Hi,
Welcome.
This is Sarah Rabinovich,
And this practice is called getting out of your head and onto your feet.
This practice is often helpful for when you might find yourself ruminating or getting stuck in your head.
Not to say that it's inherently negative to be in your head.
We can just kind of notice rumination and analyzing as a mind state that we can choose to stand and reinforce or intend to shift.
So beginning by standing up,
Coming to your feet,
With your arms gently lying by the sides,
Palms open and relaxed,
Maybe loosening up the fingers to release any tension,
Drain any tightness.
Taking a few deep and slow breaths here in this strong standing position,
Feeling the feet on the floor beneath you,
All of the muscles of the legs supporting the body.
You're perhaps feeling the subtle movement of the body,
The chest,
The shoulders rising and falling as the body is breathed in and out.
Before beginning this walking meditation practice,
Taking a few moments to just check in with yourself,
What does the body feel like right now?
What moods or emotions are here?
And where's the mind right now?
What's going on in the mind?
What's your quality of thinking?
Letting things be just as they are.
There's no need to change what's here,
The mind and the body and the heart.
In this practice,
You'll be walking with no place to go,
With nothing to do,
Just walking for the sheer sake of inhabiting this body,
Grounding in the sensations of your body moving and breath in the body as you walk.
And really,
There's no right or wrong way to do this,
Fighting you to start by walking really slowly so that you can perhaps more fully attuned to the sensations of the body.
Feeling free to change this pace or start more quickly.
This is your practice.
So shifting the weight of your body now onto the right foot,
Feeling the right leg and foot supporting the body.
Lifting the left foot off the ground,
Raising it and placing it on the floor,
Tuning into the multitude of sensations or lack of sensations.
The muscles of the legs as you move.
And shifting the weight of the body onto the left foot now,
Lifting the right foot off the ground,
Raising it and placing it on the floor.
Nice and slowly now with full awareness of what it feels like in your body to walk,
To move in this body.
You're welcome to place your hands wherever you like,
Feeling free to let them just hang by your sides or gently clasp them in front of you or behind you.
Feeling free to look down a few feet ahead of you or straight ahead,
Whatever feels most comfortable to rest your gaze.
Lifting,
Raising,
Placing.
Lifting,
Raising,
Placing.
Walking mindfully on pace.
I find it helpful to even whisper these instructions in the mind.
Lifting,
Raising,
Placing.
Walking mindfully.
When you notice the mind wandering back into thinking mind or becoming fixated on a particular visual object around you or sounds,
Just noticing this,
This is all part of the experience,
Not a problem at all.
So acknowledging where the mind went and then gently returning awareness back to the sensations of walking and breathing.
Lifting,
Raising,
Placing.
Feeling free to mix it up and experiment with different styles of walking.
Noticing what this feels like in the body.
And so perhaps raising the knees up a little higher or picking up your pace or walking a few steps backwards if you feel comfortable.
Being creative.
This is your practice.
And having your body tuning in,
Noticing the sensations in the body and the breath as you move.
And now when you're ready,
Coming to a pause in your own time.
Standing once again with arms by your sides,
Connecting with the breath.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Checking in with yourself once again.
What does the body feel like?
What's here in the mood and the mind?
Letting be.
And as we come to the end of this practice,
Taking some time to thank yourself for having taken care of yourself with walking meditation.
This is an act of self love.
