"Meditation HOW and WHY" - everything you need to know - part nine: THERAVADA walking meditation
Welcome to the 9th part in my series "Meditation HOW and WHY". First eight parts are available here:
PART 1: Introduction to meditation and general categories
PART 2: Mindfulness meditation technique
PART 3: Vipassana meditation technique
PART 4: 3 categories of benefits
PART 5: Guided meditation technique
PART 6: Breathing techniques
PART 7: Grounding meditation
PART 8: Gazing meditation
In this post, I will be writing about a specific walking meditation that goes by the name Theravada. There are many walking meditations, not as many and sitting ones, but still plenty. Theravada is my favorite one from that group and the one that I often practice myself.
This type of meditation is ideal for those who can not stand still for very long and have problems with sitting meditations but I do recommend it to all of you because our bodies need both movement and stillness to be in balance. A long time ago, I have read somewhere that in order to be in balance and healthy we need to spend an equal amount of time sitting or lying down as we do moving. I am not sure anyone is managing that because you sleep for 8 hours alone, that would mean that you have to move for 8 hours and most of us have sitting jobs. This is just one more reason to be more active and if not in any other way, move by doing this meditation.
You can walk and meditate anywhere and anytime. It can be a short or a long meditation. Keep in mind that your safety comes first so try not to choose a path that has many road crossings and is in any way dangerous. Go to nature instead or adjust. I have a 7km walk that I usually take and some parts of it are calm and safe without cars while some have heavy traffic. Can you guess where I meditate and where I do not? That being said, try to find the meditation practice that works best for you. Try this one and see if it works.
“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.”
Voltaire
Walking meditation is not a normal walk you usually take. It can be slower but the most important thing is that you focus on your body and keep it relaxed. It does not matter if you walk slow or fast, what matters is that you feel comfortable doing it. The length is not important either, you can walk up and down your room for ten minutes or go for a walk that lasts for hours. The only purpose of this is to master your presence at the current moment and focus your attention.
I encourage you to walk, even without meditation, because it has great benefits for your mind and body. If you are interested in those benefits, you can read my post about them Did you know walking BAREFOOT has health BENEFITS? and learn all the interesting thingies about walking that nobody told you yet. While doing this meditation you can walk barefoot or with your shoes on.
Theravada is a Buddhist meditation that originates from Thailand monasteries. Monks walk up to 15 hours a day and work on sharpening their concentration and focus. In the original meditation, you choose a path that is about 10 meters long and go up and down along it, stopping at the ends and turning around. I have adapted this to myself and here is how I do it...
Before you start walking, stand still for a minute or two and scan your body in your mind. Feel every part of it and take a few deep relaxing breaths. Set your intention. Decide that you will walk and be present in every moment focusing your intention on your body, your surroundings or both. If you are doing this for the first time, pick one. You can try with both later on.
Choose where you will be looking and stick to it. You can look a meter ahead or at a distance but stay with the same gaze and do not change it as you walk. Keep your body and your head straight.
As you walk, place your attention on your body. Feel your feet, your arms moving, your spine and all of your muscles. Experience every movement and be aware of it. Scan your body from top to bottom and then ask yourself where are you. When you answer the question, start scanning your body again, and at the end of the scan, again ask the same question. Repeat this as you walk. Scanning, asking, and answering.
There are no right or wrong answers to this question. You may answer by describing your surroundings, that is often the first thing we do, but after a couple of times that you ask yourself that question, you will start answering it more deeply and profoundly. That is one of the goals of this meditation, to look deep into ourselves and find the essence that is within.
Your mind may wonder, that is completely normal. Do not feel bad about it. When it happens, and it will happen, just gently move your attention back to your body.
Since I take long walks, I wear comfortable walking shoes and suggest the same to you. Another thing that I suggest is always carrying a bottle of water with you and keeping your phone on silent or turned off. This is your time and it is about you. Everything else can wait. Allow yourself to not be available to the rest of the world.
If you notice that you are having troubles with keeping your focus, you could try naming the body parts in your mind that you are scanning or counting the times you inhale or exhale. If that does not help, try using a mantra. One or more words that you repeat in your mind. It can be any words you like but try to keep them positive and preferably nouns, not adjectives. For example, you would not say I am powerful/loving/succesful but instead I am power/love/success.
If you have any questions, I am, as always, here for you and you can contact me in the comments below.
Did you try walking meditation?
Was it similar to mine or was it different?
How about other meditations that I wrote about,
did you try those?
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For my recent Philosophy of hapiness posts follow these links:
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Whenever I read your posts I feel there are many things I do by intuition even if I do not the formal names, I walk in Nature not sure if I meditate or not but I can abstract myself in musings quite a lot. I have a safe long walk St James Way right at my door that leads to a local pond and abandoned village. My attention goes back with some cues, there is a little birdie always on the first shrub, I hum sometimes, I imagine songs andcmelodies much as automatic writing, likely discarded later I do not make effort to remember them but try to flow. On weekends it get less meditative cos we do long hikes
That sounds absolutely lovely and it does not matter what words we use, what labels and formal names. What matters is what we do, that is what defines us. Thank you for sharing your experience darling 💚
Meditation is key! I try to practice mindfulness all the time, walking or otherwise. Good post. Keep it coming!
Thank you, I am so happy to read that there are other walkers and meditation practitioners out there 💚
I could use some walking in general, and it would help even without the meditation part.
Walking is great for you, with or without meditation, go outside and walk. Make it a habit. I got addicted to it :)
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Walking meditation. Should try it out. Thank you for the advise. Nice post there. Cheers.
You really should, everybody should hihi. Good luck with it.
Thank you. You too all the best.
This is so interesting to me. I practiced still meditation for a while, but to be honest I haven't in quite some time. The way you write about walking meditation seems to confirm a belief I have. I think as people we want to meditate and that it can happen very naturally. Perhaps while performing some repetitive motion at work, running, walking, and for myself fishing.
I call it the zone and it doesn't happen all the time. Most often when I'm down at the lagoon by myself and the fish aren't biting really well. I cast and retrieve, cast and retrieve, over and over until my senses change. It's crazy but I take in all of my natural surroundings from a deeper perspective and am very aware of my body. :)
You are on the right track there. Before meditation was called meditation in the west, people were getting in that state by doing repetitive actions. One of the first recorded things was weaving. I am glad you have your lagoon and a place to relax your mind.
I walked a lot, years ago, when I lived in a neighborhood that was safer, and I miss it. Hopefully, one day I will be in a safe-enough area to get back into it. I did a meditation of sorts when I did it, chanting mantras to myself. I think it was different than your meditation here, but certainly gave me a feeling of serenity. Thanks for sharing this with #steemitbloggers
Chanting mantras is lovely, when you are sitting as well as while walking. Hope you get to walk around again soon. 💚
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Thank you 💚💚💚
I have often, in times past, done something very similar to the walking meditation you describe in this post. Whenever I would get a case of the nerves, I would go into the mountains and walk. Prior to that I was a very avid runner and would often pray (meditate) as I was running.
Now that the weather is warming, I believe I will take your suggestions and apply them. I could use some positive energy and of late have not experienced any. Thank you for your teaching. It gives me a goal to work towards.
Have a wonderful day. Hope to see you at @artemisnorth's Creatives Coffee Hour tomorrow. Maybe you can bring some friends?
Thank you for stopping by at my place, I hope you had a great time and will come back soon. I will definitely see you tomorrow at coffee hour. Stay well and keep your smile on. I hope the sun will shine on your walking meditations and adventures and that positive energy will find you on your life travels 💚