Month: May 2025

Using Bodily Sensations as an Anchor for Mindful Walking

Diana Winston, Director of UCLA Mindful, introduced the idea of bodily sensations as an anchor in meditation.  As she was specifically explaining standing and walking meditations (in lieu of sitting meditation), she focused on the sensations in our hands, our legs and our feet.

Diana’s guided meditation podcast was one of the free, weekly podcasts offered by meditation teachers at UCLA Mindful.  At the outset, she explained the concept of an anchor in meditation. 

Diana asked us to envisage a ship’s anchor keeping a ship in place despite being buffeted by winds and tidal surges.  The analogy means that a “meditation anchor” serves to help us maintain our focus despite being “buffeted” by our thoughts and emotions.  Just as a ship is surrounded by water, we are immersed in our thoughts and emotions – a fact of life that is inescapable. 

The secret power of meditation is the capacity to constantly return to our focus despite ongoing distractions and our anchor supports this process.  Over time this capacity builds concentration and resilience as we develop the ability to deal with “negative self-talk”, difficult emotions and the vicissitudes of the human condition.

A standing meditation

Diana suggested that we explore a standing meditation by slowly shifting our weight from one foot to the other. She pointed out that a lot of our functions such as standing and walking are performed unconsciously.  Meditation involves paying attention to specific functions/activities as they occur and, in the process, exploring the bodily sensations that occur with a sense of curiosity and openness.  It also involves accepting things as they are, e.g. accepting an inability to stand for longer than two minutes or unevenness of our posture due to a spinal injury.

As we shifted from one foot to the other, Diana asked us to pay attention to the sensations in our legs and feet.  We can notice the added pressure on one foot as we move our weight from the other foot.  We can notice tightening of the muscles in the weight-bearing leg . As part of the process of a standing meditation, we can effect a progressive focus on each of the muscles in our leg and then focus on the sensations in our foot.  There could even be the experience of muscle spasms or cramping.  Diana encourages us to undertake the standing meditation being conscious of our physical limitations, e.g. if we are unable to stand without pian, then a sitting meditation is a better option.

A walking meditation

A walking meditation involves walking slowly while being conscious of the physical sensations as we raise and lower our feet.  It takes considerable discipline to slow down enough in our hectic world to pay attention to minute bodily sensations.  However, the act of mindful walking can create a sense of calm and peace if we maintain the focus on our anchor.

We can also add surrounding sounds as an additional focus.  On my morning walks in another area, I used to listen to the call of birds that were in bushes above, below and beyond me.  This focus enhanced the practice of mindful walking for me.

In previous posts I have detailed approaches to mindful walking inside and mindful walking outside.  The latter approach can incorporate awareness of all the senses, a form of natural awareness.     

Reflection

Through much of life we hasten to get somewhere or to achieve a goal, e.g. a fitness goal as we walk or run at pace over a specified distance.  Mindful walking helps us to become more conscious of our surrounds and our bodily sensations.  The process enables us to slow down, detach from our goal-oriented behaviour and build our capacity for natural awareness, being in nature with curiosity and wonder.

As we grow in mindfulness, we can enhance our self-awareness, build our concentration and capacity to focus, develop emotional regulation and experience equanimity.  The following reflective poem, that I wrote as I developed this post, communicates something of the magic of mindful walking:

Mindful Walking

Slowly walking seeing what surrounds us,
Sounds surfacing from hidden spaces near and far,
Sensations seeping into our consciousness.

Anchored in our body,
Mindful of our sensations,
Calm and peace pervade.

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Image by 춘성 강 from Pixabay

By Ron Passfield- Copyright (Creative Commons license, Attribution-Non-Commercial -No Derivatives.

Disclosure: If you purchase a product through this site, I may earn a commission which will help to pay for the site, the associated Meetup group and the resources to support the blog.

Celebrate the Small Things in Life

In our May online Meetup of writers-with-chronic-illness, Jennifer Crystal introduced a poem by Lucile Clifton titled, “Won’t You Celebrate With Me?”.  The poem was made more poignant by a video presentation of Lucile reading her poem to an audience.   In the poem, Lucile talks about her life as a woman who was non-white and who had to shape her life without models, simply by being true to herself.  She asks us to celebrate with her that “every day something has tried to kill me and failed!”  Lucile is noted for her comment, “One should wish to celebrate more than wish to be celebrated.”

Lucile’s message is to celebrate the simple things in life – that we are alive, have an identity shaped by our background and life experiences, and have the opportunity to be true to ourselves whatever our life’s work may be. 

Writing process

Participants in the Creative Meetup group were encouraged to write their own reflections beginning with the words, “won’t you celebrate with me?”  In the sharing of reflections, people identified simple things in life to celebrate – that they woke up, were able to walk, could appreciate nature, showed courage despite their pain and fears, maintained hope despite the daily setbacks, and managed the unexpected.

People expressed appreciation of light and dark, the rhythms of life, and the opportunity to slow down and be calm.  Other simple things in life that were celebrated in the group included receiving a thank you, listening to birds and raindrops, being able to breathe and seeing the sunrise and sunset.

