INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
12
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May 2016 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
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Mindful Walking:
Walking Meditation
By John A. Patterson MD, MSPH, FAAFP
“Walking on
the Earth is a
miracle.”
“Peace is every
step.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Research suggests walking for
exercise has significant physical,
mental and emotional benefits. Brisk
walking seems to offer similar benefits as more intense running when
it comes to managing several risk
factors for heart disease and stroke,
including stress, high blood pressure,
elevated cholesterol, overweight and
diabetes.
Walking as little as 30 minutes a
day may improve your heart health.
Life expectancy may increase by two
hours for every hour of brisk walking. But some people are physically
unable to walk briskly and others
find fitness walking monotonous and
boring. However, if you can walk,
you can practice mindful walking,
also known as walking meditation.
Less is known about the health
benefits of mindful walking, but
empirical evidence over the centuries from many cultures and tradi-
tions support its use as part of a
contemplative and healthy lifestyle.
As with other mindful meditative
practices, walking meditation helps
develop mindfulness in everyday life.
Training the mind to pay attention
when you are physically moving with
open eyes can help you bring mindfulness to everything else in your
life at home, at work, in traffic and
simply being with yourself. Mindful
awareness can begin to inform your
entire life.
Mindful walking can help you
connect to your inner sense of peace
and calm, manage stress, increase
spontaneity and enhance mental
focus, creativity and problem solving. It can also help you feel more
resilient in the face of anxiety, worry,
fear, anger, confusion, agitation,
obsessive thoughts, rumination,
grief, depression and pain.
The formal practice of mindful
walking cultivates an alert, aware
engagement with your life as it is
unfolding right there in that present
moment, right there in that place,
wherever you are. Walking meditation trains your mind to skillfully
cultivate wakefulness and awareness,
increasing the sense of mindfulness
in everyday activities. Routine daily
habits can begin to feel richer, more
three-dimensional, more multi-colored than black and white. A deeper
sense of gratitude can begin to grow
in your life. Interestingly, you may
not be the first one to be aware of
these changes in your life. Those you
live and work with may notice them
before you do as your daily life itself
becomes an experience of conscious,
intentional, mindful living.
Walking meditation is easy to
incorporate into daily routines. You
can carve out dedicated time for formal mindful walking or informally
bring mindfulness to any walking
you do, especially if you are walking
toward a potentially stressful experience or communication. Mindfully
walking and connecting to your
inner sense of calmness, peacefulness and confidence can even disarm
those who might otherwise behave
as adversaries or antagonists. You
may find mindful walking more
relaxing than other forms of meditation, especially if your mind is particularly churned up. At those times,
walking meditation can be relaxing
in a way that sitting meditation may
not. Paradoxically, at times when
your mind feels dull, lethargic or
sleepy, walking practice may increase
alertness and energy.
Many people prefer walking outdoors over indoor exercise machines
or gym tracks. Some studies suggest
that, compared to those who exercise indoors, those who exercise outdoors enjoy it more and score higher
on measures of vitality, enthusiasm,
pleasure and self-esteem and lower
on tension, depression and fatigue.
As you walk mindfully outdoors,
you can intentionally direct your
attention to the physical sensations
in your body – feeling your feet
touching the Earth, feeling your heel
landing, feeling the weight transferring to the ball of the foot, feeling
the foot lifting and moving through
the air and landing again on the heel.
Bring special attention to the breath
coming into the body and leaving
the body, feeling the air at the nostrils, the movement of the chest and
the movement of the belly. You can
feel your clothing moving against
your skin, the air touching your skin,
the movement of your arms, legs,
muscles and joints. You can also
attend more expansively to the