Maybe you've heard that a regular mindfulness meditation practice has great benefits for your mental health. Indeed, scientific research shows that mindfulness meditation is beneficial in reducing the symptoms of subclinical depression and anxiety and can substantially reduce stress. But with busy lives and competing priorities, finding time to stop and meditate can be stressful in and off itself. However, it doesn't need to be!
There are several ways to include mindfulness in your daily routine that don't involve sitting down in a lotus pose in a quiet room! One of the simplest approaches to do that is to do a mindful walk daily. You can do that in 10 minutes or less - and admit it, even walking from the bedroom to the kitchen while working from home can add to 10 minutes on any given day!
The folks at the Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley have a good script for a short walking meditation. Here is an overview of the steps:
1- Find a location. Find a quiet and ideally private space that allows you to walk back and forth for 10-15 paces, either indoors or outside.
2- Start your steps. Walk 10-15 steps along the lane you’ve chosen, and then pause and breathe for as long as you like. When you’re ready, turn and walk back in the opposite direction to the other end of the lane, where you can pause and breathe again. Then, when you’re ready, turn once more and continue with the walk.
3- Pay attention to the components of each step. Walking meditation involves very deliberate thinking about actions that you normally do automatically. Breaking these steps down in your mind may feel awkward. But you should try to notice at least these four basic components of each step:
a) the lifting of one foot;
b) the moving of the foot a bit forward of where you’re standing;
c) the placing of the foot on the floor, heel first;
d) the shifting of the weight of the body onto the forward leg as the back heel lifts, while the toes of that foot remain touching the floor or the ground.
Then the cycle continues, as you:
a) lift your back foot totally off the ground;
b) observe the back foot as it swings forward and lowers;
c) observe the back foot as it makes contact with the ground, heel first;
d) feel the weight shift onto that foot as the body moves forward.
4- Speed. You can walk at any speed, but try to go slow and take small steps. Most important is that it feel natural, not exaggerated or stylized.
5- Hands and arms. You can clasp your hands behind your back or in front of you, or you can just let them hang at your side—whatever feels most comfortable and natural.
6- Focusing your attention. As you walk, try to focus your attention on one or more sensations that you would normally take for granted, such as your breath coming in and out of your body; the movement of your feet and legs, or their contact with the ground or floor; your head balanced on your neck and shoulders; sounds nearby or those caused by the movement of your body; or whatever your eyes take in as they focus on the world in front of you.
7- What to do when your mind wanders. No matter how much you try to fix your attention on any of these sensations, your mind will inevitably wander. That’s OK. When you notice your mind wandering, simply try again to focus on one of those sensations.
8- Integrating walking meditation into your daily life. For many people, slow, formal walking meditation is an acquired taste. But the more you practice, even for short periods of time, the more it is likely to grow on you. In fact, over time, you can try to bring the same degree of awareness to any everyday activity, experiencing the sense of presence that is available to us at every moment as our lives unfold.
So there you go, now you too have time for a little mindfulness meditation practice every day! Here is a helpful short video to remind you how to do it: