I shared this grounding, exploratory walking meditation with the online biweekly meditation group that I facilitate. The group loved this grounding opportunity and the invitations to look at both objects that are loved and objects that we usually ignore so much that I felt compelled to share it in a blog post and build on the grounding techniques—which it feels like most of us could use more of these days—that I offered in my last blog. If you missed it, check out Mindfulness & Grounding Techniques: Bring Yourself Back To The Safety Of The Present Moment.
For a quick catch up, in the last blog post, I invited readers to explore how to use mindful awareness, specific grounding techniques and the senses to calm an activated nervous system and encourage more balance and ease. Using the breath and being aware of what we see, hear, taste, touch and feel—as well as the thoughts and feelings that arise when we feel particularly activated—and then inviting in a pause to mindfully reflect, can go a long way in restoring a sense of peace. And, so can giving yourself the time to mindfully explore the objects that surround you everyday.
Mindfully Explore The Objects That Surround You: A Walking Meditation Practice
To deepen grounding and increase awareness, this two-part walking meditation practice invites you to take some time to mindfully notice, explore and take in the objects that surround you right now. The practice, which I learned from meditation teachers Bill and Susan Morgan and have adapted slightly, focuses on walking around, noticing and taking in the objects that surround you with the intention of looking more fully and deeply at the world and what is within yours.
As you begin to explore, I invite you to think of yourself as a hummerbird (hummingbirds, if you didn’t know, are often associated with joy), approaching each object as if it were a flower that you want to drink from and then to fully drink in the “nectar” of that object.
Part One:
Walk around the room that you’re currently in and look—fully look at, notice, explore and drink in—the objects that grab your attention and that you already know you love or feel particularly drawn to. These could include pieces of art, flowers, pottery, a specific book—again, whatever calls to you. As you do this—and I suggest taking about 10-15 minutes for this first part of the practice—pick those objects up, turn them around or over, run your fingers over them and experience them fully.
Notice what your experience is as you take in each object using all the senses—sight, sound, smell, texture and touch and even taste, if it’s something that can be tasted.
Be with whatever object catches your attention and stay with it for 2-3 minutes. Then, “hummingbird” your way to another object and do the same thing. Drink it in. See what comes up and notice what associations come to you through the objects you most adore.
When you’re through, reflect on the following:
Did looking at a loved object deepen your relationship with it?
Did it bring forward any memories or associations that were particularly enjoyable?
In what ways did your body react, in terms of somatic sensations, that helped you to feel how comforted you are by these items?
You can sit quietly in reflection or, and this can be particularly helpful in building awareness, jot down your thoughts and feelings about the objects and your experience in a journal.
Part Two:
The second part of this waking meditation is to repeat the same practice; however, this time, do so by moving toward and exploring objects that you normally ignore—either purposely or that you just don’t tend to notice—in the same room or space that you just spent time. Again, give yourself about 10-15 minutes for the full practice, spending about 2-3 minutes with each object. See if, in fact, you find yourself wanting to spend more or less time with these objects than you did in part one.
When you’re through, reflect on the following:
What kind of associations did looking at a neutral or forgettable object spark in you?
Are there memories or reasons why you’ve kept these objects that come to mind?
What was your somatic reaction to spending time with these objects?
Remember What You’re Forgetting And Remember What You Love
As a grounding strategy, a walking meditation that invites us to look deeply at what comforts us—what you were positively drawn to—can be very relaxing. In this practice, we encourage present moment awareness and add a quality that the Buddha called ‘gladdening the mind’ to our experience.
As psychologist, author and one of my meditation teachers Tara Brach once explained of ‘gladdening the mind,’ “The Buddha taught that as part of arriving, settling, entering any meditation or anything in our lives, the value of gladdening the mind. The many ways to remember what we're forgetting, remember in some ways what we love.”
Indeed, it seems that through mindfulness meditation practices, we can help our minds and hearts shift perspective depending on what we are looking at, how we are directing the mind and what we choose to focus on.
What came up for the group while doing this meditation was that when we placed our eyes or other senses on that which brought up feelings of appreciation, we felt a lightening in our hearts.
On the other hand, looking at objects that we tend to ignore seemed to bring up more of an impulsive reaction. Two-to-three minutes seemed like a lifetime to stay focused on these items! Beyond that, many of us found that we had held onto these objects not because we liked them, but out of obligation—a painting gifted to us by a friend we no longer are close with, for example. Alternatively, some of us found that certain objects, such as staplers or pens, are magnificent if we just stop to examine their usefulness and how it is that these were even invented.
It was also discussed that we need reminders to ground, settle our systems and allow ourselves to relish in small moments of quiet joy. In this busy and sometimes overwhelming world, reminders can be of great service in helping us to remember to practice gratitude, to slow down, to receive, to breathe…
Susan Morgan says that she has Post-It notes all around her house. These sticky notes remind her to breathe and offer her other mantras that she finds particularly helpful. She also speaks of the value of various objects—from stones to statues—as resources to hold when we need reminders, want to evoke a certain emotion and/or to help us slow down.
The Beautiful Practice of Remembering
Meditation, remember, is the process of returning—again and again—to home base, to the internal place of calm and ease that we are each cultivating.
Remembering is such an important part of this; however, without practice, there is much that we can forget, including coming home to ourselves.
Yet, when we do forget, we can find our way back to not forgetting. And, we do this by returning again and again and again. There’s a reason that meditation is called a practice!
For instance, as we seek to cultivate kindness, joy, compassion, ease and patience, we practice coming back to these qualities again and again in meditation and through invoking them in our lives.
Developing concentration is the backbone of mindfulness. We continue to develop an increasingly stable foundation so that we can look more deeply into every moment. We also do this by developing a curiosity about each moment—what is happening NOW?
Through various meditations, including the walking meditation offered above, the practice can also serve as a refuge—a calm and sacred feeling—to help us settle down as it moves into us like conscious particles of the breath.
Open To A Sweetness
In gladdening the heart, we set ourselves up for opening to a sweetness and a friendliness that we may bring inside us from the outside world. And, as you may also experience through this walking meditation practice, there is a way that we look at the objects in our lives with certain associations and feelings. We do this with not only objects, but with people too.
There is so much heaviness in the world right now, so, for today, see if you can bring happiness into your practice—and into your life, if even just for a few moments—and cultivate that gladdening of the mind.
In closing, I’ll leave you with this lovely poem that I feel ties in so well with the theme of this blog.
Blessings,
Karen
I love
all things,
not because they are
passionate
or sweet-smelling
but because,
I don’t know,
because this ocean is yours,
and mine:
and these buttons
and wheels
and little
forgotten
treasures, fans upon
whose feathers
love has scattered
its blossoms,
glasses, knives and
scissors-
all bear
the trace
of someone’s fingers
on their handle or surface,
the trace of a distant hand
lost
in the depths of forgetfulness.
From “Ode to Things” by Pablo Neruda