Reduce Stress with Walking Meditation

I discovered walking meditation during my stay in US around 3 years back. Till that time I was aware on mainly the sitting meditation technique. I joined a mindfulness group meditation in Davenport which is a town located in Iowa and is part of quad cities on the banks of river Mississippi. This group practices walking meditation and I also joined them.

Walking meditation is being practiced since the time of Buddha for last two thousand years and it is still practiced even today. This technique is relaxing and increases the body awareness and reduces stress.

Steps to Practice Walking Meditation

Key thing to keep in mind is that our aim is to increase the awareness and that will only come when we slow down everything, and especially the mind. Mind, breath and body has lot of connection. Moving slowly, slows down the mind hence we should reduce our pace and practice in relaxed manner with respect to body while keeping the mind focused.

1. Select a quiet room or a garden where it is not crowded. It is preferable to be bare feet as that will help you to be more aware of the feet. When we wear shoes, our feet is supported by the shoe surface and we cannot feel the entire feet properly.


2. Stand in a relaxed manner and feel the skin below the feet touching the floor. Observe how the pressure is applied to the different regions of the feet surface touching the ground and how various muscles react when we stand quietly.


3. Start moving. Remember that you should do this very slowly. Start lifting the right feet. You can slow down this by first observing how the heel is lifted then middle region of the feet and finally toes. Observe how the muscles of the other feet are affected and where the pressure is applied on the entire left leg, and especially the lower leg region.


4. After lifting the right leg place in around 1.5 foot forward and observe how the weight is slowly transferred to the right leg.


5. Now stop for 3-4 seconds on the transition and observe the legs muscles.


6. Keep moving forward very slowly and keep observing the lower leg region.


7. Doing this for 10 to 15 minutes will bring you to meditative stage.


8. After 10 to 15 minutes you can slowly come back to original position and slowly sit down. If you want you can continue with sitting meditation or keep observing yourself for some time.

Gradually increase the awareness to the upper body by focusing on the effects of walking on the upper body muscles.

Benefits of Walking Meditation

1. Relaxes and reduces stress.


2. Increase the body balance.


3. Reduces the body stiffness due to sitting in meditative poses for long and at the same time lets you continue the meditation.


4. Increases the endurance and strength of the legs

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