An Awakening Walk

Welcome to a guided walking meditation. The classical Greek physician Hippocrates once said, "Walking is man’s best medicine." What you will need: headset/headphones, shoes /bare feet, and nature. Let's enjoy falling in love with "now" together.

Transcript

Hello my friends,

Welcome to an awakening walk.

The classical Greek physician Hippocrates once said,

Walking is man's best medicine.

A recent study has found that we in the western world on average spend about 87% of our time in low movement environments.

So I'd like to invite you into two of my favorite practices,

Walking and nature.

Why nature?

You know,

Could we walk inside a mall or walk inside our house or walk on a treadmill?

Well,

Sure you could and I think walking no matter how you do it is better than not walking.

But one UK study that was looking at the effects of nature on our well-being found that visiting nature makes us feel more restored.

And I think most of us probably have a first-hand experience or two of just how nice it is to get outside and to breathe especially when the day feels a bit stressful or there's a bit of angst building.

So let's do this together.

My name is Damian Giapparo and you'll need about 20 minutes for this walking meditation.

Now depending on where you're going to walk,

You might want to choose some shoes,

You might like to go barefoot and the more nature you can get into,

The better.

But you can also just find a little pathway outside perhaps leading through the neighborhood or you know,

Maybe you have a park nearby and even if there's people around,

People are also part of nature so we can do this with friends around.

So you'll need a headset so that you can continue listening to the audio.

And once you're ready,

Go ahead and unpause this audio.

And if you need a minute to get yourself ready and to get outside,

Then go ahead and push pause until then.

All right,

So there's something magical about walking and it's a particular type of walking that we're after.

Henry David Thoreau has this beautiful quote to speak to the two ways that we can walk in nature.

He says,

I'm alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily without getting there in spirit.

So of course,

Our thoughts are friends and in fact,

Walking has been shown to improve creativity and to allow great problem solving to happen historically.

And it's also a beautiful space for us to connect a little more deeply with nature.

So wherever you are,

Just take a few breaths,

Begin to connect with your environment.

Take in the sky.

Notice and feel the weather on your skin.

And let's just begin by taking a few deeper breaths together.

Allow the slow and smooth nature of your breath to begin to shift the inner space so that with each exhale,

You feel any stresses of your day beginning to soften.

And as you begin to take your walk,

If you have a tendency to walk quickly,

Know that slowing down in our physical body helps us to slow down internally.

Continuing to breathe down into the belly,

Maybe giving the body a little sway.

If there's any little stretches or twists or movements with the arms or hands,

Maybe you want to reach up and stretch up towards the sky and lengthen anything that allows your body to begin to move a little more freely.

Now,

One of the key aspects of walking in this way is that we set our pace in a way that we have nowhere to go.

That there is absolutely no rush,

Nothing to achieve.

Just allowing each moment of feeling our feet on this earth to be all the gift that we need.

Life just as it is now.

Breathing,

Embodied,

Feeling,

Moving in just the way that you like.

Now,

I'd like to offer a little mantra or meditation to go along with your walk.

I want you to connect with the slow speed at which your feet are connecting with the ground,

Feeling the way the heel rolls into the mid-foot,

Into the ball of the foot,

Into the toes,

And then lifts and repeats.

And I want you to connect with each footstep the three words,

I love you.

As an appreciation,

As a prayer,

As a statement of gratitude to this planet.

So each time you take a step,

I,

And then the next step,

Love,

And then the next step,

You.

And we'll just take about 10 cycles of this very simple mantra,

Your only goal is just to be with the feelings in the body and the feet and just repeating softly internally to yourself.

I love you.

And allowing this feeling,

This relationship with your environment to permeate all the cells of your body.

And if you really tune in,

You may even feel that sense of love goes beyond your skin and begins to connect you with everything that is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The great philosopher Frederick Nietzsche once said,

Only ideas won by walking have any value.

So don't be surprised if your creativity is perked up during your walk.

And if any valuable thoughts are passing through the mind,

Feel free to make a note or add a to-do list item.

And then when you can,

Go ahead and allow those thoughts to pass.

And I want you to bring your attention to the center of your chest where the heart lives.

Feel the energy that radiates beyond the surface of the skin.

The electromagnetic field of the heart can be measured well outside of the body,

Over a meter.

So feel that energetic quality of the center of motion.

The heart meridian moves right out to the ring finger on either side,

Right out to the palms of the hands.

So feel through all your tissues,

All your nerve cells,

Through all the senses right out into the space around you.

As you walk,

Relaxed and easy.

Lengthening up through the back of the skull.

Letting the body be natural and at ease.

Feeling into the unseen.

And then allowing this exploration of connectedness to move our attention up around the head.

And then letting the body be and move our attention up around the head.

And feeling the radiating energy from the very crown of the head connecting through the feet with the earth and to the heavens or the universe,

The great beyond out through the head.

And then letting the body be natural and at ease.

And sometimes it can have a transcendent quality to where the vastness,

The expansiveness that you become is so beyond the body that the self dissolves and there is only connection.

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And just keep widening your field of awareness into the present.

See if you can be open to all things that you hear all things that you see,

Taste,

Smell,

And feel.

The whole body and all of its surroundings.

And if you notice that it feels particularly delicious allow that little smile of awareness to broaden across the face.

These are the gifts that the moment always holds for us.

Beautiful simplicity.

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And what I'd like to do here is just leave you with one last favorite quote of mine.

And then you can use these techniques and these ways of being with the present to enjoy as much of a walk as you'd like.

This quote comes from Albert Einstein.

He says,

We are slowed down sound and light waves.

We are slowed down sound and light waves.

A walking bundle of frequency tuned into the cosmos.

We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.

So as you walk,

Can you feel your slowed down sound and light waves?

Your bundle of frequencies tuning into the cosmos.

I hope you enjoy this walk and wherever it takes you today.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Enjoy and be well.

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Reviews

So lovely thank you!

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Gracias, gracias, gracias 🙌🏻
Love my mindful walking :)

Just lovely...

Marvelous! I went straight from Damian’s mobilization session in Insight Timer’s Morning Challenge series to this awakening walk. I absolutely loved slowing down and taking in the nature around. Gratitude for this moment of expansion and serenity. 🙏🏼🌳🌲🕊️☮️

Beautiful🙏
Thank you😊

Nice pace setting as I stroll through Descanso gardens.

Awesome experience .thanks

Thank you for this wonderful and soothing practice. It felt better than seated meditations. The connection with nature made me put a smile on my face long before you suggested it
I hope there are more of these coming.
Thanks again!

My favourite walking meditation I’m gonna do it again right now thank you so much

Wonderful wonderful wonderful!!!

Glorious 🙏🏼🙌🏼❤️

Wonderful walking meditation.

Gentle walking workout that helped me connect with nature, thank you.

Love the Einstein quote!!