Thank you for listening! If you enjoy this, please explore our other shows: OLDPodcast.com
And join our free weekly newsletter to get a 200+ page workbook PDF to optimize your life (and the opportunity to get a beautiful hardcover version shipped to you absolutely free!): OLDPodcast.com/newsletter
You have walked that loop so many times it barely registers any more. This 11-minute guided meditation slows one ordinary circuit down and hands your attention back to it, one sense at a time. By the end the route you know best has a few things in it you had never registered.
Safety note: Keep your eyes open and stay aware of your surroundings. Your safety always comes first. Follow the audio only as far as it's safe to do so.
What you'll explore:
- Why a familiar route quietly stops reaching your attention at all.
- A way of working through sight, then sound, then texture so nothing gets skipped.
- What it feels like when a stretch of pavement you have crossed a thousand times reads as new.
How to get the most out of this walk:
- Pick the loop you walk most often rather than somewhere novel, since the whole point is the ground you think you already know.
- Keep the pace unhurried and resist the urge to take a different turn partway through.
Step Into Calm is a daily walking meditation podcast where each episode is a short guided meditation to help you build mindfulness, ease stress, and find calm, clarity, and focus in just 10 to 15 minutes a day.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
[00:00:00] Welcome to Step Into Calm, the walking meditation podcast where we quiet the busy mind and find a little peace, one step at a time. If you're not already moving, go ahead and start walking now at an easy, comfortable pace. Keep your eyes open and stay aware of the world around you as you listen. But before we begin, let's hear a quick word from our sponsors so the rest of your walk can stay calm and uninterrupted.
[00:00:30] We'll see you in just a moment.
[00:01:05] Hey there. Today we're going to play a little noticing game. It's simple, but it does something interesting to your attention. Here's the idea. You are going to pick one thing and then quietly notice every single instance of it all along your walk.
[00:01:29] First, a quick note on how to do this safely. Keep your eyes exactly where they naturally be as you walk, on the path ahead of you. We're not going to hunt for it, or crane around, or look up and away. We'll simply let things come into view on their own and notice them as they do.
[00:01:59] Okay, now pick your one thing. It could be a color, like green or red. Or a common object, like trees, doors, or windows. Something you'll come across pretty often out here. Got it? Good.
[00:02:28] From now on, that's the thing you're quietly watching for. As you walk, each time your chosen thing drifts into view, just gently note it.
[00:02:46] There it is. And there. No need to count or search. Just notice it and let it go. Keep going. Let your thing quietly announce itself again and again as the walk carries you forward.
[00:04:03] You might be starting to notice something kind of curious. The thing you pick seems to be everywhere now. It was there all along, of course, but before, your mind was just quietly filtering it out.
[00:06:06] This is how your attention actually works. It's like a spotlight. Whatever you aim it at gets brighter, and everything else fades into the background.
[00:06:17] You can only ever take in a tiny slice of everything around you.
[00:07:19] So your mind is always choosing what to show you. To a surprising degree, you get to choose what it goes looking for.
[00:08:04] And this works with a lot more than trees and colors, by the way. If you go through your day looking for things to be annoyed by, you will find them everywhere. And if you go looking for small things to appreciate, you'll find those everywhere too. Same street, same walk. A completely different experience depending on what you tune your attention to.
[00:08:32] So for these last few minutes, drift back to your one simple thing.
[00:10:17] Keep gently noticing it, and enjoy how alive and full of detail the world gets when you actually pay attention to it.
[00:11:24] As we come to a close, you can let the little game go now. But the spotlight is always yours to aim. Maybe point it at something good for the rest of your day.
[00:11:52] Okay, that brings us to the end. See what you notice out there. We'll see you next time. Take good care.