Walking Meditation Script – A Routine for Serene Life
One of the readers of my blog recently asked me a question when I told him about some of my morning’s practices, “Can you meditate while walking?” When I answered yes to that question he became more curious about how can someone meditate when their focus is on some other activity? To answer this I shared with him, a walking meditation script using which you can meditate when you are taking a walk to your office, grocery store, or simply when you go for your morning or evening walks.
One of the biggest misconceptions about meditation that stops people from trying it is that they think it as some difficult practice that is not meant for everyone, people tend to think that without certain Yogic posture, place or diet a person cannot meditate. It’s absolute rubbish, of course, a yogic diet, environment that is conducive for meditation and certain postures do help a person to concentrate but all of them are just additional things.
Just like you don’t always need a gym or a protein shake in order to exercise, all those things are not necessary. Not everyone in the world has time to spare for yogic practices but there is a method that has evolved from ancient schools of spirituality like Buddhism i.e mindfulness.
You can practice mindfulness exercises anywhere, anytime, it gives your mind the necessary rest which will result in the inner peace that will fill you with energy for the rest of your day.
One of my most favorite morning habits is meditative walking, I am intensely present most of the times during the walk and it is probably the most powerful practice that I perform during my day because even when I sit for meditation, I am not that much focused as I am when I go for a walk.
Present moment awareness is a simple habit that can change your whole life, it gives you the power to understand your inner world better and helps you to do your work efficiently.
How Can You Meditate While Walking?
This question from my reader is a very sensible one and it requires to be answered properly. According to his curiosity, any task requires your focus so how can someone do something that requires such intense focus like meditation simultaneously doing something else?
The answer is simple, we assume that we are focused on what we are doing but in truth, we are thinking about something else most of the time. All of our activities in life are handled by our subconscious mind while our conscious mind can attend to only one thing at a time and most of the time our conscious mind is not at all focused on what we are doing at that moment.
When you are driving you must have noticed that many times you don’t remember when you crossed a certain place because you were thinking about something else while your subconscious mind was handling the task of driving. Similarly, when we walk or exercise we don’t concentrate on those activities, neither does it requires our attention after the initial phase, it all happens automatically.
During work, you might be using your mind every now and then to handle various issues but when it comes to the routine tasks that have become a habit, your conscious attention goes towards various issues of your life while your body keeps on performing all those tasks.
Mindfulness meditation is not a practice that will make you focus on something else, instead, it requires you to be completely present in the “now” moment which in turn will help you to concentrate on whatever you are doing.
This process makes you fully aware of your present moment, so if you are eating, you will be focusing on the taste and smell of the food which will allow you to be in control of what and how much you are eating, this is why mindfulness eating helps to lose weight. At work when you practice present moment awareness, you will be open to receive various new ideas that will help you to make some great progress.
Meditating While Walking
Now I will show you how you can practice mindfulness meditation while you go for your morning or evening walk. While walking is great for your physical fitness, mindful walking is great for your inner peace. 
Although the procedure I am going to provide you here can help you to meditate while walking, I want you to understand that being completely present at the moment is something that you have to practice over and over with proper understanding. You can read the book “Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle for gaining a better insight into this method.
You can try this technique but don’t ever blame yourself for getting lost in thoughts, it is completely normal and we all are hypnotized by our minds most of the time. The more you are able to be aware of your thoughts, the better it is. Also, do understand that nowhere in this post I have talked about either controlling or stopping our thoughts, meditation is just about being aware of your thoughts that’s it.
Mindfulness Walking Script
1 – When you are walking, observe your surroundings, see the sights without labeling or judging it. So when you see a car just observe it without saying to yourself “a car”, notice every bit of the visuals you see. Observe how various things you see make you feel and also observe what thoughts come to your mind when you see something on the way. Let those thoughts come and go, if you get lost in thoughts it is alright, just bring yourself back into the moment whenever you realize that.
2 – Observe the smells that you can sense in your way without labeling it “good” or “bad”. Right now, in the place where I am staying, there are tea factories, so when I go for a walk the smell of the tea dust helps me to bring my mind into the present moment. Many times those tea leaves bring me the memory of my childhood days (long story) but when I started to observe those thoughts, they stopped.
3 – Every moment in our surrounding there are so many sounds being created but we are hardly aware of them.
When you walk you can use the sounds from your surroundings to bring your attention to the present moment.
As a game, start by trying to hear as many distinct sounds as possible and then observe how those sounds are making you feel. Often times a horn or a bird chirping will alert you that your mind has again got engaged in thoughts and thus you will become aware once again.
4 – Be mindful of your body while walking, feel the sensations in your foot and hands. Observe your heartbeat and breath, feel the weather and how it is making you feel.
I often observe my pace, I walk at a certain speed but when I become aware of that, it changes accordingly. This will let you know about things you often fail to notice, like your pace changes when you are with someone and you will be able to know what is your natural speed. Many times we start slow or fast and gradually our walking speed changes, all this will come to your awareness when you are mindful of the activity.
Using the methods given above you will be able to bring your mind into the present moment and it will help you to shift your focus from incessant thinking that keeps our mind absorbed in worthless issues that drain our energy.
This simple process will help your mind to take the necessary pause from the mental activities, which will naturally bring more peace into your life. When you will learn to be more present at the moment, you stop giving attention to the thoughts that are not serving you well and thus your overall emotional health will improve.
If you are finding it difficult as a beginner to practice mindfulness then a program like”7-minute mindfulness” can be very useful to you. But you should keep in mind that you should not get too serious with your practice, be playful and joyful with this process. If you want any help with this method then you can shoot me an email and I will be happy to help you.
Here’s an awesome video where Eckhart talks about “Staying Present” that will help you to understand the process that I have shown you in this post:-
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