Welcome to session 12,
Walking meditation.
So this is going to be a slightly different practice again today.
It will be best to practice this on the move,
So either in a room that's large enough for you to walk around in small circles,
Or better yet if you just take some headphones with you and go for a walk outside.
What we'll be doing here is focusing our complete attention on the sensations related to walking.
And if you can do this,
Anytime you go for a walk really can become a form of meditation and an opportunity to be mindful.
So start walking at your normal pace.
I know on some meditation retreats they teach you to do this walking very slowly,
But really it's not the most practical way to do this and it's harder to replicate in the real world.
So walk at a normal pace and just become aware of the sensations in each of your feet as they touch the ground.
So with every single step,
Noticing exactly what's happening in both of your feet.
Try and be as precise as you possibly can.
So feeling the ball of the foot touching the ground and then the weight slowly transferring to the middle of the foot and then to the toes before your foot pushes off.
The more detail you can feel on each of the steps,
The better.
And as you continue to walk,
It might help to say mentally step every time your foot touches the ground.
As you continue to walk,
Feeling the sensations in both of your feet,
You might want to start expanding your awareness further up the leg.
So also seeing what happens in your ankles,
In your calf muscles as well,
As you walk down the stairs.
And then as you continue to walk,
Feeling the sensations in both of your feet,
In your calf muscles as well as you walk along.
Again,
Feeling all of the sensations as precisely as you possibly can.
When you feel like your attention is strong enough,
Start to expand the awareness again further up the legs.
So as well as your feet,
As well as the lower part of your legs,
Also feeling your upper legs as you walk along.
So as you're walking,
You're feeling as many of the movements of your legs,
Of your muscles as much as you possibly can.
At this stage,
Focusing on all of the sensations in both of your legs as you walk is often enough to maintain a good level of mindfulness as you walk.
But some people here like to go further,
They choose to expand their awareness to the upper part of their body as well.
So they have a really full attention and concentration on all of the sensations related to walking in the entire body.
Whereas some other people maybe like to add sounds,
Focusing on the sounds that may be arising at the same time.
I personally find that focusing on the sensations in my legs and also listening out for sounds is a fantastic way to maintain mindfulness and also in my experience makes walks a lot more enjoyable.
Certainly being present in the moment as you walk is far,
Far more enjoyable than being buffeted around by your thoughts.
The great thing about this meditation is that it can be practiced a lot whenever you're walking to work or whenever you need to go outside or even when you're just getting up in your home and walking across the room.
If you can always try and have a bit of mindful awareness of your walking,
It's going to massively improve and increase your mindfulness throughout the rest of your day and it's a wonderful complement to the normal meditation of sitting down and to practice at some point in the day.
So I hope you enjoy the practice and have a great day.
