Walking Meditation – Smooth Out Your Breath
Walking meditation exercises improve your awareness of how you are breathing, and help smooth and balance your breath. This type of exercise also helps develop awareness of where your mind is going. Once you see your mind wandering, time after time, your ability to let go of the wandering and come back to the breath strengthens. This helps to develop the ability to see your options and, in the future, make better choices.
While walking, give yourself a break and let go of your busy day. Count your steps with your breath as you walk. When you breathe in, count the steps you take on each foot. While you are breathing in, count 1 for your left foot, 2 for your right foot, 3 for your left foot, and so forth until you finish your in-breath. Do the same process for your out-breath. We all breathe at different lengths. Whatever length of in-breath and out-breath you have been averaging, stay with that length for a minute or two.
After you know the number of steps you take for each normal in-breath and each out-breath, try to equalize your in-breath with your out-breath. If you normally breathe in for 3 steps, try to breathe out for 3 steps. If you breathe in for 8 steps, try to breathe out for 8 steps. If you pause after the in-breath or out-breath, just let them happen naturally. This needs to be comfortable. Do this for a minute or two and then go back to your regular walking without counting steps. If it feels good, do it for longer.
When thoughts, emotions, or sensations take you away from counting your steps, know that this is normal. As soon as you realize your focus has wandered, just let go of the thought, and move your concentration back to counting steps. If whatever pulled you away is strong, let your attention stay on it until it lessens and then return to counting your steps. This can occur often and is a process. The thoughts pulling you away from the breath are normal and necessary, and help with developing focus and awareness.
These exercises over time will deepen your breathing, helping you to relax naturally. Paying attention to where your mind wanders provides you information about where your mind is going and what it is interested in. If you can see where your mind wanders, you have a choice in letting the mind continue or choosing another option.
You may find similar walking exercises posted and feel they are exactly the same. It is true that they look the same, but they work with different lengths of breath which gives you multiple options for comfort and variety
