Paying Attention

After the Exercise:

Think of your own questions based on your own experience. This is a great sharing opportunity.

Ask the students what it was like. You may get some interesting answers. To prompt, you can ask them things like

Doing this walking exercise, did you notice anything that you had never realized before? (The answer might be about walking, or about their mind, or about what they see in the room. It could be about anything.)
Did anyone feel off balance at all? Did anyone lose their balance? Often people lose their balance a little when they do this for the firs time.
Can you remember a time you were uncomfortably self-conscious? What was it like?
Have any of you ever done that before? Have you ever paid such close attention to what you were doing that it felt strange or that you forgot how to do it– or it felt weird to do it?
When we are thinking of too many things at once, we slow ourselves down. Have you ever tried to do something and at the same time worried about how well you were doing it– or if you could do it at all? What was that like? Did it help you to worry?
Can you imagine trying to think of the right answer on a test and how difficult that can be when you think too hard? Can you imagine how this exercise is similar to taking a test, or doing something in public when you get self-conscious?

You may wish to revisit this discusion later in the week and see if anything has changed for the students