This walking meditation was recorded by MBSR teacher Adele Stewart at Wununu Medical Practice,
February 2020.
Choose a straight flat path of no more than a few meters either inside or outside.
Starting to walk fairly slowly but not so slowly that you'll overbalance from one end of the hall to the other.
When you reach the other side,
Just pausing for a moment and slowly turning around.
There's a lot of different ways to do walking meditation.
So if you're outside in nature,
You might be really aware of everything that's going on,
All the sights and sounds.
But in this particular walking meditation,
We're having a very narrow focus on just the actual walking.
So that's why we've got quite a short pathway because we're not going on a sightseeing trip.
Just keeping the eyes out a few feet in front of you without necessarily looking around too much.
And perhaps you might like to make the focus just the bottoms of your feet.
So in the same way that we explored the tiny little sultana,
We can explore everything there is to notice about just the soles of the feet.
Or if that doesn't feel right,
Then perhaps noticing the whole of the feet and the whole of the action of walking.
So the arms can be by your sides or clasped in front or clasped behind.
Probably ideally we don't cross our arms or have our hands in our pockets.
Just in more of keeping that intention that we are meditating.
And in the same way that when we're sitting we are asked to sit in a sort of dignified posture,
You may even experiment walking with a little bit of a dignified posture.
Either king or queen.
Slowly and regally.
And like in any meditation,
It's likely that the thoughts will arise again and again.
And just like with the other meditations,
Simply noticing,
Acknowledging that.
No need to block the thoughts out.
Just gently bringing the attention back to the practice.
Same thing goes with distractions of body sensations,
Sounds.
Or there might even be some subtle emotion coming up about doing this.
Or some judgement.
If you feel that you're at risk of overbalancing and you have a stick or something,
Feel free to use that.
Or speed up a little bit so you're less likely to overbalance.
But for those who feel quite stable,
Perhaps gradually slowing down,
Noticing how it is to slow down.
Okay.
The monk Thich Nhat Tan talks about walking as though your feet are kissing the earth.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Remember to perhaps use the turning around as an opportunity to bring the attention really to the present.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
