Walk With Me

Join Susan Dintino for a Walking Meditation that combines breath work and mindfulness. Allow yourself to leisurely walk as you feel your anxiety melt away. Stay in the moment, survey your senses and find joy in the world around you.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Susan D'Antino.

Welcome to Walk With Me,

A walking meditation.

Please make sure you check with your doctor so that there's no reason why you can't do this walking meditation.

We know that that's always the best course of action to be safe.

This is not at all strenuous,

But I always like to just remind people to check with your doctor.

Make sure this is okay if for any reason you're not supposed to be walking.

So let's get started.

One thing that I've noticed is that when I'm stressed and I most need to meditate,

I can't sit still to do it.

So what I do then is a walking meditation and that's what I'm going to share with you.

You can do this inside or outside.

I prefer to do it outside making a commitment that no matter what the weather I'm still gonna do it outside because I find I need the fresh air and I find it's really helpful to focus on my breath when I'm doing this.

So let's begin.

The first thing you're going to start with is the breath and when you feel your mind starting to wander,

Which it will do because that's perfectly normal,

Return to the breath.

So let's begin.

Inhale,

Hold and exhale.

The next time let's exhale through an open mouth.

Inhale,

Hold,

Exhale.

And one more time inhale,

Hold,

Exhale.

And you might want to do a little body movement now.

Shake out your arms,

Wiggle your feet,

Maybe rotate your ankles.

Take your time to get your body ready for this walk that you're going to be doing.

So however that looks like to you,

For me I twist my wrists,

I raise my shoulders up to my ears,

Let them drop.

I'll do one foot at a time,

Ankle circle one,

Two,

Three in one direction,

One,

Two,

Three the other direction.

Then on the other foot,

Ankle circle one,

Two,

Three in one direction,

One,

Two,

Three in the other direction.

Do a few neck rolls,

Ones to the right,

One,

Two,

Three and now in the other direction,

One,

Two,

Three.

And remind your body now in a moment of gratitude that you're very grateful for it being healthy and able to walk today and you embrace that feeling.

The gratitude is huge and when we're trying to change our mindset it's always helpful to go to a gratitude attitude.

And I know sometimes that's impossible and you know what if it is that's okay.

But right now we're going to be grateful for our body and the ability to do this walking meditation.

So let's begin.

So what I do when I'm doing this is I survey my senses.

So I begin walking and I'll be honest sometimes I use this as my walk although I don't power walk and what I mean by that is I'll set it as an activity on my watch getting my exercise in.

But you don't want to be doing this as a power walk.

So I leave that again up to your discretion what's the best way to do this because it's not super slow.

I know sometimes you'll do these walking meditations and they'll be super slow.

I would say this is more or less walking at your normal pace.

So I begin with walking and the first thing I go to is my sight.

What is it that I see?

So today when I went out I saw the sun shining brilliantly.

I looked around and I saw the traffic on the streets.

I saw a few people walking on the streets.

So we're gonna pause a moment here while you're walking and allow yourself to really look around at everything.

What do you see?

Let's take a deep breath now.

Inhale and exhale.

And now what do you hear?

I heard the noises from the traffic.

Sometimes I'll play music while I'm doing this.

I know it would be a challenge for you to do that if you're listening to this meditation.

But once you get the gist of how to do the meditation you can have a playlist playing in the background what you're doing.

And I did today so what did I hear?

I heard Enya and she was playing just the right music that I needed to hear.

Wild Child and then this one Echoes in Rain which I absolutely love which is all about seizing the day.

And I have my music on random so when these songs come up I really feel they are direct messages for me.

So now we're gonna pause for a moment and say what is it that you hear?

Let's take a deep breath here.

Inhale and exhale.

And just by doing this breathing you're gonna feel yourself relax and each time we're pausing remember you're continuing to walk and again observe.

So the next thing we're going to ask ourselves is what is it that we smell?

Now I have restaurants around me so I smelled cooking.

There's a salad restaurant around me that cooks like chicken,

Beef,

So I smelled that.

I smelled the coffee.

So sometimes it's just smelling the fresh air.

What is it that you smell?

Let's pause a moment take some really deep breaths here and what is it that you smell?

Take an inhale here inhale and exhale.

And now we're going to ask ourselves what is it that we feel?

Now today it was very sunny outside so I felt the warmth of the Sun on my face.

I felt it on my shoulders,

On my arms.

I felt this brilliant sunshine when I've walked in the rain and in the snow.

I have felt the rain.

I have felt the snow,

The wind blowing gently,

Sometimes not so gently.

So what is it that you're feeling right now as far as the sense of feeling?

Now we'll pause,

Continue to walk.

What are you feeling?

In addition to the feeling sense,

Okay,

The sensory feelings that you're having,

How are you feeling emotionally?

Let's take a deep breath here.

Inhale,

Exhale.

And how are you feeling emotionally?

And honor whatever you're feeling.

Again,

Gratitude can be something but it can also be some form of grief,

Some being aggravated,

Angry.

Allow yourself to feel what is it that you're feeling emotionally,

Mentally,

Spiritually.

Let's pause and absorb those feelings.

Let's take a deep breath here and inhale and exhale.

Now the last sense we're going to zero in on,

What are you tasting?

And this might seem a little bit strange but the one thing that I have noticed by observing this is what my mouth is feeling like.

Like what I'll do is I'll take my tongue,

Swish it around my mouth,

Maybe swallow a little bit.

If I have water maybe this is the time I'll take a gulp of water.

But what is it that you're tasting?

And I find that depending where I'm walking there are different flavors to the air.

So if I'm walking on the beach it's a sandy,

Salty taste.

When I'm walking out here it might be tasting the cold air,

The snow if it's snowing.

When I'm walking in Sedona it's like I can taste the red earth.

So right now just take a moment,

Take your tongue,

Swish it around your mouth and what is it that you're tasting?

And now at the close of the meditation I want you to really zero in on all of your senses at once.

How are you feeling sensory wise and emotionally,

Spiritually,

Mentally?

What is it you're seeing?

What is it you're hearing?

What is it you're tasting?

What is it you're smelling?

Embrace all of those feelings.

Bring them all home.

Open that heart wide and let all of these sensory experiences and most of all the peace and serenity that you've accomplished on this walk bring them all into your heart.

Take a moment to embrace these feelings.

Allow them to flow to every cell of your body with a sense of well-being,

A sense of serenity,

A sense of peace.

Thank you so much for joining me in this meditation.

I hope you feel wonderful and again if there's emotions bubbling up allow them to come up.

I love to journal after this exercise and maybe just vent all my feelings on paper.

So until we meet again this is Susan D'Antino.

Have a wonderful day.

Live well.