Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book

by Dan Harris

WALKING MEDITATION Option 1—Formal 5 minutes or more Choose your field of operation—a small inside space cleared of obstacles or a circumscribed outside area. Decide: shoes on or off? Get curious about how completely you can stay with the physical sensation of moving, and how unhurried and deliberate you can make each step. The classic meditative focus points are the two feet. Take your first slow step and note: lift as the foot lifts, aware of the release; move as it glides forward, aware of the slightly unstable swing through space; step as it lands, aware of the miniature recalibrations of balance and pressure. And then do the same with the next foot. And so it goes, one foot after the other, a frankly weird and ungainly bipedal spectacle whose automaticity you are doing your best to undo. What is walking? What is this new tingling walking feeling situation? Have a good time. Recruit your imagination. You’re allowed to do this in meditation. Walk on the earth like you’re Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, testing the gravity, pretending you don’t know what’s coming. Can you notice the little differences in each step? Can you be that clear and focused? Slow it down—no rush. Here for the act of it, each step landing in the here and now. Lift, move, step. If your feet are bare, try sampling the textures beneath you, the bent grass or smooth floor, the bumps and depressions, each foot probing and feeling, like a long “downturned hand,” to quote my pal the eco-philosopher D...