How to meditate while walking and what benefits it has

By meditative walking we understand the exercise that makes walking a spiritual gesture and that provides a deep sense of peace and inner order.

In both Zen and Western monastic traditions the meditative march occupies an important place. When performing Zen meditation practices, many people are surprised to discover that between sitting and sitting a meditation or meditative march is performed.

Is it possible to meditate while walking?

When we talk about meditation we are referring to a state in which the person who meditates puts himself at the service of the essential, opens internally to contact with what is outside and inside her, without judging it. Meditation is not an intellectual understanding of the world, it is an experience.

If we want to be precise, we cannot talk about “doing meditation”. When you practice meditation, you are actually trying to find the conditions that favor contact with what is essential. That contact is meditation. More than being carried out through a voluntary act, it is produced.

Meditation is an exercise in personal transformation in which the person opens up internally, finds the way in which this contact occurs, understands which attitudes block it and which favor it.

When you know how to meditate, you can remain in a meditative attitude in different ways; that is, the person is in inner contact with what is essential and with his deep self, whatever he does.

There are some basic techniques for the practice of meditation that have proven their effectiveness for centuriesaccompanying thousands of people on this path of opening up to what is essential.

You can meditate in different ways: sitting, standing, walking, performing the tasks of daily life, running, dancing…

The meditative walk can be done alone or in a group. When you are meditating with the support of a group, walking between two sittings is a special moment in which each person walks for and by themselves and, at the same time, enters into a group rhythm. It’s a privileged moment of contact with others and union. In this article we show you exercises to practice the meditative walk.

Benefits of meditative walking

the meditative march helps mobilize members that during sitting meditation they could have stiffened, regenerates energy, mobilizes blood and prevents circulatory problems. But meditative walking is much more than a complement to sitting meditation, it is another meditation technique in itself.

verticality –interpreted as a symbol of the contact between heaven and earth–, the rhythm of walking, silence and slowness take the practitioner to a state of profound peace of mind that favors experiences of a spiritual nature.

The meditative walk is useful for anyone who wants to do a simple, pleasant, healthy and spiritual exercise. It has no age limits or requires any particular physical condition.

With a little training, anyone can improve. in your self-observation with this exercise and to progress on your personal path in a simple and autonomous way. It allows one to explore oneself internally and learn to adopt ways of being freer and more serene.

Meditative walking can be a wonderful exercise for learn to know and function better in the world.

It’s about a transformation exercise, since practiced consciously and regularly helps to bring out the best in ourselves. But the walk can still be something deeper. It can become an exercise personal growth and even spiritual experience.

Who has not ever gone for a walk to “clarify ideas”? Perhaps you yourself feel from time to time the need to wander aimlessly, alone in the city, on the beach in winter or in the mountains, to feel at peace with yourself.

Aristotle and his disciples walked while he gave them his philosophical speeches (peripatetic school), and it is known that the human brain underwent its greatest transformations when our species adopted an upright posture.

Besides the feeling of fullness and well-being that is experienced when walking in a meditative way, these practices favor the health at all levels:

NeuroReport magazine published an MIT study according to which people who meditated at least six hours a week had greater volume in areas of the cerebral cortex associated with attention, decision making and memory.Scientists have verified that Meditation causes permanent physiological and neural changes. They believe they can affirm that it allows the development of temperaments happier, less anxious or depressed. Similarly, unifying brain, mind and body makes easier to adapt to stressful situations and uncertainty. Meditating daily can reduce the risk of heart attacks by improving the ability to relax. immune system seems to be reinforced as well. Meditation helps patients with chronic diseases reduce your symptoms and Improve your quality of lifeaccording to a study from the Center for Integrative Medicine at T. Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.Walking meditation also maintains good muscle tone and oxygen muscles and brain.Stability in movement and relaxation of the muscles. The center of gravity of the human being is between the two feet, in the front part of these, for this reason the body tends to go forward. To keep you from falling, the antigravity muscles—the calves and spinalis—contract isometrically. Vertically, for better balance, the center of gravity should be on the belly. If there are tensions, the center of gravity is displaced and so is the balance.

