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How to Practice Walking Meditation in Everyday Life

Updated: March 3, 2021 by Gavril Nikolaev Leave a Comment

It’s not the most exciting part of your day, is it? Getting from point A to point B.

It’s the part where you get lost in thought and start to wonder in the dreamland.

And why wouldn’t your mind be in a state like that? You know every turn, stop, and building on the way and let your autopilot mode take over.

I used to be like that myself. I couldn’t walk out of the house without putting on the headphones so that I could listen to music or an audiobook.

It felt as if I couldn’t be alone with my thoughts. I always needed something to shut out the “noise” of constant thinking and worrying about all the things.

But here’s what I discovered after I started meditating on a regular basis: this boring route you take every day can turn into a simple and powerful walking meditation practice.

It also saves you time if you have a busy schedule. Did you feel rushed in the morning and skipped your meditation session? Maybe you told yourself, “I don’t have time to meditate.”

Well, I have good news for you: now you have time to meditate every day.

You can practice walking meditation wherever you go: office, supermarket, coffee shop, restaurant, you name it.

Every step becomes an opportunity to be mindful.

Every path, every street in the world is your walking meditation path. — Thich Nhat Hanh

A Buddhist nun walking in the temple with text overlay: How to Do Walking Meditation in Everyday Life

How to Practice Walking Meditation for Beginners

Just like in breathing mediation you’ll need a point of concentration to keep you grounded in the present moment.

For this purpose, you can use the sensation produced by the soles of your feet touching the ground. Come back to it whenever you notice your mind has wandered off.

But you don’t have to exclude everything else. On the contrary, you need to pay attention to your surroundings by following the steps below. Also, remember to walk naturally, but at a slightly slower pace than usual.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Step #1

As you walk, begin by directing your attention into the body.

Notice the way you move, how you put one foot in front of the other, how your hands swing at your side. Feel the weight of your body as you walk.

Are there any areas of tension or discomfort?

Pay attention to the pace and rhythm just like you do with your breath during sitting meditation.

Observe the way you look around or prefer to keep your head down as you walk. Can you explain why do one or the other? These habitual patterns can reveal your state of mind.

Smile, breathe and go slowly. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Step #2

Now make a conscious effort to notice surrounding objects.

Look in intense awareness at everything around you and try to perceive it with fresh eyes.

You’ve got so accustomed to your route that all you see is mental labels devoid of life and depth.

For a few minutes, try to drop the labels and imagine you see the world for the first time.

When you make this simple shift, you may notice that people and things around you seem different.

You’ll start to notice subtle nuances never seen before, and your route will become fresh and new.

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Step #3

Then turn your attention to the sounds around you. Listen to people talking, cars passing by or the sound of your feet touching the ground.

Likewise, pay attention to smells. It could be an aroma of ground up beans from a nearby coffee shop, the sweet scent of flowers, or the smell of freshly baked bread. Notice how these smells make you feel.

Do any of these experiences evoke certain memories from your past or hopes for a distant future?

As always, use this part to notice your habitual thought patterns and reactions.

Use your senses fully and let the alert stillness within you be the perceiver, rather than your mind. — Eckhart Tolle

Step #4

The next step is to turn your attention to any physical sensations and how they make you feel.

Notice a fresh breeze sweeping over you as you walk down the street and the warm sunshine on your skin.

Pay attention to the way you walk, how your feet touch the ground, and the rhythm of your steps.

Are you moving fast or strolling while enjoying everything around you?

When you notice any pleasant or unpleasant physical sensations, don’t think about them. Just acknowledge them and let them be.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Make Walking Meditation a Natural Part of Your Routine

At some point, you’ve lost the ability to be aware while taking familiar paths of everyday life.

The time spent going from one place to another is seen as meaningless and unproductive.

It’s something you have to do.

You always feel the need to be somewhere else, get to the destination quicker no matter what.

Why not stop this unhealthy tendency and practice walking meditation whenever you can.

Make a conscious choice to take off your headphones for 10 minutes and practice steps described above.

This practice will complement your daily sitting meditation and help you make faster progress towards more mindful and stress-free life. Download the free worksheet below and get started today.

