Let’s take a few minutes to allow ourselves to just be. Walking and breathing are great ways to help us observe our environment and our place in it, and gradually allow our minds and feelings to find a measure of balance.
Your walking and breathing meditations don’t have to be perfect (whatever that means!) to be useful. Just making a start can help regulate your emotions, and over time you can find that your walking meditations take you further along your journey to accepting yourself for who you are and finding healing and well-being.
To get started, go outdoors or to a track and play this audio, and start walking. If you need to be indoors, find a comfortable seat in a place where you can be free from distractions. It can also work to simply read the script below and pause to feel your breath move in and out of your lungs.
Play Audio
Guided Meditation: The Power of Acceptance
As you begin walking in a safe area or find a comfortable seat in a place where you can be relatively free from distractions, take a moment to find balance in your steps or as you sit up tall. Stay relaxed.
Feel into the width of your chest as you soften your shoulders down and back.
Rest your palms face up on your thighs, or in the way that’s most comfortable for you.
Your desire to be free and to work to promote justice can include this mindful approach to emotional well-being and other daily soul care habits. I invite you to be free for the duration of this guided meditation.
Close your eyes or gaze low at the ground ahead of you if that is most comfortable for you.
Breathe in and out through your nose focusing on your breath as a source of groundedness.
Choose a breath that reflects all the qualities you desire in your mind, gentle, quiet, patient, steady, spacious, and at ease.
Balance your awareness between the three areas of mindfulness:
Your body, your breath, and your mind itself.
Stay present right here with all three as best as you can.
Maybe the best for you is 20% of your mind’s attention on each of the three.
And the remaining 40% for you? Just let this part of the mind stay with spaciousness and ease.
It’s okay not to be perfect at this moment.
If you find yourself being impatient or hard on yourself, remember, the idea is just to be mindful, and at the same time, free of pressures.
Breathing, present with body, breath and mind.
Be Present. Be Aware. Be Open. Be Spacious.
And now notice what’s present here with you.
Notice if there’s any sensation arising in your body.
Is there an energy that you can sense through the breath,
or a movement, emotion, or familiar thought in the mind?
Whatever it is that you notice, welcome it with a spaciousness.
Allow it to be. It is okay that it is there with you.
Don’t try to change it, don’t chase it, don’t try to push it away.
Can you remain still and spacious in your awareness
as you accept what is arising within and around you?
This is how things are right here, and right now.
Notice how it is, and accept it in this moment.
Remember that acceptance of the here and now is spacious, non-judgemental, unattached.
To accept is not an endorsement.
To accept is not an opinion.
To accept is simply to recognize, to notice.
Acceptance is mindfulness and awareness of reality as it is.
And what about now?
What’s present here with you now?
What’s arising in your body?
What can you sense through your breath?
Is there stillness, or movement in the mind?
This is how things are, right here, right now.
Notice how it is, accept it.
Allow it to be. It is okay that it is here with you.
And recall that like all things, it will also change.
In your acceptance, you give what it is that you notice the freedom to change.
When you and reality are no longer battling,
Reality no longer has to defend itself.
Thanks to your acceptance,
There can be a softening within you.
There can be movement.
There can be change.
So, what about now?
What’s present with you right here and right now?
Accept all sensation that is arising in your body.
Welcome it in, give it space, give it freedom.
What type of energy do you sense through your breath?
Welcome it all in, watch it, and notice it with curiosity.
Is there stillness, or movement in your mind?
Welcome it, and accept it without attaching, without trying to push it away.
This is how things are, right here, right now.
Notice. Welcome. Accept.
Allow it to be. It is okay that it is here with you.
Try to sense your whole body, your breath, and your mind itself.
Lean into the freedom of acceptance.
Nothing needs to be different right now.
This is how it is.
And from the spaciousness of acceptance,
Tap into the wisdom that acceptance provides,
from the spaciousness of acceptance,
from this awareness of things as they are.
Before you end your walk or open your eyes if you are sitting,
savor a few more moments in this space.
Connect to the wisdom in your body, your breath, and your mind.
And ask the body itself the question, what should I do now?
Be equally accepting of the answer.
Note: This meditation is adapted from the ‘Power of Acceptance Guided Meditation Script,’ available at MindfulnessExercises.com. The original script can also be downloaded along with other mindfulness resources.
