Standing & Meditative Walking

Standing

Stand for a moment before you start walking. Feet a little apart and parallel, big toes pointing straight ahead. Push scalp up for neck stretch, feel as if your head is held up by a string from the sky. Feel friendly gravity pull you gently towards the ground, as if a weight is pulling your tailbone down and making your spine long. Your knees should be slightly bent for flexibility and readiness to push off from the ground.

Feel gravity creating stability and a sense of balance. Without gravity the concept of body balance would have little meaning, so don't think negatively about it. Gravity is often associated with falling and being kept down, but it connects you to the ground basis. It is your root. If you fight it and reject it mentally, you lose your balance and orientation. Compare with the "feel of the water" that swimmers talk about. If you don't let the water carry you and instead try to fight it to stay on top of the water, you will waste energy and lose speed.

Likewise in tai chi you should develop a "feel for gravity", often called "grounding". It is the realization that you don't have to raise your shoulders and somehow try to fly when gravity provides you with all the firm support you need. Feel your weight! Be your weight! You are no butterfly!

Close your eyes for a moment to feel the state of the body and the pressure of your foot soles against the ground. Breathe deeply a few times to take in energy. Imagine breathing from the ground up through your legs.

Feeling grounded in a way makes you lighter. When you feel as if your weight flows down through your body, down into the firm ground,"where it belongs", it is as if a heavy load is taken off your shoulders. You don't have to carry yourself in the air. Rest on your feet!

Loose Walking

Start a relaxed, loose walking about for the pleasure of moving only. A self-conscious stroll aware of body and breathing. Without counting steps and breaths, just enjoy. Loosen your head by turning and stretching the neck while walking. Lower shoulders, let them sink. Move arms discretely back and forth like in skiing or skating. Heals first to the ground when moving forward. Sometimes move the arms around to the sides and over your head. You may walk barefoot, or if on a cold floor in socks to keep warm feet. It will give you a more sensual feeling of the contact with the ground if you don't wear shoes.

Tai Chi Meditative Walking II I

When you step forward with your left foot push forward and down with your left hand as if you are feeling your way in the dark, likewise when you step forward with your right foot you sort of lead the way with your right hand. This simple addition of hand and arm movement greatly improves your feeling for the walk.

Tai Chi Meditative Walking III

To involve the body even more in the action: When you step forward with your left foot underlined by the movement of the left hand, you now raise your limp, right hand along your centreline.

When it reaches shoulder height the right hand turns to push forward and down while you step forward on your right foot and the left hand simultaneously is raised in front of your centreline. It is like the pedals of a bike: one hand pushes down and the other goes up - carefully synchronised.

Don't just move your hands about, but support your walk with your hand. Push the "pedal" forward exactly when you transfer weight to the front foot. For most people it takes some practice to get it right.

But Why Do Walking Meditation?

The aim of the whole exercise is to do the meditative walking in a sufficiently complicated and coordinated way to hold your attention and train your balance and body consciousness. Take your time to play. If you are counting your steps and your breaths, in a hurry to get it done and over with, the reward will be less than if you, for a time, allow yourself to just be in this activity and enjoy.

As mentioned before it is not something you can expect to succeed at right away - even if it looks simple. But when you have got it, the right coordination and flow, it is a pleasure for body and soul. You get absorbed in the walk and feel really balanced and at ease. For many it is easier to be meditative when walking than when you sit cross-legged for a long time.

Meditation is the bliss of being here and now, without emotional turmoil, anxiety and millions of thoughts, worries and confusion. It is a break, a time out where you allow yourself to sink to the roots of your being.

You ought to find a quiet place which vibrates with life and beauty. Plants, fresh air, art and the like. Maybe your home or garden, maybe a park or on the beach where people tend to tolerate weird exercises. Music can help create the right mood, but so can silence or sounds of nature such as waves or birds singing.