Walking Meditation 4 People Who Hate Sitting/Get Restless

If you get restless or your mind wanders a lot with a sitting meditation maybe walking is for you! Pick out a place where you can walk the same 10-20 paces over and over without too much distraction. You'll be guided along in how to begin, what to do, what to pay attention to, and how to turn around.

You'll find that when you settle into a slow, steady rhythm of not trying to get anywhere, you may be able to be more present.

Transcript

A mindful movement can be really helpful for people that struggle with sitting for long periods or people that struggle with restlessness or busy minds while sitting in meditation.

So that's what this walking meditation is all about.

Before you get going,

You'll need to have a set route of maybe 10 to 20 paces.

So if you don't have a spot picked out,

Pause this,

Go to your spot,

And restart.

Obviously,

You're not standing for this meditation.

Maybe that wasn't obvious,

But stand up.

And if you haven't done my standing meditation,

I'll leave a link in the description down below for you to check it out.

And I'll see you in the next video.

You might go back and listen to that to get centered in your body,

Get used to just standing meditation first.

But you could also just jump right in with this.

Standing nice and tall with weight even,

Both feet side to side,

Front to back.

Start to just bring your awareness to the feeling of the feet.

Feelings of the bottoms of the feet on the earth or in your shoe.

Feel the heaviness of the whole body weight down through the bottoms of the feet.

Starting really slowly,

Start to shift your weight over to one foot.

Lift the other foot,

Step forward,

And place it.

Shift your weight onto the front foot.

Lift the back foot,

Step it forward,

And place it.

Continue to mindfully repeat this pattern of shift,

Lift,

Step,

Place.

Trying to keep your attention just on the feelings of shift,

Lift,

Step,

Place.

Going this slowly feels dangerous,

Like you're going to fall over.

Speed it up a little bit,

But not so much so that you start to get into your mind,

Like you're trying to get somewhere,

But more stay into being present with each step.

Whenever you get to the end of your 10 to 20 paces,

Stop.

Slowly,

Mindfully,

Place your feet as you turn around.

Pause again.

And then continue along your path.

You might quickly start to notice that if you have an urge to try to get to the end,

Or if you try to speed things up or slow way down,

If it's a struggle to fight your thinking mind off,

You don't have to fight it.

Instead,

You might put it to work for you and just quietly let it go.

And then if you have an urge to try to get to the end,

Instead,

You might put it to work for you and just quietly whisper in the back of the mind,

Shift,

Lift,

Step,

Place.

Shift,

Lift,

Step,

Place.

Maybe do that with each.

You don't get extra credit for getting in more steps.

We're not trying to get anywhere,

But here.

With each shift,

Lift,

Step,

Place.

If you got a good rhythm going,

You feel really present with each placement,

Each shift,

Then you're doing great.

If you wanted to rush or the mind is busy,

You're also doing great.

Because each time you catch yourself thinking,

Yay,

That's waking up.

That's the moment you realize you are not being present.

Shift,

Lift,

Step,

Place.

Just let it go.

Shift,

Lift,

Step,

Place.

Just make it that simple.