Walking meditation-fake it until you become it

Walking Meditation

You have probably heard about “The Secret” and the “Law of Attraction”. It has become the bible for personal development and the secret to creating the life you want. If it was all as simple as some of the publicity would have us believe then we would all be rich, have fantastic love relationships and be able to manifest whatever we needed. One of the basic requirements for consciously choosing what you want to manifest is being able to believe you already have it. Not to say it, or just think it, but to actually BE it and FEEL it. The difficulty here can be our sub conscious. What are you thinking and creating at that level? I will be writing more about this and recommending some books but, for now, here is a walking meditation for you to try. I have been using it and works because you are reading this!

I call this a walking meditation but in fact it is both a meditation and a visualisation exercise. As a meditation you will be meditating on your own body and getting out of your head. It will help you to still your mind for a short time from the thousands of thoughts that pass through every minute of the day. As a visualisation it will create positive and healing images for both body and mind, offering an experience of healthy positive change.

Raising self awareness:

As with everything we do you need to start in awareness. I would like you to go for a walk for about half an hour to start with. As you are walking first take some time to be in the moment. Look around you, what can you see? Listen, what can you hear? What can you smell? Bring all your senses into the moment. Touch flowers, the ground or a wall, what does it feel like? Take your time and be aware of your responses to the external environment.

Now it is time to go to your internal environment. Listen to your breathing, take your awareness into your body, feel the way your feet meet the ground, how your arms and legs move as you walk, how you hold your head and neck, what is your upper body posture? Become aware of who you are physically and emotionally in this moment. Make no judgements, do not analyse, simply be aware and acknowledge your state of being.

Unpleasant feelings.
At a deeper level your body knows what it needs to be healed and it may give you some clues in the form of unpleasant feelings. Try not to push them away. Acknowledge them and place them in a virtual memory box for future reference. They are the clues to creating change.

Experiencing the authentic you.

Now you know where and how you are you can decide where you want to be. How you would like to "BE". E.g. more relaxed, more confident, successful, motivated, beautiful, and slimmer, or in a loving relationship, whatever comes to mind at this moment that would help you to be in a better state. Try not to be too complicated. I would like you to create a phrase, a mantra that you can repeat. I’ll give you two examples to help you. I will use the first one as your example throughout the exercise.

1. If you want to bring a loving relationship into your life use “This is the…..of a woman/man in a loving relationship.”
2. It you wish to get used to being prosperous use “this is the …..of a prosperous man/woman”
Choose which ever gender is appropriate for you but it is important to keep the phrase in the third person for now. The aim is to experience every part of your body as the man/woman in a loving relationship, to embody the different state of being, starting with the feet and finishing with the body as a whole.

Have you chosen your mantra? Remember this is for now, you can change this to address something different at another time.

Decide where you are going to walk and away you go.

"These are the feet of a prosperous man/woman, these are the calves of a prosperous man/woman.....these are the knees of a ... thighs, hips, buttocks, pelvis and so on".

Be aware of your feelings, both physical and emotional, all the time. Work with the parts of your body that come to your mind and that suit you, but don't forget the internal organs, stomach, heart liver lungs, the skeleton i.e. spine, and the breath.

When you have worked through the body say "This is a prosperous man/woman walking .......to work or up the stairs to their desk, walking the dog” or whatever you are doing at the time. Finally when you feel ready to take this onboard, and this may not be the first few times of trying out the exercise, finish with "I am this prosperous Man/women and I feel ..........." repeat any positive feelings that come to mind, “grateful loving, peaceful, content, happy” etc. BE it, experience what it is like to be that which you wish to be.

Please try not to get caught up in analysing or following your mind into thoughts like “this could not really happen” If you do have these problems treat the exercise like acting. Get into role for a short time, it will have the same effect.

So if you feel like trying this out, create your own mantra (phrase) that refers to a state of being that you would like to have and start repeating it once a day. You can do this at any time when you are walking. It takes me about 10 to 15 minutes for the complete exercise. If there is a regular time when you are walking, say to work, or up stairs, this would be a good time to repeat some of the mantra. Let it come easily, when and where it works for you and enjoy experiencing what it would be like to be in this state. After some time you will become used to the exercise and you will begin to resonate at a different vibration. You are also focusing on your body parts and giving yourself positive thoughts so you will have the added benefit of keeping your body healthy and happy.