Walking on the Beach as Meditation, Grounding and Relaxation

I went for a long walk on the beach, a couple of days ago. Doing so reminded me just how much I enjoy being close to the water, and mostly by myself.

It's normally been something I do often, but for whatever reasons it had been quite a while since I last went out there. For clarification, let me add here that the closest beach to where we live is maybe a 300m walk, so I have pretty much no excuse!

Beachwalking is one of the things I like to do to relax and find some peace and quiet in my mind. Over the years, I have increasingly come to think of my beach walks as a "walking meditation."

Sandpipers at water's edge

Our beaches here are generally very quiet, and I rarely see more than maybe a handful of other people in an entire afternoon.

Western Washington is a mixed bag — weather wise — at pretty much any time of the year. I have experienced sun, wind, rain, mist, hail, snow, fog and a few other things... all in the space of a few hours. Sometimes the sea is as calm as a mill pond when I start out, and by the time I head home the wind will have whipped up considerable surf with six foot waves.

In a sense, beach days can be a bit like a metaphor for life: ever changing, and you just never quite know what you're going to get... so "pack" for all occasions.

A Great Blue Heron in the shallows

I do like to bring my camera because there is a lot of wildlife and other interesting sights out there. Occasionally I'll even get lucky enough to spot one of our regional pods of Orca whales out there! In places the water gets quite deep close to the shore and they will not be very far from land.

That's a relative rarity, though... most of the time I just get to see a wide range of sea and shore birds, as well as an occasional sea otter and perhaps a bald eagle or two.

The sound out beyond is also the main shipping connection between the northern Pacific Ocean and Asia, and the Port of Seattle, so there is some pretty busy shipping traffic, as well.

I'm sure I miss seeing a lot of things because I tend to be deep in thought most of the time!

Going out there just helps me feel a bit more balanced and relaxed... and that matters, even these days when the Covid-19 thing has been keeping us at home for a lot of the time.

How about YOU? Do you have a favorite place (or activity) to go to when you need to be quiet and to "de-compress" from life? Do you live near the beach? Do you, in general, find that being in nature is a good way to relax? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20210614 16:34 PDT
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