition of a word, phrase, sound, or rhythmic, physical movement such as walking elicits what he calls "the relaxation response."

When walkers combine rhythmic movement with the mental repetition of a word or phrase, they achieve a state of relaxation in which tension is released from the body faster than from those who use no focus, Benson found. The outcome can be achieved simply by repeating "left, right" with each step or "in, out" with the breath as a person walks, he said. Adding affirmations or words that carry spiritual significance helps sustain focus and values.

Just putting one foot in front of the other is a start but not the end of the journey for fitness walkers who seek well-being. Whether you step around the kitchen table or trek across the country, the action changes your perspective; it offers a fresh point of view. When mind and body move together, each step creates a healthy wholeness that frees the spirit to soar. You begin to walk your talk.

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Some facts about walkers and walking:

Polls report that at least 65 million Americans walk for exercise, making walking the nation's most popular fitness activity. More than 17 million Americans are frequent walkers who exercise two or more times a week, according to American Sports Data Inc. Frequent walkers have increased 36 percent since 1987, and the number continues to grow as medical research finds increasing evidence of walking's benefits.

More than 60 percent of American adults don't get the level of exercise recommended for a healthy lifestyle, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. Twenty-five percent of adults don't exercise at all. For those who have not exercised regularly, a 30-minute walk can be the first step in reversing the health risks of inactivity.

According to NRPA statistics, 75 percent of Americans live within walking distance of a public park, which makes outdoor walking opportunities convenient for most of the population.

The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports reports that 30 minutes of moderate daily exercise provides significant health benefits for most people. Two miles of walking in 30 minutes satisfies the council's daily exercise prescription for the average person.

Walking's low-risk, low-injury advantage has been upheld in tests at the Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research. Not a single injury was reported in a six-month study of exercisers who walked three miles a day, five days a week.

It's never too late to begin building better health by walking. According to a major study published in the January 1998 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a daily walk of just two miles cut the risk of death almost in half for people ages 60 to 80.