A Mindful Walk

Walk with me and together we will honor the directions, drink in inspiring poetry, and notice the elements of earth, plants, animals, water, fire, and air. I will invite you to open to your senses and simply be aware of the feeling of being grounded in body, mind, and spirit.

Transcript

Welcome to this mindfulness walk.

The intention for this is just to go on your daily walk and do it in such a way that helps you be a little bit more mindful in the process.

So you can be practicing mindfulness while out and about and enjoying the elements and moving your body.

And the way I want to start this mindfulness walk is to take a moment and stop and take a moment and just kind of acknowledge the directions.

Let's open up to the directions.

This is a practice that I've fallen into whenever I do Native American sweatlark ceremonies or work with Native American spirituality.

We get a chance to simply open to the directions of the medicine wheel.

And we'll first we'll start and put our feet on the ground and face east if you can figure out where east is.

In the Native American spiritual tradition,

The east has a color.

The color is gold or yellow because that's the place of the rising sun.

And the animal associated with the east is the eagle or the hawk that has incredible sight,

Incredible vision.

And this is a great time we get a chance to greet the sun,

Whether or not you can see it or not,

You know,

Whether you can see it or not.

Greet the sun.

And in yoga,

When we say namaste,

We are honoring the light that is within you that is also within me.

When we do sun salutations,

So you're a namaskar,

We're acknowledging the same light that is in the sun that is also within myself.

And just as you're facing the east for a moment,

Think about what's dawning for you.

What's what's on the horizon?

What's coming up for you?

You know,

What's what's rising for you?

Then take a moment and turn to the south.

And the south,

The color of the south is green because that's the verdant side of the hill where it gets a lot of the sun.

And the animal associated with the south is the mouse.

It's about taking care of things that are at home in your immediate environment,

You know,

Noticing what's around you.

And so take a moment and just acknowledge the south and see what's there and maybe think about something that is going on in your life that you could perhaps that needs a little bit of your attention in this moment.

And then turn to the west and the west,

The color is either brown or black.

And in the west,

The animal associated with the west is the bear.

This is about hibernation and things that are starting to set the sun that is setting and what is leaving.

It's an opportunity to think about what is changing in your life,

What's retiring,

What's moving on,

What's going to sleep.

And then finally we turn to the north and the color associated with this is the is white.

It's the white hills,

The white north and the animal associated with this direction is the white buffalo.

And the white buffalo is always seen as something that's very auspicious,

Very spiritual,

Holy,

And also represents great wisdom.

So think about maybe something or someone in your life that represents great wisdom,

What's your connection to the numinous or the spiritual,

You know,

Where is there a person or something you can connect to that is wise.

And now that we've greeted the directions,

I want to read a poem by Mary Oliver.

And you're welcome to start your walk,

Of course,

As we're moving this poem by Mary Oliver is Why I Wake Early.

She says,

Hello,

Son of my face.

Hello you who make the morning and spread it over the fields and into the faces of the tulips and the nodding morning glories and into the windows of even the miserable and the crotchety.

You who are the preacher that ever was dear star that just happens to be where you are in the universe to keep us from ever darkness to ease us with warm touching to hold us in the great hands of light.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Watch now,

How I start the day in happiness and kindness.

It's a great way to start our walk.

Hello.

Along your walk you're likely going to come across other people and encourage you to pass people you meet along your journey with.

Hello,

Even with just a smile or a nod.

May be a silent blessing in your heart.

Very simple.

May you be happy and well.

So you can hold that blessing in your heart.

As you see people and give them a friendly wave.

Those are walking.

I invite you to just take a look around the landscape and notice what you notice.

The most basic things which we'll come into a little bit more in depth later but what's the temperature like.

What's the quality of the sun.

Is it a gray day or is it a sunshiney day.

The temperature warm or is it cool.

Is there a breeze.

Can you smell anything.

What's the feeling of the day like.

If you kind of just do a broad brush of your gaze across the landscape.

If you could pick out two or three colors that you might see as you look across.

Looking at the landscape the way maybe a painter would look at the landscape or a photographer with lines and light quality.

Hues of color.

What do you notice.

Just taking a moment to see things as they are.

Hello happy dogs.

As they're walking we're going to do a couple of breathing exercises.

