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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
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Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
Because walking is such a common activity for most of us, it presents an easy way to practice mindfulness in everyday life.
Mindfulness is shown to reduce stress and anxiety, improve focus, and provide many other benefits. When paired with physical movement, and especially when done outdoors, the benefits are even greater for your mental and physical health, from measurable improvement in mood and immune function to better cardiovascular and respiratory function.
The next time you need to get from point A to point B on foot, or are simply headed out for a stroll, try bringing mindfulness along for the walk.
Mindful walking is the practice of bringing present-moment awareness to your surroundings and bodily sensations while walking.
In our daily life, we walk about regularly. Usually, it’s to get somewhere. Sometimes our walks are more intentional—we walk to exercise, when we need to clear our heads, or as a form of meditation. Whatever the reason for it, putting one foot in front of the other and moving your physical body through space is an activity you likely do a dozen or more times a day.
Yet, how aware are you while you do it? In other words, is your focus on walking—paying attention to how your body feels and what you experience along the way—or is it largely disconnected from your body and what’s going on in the environment around you?
Usually it’s the latter. So familiar is the activity of walking that we do it on autopilot, without any conscious effort. And this leaves our minds to leave the room, so to speak, and go wherever they want. We might think about our destination and what we’ll do once there. We may use the walk to replay a conversation we had, plan for dinner, daydream, or more.
Mindful walking flips the script.
Like other mindfulness practices, walking mindfully involves placing your attention on an anchor, such as a sensation, to help keep your mind in the present moment, but pairs it with movement.
And walking provides rich territory to practice mindfulness! Sensation abounds when you walk—from physical sensations, such as changes in your heart rate, the motion of your leg, or the press of your foot into the ground, to the sights, sounds, and smells you encounter along the way. Even the felt sensation of air touching skin can shift you from the fog of autopilot and make you aware of the present moment.
You can also shift your focus from one anchor to another. For example, you might start your mindful walk focusing on your breath, the steady rhythm of stepping, or how movement feels in your body, and then purposefully turn your attention to any sounds you hear or, if outdoors, how sunlight looks as it comes through the trees.
Each time your attention wanders from your chosen anchor, you gently guide it back.
Almost any opportunity you have to walk is a chance to be mindful. You can do it for a determined amount of time or distance or more spontaneously for just a few moments here and there.
You can bring mindfulness to getting the mail, walking the dog, returning home from dropping your child at the bus stop, or taking a standing break from your desk. You could even engage in moments of mindful walking at the grocery store. The possibilities are really endless.
Even better: Commit to making mindful walking part of your daily routine.
Any time we’re on foot presents an opportunity to practice mindful walking. It might be easier if you don’t have other distractions—a toddler that needs tending or a crowded sidewalk, as examples—but it’s not necessary. Mindfulness, after all, is about being able to stay present to whatever shows up in our lives.
As you get more used to doing it, you’ll be able to engage in mindfulness spontaneously at any point along any kind of walk.
Mindful walking and walking meditation are certainly related: both build the skill of mindfulness and employ an anchor, like the breath, to keep your attention in the present. They both confer mental and physical health benefits and offer a counter-balance to our largely sedentary modern life.
But there are key differences between the two.
Walking mindfully can be done any time you stand up and move your body from one place to another.
Walking meditation is, by design, more calculated. Practiced in some Buddhist traditions, the goal is to bring your full awareness to each component of the normally autonomic activity of walking.
The beauty of mindful walking is that you can do it any time throughout your day. And every time you do, you strengthen your ability to be more aware and mindful all the time.
Enjoy these articles, stories, and guided practices for incorporating mindfulness into every day.
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I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
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A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
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