This is an open awareness walking meditation.
So for this walking meditation,
I'll be inviting you to use all of your senses to fully be in your experience awake and alive to all that's around you.
So start by choosing a place either inside or outside and find a walking path of anywhere from from about 10 to 230 paces.
So finding a spot where you can walk either back and forth or even in a circle,
So that the meditation isn't about getting somewhere,
But will allow you to simply be alive and be aware of your environment without worrying about necessarily trying to get anywhere.
But if you do decide to walk somewhere longer than 10 to 30 paces,
That's okay as well.
So start by standing still and just sensing the weight of your body on your feet,
Bringing your feet hips width distance apart,
Feeling your muscles supporting and stabilizing you.
Feeling your feet rooted into the floor with a ground and through the floor or the ground feeling the earth beneath you.
Feeling the support of the earth beneath you.
Feeling the sensation of the crown of your head,
Pressing into the sky and just feeling that tension in your body,
The sense of being both rooted and elongated stretching.
Take a moment just to rock a bit back and forth from your heels to your toes.
Till you finally come to a point of stillness a position of neutral.
Now take a moment to lift your right heel.
Bring your right heel down,
Lift your left heel,
Bring your left heel down.
Just begin swaying a bit in this way,
Lifting your right heel,
Bringing it down into your left heel,
Bringing it down,
Noticing the sensations in your feet and your lower body.
And again come to a position of neutrality.
Taking a full breath and a full out breath.
Allowing your shoulders to relax.
Inviting any unnecessary tension to leave your body.
Now beginning to walk,
Noticing the sensations of your feet lifting off the earth and the sensation as you place them again onto the earth sensing each step.
Feel if your heel touching the earth,
The ball of your foot,
The toes.
Just noticing the sensation of your feet lifting and meeting the floor meeting the earth again.
Taking your whole body now,
All of your senses awake.
Taking a few steps noticing how your body feels.
Noticing the weight of your legs.
Noticing the effort it takes to lift them from the earth and the release as you allow them to rest again against the earth as you place your foot down.
Feeling the contact of your foot as it touches the ground and the movement on your body as you move into your next step.
And if you notice that your mind has started to wander.
That's perfectly okay.
Your mind is doing just what it's supposed to do.
So just very gently.
So if you were speaking to a puppy just bring your mind back to focusing the movement of your feet.
And if you like you can even pause.
Stand still a moment.
Take a full breath in and out.
Just to collect your composure.
Now using your sense of sight.
Look around and begin to notice what's around you.
Allow yourself to notice any colors,
Any shapes.
Noticing any detail of texture and contrast.
Using your visual sense to become observant.
Noticing,
Paying attention to all that is around you in this moment.
Now using your sense of smell.
Notice any sense around you.
Let that sense seem close by and which ones are farther away.
So taking a moment to breathe in the air around you.
If you like here you can even lift your wrist to your nose,
Pausing.
Just opening without judgment if possible,
Any smells and scents and aromas.
Now engaging your sense of hearing.
Noticing what you can hear.
Becoming attuned to all the sounds within you.
All the sounds without you.
Noticing if there's rhythms to the sounds.
Noticing the tone and quality of the sounds around you.
Now inviting in your sense of taste.
This one might be a little bit more challenging and not as obvious.
Just seeing if you can taste the air.
If it has a flavor.
Or if perhaps the sight of something around you evokes a sense of taste in your mouth.
And again pausing here a moment if you feel as if your mind has wandered again that's totally okay.
You're asking yourself to do a lot here.
To do what's not habitual.
So gathering your composure with a nice breath in and out.
Now inviting in your sense of touch.
And here noticing if there's anything in your environment that you are curious about.
That you perhaps would like to touch.
Something that is safe to touch.
Feeling the texture underneath your fingers.
Smooth or rough.
Warm or cold.
What physical sensation does it evoke when you touch it?
Bringing in your sense of touch.
Noticing the sensation on your hand.
Now finishing off the last moment or so by just walking with a sense of openness and curiosity about the world around you just receptive to sounds and smells.
And tastes.
All your senses open.
Letting your mind wander that's okay to do that.
Just noticing if there are some thoughts that you get caught in.
Just letting yourself breathe through that.
Now slowly coming to a mindful end just taking a moment to bring your awareness to your breathing.
Standing still.
Placing your hand on your heart and your other hand on your belly.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Reminding yourself that even if it's only five minutes a day.
You can always take a moment to take a bit of a mindful walk.
Engaging all of your senses so that you can really experience all that there is to life.
