Walking in Nature
How to Practice:
- Get outdoors in a place that feels good to you: a park, a
garden, a forest, a lake or seaside, in the hills.
- Before you get started, place yourself there. Get a sense
of orientation: the surroundings, the earth beneath you, the sky above. Feel
a sense of company with the natural world.
- Walk slowly, allowing yourself to feel yourself there in
that place as you walk. Be there as you walk.
- After 10 minutes, slow your pace to half speed and
continue.
- Then again after another 10 minutes, slow to half that
speed.
- When your thoughts wander (and your thoughts will likely
wander to far more places than your feet do), stop right where you are and
get that sense of place again. "Oh yes. Here I am." Notice your
surroundings. Then begin to walk again at the slower pace.
- If a thought repeatedly demands your attention, stop and
allow it to have its say before you move on.
- You may want to sit for a while or stand in one place for
a while. If you do, to keep the meditation from becoming static, place
yourself near running water or somewhere that you can see moving
clouds.
- Then continue on, slowing your pace every 10 minutes until
you are finished.
Notes:
Since most of us tend to speed up our walk as
thoughts carry our attention elsewhere, the deliberate slowing of the pace
every 10 minutes helps to bring our attention back and restore a slow-ish
pace for the meditation. Even if you tend to walk slowly anyhow, the
deliberate slowing of the pace can add a new element to the meditation.
Final Notes:
There are no right or wrong ways to do a meditation. The
instructions are guidelines; adapt them to who you are and to your needs at
that particular time. Be curious about the process itself.
Remember most meditations become richer the more you
practice them. They reveal more of themselves. It can take practice to
remember to do a meditation when you need to, and it can take practice to go
through the steps. But that's why it is called practice, and for most of us,
we practice for the rest of our lives.
Meditations like these are a regular feature of my free monthly Ezine, Starry Night.
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