The Art of Walking Meditation

The instructions for walking meditation fit on a postcard. Walk slower than usual. Feel the foot lift, move and land. When the mind wanders, and it will, bring it back to the next step. That is the whole method, and it is harder than it sounds for about a week. What makes walking easier than sitting for many people is that the body is doing something. There is a rhythm to return to, a path to follow, air on the face. The attention has an anchor that moves, which suits minds that cannot bear to be still. The same route every day is the secret. When the path is familiar the eyes stop looking for novelty and the walk becomes what it is meant to be: twenty minutes in which nothing is being got done, and everything is being noticed.