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Zeena Speciale, a shamanic Reiki master teacher, certified sound healer, and co-founder of hiKin—a community where hiking and kinship move as one—guides this weekly podcast into the heart of mindful movement and soulful connection. Sacred Steps offers walking/hiking meditations, breathwork, and nature-rooted reflections to help you find presence on the trail and clarity within.
Find Zeena at Soul Collective, her spirit-based yoga studio in the heart of Cave Creek, AZ, or at soulcollective.love.
Welcome to Sacred Steps, a podcast for hiking and walking meditations. Presented by Heikin and guided by me, Zena Special. This is your invitation to move with intention, to breathe with the earth, and to remember that every step you take is a doorway inward. These are meditations in motion crafted for the trail or sidewalk, canyon or neighborhood, wherever your feet carry you. With each episode, you'll be guided into presence, into the mystery, into the quiet places where the sacred begins to speak.
Zeena:So lace up, exhale, and let's get moving. You're exactly where you need to be. Today as we walk, I wanna share a story with you. It's about a word, kintsugi. It's a Japanese word that means golden joinery, and it began when a precious bowl was broken.
Zeena:Instead of being thrown away, it was mended with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. Imagine that for a moment. The cracks filled with shimmering gold. The places of breakage made visible, not hidden. And what was once seen as damaged became something even more beautiful, more valuable because of the journey it had taken.
Zeena:I think about that a lot. How we're taught to hide our cracks, to rush to fix ourselves quietly, to pretend nothing ever broke. But what if, like Kintsugi, we allowed our healing to be visible? What if the places where we've cracked open became the very places where the light gets in? What if, with each step, we could fill those fractures with gold?
Zeena:Today, as you walk, whether it's on a trail, a quiet street, or just around your living room, I invite you to walk with your whole self, including the cracks, the scars, and the stories. To let your breath, your movement, and the earth beneath you begin the golden repair. This isn't about rushing to heal. It's about honoring the places that have shaped you and letting them become part of your beauty. Are you ready?
Zeena:Take a breath in with me and let it go. Let's begin. As you begin to walk, let your breath find its rhythm. Not controlled, not forced, just there, like a soft drumbeat inside you. Take a slow breath in through your nose.
Zeena:One, two, three, and side out the mouth. Three, two, one. Again, inhale. One, two, three. Exhale.
Zeena:Three, two, one. Inhale. Breathing in presence. Exhale. Letting go of tension.
Zeena:Now maybe you notice your breath begin to sync with your steps. Let your breath match your stride. Noticing. Listening. Perhaps you begin to count your breath in rhythm with your stride.
Zeena:You might inhale for four steps and exhale for four steps. Whatever feels right, just keep walking, letting your feet connect with the earth. Feel the way it holds you, steady and alive beneath each step. And if your mind begins to wander, that's okay. Just come back to your breath and to the rhythm of your footsteps.
Zeena:With every inhale, imagine that you're gathering in light. And with every exhale, imagine that you're releasing what no longer needs to be held. Inhaling light. Exhaling, releasing heaviness. Now, as you continue walking, notice how your body feels.
Zeena:Notice the places in your body that feel tired, the places that ache, the joints that carry the weight of your days. It might be your ankles, your knees, your hips, your lower back, your shoulders. You don't need to fix those places or force them to change. You're simply noticing them now with kindness. Now imagine the golden lacquer of Kintsugi flowing into the spaces between your joints, coating the areas that feel sore or stiff with shimmering warmth.
Zeena:As you inhale, feel the warm liquid gold pouring into your body, filling your hips, your knees, your ankles, your spine flowing into your shoulders, down your arms and hands. Moving into every space that aches, every joint that carries the memory of your journey. Now on your next exhale, feel the gold settling in, solidifying, repairing, fortifying you from the inside out. Inhale, the gold flows in. Exhale, stronger and more free.
Zeena:With each step, feel the gold aligning your body with your spirit, restoring what is ready to be restored. You are not fragile. You are forged. These golden seams aren't just mending you. They're making you powerful, capable, and ready to walk forward with clarity and conviction.
Zeena:Now bring to mind a place within your heart that feels cracked, a place that has known loss, change, or tenderness. It could be something recent or something you've carried for a long time. There's no need to fix it right now. You don't need to judge it or rush it away. Simply notice it, like you would notice a bird flying overhead or the breeze moving through the trees, and offer it kindness.
Zeena:Just letting it be beside you as you walk. Now with each step, imagine a warm golden light flowing through these cracks. Not to erase them, but to honor them, to trace them with beauty, to turn them in to places of shimmering strength. As you continue to walk, let this gold move with you. Step by sacred step, breath by breath, Reminding you of who you truly are.
Zeena:Strong. Worthy. Whole. Unbreakable. Keep walking like this, breathing in gold and breathing out gratitude.
Zeena:Feel your spine lengthen. Feel your shoulders soften. Feel your heart warm. You are walking as a living vessel of Kintsuki. Each step, a golden stitch.
Zeena:Each breath, a soft mending. You are not broken. You are becoming. You are beauty in motion. Gold in your cracks.
Zeena:Light in your bones. Let your steps be slow enough to feel, but steady enough to remind you that you are moving forward. As you continue your walk today, remember, you are allowed to honor your cracks. You are allowed to let light in even when it feels tender. Miracles don't always arrive with lightning.
Zeena:Sometimes, they arrive as breath, as footsteps, as a quiet willingness to begin again. Take a deep breath in and a long breath out. Keep walking. Keep shining. Keep reminding yourself of the beauty you carry.
Zeena:Cracks and all. If you're looking for more ways to move, heal, and align with your soul's light, You can find me in the Haiken Facebook group or visit soulcollective.love. My name is Zena Special, and it's an honor to walk this path beside you. Thank you. Thank you.
Zeena:Thank you. Until our souls meet again, keep shining.