In addition to breath meditation while sitting, we can also use the other postures of the body for meditation: walking, standing and lying down. This allows us to be mindful all the time.
The body postures of lying down, standing, walking and everything between can also be used to cultivate mindfulness. This gives us the opportunity for continuous, moment by moment awareness.
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Lying Down Meditation
When doing a formal meditation practice while lying down, assume a different position than when sleeping. This helps our brain know that we are meditating, not trying to fall asleep! We follow our breath, the same as in a sitting posture. Or we can scan our body, checking for tension and relaxing any we find. Or we can bring our attention to different body parts and breathe into each part 3 times before moving to the next part. Once the whole body has been scanned or breathed into, repeat as often as wished.
Standing Meditation
Standing meditation can be done when we are waiting in line ups, when stuck on hold on the phone or as a break from sitting meditation. We follow our breath or focus on a few body parts such as feet, knees, shoulders and top of the head for 3 breaths each, continuously rotating through the parts.
Walking Meditation
Walking meditation is done at a speed that matches our level of peace or agitation. If really agitated, walk very fast or jog. If very peaceful, lift and place the feet slowly. One method of walking meditation is to feel our feet as they touch the earth, counting how many steps we take on an in breath and how many on an out breath. Keeping these 3 things in mind at once totally occupies our mind, so it has no time to agitate and our mind calms.
We can bring awareness to walking, even when we're not doing formal meditation. When walking to the fridge, when walking upstairs, when walking from one room to another, we can be right there, walking. Not thinking about what's coming up next.....just peacefully enjoying the movement of walking.
Everything Else
We can enjoy present moment awareness in every posture: as we move to stand up, bending over, climbing a wall, swimming, bathing, sitting on the toilet. Enjoy!
Guided Walking Meditation
Next step:
Download the PDF of the entire Lesson Two
More resources for Lesson Two:
Books: A Guide to Walking Meditation - by Thich Nhat Hanh: htm The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation - by Arinna Weisman and Jean Smith, p 25 - 31: PDF Full Catastrophe Living - by Jon Kabat-Zinn: view book on Amazon