What Walking Meditation Is About?
Walking
meditation is considered a kind of dynamic meditation, or meditation in action.
While practicing it, one uses the walking experience as a main focus. It is a
kind of mindfulness experience that keeps your awareness involved with the
experience of your moving body.
There are few
different types of walking meditation. We’ll take a look at one that is proven
to give great results. Once you’ve mastered this kind, you’ll easily be
competent to experiment with others.
What is Important About Walking Meditation?
Obviously, there
are significant differences between meditation at home and walking meditation. One thing is
crucial to keep your eyes open while performing walking meditation. It is the
fact that you should not withdraw your attention from the outside world as it
is a case with mindfulness meditation, or meditation for depression, for example.
You just have to
be aware of things outside your inner feelings and thoughts such as different
objects, people you meet, etc. If you’re outdoors — and it is best place for
walking meditation — you need to pay your attention to phenomena such as nature
sounds, wind, rain, terrain, and so on. That’s the point.
Another crucial
aspect is that for most people it is easier to be more intensively aware of
their bodies during walking meditation. When your body moves on, you can easily
feel most of its parts, muscles, skin, joints, etc. In combination with your
mind being calm and focused, this can be an intense trans-like experience that
will completely refresh you mentally and physically.
A Technique of Walking Meditation
This technique
requires you to go outdoors and practice is for at least 20 minutes. Before you
start, spend few minutes sitting in stillness, allowing you mind to raise its
awareness on your body. Focus on breathing too: make few very deep breaths, and
then return to normal.
Begin walking.
Walk slowly and relaxed, paying attention to all sensations of your body, but
also try to feel your inner state of calmness.
Walking
meditation’s main value is to put your full focus on the physical experience of
walking. Especially pay attention on the rhythm of walking: it should be
constant and without efforts; it brings the necessary trans-like impulse to
your consciousness.
Notice how your
feet feel: being with shoes or bare feet on some beach, try to intensively feel
the contact between you and the ground. Then, start scanning all parts of your
body: bring attention to knees, ankles, thighs, hips, your back and chest, your
shoulders and arms, your neck and head. Feel them separately and allow them to
relax.
After some time,
if you start feeling tension in some part, first let it go, but if it repeats
again and again, it is a sign that your meditation is over. If you want more, take
a rest and then start again. Remember, it should be a pleasurable experience.
With time, your body will be able to perform much longer walking meditations.
It will be grateful to you as it will get stronger and more relaxed, while your
mind will experience the feeling of Oneness of your body
.jpg)
