Quick 10:00 Guided Walking Meditation Instructions

Study after study find that meditation provides a wealth of benefits for your body, mind, and soul. It naturally reduces stress and lowers blood pressure. It builds focus and memory. But what if you’ve tried meditation and just can’t sit still?

What if you have medical issues that cause great pain if you attempt to sit or even lie down stationary for a long period of time? For these, and for a thousand other reasons, walking meditations should be a critical part of every person’s tool kit of useful skills.

What Is A Guided Walking Meditation?

Guided walking meditation involves bringing yourself into a meditative state while moving through an area. You are no longer trapped like a bald saffron-robed monk in a high tower of a Himalayan monastery. Instead, you are roaming freely through a beautiful wood with birds singing high in the trees and the sun glistening down through the leaves.

Maybe you are strolling along a river walk, taking in the ducks as they skim along the water’s surface. It could be you are mindfully navigating a labyrinth through a garden, watching as its twists and turns take you ever more closely toward its center.

That is the beauty of walking meditation. It can be done anywhere. At any time. Even in the comfort of your own home.

How Does A Walking Meditation Work?

Learning how to meditate can often seem very complicated. Meditations can seem to involve special, embroidered cushions of just the right height. A piece of ideal music is often recommended that has just the right balance of soothing tone and swirly melodies. With guided walking meditation, though, the world is your soundtrack. Nature itself provides the atmosphere.

Some people like to do a walking meditation through a city landscape, taking in the full diversity of humanity which forms our global community. Other people prefer to do their walking meditation in a park or garden, where the “civilization” falls away and we connect more closely with the world as it once was.

The beauty of walking meditations is that you don’t have to limit yourself to just one option. One day you can choose to walk through an awe-inspiring art museum, pausing before each object to draw in its unique message. On another day you can walk through a quiet forest, allowing each rustle of leaf-on-branch to pull you further into your mindfulness.

Some days you can walk in quiet loops around your home, letting the rain showers outside gently wash away any worries and concerns. All that matters is the heel-arch-toe. Heel-arch-toe. Breathe. Breathe.

The practitioner of walking meditation can go at whatever pace feels natural to them while engaging in the practice. You have the choice to walk at a more leisurely rate, or you can proceed at the normal speed for you. You can also practice meditation while engaging in a physical activity, such as brisk walking. It is not as important how swiftly or how slowly you walk as it is to become more aware of your movements as you carry them out. The main thing is not how quickly or how slowly you walk. 

Even when a person is acting as though they are only going through the motions, it is only normal for thoughts and feelings to surface. Even though you may be aware of them, you shouldn't spend too much time brooding on them because it's not productive. Instead, refocus your attention on the walking meditation techniques.