How to practice walking meditation

Some of its principles can be apply during daily walking. For example, you can walk in an internally meditative attitude while you go to look for bread or the newspaper, at work or on any other daily journey.

We are going to explain what the exercise that allows walking to become a meditative act. To do this, we will carry out three series of exercises and we will give the necessary guidelines.

First exercise: establish a base

Before you continue reading, I suggest you leave the screen, get up and walk.

but go very very slowly.

If you are in a small space, turn around when you reach the wall and repeat the walk several times.

Observe yourself, feel. Don’t worry about how you’re doing. Just go and watch. The experience can be somewhat disturbing if you feel unbalanced. Don’t worry. It is usual. We’ll meet again in five minutes…

Second exercise: understanding the principles of meditation

The walking meditation technique is based on some key principles:

Keep silence. This is an essential point: maximum concentration must be maintained on what is being done, on what is being felt. Silence allows one to enter a dimension of oneself that is different from the usual one. It is necessary to keep quiet and you also have to calm your mind, so that the cadence of thoughts is slower and slower.Connect fluently. Being silent does not mean that there is isolation from the external world, on the contrary: it must allow us to be attentive to what is heard, to the song of a bird, to the noise of a motorcycle, to the voice of the neighbor… It must be let the noises pass through, the sounds that come from outside or from one’s own mind, without offering resistance or being “hooked” to them.Presence in the present moment. With a light, open and relaxed attitude, attention must be paid to each physical sensation. If there is a smell of apple pie, we will feel that smell, if it is cold, we will feel the cold. We must remain present in ourselves and in our context. You can focus your attention on the here and now, on the rhythm, on the breath, on the sensations… This calms the mind and emotions.Posture should be upright, the position of the back relaxed and unfolded towards the top. You have to feel that your head is directed firmly towards the sky. But for this, a stretching effort should not be made, rather the lumbar and cervical area should be released, where a large part of the tensions tend to accumulate. Shoulders should be as loose as possible, without stiffness.take off your shoes It is highly recommended to practice the exercise barefoot. In each step you should feel that the foot is rooted in the ground, that the weight is shifted from one side to the other. This gives a feeling of firmness, stability.feel the weight. The heavier a body, the more stable it is. When a person is tense, his weight is the same as without tenseness, but the sensation of weight is not. When the weight is not felt, the person has the impression of floating and being unstable, and may even stumble. To feel the weight you have to let go inside. It is an attitude of touching the earth, of really leaning, fully on the ground.Slowness. This exercise is performed extremely slowly. You walk very slowly at all times.With the eyes open. This, which may seem obvious, is not so obvious, since many people tend to close their eyes during this type of exercise to feel better. The gaze should be directed as far as possible, as if it could go through what is in front of it and go even further.From the center. The impulse to walk arises from the will, Japanese word indicating the area of ​​the belly and pelvis. It is the center of stability of the person. Learning to situate oneself internally in this zone provides a great sensation of physical and emotional anchorage. When walking, you should always feel that you are walking from the haraas if the movements arose from there.

In daily life, you usually walk fast and with goals in mind to be able to do everything that needs to be done. The meditative walk, on the other hand, proposes a slow walk that is an exercise in itself.

Walking without wanting to get anywhere. The fundamental thing about this exercise is to walk for the sake of walking. It is not intended to reach any external place, but to a way of being internal. That is why it is good to start doing this exercise in a room, in the corridor or any closed place that allows you to concentrate on walking itself, without purpose.Present at every step. To walk is to take a step. The following is of no interest at this time. Each gesture is important, each unique moment.watching the breath. Without wanting to control it or adapt it to the rhythm of the steps, just watching. Often, when entering the meditative state, the breath harmonizes with the steps, but the goal is not to “build” this harmony, but simply to allow yourself to breathe.

Now do the first exercise again, incorporating what you just read. do the exercise for five minutes As minimum.

Go and watch yourself. feel the differences with your way of walking before and now.

Third exercise: the subtlety of movement

Now let’s see what are the precise principles of walking meditation:

All movement arises from stillness. The meditative walk begins while standing upright, feeling the weight, feeling the verticality, settling down…