What is a meditative walk? A meditative walk is a walk done with a breathing technique and rhythm that puts one into a meditative state. It involves short steps and rapid breathing and rhythmic movements. Controlled hyperventilation is what puts one into an altered meditative state. One has to get the body use to this state in order to handle it safely and gain the benefits of it, similar to other exercises. Some of the upper body movements are geared to simulating the brain and increasing the blood flow to it so that one can do this exercise in a very low energy fatigued state. Being able to handle a really low energy(survival) state really well helps one to become really strong and sensitive spiritually. Ones stationary meditation practices will get better as a result of doing this meditative walk, so that one can really quiet the mind and better tune into psychically to the energy around you. While doing the meditative walk, I do sense a lot psychically about the environment I am moving through, and do sort of snake through the neighborhood avoiding and energy that feels unsafe, crossing the street and changing course to avoid any thing that gives me an uneasy feeling. Sometimes avoiding dogs and wild parties is involved.
All meditation involves a degree of over-breathing(controlled hyperventilation)which removes extra carbon dioxide in the form of carbonic acid from the blood making the blood more alkaline which I believe adds to the relaxation affect that meditation has. Different types of breathing tend to come with different emotional states. Rapid short breaths often result when one is in a really intense emotional/spiritual state. Spiritual training helps one to handle spiritual/emotional states that are difficult to handle and tend to put a lot of stress on the body. In order to be able to handle very challenging physical-spiritual states, one has to condition the body through a training program that involves effort over a long period of time. When one does anything that the body has not conditioned to handle, it will be unsafe to do. The medical profession does not tend to see hyperventilation as positive, since they deal with people who are not trained to handle it and tend to have a one size fits all scientific approach, that tends to ignore the importance of the type of inner individual focused spiritual approach that physical-spiritual exercises entail.
I have two breathing techniques I use with my meditative walking training program. One which is less intense involving breathing in with one step(or forward arm movement) and out with the next. And another that is more intense that involves breathing in and out with each step(or forward arm movement. The more rapidly one breaths the shallower the breathing will tend to be. The diaphragm has to be trained over a long period of time to be able to handle the more rapid movements that are involved in more rapid meditative breathing techniques. The focus of my type of meditative walking is very much upper body, with the arm and shoulder movements and sideward movement of the waist, sort of powering the legs to move. This exercise tries to limit the workload on the legs, and shift it very much to the upper body, which helps get more blood flow to the brain enabling one to do this meditative exercise when in a fatigued state in which one would not be able to normally function in. The sort of exaggerated shoulder movements used in this exercise also help more blood flow get to the brain by sort of massaging the neck. The rapid breathing I believe does affect one neurologically which also tends to stimulate the brain.
As one improves ones techniques one will tend to move slower as to forward progress and take quick shorter steps which will of course increase the rapidity of ones breathing(especially if breathing in and out with each step). One can lean forward a little bit while focusing on landing on your toes first then heals and do more of a side to side motion which will help one take shorter somewhat quicker steps(using a sort of kicking motion) that can be done while in quite a deep fatiguing meditative state. I find doing a sort of kneading action with the legs helps intensify the meditative state! Closing the eyes for short periods of time(when safe to do)will help one to focus inwardly so that one can more effectively use the meditative state produced by this exercise to help one deal effectively with the emotions(psychological state)that the intensity of the meditative state produced tends to make one more aware of. Any intensely effective meditative exercise will enable one to become more comfortable with and better able to handle more intense emotional/psychological states. When doing meditative walking really intensely one can get ocular headaches that closing the eyes tightly for period of time can help you get rid of. Keeping ones eyes open too long when in a meditative(somewhat similar to sleep) state can strain the eyes. If one gets cramps or other painful physical symptoms, one needs to slow down and lessen the intensity of the exercise or focus more on the upper body movements that make it effectively work. If your lower back hurts(from the tension created) you may need to stop and stretch periodically and be slower and more careful! In time one will become more in tune with your body and become better able to know what will safely work for you, and what will cause you problems. The object is not to hurt oneself, but to get healthier physically and spiritually. I do now use a standing in place meditative movement exercise using the very same technique as the meditative walk, but with the feet staying planted in place.