Learn How to Practice Walking Meditation

Free walking meditation worksheet
Download the Worksheet

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Since I started this website 3 years ago my only aim was and still remains helping all of my readers to discover the path to inner calm through spiritual growth and cultivation of wisdom. I spend all of my time working on this project and your support plays a vital role in allowing me to improve and make this website an invaluable resource for everyone. If my little virtual home uplifted your spirit or made your day a little bit better, please consider donating to support its further growth.

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9 Simple Mindfulness Activities from Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

Updated: March 3, 2021 by Gavril Nikolaev Leave a Comment

Some things are inevitable, aren’t they?

The challenging situations, difficult people, overwhelming emotions, and all other lovely byproducts of modern life.

You might even feel the inclination to accept it all and admit that suffering can’t be avoided either way.

But is it the right approach to life or your ego trying to find another excuse to be unhappy and miserable?

What if I told you there is a book that will help you go through a difficult time in your life, feel calmer and happier in your daily routine, and feel a deeper connection to everything around you?

A book with a simple and direct approach to teaching very powerful spiritual truths.

Enter Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh.

In this post, I’ll share nine lessons that this book has taught me so you can decide if you would like to read it yourself.
A couple walking on the beach during sunset with text overlay: Simple Mindfulness Activities by Thich Nhat Hanh.

1. Find a Way Out of This Unconscious Pattern

You go through life hoping for a better future and doing everything you can to realize your dreams.

It doesn’t matter if in the process you ruin your health or make people around you unhappy.

Everything is sacrificed in the name of doing and achieving.

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us that all you need is already in you.

Stop waiting and hoping for something better to come your way. Instead, enjoy the journey itself by practicing awareness of small things, like sitting, walking, or eating. Let these actions be aimless and self-contained.

When I think deeply about the nature of hope, I see something tragic. Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment. We use hope to believe something better will happen in the future, that we will arrive at peace (…). Hope becomes a kind of obstacle. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment and discover the joy that is already here.  — Thich Nhat Hanh

2. Learn the Right Way to Start Your Day

Sunrise over mountains

What’s the first thing that goes through your mind when you wake up in the morning?

I bet you feel rushed and stressed. You grab your phone, go through notifications, and start mentally rehearsing all the things you need to do that day.

In other words, your day is finished before it even started. As time flies by, you go through this cycle again and again. Life becomes dull and uninspiring.

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us to wake up with a smile and experience the richness of life in our immediate surroundings.

How can you remember to smile when you wake up? You might hang a reminder—such as a branch, a leaf, a painting, or some inspiring words—in your window or from the ceiling above your bed, so that you notice it when you wake up. (…) Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding. — Thich Nhat Hanh

3. Use This Simple Technique to Calm Your Anxious Mind

Can you recall what happens when you start overthinking every little thing?

You get paralyzed with indecision, focus on unlikely outcomes, and start looking for excuses to justify bad choices.

As an antidote, Thich Nhat Hanh recommends practicing conscious breathing. As you breathe in and out, say to yourself “In” and “Out.” This technique helps you slow down and keeps your mind on your breath.

According to the method of conscious breathing, when we breathe in and out, we stop thinking, because saying “In” and “Out” is not thinking—“In” and “Out” are only words to help us concentrate on our breathing. If we keep breathing in and out this way for a few minutes, we become quite refreshed. We recover ourselves, and we can encounter the beautiful things around us in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here. — Thich Nhat Hanh

4. Use Distractions to Your Advantage

We live in a world full of distractions. The most common of them is the one we’re carrying around all the time — our smartphone.

A recent study shows that on average we check our smartphones 50 to 75 times per day. Quite a discouraging number if you ask me. So what should you do?

You can’t throw out your phone, but you can use it to be more present rather than distracted. It’s a habit that you can start developing right now. Each time you get a notification from your phone, wait 3 seconds (or 3 rings if it’s a call) before reacting and use that time to be conscious of what you’re doing.

As Thich Nhat Hanh puts it:

I recommend that the next time you hear the phone ring, just stay where you are, breathe in and out consciously, smile to yourself, and recite this verse: “Listen, listen. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true self.” (…) When the phone rings for the third time, you can continue to practice breathing and smiling, as you walk to the phone slowly, with all your sovereignty. You are your own master. — Thich Nhat Hanh

5. Sit by the River of Feelings

leaf in the water

How often do you lose your temper and let feelings and negative emotions dictate your actions in the heat of the moment?

