Introduction to Walking Meditation

If you are one of those people who feels like they can’t sit and meditate, walking meditation may be just the thing for you. There’s no wrong way to do it because walking is good for you but we do have a few tips that can help you make it a more mindful practice. Mindfulness allows you to lower stress, feel at ease, and start to enjoy the present moment. It gives you the power to control your own reactions and to generate the emotional energy you want instead of just letting your mind bombard you with any thought that happens to pop in.

Mindful practices like walking meditation don’t have to take up a lot of time and they are very easy. We often think that if something is valuable, it must be expensive or difficult (like getting into a top college) but what we desire, which is happiness, is actually free and simple. Allow yourself to experience being in your body and being fully present with this easy 10-minute walking meditation practice. It can help you heal on many levels and help you be more creative, healthy, and open to new opportunities life can bring to you if you just start with a positive attitude.

Simple Techniques to Make the Most of Your Walking Meditation

These simple walking meditation instructions do not have to be followed exactly. Think of them as a general guideline that you can creatively work with. These are tips that have worked for others so it can help you choose what to focus on while walking. Just think about a walking in nature meditation that will help you feel inspired instead of one spent arguing on the phone. The first option is more ideal, right?

Our mindfulness tips are only going to make that peaceful feeling amplified so check them out. We are so often outside of our body and caught up in the story of life that we don’t get to experience real connection to ourselves. This will give you an opportunity to feel something you may not have experienced before.

When you do your walking meditation, you can focus on the movements that you are doing to bring your body through time and space.

• Notice how you lean slightly forward to use your center of gravity to propel your body.
• Notice how your body responds by shifting your weight slightly from one foot to the other.
• Notice your knee bending to lift your leg and catch you.
• Feel your feet landing on the ground from heel to the arch, to the ball of the foot to the toes.
• Walk naturally and observe your unique gait and the natural process of your breathing.
• Notice the air coming in your nose, filling your lungs, and giving you energy right before it leaves you.

This little rebirth your body goes through each moment to stay in motion can help us feel the life energy moving through us.

There’s No Wrong Way to Meditate

You may at some point meet a Buddhist or someone else who has a very structured way of doing their walking meditation. They may take ten steps and pause before turning around to walk the same ten steps. This is one form of walking meditation that people like, but it doesn’t mean that other ways are wrong.

We each have our own way of learning and our own type of energy that can be calmed best by our own intuitive process. Listen to what your body wants when you begin walking and if you want to just let your eyes wander around, let yourself observe the colors and details. Or perhaps you want to open your peripheral sight to just take yourself forward without a focus. You may choose to just walk around the block or go for a longer walk. You do you.

Some of us have a very loud and active mind and we need something to focus on to keep us from worrying or planning. You can try a themed walking meditation which gives the mind something to do besides focusing on your movements. As we enter into Fall, invite yourself or loved ones to join you in a gratitude walking meditation. Let the theme hang loosely in your mind so that you can be filled with the energy of gratefulness easily and effortlessly. Allowing your intention to bring you to the desired state is not hard work, it’s relaxing. This will rejuvenate your spirit and help you feel at peace with where you are in life.

Read this next: Where’s the Best Place for Soul Meditation?

How Walking Meditation Can Help You

Thich Nhat Hanh said something really profound about walking meditation: it brings you back to your true home, the Earth.

With every step, you can feel at home, right where you are. This allows you to sense that you are right where you need to be and as he put it, just lucky to be alive on this Earth. We often get so caught up with accumulating things, friendships, social status, a certain appearance or accolade, that we lose sight of how simple happiness truly is.

Bigger, better, and faster has been the motto of the industrial and technological age but people are starting to wake up to a greater truth, that we need to reconnect with our body and spirit, with the Earth, and find harmony once again as people in more ancient civilizations have cultivated.

Technology is bringing more mindfulness apps to us and our luxury homes are filled with natural items. It’s obvious that the soul wants to be recognized more in our culture and that we are unconsciously moving toward a bigger recognition of our spirit in this modern society.

The values of love, compassion, and peacefulness taught by the Buddha as well as many spiritual organizations can help us find what no pretty house, perfect spouse, or achievement award can, our true self. The spiritual practices all help us see a larger perspective, a connectedness, that helps us align our behaviors and desires to one of spirit and not of ego. When we recognize the connection to our soul, to nature, and each other, life becomes more rich, meaningful and brilliant.

Related Article: Take Your Meditation Outdoors with Shannon!