I have been meditating regularly for many years, and most of my sessions are spent sitting in a quiet place. Although this is a very common method of meditation, it is not the only method. Walking meditation provides a similar increase in mindfulness, but it’s done while you’re on the move.
This is similar to a mindful walk, except you increase your awareness of your surroundings and focus on how your body feels as you move through the world. So, as winter turned to spring, I decided to try walking meditation.
I’ve been sitting and meditating for so long that I was worried that it would be difficult or change gears too much from my usual practice. There was no need to worry. The experience has changed, but the basics remain the same, even as I walk around town.
That doesn’t mean you need to have meditated before. I would argue that this walking meditation from Alo Moves is a great way for beginners to try out the practice, as it allows you to start building a mind-body connection while going about your daily life.
Watch Alo Moves’ 10-minute walking meditation
This 10-minute session is led by meditation instructor Kirat Randhawa and comes from Alo Moves’ The Sculpt Lineup. This is his 3-week beginner’s program that includes yoga classes, walking meditations, and nutrition tips designed to help you stay motivated and move your body every day. .
I decided to swap out my regular sitting meditation for this 10-minute walking session and stick with it for a week. This will make it feel more routine and give you enough time to get used to this new approach and see the benefits. I’ll explain what happened.
it helped me see more of the world
When I first learned to meditate, one of the most noticeable differences was that I hardly noticed anything when I was outside. It was the small details, like the architecture of local buildings or the miniature inner-city green spaces where nature flourishes.
Until I started meditating to develop a more mindful perspective, I was always too busy or distracted to notice them. But when you’re not in the middle of an intensive session, it’s easy to lose focus. That is the hallmark of mindfulness. It’s not a binary skill that you either have or don’t have.
Instead, you need to continually develop mindful behaviors and train your mind to refocus on the present moment when you get distracted. Alo Moves’ walking meditations were a great way to continue to hone this skill, as you try to perceive the world around you in more detail as you move.
So instead of getting caught up in planning your to-do list for the day, instructors can help you focus on the sights and sounds around you in a way that you can’t when you close your eyes in traditional meditation. I’ll help you.
It was fun to change my daily routine
I’ve been meditating the same way for almost 10 years. Find a quiet spot in your house or a chair in the park, put on your training headphones to drown out the noise around you, close your eyes, and begin a guided meditation. It’s effective, but variety is also fun.
Switching to walking meditation for a week was a good challenge. It got me out of the chair and out of my awareness of what a meditation session should be like. Plus, learning how to do it means you have another option, especially if you don’t have the opportunity to sit quietly someday.
There’s no need to walk slowly
I had always imagined what a meditation walk would be like. Slowly and with purpose. If that’s how you walk and that’s comfortable, you absolutely can, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead, you can keep your attention on the present while continuing to work at your usual pace.
I usually walk at a fairly brisk pace (I have an energetic dog, so I tend to follow his pace even when I’m alone), but I still follow directions and find sights, sounds, and smells around me. I realized that I can. It probably would have passed me by before.
However, I don’t recommend doing this when you’re in a hurry. One day, I was short on time so I tried to squeeze in a session by walking briskly up a steep hill. At my best time, it was quite a steep hill, so I was quite distracted, sweaty, and lost concentration a little while meditating.
I felt the effect all day long.
Meditation is a way to develop mindfulness, which is the ability to stay in the present moment and notice the world around you. Just like going to the gym to become stronger and find it easier to do everyday tasks, to develop mindfulness you need to train your mind through meditation.
It still takes some practice to make this a part of my daily routine, but I saw results quickly. I could more easily admire the spring flowers, smell the food and drinks at the local coffee shop, and notice the sensations when an arm gently strokes my upper body.
That doesn’t mean I’ll completely walk away from sitting and meditating (I still love taking a quiet moment each morning to focus on my breathing), but this experience has helped me change my approach. It showed me that there are many good reasons and reasons to be flexible and adaptable. future.