We all can remember times when we overreacted to someone else’s unkind remark and said something hurtful in response.

These reactions are automatic and hard to control. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us that we can become free of this pattern by identifying these feelings and letting them pass by on their own. In particular, he uses the analogy of a river:

In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears. — Thich Nhat Hanh

6. Ask the Right Question

The best approach to tackling any problem is to find the underlying cause and work out the solution.

Sounds harmless and straightforward, isn’t it? Thich Nhat Hanh says that this approach can greatly contribute to your unhappiness.

You develop a mental habit of looking for flaws and imperfections and think that everything needs fixing.

But what if you start asking the opposite question? What if you start looking for feelings, perceptions that are wholesome, refreshing and healing?

We should learn to ask, “What’s not wrong?” and be in touch with that. — Thich Nhat Hanh

7. Untie the Knots

Whenever something bad happens in your life, a “knot” is tied inside of you. Since these knots are very subtle, they stay undetected and can become tighter and stronger over time.

During meditation you may uncover some of these knots in the form of repressed thoughts and emotions.

By becoming aware of them, you gain the chance to untie them once and for all. For example, you can ask yourself the following questions: Why did I react this way? Why do I have these negative feelings toward this person? Why do I keep repeating the same destructive patterns in my life?

Instead of avoiding your thoughts and feelings, you can learn to transform them with the power of mindfulness.

If we do not untie our knots when they form, they will grow tighter and stronger. Our conscious, reasoning mind knows that negative feelings such as anger, fear, and regret are not wholly acceptable to ourselves or society, so it finds ways to repress them (…). But our internal formations are always looking for ways to manifest as destructive images, feelings, thoughts, words, or behavior. The way to deal with unconscious internal formations is, first of all, to find ways to become aware of them. — Thich Nhat Hanh

8. Reconnect with the Source

two deers near pond in the woods

One of the primary reasons of unconscious living is the loss of contact with nature.

Most of us live in little boxes called apartments made from cement, metal and hard wiring.

Our bodies are strained by the lack of movement. Our lungs are full of polluted air. Our senses are bombarded with an endless stream of stimuli. It becomes harder and harder to find a minute to just stop and be.

Tik Nat Han teaches us that essential part of mindful living is reconnecting with Mother Earth. It’s vital to go outside the city and spend time in nature. The healing process will start by itself if you reconnect with nourishing elements of our planet.

Nature is our mother. Because we live cut off from her, we become sick. — Thich Nhat Hanh

9. Practice the Art of Interbeing

As you go deeper and deeper into your meditation practice, you’ll start to realize certain truths beyond common sense or logic.

You’ll feel an inner connection to everything around you — even inanimate objects. Sounds strange, right?

Well, that’s what Tik Nat Han calls the interbeing. It’s a state of consciousness when all barriers of separation are gone, and you start to see that everything is one.

“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Take the First Step Today

I know what you’re thinking. These are all beautiful sentiments, but I can’t practice them because it’s difficult with my current lifestyle and circumstances.

But is that really true? I firmly believe that you can make a conscious choice to change something in your life for the better. And this book shows you how to do it.

You can buy Peace is Every Step book and kindle version on Amazon or audiobook on Audible, just choose the format that best suits your needs.

Donate & Support

Since I started this website 3 years ago my only aim was and still remains helping all of my readers to discover the path to inner calm through spiritual growth and cultivation of wisdom. I spend all of my time working on this project and your support plays a vital role in allowing me to improve and make this website an invaluable resource for everyone. If my little virtual home uplifted your spirit or made your day a little bit better, please consider donating to support its further growth.

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How to Stop Dwelling on the Past

Updated: February 20, 2021 by Gavril Nikolaev 2 Comments

“Without the faculty of forgetting,” Wrote E. M. Cioran while reflecting on the painful nature of being alive, “our past would weigh so heavily on our present that we should not have the strength to confront another moment, still less to live through it.”

