Walking
The concept
Walking is kind of unique, in that it offers a variety of opportunities to exercise your awareness and perception.
Mindfulness
At the most basic level, walking is a great time to be mindful. Some of the things that are easy to do...
- Try to just simply be as mindful as you know how, and be attentive to the walk, bringing your attention back to whatever feels pleasant, rather than allowing thoughts to distract you.
- Be aware of the sky and consider it as a ceiling or dome enclosing you in an area. Feel the quality of this area and how you are walking through it. Rest in this area and sense that it is the only place that exists in The Now.
Other Exercises to Do While Walking
- Walking is an opportunity to observe and experience Connected Systems
- Depending on where you are, you may try out the Fences and Walls exercises
- No matter where you walk, you can do many of the general sound exercises
Movement
- Conveyor belt - Shift your perception to the sense that you are standing still, and the world is moving. Perhaps the world is a treadmill, and you are merely "keeping up" with its motion. Or perhaps you are standing still and the world is morphing or warping in a way that brings things closer to you or farther from you.
- Timeless walking - Notice a fixed marker such as a light pole, and as you walk towards it, shift your perception to the sense that you are in fact not walking at all, because without any "time" beyond the now, you will simply always be as close to that marker as you are, and there is no change in that distance, because each moment exists independently, and each "new now" simply exists with its own facts about reality.
- Stairs - do the same exercise when on stairs, as it is even easier. Whenever you take a step, pause for just a split second with one foot on the new step and one foot on the previous step. Notice that you have arrived at this location, and this is the present moment. After each step note that you are in the present moment. There is no journey, just present moments. Once you've learned to see this, learn to see it without any mental or actual pauses in your steps.
Headlessness
Walking is a perfect time to perform Headless Exercises. Try the following types of things.
- Become headless (if you don't know about this, follow the links)
- Become aware of your surroundings in an open, spacious way, noticing how that space includes the location where your head should be
- Expand your headless awareness to your whole body, letting go of the sense of self, ultimately feeling the flow of your walking as a property of The Now, rather than something You are doing or experiencing.