How To Do Mindful Walking
A spontaneous picture taken of me caught up in some deep thoughts during a summer walk in a Swedish medieval town. I was doing some “mindful walking”. Never heard of it? That’ alright, I’ll explain below how it works.
Mindful walking is a normal walk where you, instead of focusing on getting from point A to B, counting your steps, or burning as many calories as possible, you just focus on what is here and now in this very moment. No result is desired other than that you do your very best to really focus on your walking. One step at a time. Mindful walking is an effective way to calm and declutter your mind and strengthen your focus. It can be practiced anywhere. Try it yourself today and will see that walking slowly can be extremely rewarding but also rather challenging at first, especially if you are stressed.
The idea of trying mindful walking came when I was burned out and on sick leave from my stressful lawyer job and in need of a strategy to calm my mind in my everyday life as I was doing everyday things. Before my burnout, when I was in my extremely stress-out mode, I was thinking fast, talking fast, and, especially, I was walking fast. I oftentimes found myself getting really stressed over people who were walking too slowly in front of me on the street, or swimming too slowly in front of me in the swimming pool. I have always felt the urge to walk or sim past them, as if I was in a chronic competitive and stressed-out mode. So my challenge now became to not walk or swim past them, but instead thank them for walking or swimming slowly in front of me, and to see it as a reminder to myself to slow down, to breathe, and to just be here and now. And to remind me that the competitive mode doesn’t always have to be switched “on”. It’s OK to be slow. It’s OK to be behind. And it’s OK to not win the “secret race” against the stranger on the street or in the swimming pool!!
After the wonderful realizations deriving from this little cognitive experiment of mine, I felt calm enough to level up and try the mindful walks, which have now become my favorite ones. In four steps – this is how it goes:
1.) Walk very slowly, much slower than your normal walking speed.
2.) Try to stay present in the now by objectively observing and becoming aware of everything around you. If possible, try to bring awareness to all your senses, for example: I see a tree, a couple of houses, a hill, and a happy girl. I smell the ocean, newly cut grass, and a cigarette. I feel the heat from the sun on my face, and the wind in my hair. I hear the sound of a singing bird and a crying baby, and I taste the sourness of the apple that I’m eating in combination with the mint flavor from my newly brushed teeth.
3.) There will be many disrupting thoughts arising about anything else but the present moment. That’s OK. Just observe and acknowledge these interruptive thoughts, and try to bring your focus back to the now, and to your senses.
4.) Just like your muscles need strength training to get stronger, the mind needs focus training to get sharper. Every time you lose focus as your thoughts wander away, and you slowly bring them back to the present moment — you are strengthening the mind, and this may be considered as ‘one repetition’ at the “mental gym”.
Incorporate mindful walking into your daily routine for as little as 5-10 minutes per day and you will soon start seeing wonderful results! Practice makes perfect! One step at a time. Literally!
