Top Tip #6 – Mindful Walking

When you are walking, be on the step you are on. Forget the idea that you are going anywhere at all. You may be on your way to somewhere, but that somewhere is still just a future thought. There is nowhere to go really, in truth you have already arrived!

You’ll never get to the future because the future doesn’t exist – now is all there is and when the future arrives it will still be now. You see there really is nowhere to go.

Our minds are constantly projecting to the future focussing on the next thing and that’s what makes us so stressed and unfulfilled. When you are walking your mind always wants to be at the end of the road. And then when you get there it will want to be somewhere else, because that what it does, it wants to be in the future, it is restless and constantly chasing.

Well I’ve got some bad news for you, the end of the road is old age and death (if you’re lucky) and there really is no rush. Your life is not in the future, it’s not in the next step, it’s in this step, and your life is here now in the miracle of this moment.

When you are walking try to focus on the step you are on. You’ll get where you are going, but you may start to notice your life on the way.

Here’s my challenge to you. Whenever you are walking, even if it’s only between the sofa and the kitchen, do it mindfully. Feel your feet on the floor, notice the movement of your body, experience your weight shifting, and notice your centre of gravity change. If you are outside, feel the breeze on your face or the warmth of the sun on your skin. Use all your senses to come alive and experience your life as fully as you can, where you are here and now. Life isn’t here for you to figure it out, it’s here for you to live, to experience through your body. Make life a sensual experience rather than a problem waiting for a future solution.

You can walk quickly mindfully or even run mindfully if you choose to, but you may find that since you are no longer going anywhere that the rush disappears from your life and you find increasingly that you are happy where you are. Isn’t that the secret? To be happy where you are! You can’t be anywhere else so you might as well eh? Practice Mindful walking for a week and see what happens.

Make a commitment to yourself that when you are walking, you do it mindfully. I guarantee that within the week you will start to notice things you’ve never noticed before and you’ll experience a marked shift in the depth and intensity of your experience of life. You’ll wake up to your life.

Be present,
Adrian

More from the blog