At the ‘Walk it off’ session at Urban Future last month I started my talk with a small meditation.
I wanted to get a bit experimental and also do something reflective, connecting back to the pandemic in 2020.
I began by asking everyone to close their eyes. I then guided the audience through a brief deep breathing exercise, then also asking them to keep their eyes closed as we time-traveled a bit-not too far-back 5 years ago to the beginning of lockdowns all around the globe.
I asked them to go back there, allow themselves to relax, and feel what emotions and memories arise. To think back to the spaces of their homes, neighbourhoods, and communities, and what (if anything) changed in their own relationship to neighborhood space.
When we ‘came back’ to the room and everyone opened their eyes, I asked them to turn to the person next to them and share what came up. I recorded this scene as the room did just that.
Afterwards, we took some moments to hear some of the audience’s reflections.
I then had a brief walkability presentation to move into, beginning with reflections on how Pedestrian Space was established during those early days of the pandemic. But I really valued the energy and exchange of the audience during this moment, and some of the sharing that came from it, also after the event.
I look forward to developing this concept into a full workshop experience, allowing more time for the meditation, for reflections afterward on what we experienced, then in terms of changed spatial behavior + urban insights and for exchange.