Forgetting, this innate capacity of our mind, mostly regarded as a hindrance, has a healing potential when it comes to all the painful memories that keep haunting our mind. If only we could utilize it at will, how much lighter our life would be? If we could wipe the board of our memory of all the heartrending scribbles that prevent us from writing a new story of our life. Most of the time, however, this is a luxury we can’t afford. And so we live through all the painful memories that keep us from moving forward and making a meaningful change.

There is, however, another way of going about it, which lies in the art of living in the present moment, the ability to cultivate mindful awareness. This ability to be alive and present comes afresh in the Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm, a book by renowned Zen master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh.

In the chapter called “Don’t Fear the Past,” he offers a simple yet profound analogy of memory as a film that keeps replaying in our minds. Here’s how he puts it:

From your seat in the audience, you look up at the screen. There is a story; there are people on the screen interacting with each other. And down there in the audience, you cry. You experience what’s happening on the screen as real, and that’s why you shed real tears and feel real emotions. The suffering is real; the tears are real.

But a moment of mindful awareness can make all the difference. It can allow us to see through this illusion and realize that at this moment, we are safe and that phantoms from the past can’t hurt us. Thich Nhat Hanh, continues:

But when you come up to touch the screen; you don’t see any real people. It’s nothing but flickering light. (…) When we recognize that we have a habit of replaying old events and reacting to new events as if they were the old ones, we can begin to notice when that habit energy comes up. We can then gently remind ourselves that we have another choice. We can Look at the moment as it is, a fresh moment, and leave the past for a time when we can look at it compassionately.

Donate & Support

Since I started this website 3 years ago my only aim was and still remains helping all of my readers to discover the path to inner calm through spiritual growth and cultivation of wisdom. I spend all of my time working on this project and your support plays a vital role in allowing me to improve and make this website an invaluable resource for everyone. If my little virtual home uplifted your spirit or made your day a little bit better, please consider donating to support its further growth.

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How to Practice Breathing Meditation in 4 Steps

Updated: March 3, 2021 by Gavril Nikolaev 4 Comments

Somewhat frustrating, isn’t it? You finally find some time in your busy schedule to sit down and meditate.

You make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and…

What happens next is not what you expect at all.

It’s hard to concentrate.

You’re trying to follow your breath, but instead, find yourself controlling it.

In addition to that, your mind refuses to obey and acts like a little kid: strange thoughts start popping up here and there.

After sitting like that for a few minutes, your body joins the party by letting you know your back hurts or your legs are about to get numb.

As the timer goes off, you’re not sure if you meditated at all.

“What was that all about?”

If that sounds familiar, I can relate. I remember my first meditation like it was yesterday.

At first, it was easy to follow the breath, but then something went wrong.

Suddenly, I found myself thinking about all the things I had to do that day and how it was such a chore.

What’s worse, I forgot what to do next: was I supposed to notice the rhythm of my breath or areas of tension in my body?

It all got mixed up!

So if you’re just starting out with meditation don’t be discouraged. Follow these 4 stages of breathing meditation to improve your concentration.

A hand in gyan mudra position with text overlay: How to Practice Breathing Meditation in 4 Simple Steps

A hand in gyan mudra position with text overlay: How to Practice Breathing Meditation in 4 Simple Steps

Before You Begin

Have you ever wondered if you’re skipping a step in meditation? You might not be aware of it, but most likely you do skip it.

Before starting any formal sitting meditation, it’s important to take 1-2 minutes to sit down and relax a bit.

Set your timer for 10-15 minutes: the first interval of 1-2 minutes and next four intervals of 3-4 minutes (for steps 1-4). For this purpose, I recommend using the app called Enso.

Take a few deep breaths and close your eyes.

Get in touch with your body: notice any areas of tension by doing a very brief body scan. Move your attention slowly from head to toe. Pay attention to your eyes, jaw, tongue, shoulders, lower back, hands, and legs.

Now activate your senses. Pay attention to the sounds all around you, notice any subtle smells in the room, feel the taste in your mouth.

Once you feel calm, you’re ready for the first stage of breathing meditation.

How to Practice Breathing Meditation

breathing meditation

The principle behind breathing meditation is very simple: we use breath as an object of concentration.

