The most common image of a person meditating is probably of someone seated cross-legged on a cushion, or maybe while seated in a chair. So, some people are surprised to learn how popular walking meditation is also. Walking is, worldwide, the second most common meditative posture, after seated. During some retreats that I have participated in in both America and Asia, up to half of the scheduled meditation time was walking. And for some people, meditation while walking is the entirety of their daily home practice.
Mindful walking generally lacks the stability and settledness of seated meditation and sometimes requires relatively more effort to be grounded. It is, however, a great alternative to seated meditation when feeling sleepy and sluggish, after eating, after too much sitting, when restless and agitated, when feeling pain or stiffness the lower body joints, or any other time when seated meditation seems like too much of a challenge. Walking meditation is also a great way to translate some of our mindfulness from the stillness of our other formal practice time out into the dynamic activities of our daily life.
Most techniques that one can do while seated – for example, deep awareness of the breath, body, listening/sound, or thoughts – can also be done while walking. The most common technique to do while walking, however, is to bring one’s full focused attention to the sensations that one feels in the soles of the feet while lifting and placing them, and maybe including the feeling of the rotation of the ankles while the foot is in the air as well. Some people also choose to combine this concentration on the sensations in the feet with syncing their steps up to the rhythm of their breathing.
Walking meditation is something that we can give our full attention to and do intentionally as a formal practice. Often when people do this, they slow their pace down (although some people choose to walk at full speed). It’s generally best to do formal walking meditation not in front of people (so as to not feel self-conscious), to do it in a place that is safe and that you are already familiar with, and in a place where you can walk in an uninterrupted stretch for at least ten feet before turning around.
Walking meditation can also be done when walking functionally, while we are on our way to a destination. It is a great activity to do to ground ourselves while we are walking to a nerve-wracking meeting, or to have a moment of enlivening presence when walking between a commute vehicle and a place of work.
And throughout my career, I have refreshed my brain’s energy reserves by, at times, stepping away from my computer and walked around my work building, giving my thinking mind a break to just feel the simplicity of the sensations in my feet. After such a walkabout, I have come back with renewed vigor and capacity. (doing such outdoor walking, of course, has the added benefit of bringing more fresh air and sunlight to an office workday).
Walking meditation is something we can do at any point – all it takes is taking an upright posture (lifting the crown of our head up until our chin is parallel to the ground, extending our spine, and dropping and relaxing the rest of our muscles) and then tuning in to the richness of the present moment as we stride.