Mary Oliver (American poet, 1935-2019) loved walking in nature. In "The Journey" she points to the experience of insight which she describes as "a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own". This is the invitation of mindfulness: to unplug from"bad advice", and tune in to the voice calling you to pay attention to your own life, here and now.

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Exercise: Walking Meditation

 

   Begin walking, paying attention to the sensations of each step, as one foot touches the ground and the other foot lifts off. Noticing the feelings in your feet and legs:  sensations of touch, heaviness, lightness, pressure, tingling, energy...

... whether painful or pleasurable or neither....each sensation becoming the focus of your attention in the moment, step by step... noticing when your mind  wanders, perhaps noting "thinking" or "planning" or "worrying" or "judging" whatever it may be...then bringing your attention back to the sensations of your next step...and  your next step...

   

   Walking meditation can be done inside or outside. Traditionally, one chooses a short distance, walking back and forth, carefully noticing each step, including the detailed process of stopping, turning around, and walking again in the opposite direction. It may help to imagine that you are experiencing the felt sense of walking as if for the first time, each step in fact the controlled action of carefully catching yourself falling forward...step by step...

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Walk Slowly

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It only takes a reminder to breathe, a moment to be still, and just like that, something in me settles, softens, makes space for imperfection. The harsh voice of judgement drops to a whisper and I remember again that life isn’t a relay race; that we all will cross the finish line;

that waking up to life is what we were born for.

As many times as I forget, to catch myself charging forward without even knowing where I am going,
that many times I can make the choice to stop, to breathe, and be, and walk slowly into the mystery...

 

by Danna Faulds

https://www.best-poems.net/danna-faulds/poems.html

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