The name comes from the Pali word anapanasati, meaning mindfulness (sati) of breathing (anapana).

The popular western version of this meditation is based on the ancient text The Path of Purification by 5th-century Indian scholar Buddhaghoṣa and practiced in 4 steps.

Step #1

After you’ve taken a few minutes to get in touch with your body and calm down, you should point your attention to the breath.

Feel the natural flow of the air coming in and out of your nose. Do not try to alter the breath in any way.

Notice the rhythm of the breath: is it quick and shallow or deep and slow? Notice the subtle movements of the body as you breathe.

Next, mark each breath with a count. In the first stage, we do this at the out-breath and count from 1 to 10. Repeat this cycle of counting for 3 or 4 minutes (the first interval in your timer app).

Schematically it looks like this: breath in – breathe out – count “1,”
breath in – breath out – count “2, ” (…) breath in – breath out – count “10.” Repeat.

Whenever you get distracted by random thoughts, gently bring your attention back to the breath.

“By repeatedly bringing your attention back to the breath each time it wanders off, concentration builds and deepens, much as muscles develop by repetitively lifting weights.” ― Jon Kabat-Zinn

Step #2

Start counting just before each in-breath.

This subtle shift will change your experience considerably.

First of all, you’ll notice that you are more focused because anticipation of each breath gives you a more active role.

You’ll also feel that this type of counting makes you feel more energized because you give more attention to the in-breath. Just like in the first stage count from 1 to 10 and repeat the cycle for 3 or 4 minutes.

Schematically it looks like this: count “1” – breathe in – breathe out,
count “2” – breathe in – breathe out, (…) count “10” – breathe in – breathe out. Repeat.

Keep bringing your attention back to the breath each time you lose concentration. While doing that it’s important not to analyze distracting thoughts, just let them come and go.

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Step #3

As you reach this stage, you should feel fully aligned with your natural breathing. You’ll also notice that your concentration level has increased.

It’s time to stop counting and follow the natural flow of your breathing as you inhale and exhale.

Feel the air filling your lungs, subtle movements of your shoulders going up and down or your belly expanding and contracting.

The key to this stage is to notice the turning point between each in-breath and out-breath. This slight change will help you maintain your concentration without counting. Continue doing this for 3 or 4 minutes.

Schematically it looks like this: breathe in – (notice) – breathe out –
(notice) – breath in – (notice) – breathe out – (notice).

“As you breathe in, cherish yourself. As you breathe out, cherish all Beings.” —Dalai Lama

Step #4

During this final stage, you’ll be focusing on the point where air enters and leaves your body.

Usually, it’s the area around your nostrils. If you have difficulty breathing through the nose, it could be your mouth or the area further in towards your throat.

As you feel your breath passing that point, try to notice how cool it is flowing in and warm as it flows out.

Remain with the soft brushing sensation of your breathing as continuously as you can. Be receptive to it rather than trying to force your attention on it.

After 3 or 4 minutes gently open your eyes.

“Be aware of your breathing. Notice how this takes attention away from your thinking and creates space.” — Eckhart Tolle

Start Meditating Today

It might seem strange in the beginning, I know. But listen, every time you meditate you gain a little glimpse of what it’s like to be completely still and present.

If only for a brief moment, you start to notice a tiny space between you and the mental noise in your head.

In other words, you become an awareness in the background of your thoughts.

And with each meditation session, that awareness grows little by little.

Until one day you can see clearly how a thought tries to sweep you away and provoke a reaction in you. At that moment you will be ready, you will not be manipulated.

So don’t give up, meditate each day using techniques described in this article. Just do it and reap results that will follow.

To help, I’ve made this free worksheet that you can download by clicking the button below.

4 Steps to Deeper and Better Meditation

Free breathing meditation worksheet
Download the Worksheet

Donate & Support

Since I started this website 3 years ago my only aim was and still remains helping all of my readers to discover the path to inner calm through spiritual growth and cultivation of wisdom. I spend all of my time working on this project and your support plays a vital role in allowing me to improve and make this website an invaluable resource for everyone. If my little virtual home uplifted your spirit or made your day a little bit better, please consider donating to support its further growth.

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