One has to pay attention to your foot placement when doing meditative walking so that you can maintain good balance in an altered meditative state, the side to side movement of this exercise should help ones balance along with keeping ones feet far enough apart to increase stability. One needs to pick a route that one is familiar with and is pretty safe especially when one is just beginning this exercise. One can stop at anytime when faced with any possible dangers or obstacles. When one becomes good at this exercise, one will be able to sort of snake through the territory one is walking through in a way to avoid any possible dangers or obstacles. One will draw spiritual energy from the earth as one does this exercise which gives one more spiritual strength to be able to handle more and more challenging spiritual/emotional/psychological states as one improves at this meditative walking technique.
Meditative running is similar to meditative walking but with a running motion! This is how I now do my intense meditative morning 1/2 of a mile run routine 3 days a week! I do dynamic stretching before and after and brief running warm up before. I run breathing in and out with each step using short quick steps and rapid arm movement! I focus on massaging my neck with my shoulder movements and on the reptilian part of the brain which can cause problems if not gotten under good control spiritually! I tired out quite a bit at the end. I feel I must exercise really intensely daily to protect my energy since it is so different spiritually as a result of its programming. My spiritual survival depends on me being able to handle the physical stress created by extreme spiritual/emotional states.
I have recently adding more cat like movement in my meditative walking using crouching type movement which I do with waves of deep crouching followed by more upright movement to rest, since intense crouch type movement is so rough on the body that it can not be done continuously! Also found that breathing through my mouth a lot while doing my meditative walk while opening and closing my mouth(without closing completely)with each step in a way that tightens my jaw muscles when breathing out! I do squeeze my eyes close periodically, since an intense meditative state can only handle so much visual stimulation! Eyes being closed helps one connect more with the spiritual/sleep centers of ones brain! One can open ones eyes when ever one needs to in order to see well enough where you are heading and to avoid obstacles and dangers on ones walk! One gets really good at tuning into ones surrounding spiritually with practice at this. Not being blind and being able to open ones eyes a lot of the times allows one to become really good at noticing what counts with the aid of being in an intuitive meditative state. Meditative walking does put one into a super vigilant type state ready to handle any emergency that may comes ones way! Meditative walks of the type of intensity I do tend to affect the energies around me and I have to be in a state to protect myself from what I set off! Often dogs and people stay clear of me when my intensity is extremely strong. But, I can really scare aggressive dogs off by growling at them intensely and can shock or inform people about me with my intense verbal interactions with them!
I have recently adding more cat like movement in my meditative walking using crouching type movement which I do with waves of deep crouching followed by more upright movement to rest, since intense crouch type movement is so rough on the body that it can not be done continuously! Also found that breathing through my mouth a lot while doing my meditative walk while opening and closing my mouth(without closing completely)with each step in a way that tightens my jaw muscles when breathing out! I do squeeze my eyes close periodically, since an intense meditative state can only handle so much visual stimulation! Eyes being closed helps one connect more with the spiritual/sleep centers of ones brain! One can open ones eyes when ever one needs to in order to see well enough where you are heading and to avoid obstacles and dangers on ones walk! One gets really good at tuning into ones surrounding spiritually with practice at this. Not being blind and being able to open ones eyes a lot of the times allows one to become really good at noticing what counts with the aid of being in an intuitive meditative state. Meditative walking does put one into a super vigilant type state ready to handle any emergency that may comes ones way! Meditative walks of the type of intensity I do tend to affect the energies around me and I have to be in a state to protect myself from what I set off! Often dogs and people stay clear of me when my intensity is extremely strong. But, I can really scare aggressive dogs off by growling at them intensely and can shock or inform people about me with my intense verbal interactions with them!