Kind of fill up our lungs with fresh oxygen.

Take a deep breath in.

Hold your breath for a second and then send a long sigh out your mouth.

Again nice full deep breath in.

Hold your breath.

Another deep breath into the nostrils.

Hold.

Sigh out your mouth.

So good.

Now we're going to do something similar.

But what you're going to do is you're going to breathe in and hold your breath.

Just for a couple seconds and then you are going to breathe out.

And then hold your breath for a couple seconds.

Okay so nice full big breath in.

Hold your breath.

And breathe out.

Hold your breath.

Breathe in.

Hold your breath.

And breathe out.

Hold your breath.

One more of these.

Excellent.

Now as you're walking along just make it a practice.

Take a couple of deep breaths and allow your breaths to move slowly and deeply down into your belly.

This is the breathing pattern that signals to your nervous system that everything is okay in the world.

Breathing down deep in the belly.

Now of course you don't want to get like headed and if you ever start to get a little light headed.

You're probably breathing in a little bit more than you need to and you can actually focus maybe a little bit more on the exhale part.

But again breathing deeply into the belly.

It's a nice reset.

It's a nice nervous system reset to say everything's good here.

And as you're breathing hopefully you're still looking around and noticing colors.

Noticing the details.

Now you're welcome to do any breathing style you'd like.

But I want to start to tune into senses now.

I want to get really detailed about exactly what our senses are doing.

So take a moment and just notice what you see.

Let's go back to those colors.

And at first glance you might think everything's monochrome.

I only see like one thing.

You know if it's a gray day everything's gray.

But when you start to really pay attention you start to notice how many different colors there are.

How many different shades or hues of that color there could be.

And just start to look around and look at colors.

Look at the colors in the landscape.

And of course at any time if you want to just stop and look around.

That's totally up to you but if you're moving that's excellent.

What about shapes?

If you're in a populated area with a lot of people maybe you see those straight lines and boxes of buildings and cars and things.

If you're in the wilderness maybe you see the curve of the hills and the shape of trees.

Just notice shapes.

Do you see anything in particular in the landscape that looks maybe a little different?

Especially if this is a path you tend to go on quite regularly.

Do you see anything that maybe is a little bit different?

Or maybe as you start to pay attention you start to notice things you never noticed before.

Now you can do it a different sense.

See if you can notice what you smell.

What does it smell like here?

A couple deep full breaths.

Perhaps you can smell the earth or plants.

Maybe you're on a walk and you're walking by your neighbor's beautiful garden and you can bend over and smell some blossoms or smell some flowers.

I'm noticing myself as I'm walking around this beautiful foothills path that I never really noticed the smell,

The scent.

I can smell the plants around me.

I can smell that earthiness of the ground around me.

What do you hear?

Certainly you're hearing the scent of my voice.

You can even pause this for a moment and just notice what you can hear.

The caveat for all of these is we're not going to have an opinion about them,

Not good or bad.

As neutral as possible as experiencing the way a scientist would or maybe an alien from another planet.

Coming down and experiencing this for the first time.

Adopt a quality of wonder and curiosity.

Even if you want to pause this for a moment and just open up to sounds,

Notice what you're hearing.

Then once you've gone through the hearing sense,

Notice what you taste.

Maybe you're walking with a cup of coffee or you can still taste coffee on your tongue.

Just whatever taste it is in your mouth.

Sometimes,

Especially when I'm walking on the woods,

I'm prone to grab a piece of straw or something,

A blade of grass and kind of nibble it.

It's going to have that taste of whatever it is I'm walking through in my mouth.

Then what do you feel?

What does your body feel?

Just connect with your body for a moment.

If you feel your arms moving at your side,

You feel your legs moving,

The ground at your feet.

Be sensitive to notice your clothes on your skin.

Sensitive enough to feel the temperature and how that might vary different parts of your body.

Perhaps you can feel the sun on your skin or the wind on your skin.

This is the presence of your body in space.

What do you feel?

Fantastic sound of the magpie.

As you're on your walk,

You look for those choice opportunities to hear what nature is speaking to you.

For me,

I've got a train in the distance and a magpie here,

Nice and close.

I'm opening up and just being with the presentations.

Once in a while,

Don't forget to stop to look around.

