When I learned that I would
be teaching Mindful Walking at our next training, my heart sank. I have never been a big fan of Mindful
Walking. It feels too scripted and
fake. Probably not a very open,
non-judgmental viewpoint, but even Mindfulness Teachers have preferences.
The image I associated with
Mindful Walking came from a trip to Marin County back in 2007. I was at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
and saw a large group of middle-aged women walking aimlessly around the
grounds, looking like soulless corpses said to be revived by witchcraft - the
Oxford Dictionary definition of Zombie.
The dictionary entry continues with this: A person who is or appears lifeless, apathetic, or
completely unresponsive to their surroundings. Doesn’t sound very mindful to
me. Or one bit fun.
But that was my assignment,
so time to look a bit deeper. The
simplest definition I could find of Mindful Walking was:
Walking and knowing that you
are walking.
It seems obvious, but the
truth is that most of us walk in Automatic Pilot, absorbed in our thoughts and
barely paying any attention to the walking itself. Automatic Pilot is actually a wonderful skill that only
human brains can accomplish. Auto
Pilot extends our working memory so we can concentrate on a small number of
things at once by creating habits of doing that allow us to drive a car without
thinking about every integral aspect of driving a car. The problem comes when we become driven
by our habits and miss what is actually going on. One habitual action leads to another and another and
eventually it extends to our thoughts and feelings.
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| Grandma's little sweetheart. |
So…... Walking and knowing that you are
walking. I still wasn’t
convinced. The week before the
training, I had volunteered to spend 9 days with my granddaughter, Emma Rose,
while her parents were on a trip to Greece with my daughter-in-law’s
family. It was a great opportunity
for them to get away, so I happily took the time off from teaching and clients
to bond with my little sweetheart.
Emma is 16 months old and obsessed with extending her working memory so
she can learn to walk without thinking about walking. At this point, she can only walk if she holds your
finger. She’s little, so the
walking is slow, and usually back and forth if we are outside, or in a circle
if we are in the house. I’m a tall
Grandma, so I’m stooped over so she can reach my finger, and even though I love
her more than any other human on the planet, I got really bored with the pace
and repetition. But then I
remembered my assignment for the following week. What an opportunity to practice Mindful Walking! So we did.
The first step was getting
out of THINKING MODE and into SENSING MODE, which meant that instead of
thinking about what else I could be getting done or how bored I was with the 3
driveways we were walking between, I opened up to the sensual world around
me. The sound of the birds, the
scent of the flowers, the taste of the wind. But sensations aren’t always pleasant, so I also noticed the
litter, the police sirens, the weeds.
And I must admit it was amazing what I noticed. I wasn’t being lifeless, apathetic or
completely unresponsive to my surroundings. I was noticing them in a way I hadn’t been noticing them –
and it wasn’t boring or frustrating at all. Even the weeds were more interesting than being bored and
frustrated.
Another aspect of Mindful
Walking is getting out of DOING MODE and into BEING MODE. In Doing Mode we are walking to get
from A to B. From the car to the
door. The door to the stairs. Up the stairs to the office. Walking to get somewhere. Being Mode is
more nourishing, more present, and more accepting of whatever shows up, whether
its pleasant or unpleasant, boring or stimulating. In Being Mode, I opened my awareness and realized that very
soon Ms. Emma Rose is NOT going to need my finger to walk. In fact I’ll probably tell her to hold
my hand before we cross the street and she won’t want to. So even though I had already seen the
weeds and noticed the blue sky, it was the relationship I brought to the
experience that really mattered.
Appreciation goes a long way on the road to Mindfulness.
OK. So the truth is that I was sporadically mindful that
week. I still got frustrated and a
little bit bored, and I also noticed when I did. There were also times when we were walking and I was so full
of love I almost burst. We were
close that week in a way we never will be again. She’s coming again next weekend and it will be
different. She’ll be a little more
independent and maybe her fascination with Grover will have been replaced by Baby Stella…. That’s the thing. Each moment is amazing and precious if
we can just wake up and notice it.
Frustrated? Bored? That’s being mindful too, because until
you notice it, you’re on Auto Pilot.
Mindful Walking. Turns out I’m a big fan. I just didn’t know it until I woke up
and noticed.
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| Emma practicing walking with her friends Henry and Ben. |
