Walking as Meditation (Yes, It Counts)

A lot of people quietly believe they are bad at meditation because they cannot sit still. Here is some good news. You can walk.

Walking meditation has a long history in Buddhist monasteries, where monks alternate periods of sitting with slow, deliberate walking. But you do not need a monastery. You need a hallway, a garden path or the ten minutes between your car and your front door.

Start slower than feels natural. Feel your heel touch the ground, then the rest of the foot, then the push off the toes. Feel the weight shift from one leg to the other. When your mind wanders, and it will, usually within about four steps, simply notice where it went and come back to the feet. That moment of coming back is the practice. It is not a failure. It is the rep.

Outdoors, you can widen your attention. The temperature of the air on your skin. The sound of your own footsteps. A bird somewhere off to the left. The smell of cut grass or rain on pavement. Let the world come to you instead of rushing out to meet it.

There is something about walking that loosens thinking too. Many people find that problems they have been chewing on for days quietly untangle themselves on a walk, not because they forced an answer but because they finally stopped forcing.

Try it once this week. Leave the headphones at home. Walk somewhere unremarkable, slowly, and pay attention like it matters. You may find that the unremarkable place was never unremarkable at all. You just had not looked.