Walking
What is diamond mindful walking, and why do it?
There are different versions of mindful walking. Some Buddhist approaches emphasise attending to the moment-by-moment act of walking itself - bringing our attention from our head to our feet as we move forward. This can, however, have the effect of narrowing our focus just to the act of walking. Here we adopt an “open awareness” approach, where we also take in everything that we notice in the environment we are traversing with a sense of openness, appreciation and connection. When we notice that our attention drifts into thinking, we bring our attention back to our feet and to the simple act of walking, and then return once more to opening our awareness to the environment we are walking through. In this way, as well as spending more time experiencing life as it unfolds, moment by moment, perhaps feeling greater calm as a result, you may also increase your sense of connection with the world around you.
Select the diamond to download a factsheet about Mindful Walking and read on to find out more.
How do I know if I’m walking mindfully?
Hopefully as you practice Diamond Mindful Walking, you will steadily notice more of the world around you, noticing things you’ve never seen or smelled before. You may find that you are able to observe wild animals and birds for longer before they disappear from view; and perhaps they will not move off at all. In this way, you should steadily develop a deeper sense of connection with the natural world in particular.
Getting better at mindful walking
To help maintain focus on the world around you, it may be helpful when you start adopting this way of walking to count something that you expect to see quite a lot of – robins on an early morning walk for example. Another approach is to attach a short (non-judgmental) ‘label’ to the things that you notice most, and also to the thoughts that drift into your mind (and expect to drift into thinking many, many times!) Try saying each ‘label’ three times in your head e.g. “ivy, ivy, ivy”, “rain, rain, rain”, “meeting, meeting, meeting”.
In this way, you will both increase your focus on the world around you, while also being more aware of the things that are distracting you – returning your attention first to the act of walking and then to the world around you.
As you become more advanced, you might turn your attention to the finer points! Are you finding, for example, that when your attention is drawn to something notable, you then drift off into reflecting about it? What often then happens is that you blunder forward while lost in thought, disturbing the next being to cross your path – causing a bird to fly away in alarm for example.
Dedicated to the memory of Anthony “Pat” Fox, who always walked mindfully in the countryside, and taught others to do the same by example. Pat grew up as the son of a head-gamekeeper, and became a research biologist with a difference. Our version of mindful walking is extremely similar to his.