So I'm inviting you to find a place where you can walk up and down,
That you have some space in front of you,
About 7 to 10 paces in front of you,
And a place where you won't feel concerned about others looking at you or seeing you.
And it can be inside or outside.
And keeping in mind that we walk much of our day,
And so this is a practice that we can do formally,
Like we're doing here in this practice,
Or we can do informally by bringing awareness to our walking throughout the day.
So you can feel free to make any adaptations that you need.
So if walking's not possible for you right now,
You can also do this practice sitting in a chair,
And you can either imagine the movements,
Or you could use your legs kind of walking in place as you sit down,
So sort of shifting your weight or balance as if you were going to walk,
And making the movements in any way you can.
Or you could even use your hand,
Kind of imagining that you're walking with your hand.
So really feeling free to be creative here,
And making adaptations to my guidance throughout as necessary.
And so I'm inviting you to stand at one end of your walk,
With your feet parallel to each other about four to five inches apart,
And your knees unlocked,
So sort of resting your knees,
Flexing them a little bit,
And allowing your arms to hang loosely by your sides,
Holding your hands loosely together if you prefer,
In front of you or behind you,
And inviting your eyes to sort of gaze softly ahead of you,
And inviting you to bring your awareness into the whole body standing here,
Or sitting if that's your case,
Really sensing the whole shape of the body as it is,
And perhaps inviting an attitude of kindness and peacefulness.
Now when you're ready,
Inviting your attention to shift down to the bottoms of your feet,
Really sensing the physical sensations of the contact of your feet with the ground below,
The weight of your body transmitted through your legs and feet into the ground,
Perhaps sensing the earth holding you up,
And you might even flex your knees a little bit a few times,
Just to kind of get a clearer sense of these sensations in the feet and legs if that's helpful.
And when you are ready,
Transferring the weight of the body onto the right leg,
So very slowly noticing the shifting and the physical sensations in the legs and feet as you move towards the right side,
And the right leg takes over supporting the body,
And the left leg sort of lightens.
Noticing any inkling or urge to move already,
And with that left leg sort of lighter,
Slowly allowing the left heel to rise from the floor,
Noticing all the sensations in the calf muscles,
And continuing the movement,
Allowing the left foot to lift gently until only the toes are touching the floor,
And as best you can,
Being aware of the physical sensations in the feet and legs,
And then slowly lifting left foot,
Really carefully moving it forward.
Feeling the foot and leg as they move through the air,
And then as you place that heel onto the floor again,
And allowing the rest of the bottom of the foot to make contact with the floor,
And as you do this,
Noticing now how the body wants to transfer the weight onto the left leg and foot,
And so just being aware of the physical sensations now as you shift the weight to the left leg and foot,
And noticing how the right leg begins to empty or lighten,
And then the right heel wants to leave the floor,
And so once your weight is fully transferred onto the left leg,
Then allowing the rest of the right foot to start to lift the heel,
And slowly moving forward,
Noticing all of the changing patterns of physical sensations in the foot and leg as you do so,
And really being careful not to take too large of a step or too high of a step,
But more just focusing your attention on now the right heel as it makes contact with the ground again,
And transfers the weight of the body onto the right foot as you gently place it on the ground,
Again,
Inviting awareness of the shifting patterns of the physical sensations in both legs and feet,
And so now in this way,
Inviting you to slowly move from one end of the walk to the other,
So creating that aisle,
And particularly aware of the sensations in the bottom of your feet and the heels as they make contact with the floor,
The muscles and the legs as you lift and move forward,
And at the end of your walk,
Then when you get to the end of that aisle,
Just stopping for a few moments and sensing into the body sensations,
And then when you're ready,
Making that intention to turn slowly around,
And inviting an awareness of that experience,
Appreciating this complex pattern of movements that the body needs as you change direction,
And then continue walking back along that path to where you started from,
And so walking up and down slowly in this way,
And as best as you can,
Being aware of all of the physical sensations in the feet and legs,
And of the contact of the feet with the floor,
And keeping your gaze directed softly ahead,
And whenever you notice that the mind has wandered away from awareness of the sensations of walking,
Then you can gently invite it back,
So inviting it back to the sensations of the feet and the legs,
And sort of using these sensations of the feet or the contact in the floor as your anchor,
As just as you do in a focused attention practice,
And so you reconnect with the present moment with this anchor as many times as you need whenever the mind starts to wander away,
And so if you find the mind has wandered too far away,
You might just pause for a moment and gather your focus again,
Back down to the feet,
And then begin resuming your walking.
So the invitation is to continue to walk for 10 to 15 minutes in this way,
And you might start walking very slowly,
And then little by little,
Once you've kind of developed this ability to be fully aware of the sensations of walking,
Perhaps walking a little faster,
Maybe even walking beyond your normal speed,
And still trying to maintain your attention towards those sensations of the feet and the contact,
And then when you're ready,
Slowing back down and coming back to the natural walking pace,
And all throughout bringing your attention back to those sensations of the feet and the contact of the feet on the floor and the muscles in your legs.
And the invitation is to bring this same kind of awareness that you cultivate in the walking practice to your everyday experiences of walking,
To bring mindful awareness and presence into your daily life.
