This is the fifth of 10 mindfulness practices designed to help you increase emotional balance and presence in the current moment.
This practice is a walking meditation,
And it's a powerful way to ground your awareness in the present moment by opening your awareness to the environment around you and noticing the things your mind typically tunes out when you walk in familiar places.
Typically,
When we walk,
We focus on arriving at a destination and easily become lost in thought.
Focusing attention on the experience of walking as opposed to getting somewhere can immediately bring our awareness into the present.
This practice works best when you can find a place to walk without having a destination.
You can do this inside a room,
Walking back and forth,
Or you can do this outside in a familiar environment where your mind may become lost in thought.
We'll practice a walking meditation in two ways.
We'll begin by noticing the sensations in your feet and focusing your attention on the groundedness.
The touch and the pressure as you take each step.
After you've connected to the present through grounding your sensations in your feet,
You'll widen your attention to the environment around you.
You'll start to notice different sensations or different things that you haven't seen or noticed before.
You can pause this recording,
And once you've found a place to do this practice,
Turn it back on.
Begin by slowly taking one step and then another.
Connect with the sensations in your feet.
Continue taking one step and then another.
Notice the sensations where your feet make contact with the ground.
The feelings of touch and pressure as you move from one foot to the next.
Hold your attention on the sensations in your feet.
Continue walking.
When you've walked for a time in one direction,
Turn around and start back the other way.
It doesn't matter where you're walking because you're holding your attention on the sensations in your feet and noticing what it feels like to take each step.
Widen your attention from your feet to your surroundings.
Notice what you see around you.
Observe if there are things that you notice that you haven't noticed before.
Widen your awareness and notice any sounds that you hear.
Just hold your attention on the sounds that you notice.
If your mind wanders away and you become lost in thought,
Non-judgmentally bring your attention back to the sensations in your feet and your environment around you.
As you look around your environment,
Notice what you see around you.
See if there are things you notice that are unfamiliar,
That may have been there for quite some time but you may have missed them.
Hold your attention there and just notice their details.
You might notice their colors,
Their textures.
Continue walking.
Notice the sensations in your feet.
Notice the things that are around you,
The things that you see,
The things that you hear,
And as your attention shifts between the sensations in your feet and the environment around you,
See if you can make contact with the present moment and allow yourself to just be in this moment without being lost in thought.
Ground your awareness in the experience of walking.
Continue walking.
Continue this walking meditation for one more minute,
Connecting to the present moment through grounding your feet and noticing the environment around you.
As we conclude this practice,
See if you can bring the sense of connectedness and presence in the current moment back with you into the coming moments of your day.
Thank you.
