5-Minute Walking as Discovery

Time needed: 5 minutes of walking

Setting: Any walkable space (indoor/outdoor)

Purpose: Using embodied movement as method of inquiry and knowing

Body as Instrument (90 seconds)

   What: Begin walking with awareness:

- Feel each foot meeting ground

- Notice rhythm your body naturally finds

- Sense muscles engaging and releasing

- Track how breath matches movement

- Let body lead the pace

  Notice: Body’s innate intelligence, what your corporeal self knows, how movement creates different thinking

  Why: To put something at the centre again is a knowing in physical experience, activates embodied cognition, shifts from abstract to felt understanding

The Shift: Walking moves inquiry from mind-only to whole-body investigation. Your physical self becomes the primary tool for understanding, not just vehicle carrying your thoughts.

Sensory Investigation (90 seconds)

   What: Use physical senses as research tools:

- What does air temperature tell you?

- What do sounds reveal about space?

- What does ground texture communicate?

- What do visual patterns suggest?

- What does movement through space teach?

  Notice: Information your senses gather, knowledge beyond thinking, what body discovers that mind misses

  Why: Activates multiple ways of knowing, grounds inquiry in present reality, generates embodied insights

The Shift: Your senses become investigative instruments. You’re not thinking about the environment—you’re physically reading it through your corporeal presence.

Emergent Understanding (120 seconds)

   What: Let discovery arise through walking:

- Follow where curiosity pulls you

- Notice what captures body’s attention

- Allow unexpected observations

- Track insights emerging through movement

- Trust body’s investigative process

  Notice: How walking generates different knowledge, what emerges through motion, understanding that arrives corporeally

  Why: Honors body as fundamental definer of experience, enables discoveries unavailable to seated mind, integrates physical and cognitive knowing

The Shift: Understanding doesn’t come from thinking while walking—it emerges through the act of walking itself. Your moving body creates conditions for different knowing.

Closing: Stop walking, notice what your body discovered

Notice: Quality of knowing gained through corporeal inquiry

Why: Validates embodied investigation as legitimate knowledge-making

Why Walking as Discovery Matters:

- Body is primary site of experience

- Movement generates unique insights

- Physical senses are investigative tools

- Corporeal self holds different intelligence

- Walking creates embodied epistemology

Nandi Chinna’s Insight: Walking “reintroduces the body as a fundamental definer of experience”—not just background to thinking, but central method of inquiry. Your physical senses become tools of investigation, creating knowledge that emerges through embodied engagement rather than detached observation.

Tips:

- Walk without destination

- Trust body’s pace and direction

- Let physical experience lead

- Notice what movement reveals

- Honor corporeal intelligence

- Allow sensory investigation