Meditation for Beginners (Week 5) – Walking Meditation

This post is part of a series of posts on meditation for beginners. The Introduction contains links to the entire series. I recommend you read the series in order if you want to start meditating.

Last week, you studied and practiced loving-kindness meditation. Jay at Porsidan continued to follow this tutorial and posted his experiences with loving-kindness meditation. I’ve excerpted quotes from Jay’s post and added my comments below.

…I did Loving Kindness on myself, and was (kinda sorta not really) surprised at how uncomfortable that made me feel…

This feeling is common. People in the West think they don’t deserve to like or love themselves. But if you can love others, doesn’t it make sense to love yourself? It’s difficult to be kind to others if you’re unkind to yourself.

…After a few minutes of fighting against my thoughts, I just gave in and allowed myself to use the remaining time to just…think…

There are days when it’s difficult to let thoughts go. You might try using more detailed labels. For instance, if you’re thinking about the dialogue of an argument you had with Joe, you can label the thought “thinking about argument with Joe” and move on. Sometimes a more specific label makes it easier to let go.

Jay also had a follow-up question for me related to labeling:

The thing with the labels is that it leads to more thinking for me. I have the thought, then I label it, and then I (unintentionally) go off on a tangent about the reasons behind my feelings and thoughts of ____. For example, let’s say I think about pizza. The thought forms: “Boy, pizza would be good for dinner tonight.” And I start thinking about all the ways it would be good, and then I catch myself. “Oops, I’m thinking about pizza. Label it. I’m thinking about pizza. Back to counting. But why am I thinking about pizza? Am I hungry? Am I upset and need comfort food? What is going on with me? Why pizza? Oops, thought train derailed. Back to counting.

So I guess my question is how to I become more mindful, so that I stop the train before it even gets going? Does that just take more time and practice?

I understand because the same thing happened to me in the beginning. It takes more practice, but also requires right effort. Imagine you’re a swordsman and you are in a duel with a sword master. (I know this is farfetched, but indulge me.) The blades are whirling at unbelievable speed and if you lose your concentration for a moment, you’ll be cut and possible killed. Would you stay focused or would you start thinking about pizza? I’m willing to bet you would stay focused. That’s right effort. You have the ability to stay focused, but you’re unaccustomed to focusing at will. Try hard and keep practicing and you’ll gradually improve. It gets easier with time.

Ann Elise at Ann Elise Mitchell also wrote her first update about following this meditation tutorial. I’ve excerpted quotes from Ann Elise’s post and added my comments below.

…For some reason, I kept feeling slightly panicked that nothing was happening, like there needed to be a great insight or there was no benefit…

Assume nothing is going to happen. Most weird or mystical stuff that happens is meaningless anyway. On rare occasions during insight meditation, you’ll better understand something in your life. Trying to make something happen never works. Assume any sitting is a good sitting and try not to judge or evaluate.

Most of the benefits are subtle and slow to develop. Consistent practice and good attitude are important to reaping the benefits.

…I seem to be going backwards. I’m not sure I made it to 10 breaths even once!…

Everybody who meditates has days when it’s easy to meditate and days when it’s difficult. The difficult days are just as beneficial and valuable as the easy days. In fact, difficult days may be more valuable because they help you “see” your noisy mind. As a result, meditation will at least slightly calm your mind.

This week, you’ll meditate using walking meditation.

There are two purposes of walking meditation. First, it helps you transition the mindfulness you cultivate during meditation to your daily life. Second, it’s used as a break from sitting meditation. During group meditation, it’s often interspersed with sitting meditation so that your body can recover from the stiffness of sitting.

Walking meditation is simple and involves these steps:

1. Find a space where you can walk at least five tiny steps. You can do walking meditation anywhere, but it’s best to start alone in a room. Otherwise, you may be too self-conscious of other people watching.
2. Stand at one end of the room holding your hands together in front of you. You can also hold your hands behind you or at your sides, but most people hold their hands in front.
3. Keeping your head upright, cast your eyes down at a forty-five degrees angle. Keep your eyes open during walking meditation so that you maintain your balance, but don’t focus on anything in particular.
4. Pause and center yourself for about fifteen seconds.
5. Slowly take a tiny step. Pay close attention to your feet and breathing. How do your feet feel leaving and contacting the ground? How does the your shifting weight feel on your feet? If you want to, you can time your breathing to the steps. For instance, inhale as you lift your foot up and exhale as you place it on the ground. Alternatively, you can inhale as you begin to lift your foot, exhale as you move it, inhale when it touches the ground, and exhale as it’s firmly planted. There are no fixed rules about timing your breath – it’s up to you to decide if and how you do it.
6. When you reach the end of your walking path, stand for about fifteen seconds. Then make one ninety degree turn and pause for a few seconds and then another ninety degree turn and pause for about fifteen seconds.
7. Begin walking in the opposite direction.
8. Repeat for the duration of the walking meditation.

Here is a video that shows the slow speed and small steps of walking meditation:

You’ll find that practicing walking meditation makes you more mindful when you walk normally. During your next outdoor walk, become mindful of your feet contacting the earth. How does it feel?

This Week’s Assignment

Your assignment this week is to do at least ten minutes of sitting meditation using focused, insight, or loving-kindness meditation. Immediately after sitting, do at least ten minutes of walking meditation. Pay close attention to how you transition between sitting and walking meditation. Transition in a slow, mindful way.

It’s important to me that you learn to meditate. Please leave a comment or send a confidential email (roger at acontentlife.com) with any questions, problems, or observations. I’m here to help.

Related posts:

1. Meditation for Beginners (Week 6) – Next Steps
2. Meditation for Beginners (Week 4) - Loving-Kindness Meditation
3. Meditation for Beginners (Week 3) – Insight Meditation
4. Meditation for Beginners (Week 2) – Focused Meditation
5. Meditation for Beginners (Week 1) – Introduction

Tags: Habits, Meditation