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
Some days follow you down the street. This 10-minute guided walking meditation finds where the day has been sitting in your body, then lets the walking itself drain it down through your legs and leave it behind you, one footprint at a time. You get to arrive wherever you are going a little lighter than you left.
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:
- Where a hard day tends to settle, from the shoulders to the jaw to the pit of the stomach.
- How one long breath out sets down more weight than trying to think your way calm.
- Why the forward motion does the work here, so there is nothing to push or force.
How to get the most out of this walk:
- Walk this on the way home, or on any route that points away from where the stress started.
- Let your gaze lift to the open space ahead of you for the last few minutes.
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.
[00:00:22] But before we begin, let's hear a quick word from our sponsors so the rest of your walk can stay calm and uninterrupted. We'll see you in just a moment. Hey there, if you're walking right now, maybe with a long day behind you, or one you're already trying to shake off, then you're in exactly the right place.
[00:00:47] We're going to use this walk to do something simple and surprisingly powerful, to leave some stress behind. Not in your head, but physically, one step at a time. There's nothing to change about your pace. Keep walking as you normally would, eyes open, aware of the world around you.
[00:01:10] It's just that now, each step is going to mean something. Everyone carries you forward and a little further from what's been weighing on you. So as you keep walking, take a moment to notice how you've been carrying the day. Maybe there's a tightness in the shoulders, a clench in the jaw, a heaviness in the chest or in the pit of the stomach.
[00:01:39] You don't have to fix any of it. Just notice where the stress has been sitting in the body.
[00:02:00] Now let's begin to set some of it down. Take a slow breath in, and as you breathe out, let your shoulders drop, releasing a little of the weight.
[00:02:20] Again, breathing in and breathing out, softening the jaw, letting the hands unclench. And now bring your attention down to your feet, and the steady rhythm of your steps.
[00:02:51] Feel how each step moves you forward. Always forward. And with each step, you might picture the tension draining down through the legs into the ground and left behind you. One footprint at a time.
[00:03:33] There's nothing to push or force. The walking is doing the work. Carrying you on and away.
[00:04:08] Away from the desk, the screen, the conversation that's been replaying, the list that never seems to end.
[00:04:46] All of it, a little further behind you now, with every step you take.
[00:05:46] Just keep walking. And you might notice you already feel a little lighter.
[00:06:49] When the mind pulls back toward the stress, and it will. That's completely natural. Just notice it, and come back to the feeling of moving forward. This step. And this one.
[00:07:04] You might let your gaze lift a little to the space opening up ahead of you.
[00:08:17] The air. The room to breathe. A world so much wider than whatever was on your mind.
[00:09:23] As you walk these last few moments, notice what may have shifted. Perhaps a little more room inside. A little more ease. You've put some real distance between yourself and the weight of the day. And that distance is yours to keep.
[00:10:01] Whatever you're walking toward, you get to arrive a little lighter. And that brings our practice to a close. Let your attention open fully back to your walk, carrying this lighter, steadier feeling with you. Take good care.