Participants’ reflections were often expressed as poems. Jennifer pointed out that poetry enables “a larger story in a concentrated space”.  This was particularly true for one participant who expressed anger at having to endure delays in medical diagnosis and treatment.  There are times when people with chronic illness feel that the medical system “works against them”.

Celebrating the small things as we age

Carol Lefevre in Bloomer, her memoir about aging, wrote about the challenge of dealing with ageing and the discrimination of ageism, particularly against women.  She concluded that ageing is a “necessary adventure” and her way to achieve wellness during this late phase of her life (turning seventy), was to become “settled in to a  pattern of thinking, reading and writing” – a simple pattern of being-in-the world that is congruent with her age (she writes “what only an old woman can write”).

Carol contends that we can flourish in late-life if we embrace life “as it is” when we age.  We can flourish through our creative pursuits, particularly through writing and gardening.   She stated that her strategy to deal with the challenges of aging is “to retreat in to the garden”.   Carol noted that the fluidity and rhythms of nature serve as a calming influence in the face of “the relentless press of daily life”.  Hope is embedded in gardening because it is “a forward-looking pastime” that promises a return in the future on the investment of time and energy.

The simple act of being with nature

Research has repeatedly confirmed the healing effects of nature. Nature’s solitude and silence can create a pathway to self-awareness and resilience.  Nature reminds us of our interconnectedness and our co-dependence.  Being with nature involves more than being in it; being-with-nature entails opening our senses to the wonder and awe of nature. We can listen to the rustling leaves and the birds (near and far); observe the colours of the trees and flowers; smell the earth and rotting vegetation; touch the vast array of textures surrounding us; and taste the fruits of the forest.

The Japanese have mastered the art of “forest bathing”, walking slowly and mindfully through a forest.  A forest can highlight our senses, boost our mood and evoke stillness and resilience. Trees can be a source of meditation, reflecting the enigmas of daily life and reinforcing the transitory nature of human beauty.  They can ground us in the simple things of life such as the air that we breathe and the ever-changing foliage that encompasses us.

Carol found solace in gardening because there is “a timelessness to the routine tasks of weeding, digging, planting”, and the fruits of today’s labour remind us of our forebears engaging in these same flourishing activities (including monks of old who planted and harvested herbs and other edible plants). She contends that this connectedness to the past is both grounding and calming and “gently draws attention back to the present moment”.

I find that playing tennis likewise grounds me in the present moment and helps me to develop mindfulness. In my poem For The Love of Tennis I acknowledge this groundedness and savour the simple things of being able to “run, bend, stretch and strain” and to experience again “the slice, the serve, the stroke, the sound”.

Reflection

Jennifer noted that in the Creative Meetups participants shared their vulnerability and strong emotions and were supported by people “holding space for each other” and listening compassionately.  Louise DeSalvo reinforces the healing power of storytelling in Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives.  She offers practical advice and tips for “restorative writing” – “writing as a way to heal the emotional and physical wounds that are an inevitable part of life”.

I found when people were sharing their writing that I became “teary”, not only because of the evocative writing that was shared but also the pain and suffering.  I found that I was feeling for, and with, the person who was sharing – an empathic response.

Following the sharing, Jennifer asked us to write a process journal entry where we wrote about “what it felt like to write [tonight] and listen”.  Participants indicated that they were sharing things in the group that they would not share outside the group – a sign of growing trust and mutual respect with the Meetup group.

In writing the process reflection, I found that my strong empathetic feelings tended to mask my own uncomfortable feelings of anger and frustration at the members of  the medical profession.  I’ve continually encountered the failure of a medical practitioner to listen to what I was sharing before jumping to a solution based on their personal orientation and training. The result has been inadequate treatment and ongoing problems with MCAS and related allergies. I had to find out for myself, for example, that wheat allergy can lead to “exercise-induced anaphylaxis” if I “exercise within a few hours after eating wheat”.

Writing a process journal entry is a form of “writing slow” which is highly recommended by Louise DeSalvo as a means to deepen our creativity and reflection. 

By focusing on the small things in life, along with reflection and writing, we can grow in mindfulness and, in consequence, build self-awareness and creativity to manage our lives more peacefully and productively.

In the following reflective poem, written during the May Meetup, I share something of my thoughts about the power of writing poetry:

Poetry for Peace

Searching for a food I can eat
Like a fox foraging in the forest.
Tantalising sweet taste sensation
Transforming into testing torture.

Poetry creating peace through pain,
A place for planning and pleasure.
Opening up options for optimism,
Resolving to reframe for resilience.

Control is within, not without,
Choice to contract, not expand.
Accepting the constraints on food,
Exploring freedom to flourish.
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Image by Kev from Pixabay

By Ron Passfield- Copyright (Creative Commons license, Attribution-Non-Commercial -No Derivatives.

Disclosure: If you purchase a product through this site, I may earn a commission which will help to pay for the site, the associated Meetup group and the resources to support the blog.