Walking Meditation

Phil starts a rhythm and asks you to walk foot by foot, step by step, with it, to help your body's systems fall into sync. He says it may feel uncomfortable at first and that this is completely fine. The beat then becomes the backbone for the rest of the session, including your breathing.

Once your awareness reaches your belly, you begin breathing to your steps. First you inhale for two steps and exhale for two. If that feels fast, you slow to four steps in and four out. You are free to keep whichever feels better for the remainder of the walk.

Your awareness climbs the body in order: feet, ankles, knees, glutes, hips, belly, heart, shoulders and hands, then head. Along the way you breathe into each area, thank your feet for the gift of mobility, and notice how the belly steadies the upper body while the legs move. Near the top, you sense head, heart and gut moving in the same rhythm.

The guides repeat that this is an open-eye meditation, so you stay aware of your surroundings and walk safely. Your eyes are also part of the practice, because sight is one of the five senses you tune into, including what sits in your peripheral vision.

You take them one at a time: air and clothing on your skin, then smells, then sounds, then everything you see. For each, you look for the most dominant and the most subtle sensation, without judging it as good or bad. Then you open all of them together and take in the world as a baby might, as if for the first time.

It is an exercise in wonder. You look at a tree's shades of brown and green and wonder how long it has stood there. You look at a building, pretty or ugly, and think of the thought, plan, architects and builders behind it. The aim is astonishment and gratitude toward ordinary things around you.