Walk without headphones to find calm, says coach
Bhupinder SandhuA man who walked from London to Cambridge in complete silence said it was important for people to "sit with our internal noise".
Mindfulness coach Bhupinder Sandhu arrived in the city on Easter Sunday after walking about 57 miles (92km) overnight.
He set off from Parliament Square in the capital at 20:00 GMT on Saturday and walked for 15 hours without "any sort of music or earphones or anything" to raise awareness about the positive impact mindfulness can have on mental health.
Sometimes used interchangeably with meditation, mindfulness is defined by the NHS as "paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment" in an effort to improve wellbeing.
Sandhu told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire walking without headphones allowed him to "be with myself".
"You come into a zone where there's nothing," he said.
"There's just you and nature and the road. The thing that keeps you going is that calmness in you."
Sandhu said people did not generally take enough time to "tap into that calmness".
"In the 21st Century we are running at such a speed that we don't have time to pause," he said.
He suggested people could take deep breaths, go for a walk or take 10 seconds to walk to a window and look at the sky while working in an office.
Sandhu also said mindfulness helped people "live with boredom", reframing it as a "practice" rather than a "problem".
Bhupinder SandhuSome faiths, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, teach meditation as a spiritual practice, aimed at bringing the individual closer to a higher power.
Similar techniques are taught in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
For others, it is a way to improve mental health.
Sandhu, from Gravesend, Kent, has previously walked from London to Edinburgh, Cardiff and Brighton and raised money for Mind charity.
He said his next challenge would be attempting to walk one million steps in May.
Do you have a story suggestion for Cambridgeshire? Contact us below.
Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