One can use similar technique while doing a meditation lying down on ones back using similar shoulder movements and even legs movements to some degree. One can move ones feet and hands/fingers a little bit also when doing this in order to gain more of a wholistic connection to the body. One can even do some hand/finger movements when doing the meditative walk. I find tensing the stomach muscle as though attempting to do a crunch(but without any actual body movement occurring) when breathing in can create tension that help one the breath more intensely and thus increase the effectiveness of this lying down exercise. When doing a sitting meditation similar techniques can be used, but one may need to do a little back and forth movement of the body above the waist in order to create tension in the stomach muscles in a similar way as I mentioned above in regard to the lying down meditation. Also in both lying down and sitting meditation, it can be helpful to close ones eyes extra tightly when breathing in so as to help prevent or alleviate ocular headaches. One can close ones eyes or not when breathing out depending on what ones finds works best for you! One can do various arm movements with sitting and lying down meditation for short periods of time in order to intensify the meditative state. When the body gets more relaxed you will not be able to do as much body movement, but that is fine as you will then be in a very comfortable meditative state or may sometimes go into a dream sleep state and connect with the spiritual realm. Dreaming is a very important spiritual state which is very much affected by how good your spiritual programming tunes you it!
Please read the updates that follow, since my meditative techniques continue to evolve!
10/2/17: I have started focusing on the top of my head while using the same meditative technique as I mentioned on my 8/13/17 update above! It seemed to give me more energy, but make me a little woozy especially when done at night! It may be a technique that requires a lot of more basic meditative walking training first so that one has the really good balance and careful foot movement required!
11/4/17: I am now breathing through my mouth a lot while doing my meditative walk while opening and closing my mouth(without closing completely)with each step in a way that tightens my jaw muscles when breathing out! Not easy to explain! Focus on 4 steps at a time(per cycle) and keeping my eyes close most of each cycle! Try to put a lot of intensity in each cycle and push hard enough that my mind shuts down as my focus goes completely into technique with its short rapid steps and side to side movement with the legs apart enough to provide more stability! The elbows and shoulder movement helps create the side to side motion that helps make the steps stay close to ground so that the steps will become more rapid. The legs tend to be rather stiff and a little bit of a forward leans of the body helps!
11/4/17: My meditative run that I now do 3 days a week and is now 1/2 mile long with shorter rapid steps. It is getting more meditative which makes it harder to do!
3/12/18: I am adding more cat like movement in my meditative walking using crouching type movement which I do with waves of deep crouching followed by more upright movement to rest, since intense crouch type movement is so rough on the body that it can not be done continuously! It does put one into a super vigilant type state ready to handle any emergency that may comes ones way! Meditative walks of the type of intensity I do tend to affect the energies around me and I have to be in a state to protect myself from what I set off! Often dogs and people stay clear of me when my intensity is extremely strong. But, I can really scare aggressive dogs off by growling at them intensely and can shock or inform people about me with my intense verbal interactions with them!
5/26/18 Doing a meditation of a different type after my more intense early morning meditation where instead of breathing in and out with each step, I breath in with 2 steps and out with the next 2 with cat-like movement with focus on really breathing deeply and being in a quite really vigilant aware state. Careful exacting type movement that is ready for whatever crazy spiritual energy or encounters may occur during the walk! May need to scar dogs off with intense vocalizations. Loud and intensely passionate verbalization can transform the spiritual energy around you when encountering obstructive spiritual energy which when found in dogs will just represent the human spirits that they are strongly bonded with! Human spirits are responsible for the type of spiritual energy they send out that has a very strong impact on they world around them and whatever influence they have on otherr humans or animals spiritually! Objects and locations can have certain spiritual energy attached to them based on what spirits are close to or attached to them. Traumatic events can spiritually imprint/influence certain locations!
8/26/18 – I am now using two meditative walking techniques, one that involves breathing in and out with each breath that is very intense and is best done without the close presence of other people! The other technique involves breathing in very deeply with every two steps and out with the next two. Both techniques involve cat like crouching which is helped by leaning forward and using the muscles that lift the legs a lot! the feet are suppose to glide along hardly leaving the ground except to make adjustments based on terrain! This type of walking movement should create tension to help increase the intensity of the breathing especially when doing the breathing in and out with each step technique! The arms should move rapidly from side to side in natural rhythm with the walking motion and the up and down motion of the shoulders should massage the neck! The upper body affect of arm and shoulder movement pumps more blood to the brain intensifying the intensity of the walk and affect on the brain! I try to get use to pushing the pace of the walk as hard as able to maintain an effort level harder than almost anyone is capable of! I try to move my arms very vigorously using the nervous energy I pick up on to help me do this. Using nervous energy to help intensify the meditative state will condition oneself to relax oneself under states that would be really hard for others to do! Either nose or mouth breathing can be used, mouth breathing may work better with more rapid breathing techniques. I use mouth breathing with the breathing in and out with each step.
