Walking Meditation Can Double Your Health Benefits
You probably know that walking is a great way to stay healthy physically. It provides cardiovascular benefits, burns calories, and increases blood flow to various parts of your body that need it. However, have you ever thought of combining the time you spend walking with spiritual and mental meditation, so that you can increase the benefits walking can offer you?
Oftentimes, when people take up walking, they do so because it’s an easy way to exercise that is low impact and is easy to learn. You don’t need special equipment or even a lot of time. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other and walk your way toward better health.
However, if you combine this with meditation or mindful walking, you can get even more benefit out of this time than you would normally spend just exercising.
Mindful walking has its roots in the Buddhist belief of Ayatana, involving awareness of your senses. It requires lot of concentration on your movements, which will probably take some getting used to. Your goal isn’t to step up your pace, and in fact you will probably walk a little more slowly than usual while you’re getting used to walking meditation.
As you focus on your walking, take note of how heavy or light your feet are as they come up off the ground and then return to it after each step. With walking meditation, you want to be focused on walking as an experience. Keep your mind focused on the process; focus on the steps you’re taking first with your right foot, then your left foot.
Oftentimes, traditional meditation has you sitting in a room with your eyes closed so that you can concentrate on mental clarity. However, with walking meditation, you need to see where you’re going. This means that you absorb your outside environment and process it with the mental clarity brought on by meditation.
The ideal surroundings for walking meditation are somewhere peaceful and appealing. Your neighborhood park is good; road construction is bad. Your environment should be inviting enough that time passes quickly and pleasantly. You should aim to walk for a minimum of 20 minutes each time.
As you start out on your walk, maintain proper body alignment. Keep your arms loosely at your sides and gaze ahead of you about three to six feet as you move along.
Of course, walking will help your body and your health in many ways. It provides more serotonin to improve your mood as well. If you add meditation to your walk, your exercise program will become even more powerful and further improve your mind as well as your body.
Tags: Health