Live Whole Health #228: Walking meditation, mindfulness for busy lives

Studies show that mindfulness meditation can promote physical, emotional and social well-being. Perhaps you have done some mindfulness before and even found it helpful. But the challenge is often in keeping up the practice when we have so little time.

We all have busy lives. Our schedules are filled with tasks and appointments. Although we know that taking the time to pause and breathe can be helpful, we sometimes think we just can’t find the time! Well, here’s the good news: You don’t actually need to take extra time from your busy schedule to take a break and do some mindfulness meditation.

More than one way to meditate

When we think about meditation, we often think of sitting cross-legged in a quiet, peaceful place. But sitting meditation is only one type of meditation. Another very powerful and effective mindfulness meditation practice is walking meditation. Mindfulness is just paying attention to this moment, to whatever we’re doing and experiencing in this moment. With walking meditation, we bring our attention to the experience of walking. It can be just as grounding as sitting meditation (no pun intended)!

In this video, Jon Macaskill, a retired Navy SEAL Commander and now a Mindfulness and Meditation teacher, discusses the benefits of walking meditation and guides us through a brief experiential exercise. We learn to slow down and completely be with each step, as we allow the breath to flow through us.

When we practice walking meditation regularly, we may find that even with all of our daily activities we can center and ground ourselves when we are walking from one place to another. Even the simple experience of walking from the living room to the kitchen can be a “session” of walking mindfulness meditation, giving your brain the break that it needs. It is literally mindfulness in action!

Power of the mind

The mind affects our body just as our body affects our mind, even more than we often realize. Interested in learning more about finding peace in life’s daily moments? Check out these Power of the Mind handouts, audio, and videos or browse through our #LiveWholeHeath Series archives for more mindfulness in minutes!