A shared practice
Mindfulness of Walking
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Created bySean Fargo
From Sean's introduction-to-mindfulness collection — recorded in his own voice.
In Sean Fargo’s own voice8 min
Read along — the full script
I'm Sean Fargo. As we've explored in other sessions, we can bring mindfulness to just about anything. Mindfulness is simply the act of paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgmentally. In other words, we're bringing a kind, curious awareness to our experience.
One thing that most of us do every day is walking. It's interesting that most of us don't pay much attention to walking, at least the sensations of walking. So in this session, we'll explore what it means to bring mindfulness to various aspects of walking.
I invite you to turn the volume up on this device so that it's loud enough to follow this guided exercise as you walk about five paces to the left or to the right. So let's begin by standing with both feet flat on the ground, facing a direction that you can comfortably walk in for about five paces. So for now, as we stand, notice your feet on the ground and the weight of your body.
As with the standing practice, notice whether you're leaning forward or to the side or backward. Relaxing the belly, drop the shoulders, soften the muscles of the face and the jaw. Notice where the hands are, and look forward towards the ground about five paces ahead.
Before I invite you to take a step, notice which foot you're inclined to move first. Now I invite you to take your left foot, bring it up slightly, and move it forward, and step forward with your left foot. Bringing awareness to the movement of the foot and the knee, bringing awareness to the foot rising off the ground, swinging forward, and touching the ground as you step.
Notice how your body shifts movement and momentum. Now bring your right foot up, noticing it move forward, and step forward with your right foot. See if you can balance and remain upright with your right foot forward and your left foot back.
And bring your left foot up, swing it forward, place it down on the ground, noticing the sensations of the bottom of the foot as it touches the ground. Noticing the shift of your weight as it moves across the room. And bringing the right foot up slowly, noticing it move forward, bend of the knees, transference of the weight of your body as you bring your right foot down on the ground again.
Now I invite you to bring your left foot to meet it with the right foot so that you're standing upright again with both feet flat on the ground, side by side, in a safe and comfortable position. How was that? What did you notice?
As we walk in general, we don't tend to notice the transference of our weight. Walking is so normal for us that we tend not to pay much attention to it. Now I invite you to turn around, but notice which direction you're inclined to turn towards, whether it's the left side or the right side as you turn around, noticing which feet move first and how many steps it takes to turn around.
Now I invite you to practice mindful walking back to where you started. Lifting your knee and your foot, bringing it forward, stepping on the ground, noticing the sensations of the feet on the ground as you move your weight forward. Noticing the back leg move up, forward, down on the ground, and repeating that a couple more times on your own.
Noticing the sensations in the legs and the feet. Noticing where your hands go, where your eyes go, with a sense of curious, kind awareness to your experience. Now bringing both feet side by side, standing in a comfortable, safe posture.
And that's it. That's mindful walking. It's a very simple exercise, but there's lots to explore. There's so many small experiences in the body and the mind as we walk that we tend not to pay attention to. So I invite you to bring more mindfulness to walking in daily life.
I think you'll be surprised by how much you notice in your experience as you bring more mindfulness to it. Wonderful. Great work. Thanks for participating in this exercise, and I look forward to seeing you again for your next one.
Thank you.
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