Goodbye,

Mr.

Magpie.

Now let's open up and notice some of the elements.

First,

Let's start to be really present to the earth.

Maybe look down to the ground and notice the color of the earth.

Maybe on the sidewalk or maybe you're in a park,

Maybe walking around the neighborhood,

Maybe you're on a mountain trail in the desert,

On the beach.

What does the earth look like?

Look at the soil,

The color.

Look up and notice the environment of the earth around you.

You can see hills or mountains or plains.

If you notice any patterns of erosion,

Imagine what this place may have looked like 10,

000 years ago.

Can you see the ways in which the elements have sort of shaped this land?

Curious about some parts that may be eroded and other parts that still feel quite upright and robust.

Maybe you can see stones and rocks and see the colors of those minerals.

If you're walking on the earth,

You can feel the quality of that connection to the ground beneath your feet.

There's a wonderful poem I love by Wendell Berry called The Spiritual Journey.

He says,

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,

No matter how long,

But only by a spiritual journey,

A journey of one inch,

Very arduous and humbling and joyful,

By which we arrive at the ground at our feet and learn to be at home.

I love that idea of just connecting to where you are in this moment.

The great irony here is that we are always right here,

But here is always changing.

The world is a treadmill underneath our feet.

Every step is here.

We are always here,

But here is always changing.

Take a moment and start to notice the plant life around you.

If you're noticing some trees,

Perhaps you see some lichen on the trees.

Notice if there's leaves on the trees or if they're denuded.

Notice what season it is that you can tell by what's going on in the plants.

See if you can look around and notice the colors in the plants.

Do you know of any of the names of the plants,

The trees,

Or the flowers?

Maybe pausing for a moment and taking a glance at the bark of a tree and noticing that texture.

Perhaps you notice insects or growth patterns.

Perhaps you're looking at buds or maybe you're looking at leaves that are falling.

Perhaps the big,

Broad,

Leafy green of leaves.

I want you to take a moment to look around and see the different colors of the plants,

The trees,

Etc.

Take a moment and notice the animals.

If you're in an urban environment,

Maybe what you notice is the birds.

Maybe what you notice is the dogs and the cats.

Maybe the squirrels.

Take a moment and notice the animal kingdom.

It's a beautiful woodpecker that just happened to land right next to me.

I wanted to make an appearance here on our mindfulness walk.

I think I would have missed it if I hadn't just stopped for a moment and started to look around to notice what kind of animals.

I have a particular affinity with foxes.

For some reason,

I see foxes everywhere,

Which to me signifies that that's my animal,

That's my spirit animal.

For me,

The fox represents that wonderful liminal place.

They're out before the twilight and dusk parts of the day,

In those transitionary times of the day.

I'm really fascinated with that in-between state of consciousness,

Particularly vis-à-vis doing meditations that put me to a deep,

Deep place.

I feel like the fox in some ways represents that space,

That wisdom that is found in those deep places.

Maybe it's just because I'm looking for them,

But I see foxes all over the place.

I've made a lot of friends who've said they've never seen a fox in the wild ever,

But I see them all over,

And in part because I'm looking for them.

But I've had the pleasure to see foxes quite often when I'm out in the elements,

Out in the woods.

I see insects.

Let's not forget about our little friends there.

Flies,

Mosquitoes even.

Another poem here,

And again this one is by Mary Oliver,

Who has just such a great connection with the natural world.

It's called The Summer's Day.

Who made the world?

Who made the swan and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper,

I mean.

The one who has flung herself out of the grass.

The one who is eating sugar out of my hand.

The one who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down.

The one who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention.

How to fall down into the grass.

How to kneel down in the grass.

How to be idle and blessed.

How to stroll through the fields,

Which is what I've been doing all day.

Tell me,

What else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last and too soon?

Tell me,

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

I love this.

Tell me,

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Now,

We're still kind of focused on elements here.

At this moment,

I invite you to just notice water.

What are the ways that water manifests?

Maybe it's been raining.

Maybe your neighbor's sprinklers are on.

Maybe you're walking near a lake.

One of my favorite authors,

Wallace Stevens,

Says in an excerpt from a poem,

Perhaps the truth depends upon a walk around the lake.

Perhaps the truth depends upon a walk around the lake.

And I love this.

Sometimes you just have to get around,

Get outside and move,

Right?

Just to feel space and just to be out and about.

Any other manifestations of water?

Maybe you're noticing up in the clouds,

Some storm clouds are starting to come.

Maybe it's raining currently.

Maybe you are in the desert and you're noticing the lack of water.

Now,

Shift your gaze to the sun.

And see if you can notice,

Even if it's a cloudy day,

Where the sun would be,

If it were open,

Or notice the lack of the sun.

And see if you can notice what season you're in,

Where the sun is along the horizon.

Whether or not it's creating a warm season or a cold season.

Just kind of notice the sky and notice how things are,

Just kind of,

You know,

What's happening in the astronomy.

Maybe you're at night and you're on a walk and you're just kind of noticing things.

You can notice what's happening in the earth,

In the sky,

In the sun.

I think so often we just forget to look around,

Look up,

Look up into the sky.

Do you notice what constellations are kind of present in the season?

The stars,

You know a couple names of the stars and constellations,

You can notice.

And what's happening in the heavens above you,

Where the sun is,

Where it rises and sets along the horizon.

What stage the moon is in.

Maybe just curious about the shadows you can see around you.

Is it midday,

Where there's not a lot of shadows or the sun is straight up?

Early in the morning,

Where maybe there's not a lot of shadows because maybe the sun hasn't come up yet.

Or the shadows are long and deep because maybe it's,

You know,

First thing in the morning or dusk.

Notice the quality of light.

And then the last of the elements I want to focus on is air.

See if you can just notice what's happening in the air.

Feel the air on your skin.

Maybe it's a windy day,

Maybe it's a calm day.

Just kind of notice that feeling of the air around you.

As you're walking,

Feel yourself moving through the air.

Just feel yourself moving through the air.

As you're walking,

Just be aware that you are aware.

Just be aware that you're paying attention.

Sometimes you're going about your merry way and can't help but think about work or family or anything else that's going on in your world.

And that's completely natural and understandable.

And you know,

It's even okay as long as you're aware that you're thinking.

As long as you're aware that your mind is processing.

Because even in contemplative practices,

Meditation practices,

Where we try to establish a focus at the exclusion of other things,

It's to,

First and foremost,

Just have a ready relationship with being aware.

And focus is a great way to practice some of that awareness.

But the more and more you can practice being aware,

The more you notice that while you have this body that's moving through space and experiencing all these wonderful things,

Life and flavors and all these things,

What you are is awareness itself.

You are aware.

So you're going through your senses.

Hi,

Dog.

You're noticing the dogs run by,

You're noticing the feet touching the ground,

And you're noticing the plants.

The resounding common denominator is that you are aware.

You're noticing.

So after a while,

You can be aware that you're noticing.

And whatever comes your way is a beautiful messenger,

An invitation to keep noticing.

This is a great idea that's thousands of years old.

In yoga,

You've got the consciousness of everything,

The consciousness that pervades everything,

That is everything,

That is formless,

It's just the all-knowing everything.

And then you've got the perfect opposite,

Which is the form,

The dynamism,

It's the energy,

It's substance and matter.

The consciousness part is sort of represented by Shiva,

The male anthropomorphization of this idea.

And then the form,

The mother,

The mater,

The matter,

The matrix,

That's the feminine,

She's the dancer.

She's the form and she's the substance.

She's all the things that we can pay attention to.

And these two are in a beautiful marriage together.

And as we're moving around on this earth,

Everything that we can see is this beautiful manifestation of the feminine,

Which is constantly evoking the consciousness,

Constantly evoking our consciousness.

So everything we see is an invitation to practice paying attention.

And consciousness then goes back to merry form.

So we go back and do things like this,

We go on a walk with full presence.

And as we're more and more aware of how we're moving and we're being in our bodies,

That develops even greater consciousness.

It helps us to go back and live in the form,

In the life,

With even greater clarity.

And there's this beautiful upward cycle and this dance of consciousness to form.

So I love the idea that the divine feminine here has created this incredibly textured,

Beautiful world and landscape.

And every leaf on every tree and every weed and every plant and every blade of grass and sunrise,

Everything you can notice is a love letter from the divine saying,

Hey,

I made this for you.

