Mindful meditation while walking

Mindful meditation while walking in Chicago

Walking meditation is a method of walking that is typically a slow and deliberate pace. Life can better be lived at the same slow and deliberate pace. It is a practice of concentration while walking, focusing on breathing and pacing. Life experienced in a focused pace is defined by goals and achievements that are celebrated. It is different and immediately recognizable from the typical seated meditation because one’s eyes must remain open when walking and there are visual stimulants that impact the minds meditation process offering more interaction with the environment. In life external forces attempt to capture the focused mind to burden them with the deviated path, those external forces must be quelled, squashed and destroyed.

It is the interactions with the environment that aide an ability to step off course and be present in those environmental visual drivers, a butterfly, a stream, the wind rustling through the trees, a light drizzle of rain touching the skin, these all offer examples of pleasant distractions in the moment, fluid, unexpected and having an impact on the external environmental drivers that enter the minds conscious flow. A place of reflection where the soul and spirit are recognized and celebrated. Negative forces expelled, challenged, faced without fear nor hesitation, driven like the rushing stream, constant, filled with life sources and on a path directed by the landscape. The raging rivers carves its niche moving small particles of soil, and of boulders, I carve my walk by design.

The meditation walk is a controlled practice and the environment of the landscape is pivotal. As a city dweller in a highly populated urban area, Chicago, the meditation walk is borne of the fast-paced environment. The meditation is challenged because of the many uncontrolled public actors and scenes. The mind becomes the environment focusing upon small finite parts of the whole. The Sunflower towering gracefully over the cans of garbage in an urban alley. Magnificent sturdy contributors to the circle of life that supplies food for birds and squirrels. The mind adopts this imagery while blocking the background of an otherwise depressed environment.

Moving slowly and naturally through the landscape of the concrete city streets the process developed into a great commitment of time each day for neighborhood explorations of the unnoticed beauty of the urban landscape. Present in each moment new nuggets of simple joy are exposed in the landscape of a neighbor’s garden and their subsequent community contributions. Book boxes that carry titles old and new, a place to grab a book, or donate a book. The community shelf, a public place in the community that people donate canned goods for those in need to take at will. Inspiring thoughts are process and visionary ideas developed about a community in a city with great violence. It is an opportunity to anchor to self and the environment on a microscopic scale. It may be the healthiest manner of urban consumption.

Anchored in stance, balanced, weighted, feeling the stability of the ground, I start. A few breathing exercises to stretch the mind, the lungs and the vessels that carry our blood. Engaged in every sensation and wholly aware of my body. I walk deliberate, aware and in paced, present with only those surroundings I practice allowing into the digestion of my senses. Focused with a positivity in attitude and a sense of self confidence I move over the broken cement pavement of a city sidewalk. Walking meditation is a process that improves with continued practice. It is a practice of awareness and control.

Walking invigorates the body and the mind. Subtle sensations blended into the awareness of the meditation walk, a drizzle, a snowflake with its unique identity dancing in the wind, a strong gust of wind challenging the stability of one’s footing are all components in the chain of awareness in a meditative walk. A trained walk in the unrest of the urban landscape builds concentration and confidence, repeating the same path, building stamina. Walking barefooted on the ground of the urban environment requires more concentration and special attention to dangers however, some parks and beaches offer sanctuary to the soles of the feet. Awareness of the sensations of the tensions and a release of muscles while walking creates an additional focus for the mental challenge. Mindful and focused on the experience of the journey. Repeating a mantra while walking is also a tool to remain focused in the mission, on long journey, a mantra lends strength especially when chanted out loud, a confirmation of purpose. I follow a path that I practice and repeat, it is memorized and expanded. Jumping new boulders on the parkway of a city street, navigating ground cover and beams installed as garden dividers, the urban landscape is an obstacle course of challenges when discovered.

Mindful walks bring out the awareness of the marginal common elements of streets that we frequent each day but with an entirely new perspective that brings the onset of a change of the paradigm. Mindful meditation walks are flexible and, in the moment, a break on a freshly manicured neighbor’s lawn, taking a moment to experience the scent and aroma that is a gift to the senses of a city dweller. Walking in the city in a specific pattern with a purposeful posture also serves as a defensive mechanism, mindfully I walk with purpose. Erect and with confidence I navigate the city streets. Evenly distributing my emotional and physical weight. Remembering to guide the breathes as I move across the terrains. Inhale, exhale, mantra count, repeat.

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