Walking Meditation: Side By Side

A soulful meditation inspiring shared movement *with* one a loved one, partner, or friend (in-person or energetic). It weaves themes of deep breathing, self-compassion, humility, and spacious listening. This is number 3 (of a 6 part series) and is made to be inclusive of any traditions (or no traditions). Production support from Jason Morrell and City Church San Francisco. This track was recorded outdoors and contains ambient sounds.

Transcript

You Peace and blessings and courage My name is Jonathan Stalls. I identify as he his an LGBTQIA+. I'm recording this moving meditation invitation from a local park so you will hear the sounds of birds and airplanes and traffic and people I Invite you to acknowledge and be with and honor the sounds in your unique space This invitation is a part of a six-part contemplative movement Lenten walking movement series This is week three leaning into connecting to another leaning into the invitation of walking with one other person a loved one a peer a friend a family member a partner a spouse a neighbor The theme is side by side So I invite you To physically have someone with you in this invitation Where you can both be listening to this invitation and meditation together to start your journey If you do not have another person physically with you, I invite you to energetically in spirit think of and have someone in mind that you might be walking with and Sending them and inviting them to in spirit be with you as you move So if you do not already have someone with you Or maybe you don't have someone in mind yet. I invite you to pause this meditation Lean in and then return Peace So as we begin our movement I invite you to be together under a tree or near a tree or just together in stillness and presence And we're just gonna take a couple deep breaths together grounding our bodies our aliveness our existence our togetherness Taking a deep breath in honoring our worthiness and our existence deeply in Slowly out Slowly out That we together breathe in the wisdom of the outside world the sky the trees the soil the birds The wisdom of our own breath and our fragility we breathe it together deeply in Slowly out And we breathe deeply Into our lungs and our veins that we breathe in openness and curiosity and spaciousness Breathing that deeply in Slowly out So I invite you and your walking moving partner to slowly start moving and I invite you for these first several minutes as I flow with you Just to be present extra present To the movement of your bodies and your stories without exchanging words Without overthinking That you both are slowly moving together Side by side So let's be in that just for a little bit The movement of our bodies side by side together Forward Under this big mysterious sky Let's be with that let's honor that So As We move we continue honoring movement We continue releasing Any temptation to overthink But as we move We move down into our hearts into our guts into our limbs And we honor The other and their unique journey experience and movement into their heart and their body and their limbs I Invite you to connect with your experiences Anything that comes up anything that you're aware of and again not overthinking but just being aware Of your life of who you are of what you've gone through The things that are hard the things that are heavy the things that are joyous dreams Love fear pain We just we move with it we honor it in our movement I invite you not to cling to any one thought I Invite you not to fix or solve But I also invite you to not empty or erase That we are moving with that we acknowledge and move with who we are as we are And so in your movement side by side with This loved one peer friend fellow breathing being That has this unique code idiom Mixture of experiences That we move with In spirit in our bodies we're not trying to solve or fix Or even fully understand That we honor this person moving next to us as they are Because they're alive because they breathe like you do Because your movement together Is a story of togetherness And interdependence And And interdependence and in some mysterious and beautiful way A path and a root system where you come together where your stories become one So we move and we honor we move and we open So I invite you to continue just moving in this way in this posture of honoring Who you're moving with and honoring yourself And your own uniqueness I invite you all to walk Perhaps in stillness or in silence less words just at least for a couple minutes beyond this meditation and beyond the guidance And then just allow organically Words and aches to come to the surface So as we close I invite you to both pause perhaps by a tree Or on some grass or wherever you find this Let's just take some deep breaths together honoring the intention that we're bringing to our movement and to our connection And to our connection So we breathe deeply in honoring our own uniqueness and the uniqueness of another The uniqueness of our peer our partner our friend We breathe uniqueness deeply in And slowly out That we breathe in openness and curiosity and listening Listening from the level of the heart and the body and the level of vibration We breathe that deeply in deep listening deep vibration deeply in And we breathe in the wonder of moving forward together deeply in Deeply in and slowly out Peace and movement and wisdom side by side So You

Reviews

Wow. I'm literally nearly in tears walking with my deceased partner's spirit, he passed in 2018 at 34 so we had a lot of dreams and when you said about what dreams did we have...it hit deep... you know? Like right in the gut. But I imagined I was holding his hand and walking side by side like we used to and I felt a sense of peace and calm like nothing else....and this is my first walking meditation. Let's just say it's probably going to be my best. Tysm jonathan. Blessings to you friend. 🙏🌻💛

Beautiful, thank you so much. Will try to do it soon, with somebody I love and honor.
Honoring honoring honoring.
Love it.
Meanwhile I imagine doing it here, at home, with a special friend I care about, walking eachother, under the world around.