Look at this.

Wake up.

Pay attention.

I love this idea that everything is a love letter from the divine.

Everything's simply inviting you to pay attention and help you wake up.

And as you're looking around,

What are you noticing?

What is playing with your curiosity?

What's inviting you to open up your eyes?

What are you noticing maybe for the first time?

Now,

Bring your attention to the simple groundedness of your body.

And imagine you were like a tree person and with every step,

The roots of your feet could reach down into the ground.

You might even want to pause for a moment and stop and feel your feet grounded or kind of like the pace you've got going.

Or your dog is off,

You know,

Digging in your neighbor's garden and you need to go over and commandeer a situation.

But as you're moving or standing still,

Take a moment and feel yourself connect to the ground.

This ground,

The ground at your feet.

Being here,

Being now.

The world is this treadmill underneath your feet.

And you're always right here.

And as you're walking on this part of the ground here,

This is reserved just for you.

This step,

This spot.

Feel yourself belonging to this ground.

And it might even help to repeat that to yourself.

I belong here.

I belong here.

This is the part of the earth that is carrying me.

Feel that beautiful,

Sheer animal quality of your being that's moving and breathing.

Just kind of run through your body here for a second.

Feel the sensation of your feet.

Can you notice your toes as you're walking?

Can you feel the muscles in your lower legs,

Your calves as you're walking?

Can you feel your knees?

Hips?

Pelvis?

Be aware of the sensation of your lower back.

And your belly.

Feel your ribcage.

Notice your diaphragm moving as you breathe.

Feel your chest.

Shoulders.

Arms.

Neck.

Head.

Feel yourself moving through space.

And just be,

Allow yourself to be full of delight.

Choose to be full of delight and wonder.

Just receiving all the different presentations.

Hello.

Hi puppy.

May you be happy and may you be well.

So,

My journey with you is about to come to an end.

And if you'd like to continue your walk,

By all means.

But I want to finish our walk together with a little bit of gratitude.

And I want to express this gratitude,

Just say thank you for taking me on your walk with you.

And being more mindful.

And that this next poem by E.

E.

Cummings be a prayer to a fantastic day.

And I want to express this gratitude for the presence to be out here and be moving.

For this wonderful world and this life that we have.

And the sheer joy of waking up and paying attention.

This is called I Thank You God for Most This Amazing by E.

E.

Cummings.

I thank you God for most this amazing day.

For the leaping greenly spirits of trees.

And a blue true dream of sky.

And for everything which is natural,

Which is infinite,

Which is yes.

I who have died am alive again today.

And this is the sun's birthday.

This is the birth day of life and of love and wings and of the gay great happening illimitably earth.

How should tasting,

Touching,

Hearing,

Seeing,

Breathing,

Any lifted from the know of all,

Nothing,

Human merely being,

Doubt unimaginable you.

Now the ears of my ears awake,

Now the eyes of my eyes are opened.

Thank you for a wonderful,

Wonderful walk.

And be bright and open.

And until next time,

Namaste.

Reviews

So lovely! Thank you.

Thank you for the great mindful walking companionship

Thanks for your meditation

So peaceful and serene. Thank you

This was my first walking meditation.. it was amazing and I see things differently and so much more aware! I absolutely LOVE this and so does my dog!!!

Thanks

Such a wonderful mindfulness walk. Loved the poems too. Thank you! 🙏

Loved it thank you

Wonderful, thank you!

Such a beautiful walk. Thank you 🙏

That was the most incredible morning! Can’t wait to do it again tomorrow! Thank you so very much! May you be happy and free! Namaste!

A really good walking meditation. Will do this one again.

Fun. Love the poems. 🙏🏾❤️

Lovely guided walk. I was more mindful when walking my puppy today. Be well, be happy! My mantra for today.

Lovely and uplifting guidance for a mindful walk in the woods. I am grateful for the quiet and awe the experience garnered within. Namaste.

Loved it. A number of considerations mentioned I have never thought of before on my morning walks. Thankyou 🙏

Thank you! What a wonderful walk. I especially enjoyed the poetry— two of my favorite poets and my some of my favorites of their poems. May you be happy. May you be well. May you be blessed.🙏🏻