Is Walking Meditation?

[Mooders]

I have felt some small benefits from meditation however i find it hard to do it everyday. I understand that I dont want to do it because its emotionally difficult and all that but for whatever reason I just dont really do it everyday.

What i do enjoy doing everyday though is walking. I have recently been pressured by heavy emotions caused by a girl very close to me and whilst I find it hard to sit and meditate I feel I have made some huge progress just going for a walk for a couple of hours. 

am I robbing myself of progress by substituting a walk instead of meditation? I sometimes do mindfulness techniques such as labelling a sound and then listening to it whilst i am out walking I just find it easier to sit and do when i get away from my surroundings and I feel more likely to start doing something if that something involves physically getting up from where I was. 

 

[rikkefriismose]

I understand your problematic. I am new in meditation, however, I have some thought I feel for sharing with you.

First of all, I want to say that I can relate to the progress you feel you get from your walks. It is like the walks become therapy. I have been there myself. As far as I see it, the walks are not the same as meditation. It may help you because (as you write yourself) you get again from where you are, as the place where you are may arise more emotions or thoughts in your mind. Then it is like an escape to go for a walk (as I imagine it). But actually, you cannot totally escape from the problem, as it is created in your mind and your mind will always follow you wherever you go. So, to go for a walk may do something more to you?

If you simply tell yourself that you cannot meditate optimally at the moment due to your emotional state, then do not do it. Instead, try to handle your emotions and start meditation later in your life. One thing at the time can be a good possibility to focus on. Have you seen Leo's videos about emotions? They are absolutely recommendable.

[Prabhaker]

On 2/9/2016 at 7:37 PM, Mooders said:

I find it hard to sit and meditate I feel I have made some huge progress just going for a walk for a couple of hours. 

If you are walking on the road, and you are also witnessing that you are walking -- not going along just like a robot, mechanical, everyday habit, the road is known, the legs know it, you can even walk with closed eyes. But walking with absolute alertness every step, every fall of a leaf, every ray of the sun, every bird flying in front of you, fully alert... slowly, slowly, you become aware that you are not the body that is walking, you are something inside which is witnessing.

You should walk with awareness. Moving your hand, you should move with awareness, knowing perfectly that you are moving the hand. You can move it without any consciousness, like a mechanical thing…you are on a morning walk; you can go on walking without being aware of your feet.

You walk at a certain pace; that has become habitual, automatic. Now try to walk slowly. Buddha used to say to his disciples, "Walk very slowly, and take each step very consciously." If you take each step very consciously, you are bound to walk slowly. If you are running, hurrying, you will forget to remember. Hence Buddha walks very slowly.

Just try walking very slowly, and you will be surprised – a new quality of awareness starts happening in the body. Eat slowly, and you will be surprised – there is great relaxation. Do everything slowly... just to change the old pattern, just to come out of old habits.

Walk in a relaxed way, eat in a relaxed way, talk, listen in a relaxed way. Slow down every process. Don't be in a hurry and don't be in haste. Move as if all eternity is available to you.

[Esoteric]

On 2/8/2016 at 3:07 PM, Mooders said:

I have felt some small benefits from meditation however i find it hard to do it everyday. I understand that I dont want to do it because its emotionally difficult and all that but for whatever reason I just dont really do it everyday.

What i do enjoy doing everyday though is walking. I have recently been pressured by heavy emotions caused by a girl very close to me and whilst I find it hard to sit and meditate I feel I have made some huge progress just going for a walk for a couple of hours. 

am I robbing myself of progress by substituting a walk instead of meditation? I sometimes do mindfulness techniques such as labelling a sound and then listening to it whilst i am out walking I just find it easier to sit and do when i get away from my surroundings and I feel more likely to start doing something if that something involves physically getting up from where I was. 

 

I sometimes do a walk meditation as an add-on to my normal daily meditation. I put on my headphones, set bells every 5 minutes and count my breath for 45-60 minutes. It can be as efficient as sitting meditation, plus you get better at not getting distracted by visual sensations. Note that just walking is not really meditation if you get lost in monkey mind, it just makes the monkey mind not as annoying. Walk with an intent to be present.

[Mulky]

At work I am tasked with walking around outside for 8 hours straight and doing nothing else, I can talk to people, or whatever, as long as I'm walking around and aware of my surroundings I'm doing my job right, so I just do that all day, and have been for about 3 years.  It's really good, just get present and aware of surroundings and feeling as you walk.

You might feel you need headphones or something right now, but I wouldn't recommend it.  You want to hear birds wind cars and everything, all real life sounds not coming in a strange frequency, listening to music etc is fine but during this time I wouldn't do it.

Get deep in your body as you go, work deep into your feelings, and then into your spirit, and be sort of openly taking everything in, sort of like people do sometimes on vacation.  

Not sure about the monkey mind other than to say, look for the feeling happening during the monkey mind and watch it.  Like I used to notice what would happen if i became completely passive and didn't partake in thinking with words but still saw them happen, what I noticed is that when you are silent at first and then look and wait for a feeling, you will see some sort of feeling appear, this feeling will be the feeling that pops up to tell you to talk again(interally)  Mine was usually in my head, like literally, a physicall feeling in my head.  You just then watch that passively, eventually you become comfortable with it and it calms, congratulations, you can exist without thinking.  You can actually do this for anything, but I would recommend finding the core feeling that stimulates verbal thinking whenever you are silent and abide in that feeling and feel ok with it, it will feel sort of restless or scared at first I'm sure, just burn it out.  You'll still think with words, but it won't be nearly as bad.

I would sometimes try to do purposeful things, mantras, staring at a certain spot while I walked, standing motionless no matter who was around or how weird i looked, staring down at an angle, making sure I was being properly slow or having a certain posture.  But now I just move around natural and let my body do pretty much what it wants, just keep it sort of loose and don't think about it to much.  If you're gonna be yourself that means your body is going to do whatever it wants.  Oh ya I forgot the key of it all, the most important thing and the 1 thing people aren't talking about much here, gigantic deeply self exploring and opening breaths, all the time.  Just start down the path of it, deepen your breath, force open things within with your breath, look so deeply within using your breath, especially while you walk, like open up your emotinal field completely, go as deep as you can.   Not everyone will agree with this, but violently if necessary blast your inner self open completely with your massive breath, and if it's not massive yet keep growing it.  You can literally do this whole thing with just your breath, and if your doing a good job on everything else but haven't done much with the breath, well then the sky is the limit for you once you start using the breath.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Mulky

[mikeyy]

Yeah walking is meditation I try to make wvweything I do a meditation as in being fully in the present moment 

[ajasatya]

you may also try kinhin.

[30secs]

@Mooders meditation is simply being in the present moment. You said sometimes you get distracted by emotions and you find it difficult, then continue meditating youll find that the most uncomfortable one is the best one.yeh goodluck:)