How to do Walking Meditation

Practicing walking meditation is a wonderful alternative for those who have trouble staying awake in traditional seated meditation

Do you have trouble trying to meditate? Do you fall asleep easily while meditating? There is a wonderful meditation practice that you may not know about that involves movement.  For new and experienced meditators, walking meditation is a powerful practice.  There are other types of moving meditation such a tai chi and yoga, however, this post will focus on how to do a walking meditation.

You can do walking meditation indoors or outdoors, but outdoors is a great way to connect with nature and feel grounded.  If you do this indoors you don’t need much space, because you’ll be walking extremely slowly. You could take 5 minutes to walk across your living room if you choose to.

• Start by standing still to gain awareness of your body.
• Your hands can be clasped in front or behind your body, or just hanging by your sides.
• Lift your right foot, noticing the weight of your leg and how your balance adjusts. Think to yourself ‘right’ as your foot touches the ground.  As your left leg lifts up notice the change in balance.
• Lift your left foot, and think to yourself ‘left’ as your left foot touches the ground.
• Notice what your body is doing.  There is a lot going on – balance, weight shifting, muscles contracting and releasing. Notice how your weight starts on the heel and shifts to the front of your foot.
• The focus is on your feet feeling and touching the ground.
• Your gaze can be a soft gaze, on the ground, a few feet in front of you.
• As you become more advanced you may change the words to anything you find peaceful and keeps your focus, such as ‘peace’ and ‘love’.

Do the walking meditation for any length of time you wish. Perhaps start with 5 or 10 minutes.  The pace ideally is very slow, so you can really experience the shifting of weight. You can walk as slow or fast as you wish once you are familiar with how to do walking meditation.

This is also a good opportunity to focus inward, and practice not caring what other people think if they see you doing this.  I took my meditation group outside for walking meditation on a sidewalk of a very busy street.  Cars zoomed by, other people walked past us, and the group remarked afterwards how much they enjoyed doing this; feeling a sense of peace and calm amongst city activity around them.

Try walking meditation sometime.  It’s a refreshing way to meditate, and may feel more natural to you than seated meditation if you haven’t tried meditation before.

~Wendy

Falling asleep during meditation

The most common questions I hear from my meditation students is about falling asleep while meditating. “I have trouble staying awake during meditation, is this a problem? Why is this happening? What can I do?”

The simple answer is:

You do want to stay awake and lucid during meditation as much as you can. When you are sleeping, you are not meditating, and therefore not getting the benefits of meditation.

The deeper answer is:

Over the years I have heard two general theories in answer to why some people have trouble staying awake during meditation:

1. They are simply tired and need sleep.
2. Falling asleep is a form of resistance to doing the ‘work’ of meditation. This resistance may be a subconscious reaction to meditation, as meditation is about observing and training the mind.  Sometimes it’s not pleasant to witness what your mind is doing.

Questions I would ask the student include:

• When are you meditating? Is it late in the day when you are tired? If so, try meditating earlier in the day. Mornings are typically best for most people.
• What position are you using? I find many people try to meditate while lying down, such as when they’re going to bed at night.  When you are new to meditation, this generally isn’t an ideal position, because your body is used to the lying down position being for sleep.  Try to use an erect sitting posture (either the ‘proper’ meditation sitting posture or simply in a regular chair, feet flat on the ground and spine erect.) This signals the body to stay more alert.  It’s best to avoid meditating in your bed.
• Do you meditate with your eyes closed?  Some people meditate with their eyes open and some do it closed.  If you meditate with your eyes closed, when you notice you are falling asleep, try opening your eyes slightly using a soft gaze for a few minutes, until you feel lucid again. Then you may close your eyes again when you wish.

I hope this post has been helpful. Sleepiness is a common issue for almost all meditators, especially when they are newer to meditation. Over time, as the mind is trained, most people find they fall asleep less often, and can enjoy meditation for longer and more lucid periods of time.

In a future post, I will discuss the different brain wave states and their relation to meditation.

Have a lovely day everyone,

~Wendy