You take your health seriously.

You walk or run almost every day and know the benefits of regular exercise. You try to eat healthy and do many other things to promote your health and wellness yet you  still feel stressed. You’re interested in meditation and have been meaning to try it for years but you just can’t seem to get started.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could combine your walking and running with meditation? Wouldn’t it be great if you could get a meditative experience as you walk or run?

Well, the good news is that you can. Walking and running meditation are strategies I use to help people Release their stress-related tension and energy in healthy ways. Release is one of my five lines of defense against stress called the Five R’s of Conquering Your Stress.

Walking and running meditation are forms of moving meditation. Unlike traditional meditation, which is practiced while sitting quietly, moving meditation uses the movements that accompany any repetitive continuous physical activity as the focal point. Walking, running, swimming, bicycling, and cross-country skiing are examples of repetitive, continuous physical activity that typically is sustained for at least twenty minutes and can provide an aerobic training effect as well as a meditative benefit.

Walking and running are excellent activities to use to learn moving meditation because they are safe, can be practiced by almost anyone, and can be done both indoors on a treadmill and outdoors. During walking and running meditation you focus on the individual components of each step (lifting the leg, bending the knee, stepping forward, heel touching, toe touching, etc.), the process of walking and running (feelings in the feet, legs, back, etc., one’s balance and sensation of movement), and your breathing. Regular practice of walking or running meditation will not only help you release your stress through meditation, they will help increase your fitness level.

During walking or running meditation  you walk or run at a pace and for a sufficient duration of time to obtain an aerobic training effect. You focus your attention on each footfall, extension, bend of the knee, and redirect your thoughts back your walking or running when they stray.

You can use your cadence of footfalls and your breathing pattern to help you minimize distracting thoughts while you focus on what is going on in your legs, feet, and hips as you walk or run. You can count “one, two, three, four” in synch with the beat, time, and rhythm of your steps.

You can also determine how many steps you take with each inhalation and exhalation and synchronize them. For example, I take six steps with each inhalation and six steps with each exhalation when I am walking. When I am running I take three breaths with every inhalation and three with every exhalation. This helps me keep my thoughts on my breathing and my footfalls rather than the thousand and one other things running around my brain when I walk or run.