What is Walking Meditation?

Are you one of those people who has never tried meditation?

Is the reason you’ve never tried meditation due to the fact that you think it’s boring and you’re going to struggle after a few seconds?

If that sounds like you, walking meditation might be just the thing you’ve been waiting for.

Walking meditation is a form of meditation that you can do while you’re moving.

That means you don’t have to sit down in silence or feel like you’re not doing anything with your time.

Rather than meditating while you lie down or sit in a comfortable position, you can meditate while you walk.

This, of course, means that there are now more factors involved in your meditation, since rather than being alone and in one spot, you’re going to be moving around and could encounter other people, different sights and various smells and sounds.

This is all part of the meditation process, however, and you can use this to your advantage in order to become more mindful as you walk.

How do you meditate as you walk?

It works a bit differently since you’re moving rather than staying stationary and in one place, but the basics remain the same.

One of the main differences is that you’re going to have your eyes open while you walk and meditate (or at least you should have!).

As you walk, you should tune in to the way your body feels. Think about how the ground feels underneath your feet.

  • Does it feel hard or soft?
  • Do your feet feel heavy or light?
  • Do you feel like you have a good balance or do you feel unsteady?

Ask yourself these questions, and the more you do it, the more you’ll notice how you might feel differently from one day to the next.

Choosing a good place to practise walking meditation can also be quite tricky – you will need to choose a route which is fairly quiet.

The beach is always a good option, but not everybody has easy access to this.

Country footpaths, quieter streets or even your own garden are all viable options.

What are the benefits of walking meditation?

Since you’ll be walking as you meditate and will have your eyes open, you become more vulnerable to distractions and other external factors.

This can actually help you to become even more focused and concentrated, since rather than having an easy meditation session where you’re alone in a quiet room without anything to distract you, you’ll need to try your best to stay on track.