~Walking Meditation

Sustaining awareness of the physical sensations in the legs and feet while walking helps bring interest and openness into everyday life.
Choose a flat place about ten meters long to walk back and forth.
Simply experience the changing textures, temperatures, weights, densities, vibrations, and so on. The main focus is on the soles of the feet, as you walk back and forth at a normal or slow pace. Slowing down can allow concentration on more subtle sensations.

Just enjoy one step at a time, as if you had all the time in the world.
Notice that it is self-defeating to set goals such as, "I will be with every step till the end of my line." That thought is already a break in the simple meeting with physical sensations--and besides is an unlikely goal to be fulfilled!
If you are distracted, pause at the end of each "lap," close the eyes, and reconnect before turning around.

Some people find that the "noting technique" helps concentration: keep most of the attention on the physical sensations while allowing words such as "lifting, moving, placing," to describe the movement of the feet. If the words take up too much attention, then please drop the noting.

Whenever possible, be alert for the subtle "urge" or "intention" to turn the body around, just before actually turning. It can be possible, to expand this alertness to the intentions to lift, move, or place a foot. Awareness of intentions gives more space between unconscious urges and following through on them.

Let this practice come into your daily life.

 


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Walking meditation can help us loosen the grip of habitual thoughts, put us back in touch with our bodies, and develop an ability to be grounded in direct experience rather than being lost in daydreams.

 

 

Walking meditation

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