Quick-Seat Chair – Out And About Walking A Labyrinth For Health – Christ’s Church Cathedral
By Khadi Madama Quick-Seat Chair Wellness Coordinator
I love to get out and about to see how people are getting along getting to where they need to get, or enjoying sports and other leisure activities. Because I’m always in what is known as, The Cat-Bird’s Seat, meaning that as someone in the health care industry I’m always extra observant to people’s well-being and their quality of life. It’s something that I developed in my years creating top-notch wellness programs for assisted living residents, which always featured a form of walking if they were ambulatory and other activities if they were not.
One of the activities that cropped up back in the day was labyrinth walking, which involves slow, careful and mindful walking around a circular path that leads to a center point before pausing a moment then reversing direction and walking the spiral until you have emerged from the labyrinth with a refreshed mind and a nice bit of healthy non-exerting exercise. There’s only one problem, and it’s one that I encountered a few years back on a trip to Dublin, Ireland. While sightseeing on a walking tour of various points in the city we happened upon Christ’s Church Cathedral, a medieval church in the heart of Dublin. What caught my eye was the beautiful marble labyrinth outside on its grounds. How could I resist? I couldn’t. “Wait up,” I said to my sightseeing buddy, “I have to walk this labyrinth now because I may never get back and it’s one of the most famous in the world!” I didn’t want to let it be known that it would take me quite a time to walk its large circumference because I didn’t want to be told that we didn’t have time. I also didn’t want to think about my left ankle which had a minor injury the year before and which was so far holding up. But, as I looked around the labyrinth I noticed that there was absolutely nowhere to sit outside it’s perimeter. Now, in a perfect world having resting places set strategically at four points just outside the labyrinth might have given others the courage to get on the spiral path to heaven and give it a whirl. Pictured a white Quick-Seat Chair with the logo of the cathedral folded up and at the ready. For Quick-Seat Chairs can be mounted on sturdily grounded framework. How lovely that would all have looked with a few pots of small evergreens.
I got onto the labyrinth with those visions of Quick-Seat Chairs dancing in my head and hoped the ankle would wait until we got back to our B&B before giving me any problems.
How To Walk The Labyrinth
The trick to walking a labyrinth is that one steps onto the first brick of it with the idea that one is entering a different space than one is stepping out of. The stepping pattern indicated by the design, which is to enter on the right side of the labyrinth and which will lead us around in an anti-clockwise pattern, said to be beneficial to the brain.
Enter after taking a slow, soothing deep breath through your nose and exhaling slowly as you finish getting inside the labyrinth. Then breath normally, slowly and find one happy thought, or a word you wish to focus upon for a purpose, a poem, a prayer, as you complete the pathway and enter the center.
When you reach the center, stay for a moment, reflect, imagine that you are now returning from a special place and will bring the peace, the purpose, the joy out into the world with you. Keep a labyrinth journal, as each journey is different. Try different labyrinths in your area.
You can also create a ‘sort of’ labyrinth inside your home or office by circulating around furniture. The journey will be shorter, but if you keep it short, and your mind focused and open to new ideas, solutions, creativity or gratitude, it will work.
At Quick-Seat Chair, we are always concerned that people have a place to rest on the spot when needed, and if they do, that they have positive things ready to enjoy and to make good use of their waiting time. We are also concerned about healthy walking and support those activities, too. We are dedicated to the well-being of our customers who are our most important concern, and we want Quick-Seat Chairs to always be that beacon of light when you need to sit along life’s pathways.
Quick-Seat Chair. Temporary Seating That Closes Itself
Temporary Seating that closes itself