I recently added a third technique breathing in really deeply with two steps and then out with the next two steps! This technique allows one to do extra long meditative walks when tired.
1/3/20 On DEC 20th 2019 after taking a break from it, I started running again( 3 miles every day). I recently had the flu, but did not let that stop me! My “neurologically different” body does best when I push the edge! I would not have survived as long as I have in this world which is very hostile toward me, if I did not use my extreme approach guided by my well trained intuition! My spiritual mindset has to be better than others! Most people in this world have no idea how much further they could evolve spiritually and are just passively guided by the spiritual fads of the times with out much deep thinking about how much this limits their potential! When I run, I swing my arms and shoulders as vigorously as possible which makes the run more “meditative”, difficult and intense!
1/3/20 On DEC 20th 2019, I started running again( 3 miles every day). I recently had the flu, but did not let that stop me! My “neurologically different” body does best when I push the edge! I would not have survived as long as I have in this world which is very hostile toward me, if I did not use my extreme approach guided by my well trained intuition! My spiritual mindset has to be better than others! Most people in this world have no idea how much further they could evolve spiritually and are just passively guided by the spiritual fads of the times with out much deep thinking about how much this limits their potential! When I run, I swing my arms and shoulders as vigorously as possible which makes the run more “meditative”, difficult and intense!
1/17/20 Started meditative running twice a day: 3 miles each time! I have changed my run into a meditative exercise that is more intense than my meditative walks! I use a similar technique with the intense arm and shoulder movement and side to side movement! I breath really hard in with one step and out with the next! I sort of skim along with sort of a dance type movement! I really will need to demonstrate this on video when the opportunity arises!
2/8/20 When I meditatively run I now have to focus my intensity mostly on my shoulder movement and side to side movement and ignore how fast I am going! It is a slow run, but gets the heart rate up with its intensity! It is a little like dance with quick steps and intense breathing(breathing in with one step and out with the next)! The focus needs to be on the back of the neck(near survival/reptilian part of brain) and the area between the eyes. I do close my eyes at times in each 6 to 8 step cycle when the surface and traffic is safe! Minor injuries have forced me to avoid focusing overly on forward movement! I now mostly do meditative runs, replacing most of my meditative walking!
3/10/20: I now do 4 three mile meditative runs daily when ever I can while breathing in and out with each step and crouching a little with the first two steps of a four step cycle! Also closed my eyes tightly as much as I could safely do in each four step cycle. I try to focus as much as I can on the deepest and most challenging emotions within me while moving my shoulders vigorously up and down helped with a side to side motion of the upper body! The rhythmic movement helps one to handle the very difficult state this exercise challenges one with when done really intensely!
IMPORTANT; You can do even more intense meditative exercises and avoid ocular head aches by squeezing the eyes really tightly shut when exhaling the air forcefully out: sort of squeezing forcefully what ever emotions out of ones body. One does not have to keep the eyes continuously shut and can do this while walking and running while opening the eyes enough to proceed safely! One will get better at this with practice as practice is what makes one really good at anything provided one uses good techniques so that one does not injure oneself. Pain needs to be paid attention to and one may need to increase one shoulder movements and slow down a little or stop at times until one figures out how to keep from having any pain of the type that can injure oneself. Recovery time is important! It can takes decades of practice to become really good at pushing ones limits to the extreme and have developed the intuition and skill at making adjustments required to safely get away with it. I been doing this most of my life and I am 66 years old!
Here is a YouTube video I did to demonstrate meditative walking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8NpO23l3Eo
I have a more updated version of this here:
https://astrogoodwin.wordpress.com/2019/03/19/how-i-do-my-latest-meditative-run-and-walk/
I have a more updated version of this here:
https://astrogoodwin.wordpress.com/2019/03/19/how-i-do-my-latest-meditative-run-and-walk/
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