She discovers peace through walking meditation

Carolyn Sinclair has taught walking meditation since 2000.

ABOUT CAROLYN SINCLAIR
AGE: 62
OCCUPATION: Walking meditation instructor
CONNECTION: Memorial resident
FAST FACT: Although math wasn't her strong suit in high school, Sinclair considers the bachelor's degree she earned in applied mathematics at the University of Houston-Downtown a time of self-discovery. "I really did discover what I liked about myself," she says.

When her marriage of 25 years drew to a close in 1999, Memorial resident Carolyn Sinclair felt herself sinking into an emotional quicksand.

"I lost 20 pounds in one month," says Sinclair. "They wanted to hospitalize me. That's how bad it was."

Sinclair had immersed herself in tai chi, chi gong and sitting meditation starting in the mid-1990s, but none of those Asian meditative practices helped her tunnel through her troubles the divorce had caused.

That's when a friend recommended to her another Asian practice known as walking meditation. Sinclair gave it a try even though she initially looked a bit askance at the mystical Asian practice.

Gradually she began to notice how meditative walking became a game changer in her life. She was happier, more relaxed and more adaptable to change. She now teaches meditative walking at seminars and workshops. More information is available at her website, www.walking-meditation.com.

"When I started walking, I could tell something was very different about it," says Sinclair. "Eventually I became very sensitive to energies, and I could tell how powerful walking meditation was. Within six months, I was fine. There were subtle changes in my skin and face, and my health improved very quickly."

Sinclair cites a number of links on her website that touts walking meditation's impressive health benefits, from abating eating disorders, to assuaging heart-damaging anger to increasing the dehydroepiandrosterone hormone that helps the body fight viral, bacterial and parasitic infections and treat HIV patients to prevent it from progressing into AIDS.

The emotional, physical and spiritual benefits of walking meditation is essential to "centering" a person's life, says Sinclair.

"The very essence of who we are is peace," she says. "The very essence of who we are is joy, oneness with everything. Walking meditation allows us to tap into that which is nonjudgment clarity."

A person must learn to focus on the present, not on the past or what may happen in the future, to achieve such clarity, says Sinclair.

"It can only happen if we are in the present moment, and that can only happen if you're in a state of communion with yourself, in a state of quietness and peacefulness with yourself," Sinclair says.

Paul R. Kopenkoskey is a freelance writer. He can be reached at neighborhood@chron.com.