What is a conscious walk?
Life can be stressful no matter who you are. Our jobs can create a great deal of anxiety and our personal relationships can lead to stressful situations if they’re not managed correctly. Thankfully, there are practices like meditation that can help us increase our self-awareness while also reducing negative emotions. It’s a great way to manage our stress levels if you understand how to utilize it for its health benefits.
One of the more recent methods of meditation that has been growing in popularity is a conscious walk. This is a form of walking meditation that was first introduced in 2015 but has recently become more popular thanks to the unique benefits that it can offer. As a form of meditation, you can expect it to help you manage your stress levels and gain new perspectives of various situations. However, conscious walking comes with other health benefits that you may be interested in.
So in this post, we’ll be talking about what a conscious walk is and how we can benefit from it.
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What is a conscious walk?
A conscious walk is a form of guided walking meditation. It was created to be a simple yet transformative technique that anyone can take advantage of. It can be done at any age, as any gender, and even in groups with your friends and family members. One of the most interesting things about conscious walking is its simplicity.
People don’t usually expect a simple technique to be effective, but this is where the transformative power in conscious walking comes from. The fact that anyone can immediately start using conscious walking and gain tangible meditation benefits helps to encourage more people to try it. It’s also a great option for group meditation, making it a fantastic practice to introduce to your friends and family members.
Benefits of a conscious walk
Conscious walking offers many benefits that are similar to other forms of meditation like an ice bath or simply closing your eyes and focusing on your energy. But what kind of benefits can you expect if you only use conscious walking?
Greatly improved energy levels
Balanced equilibrium in life
Reduced anxiety
Easier stress management
Improved confident
Renewed self-esteem
Assists with self-control concerns
Removes emotional blocks
Improved clarity
Heightened senses
Boosted concentration
Reduced anger
Fewer fears
With so many fantastic benefits, it’s no wonder that more and more people are using conscious walking as their go-to form of meditation.
Why use conscious walking instead of regular meditation?
There are a number of reasons why a conscious walk can be a better alternative to meditation.
30 minutes of conscious walking is often equal to around three hours of meditation. This makes conscious walking a much better alternative for people who live busy lifestyles but still want the benefits of long meditation.
Since you’re typically outside spending energy during your conscious walk, it actually provides a bit of physical activity which can be great for maintaining your weight and improving cardiovascular function.
Group conscious walking is a fantastic alternative to group meditation since everyone can get involved no matter their age or how physically active they are.
While other forms of meditation such as taking ice baths and yoga are highly effective, few techniques can match the power of conscious walking.
Techniques for conscious walking
So what kind of technique should you be using for conscious walking?
Good posture should be the very first thing that you focus on. This is important because it helps you maintain your focus while conscious walking and it also ensures that you don’t develop bad posture habits when walking.
To start, make sure your eyes are focused on your feet as you walk. Each time you take a step, your eyes should fixate on the foot that is in front. As you walk, pay attention to your spine and make sure you’re not bending forward or slouching. Keep your spine as straight as possible and keep your neck bent very slightly so that your eyes can look down to your feet. You want to keep your chest open and shoulders straight and make sure you’re standing just one foot away from your companions. Standing any further will reduce the effect of conscious walking, but standing too close can distract you.
The reason you must maintain a one-foot distance is that our attention is focused on our immediate surroundings. This is also known as our aura field. This helps to reduce the amount of energy spent walking. This is then diverted to our own bodies, helping to rejuvenate and energise us as we walk.
Important tips to remember
There are also a couple of things to remember if you want to maximise the effectiveness of your conscious walk.
Don’t get distracted by others. If someone in your group is talking too much, don’t hesitate to remove them for some time so you can focus on your conscious walk.
For small children, don’t hold on to their hands unless the weather conditions are dangerous. This can distract both you and your child, making it harder to remain focused as you meditate.
If you have to stop your group in the middle of a conscious walk, make sure everyone stops to listen before you start walking again.
Some final words
There is no doubt that conscious walking can greatly help you reduce your stress levels over time, especially if you’re facing a lot of difficult situations. While there are certainly many useful forms of meditation that you can rely on for assistance, we recommend conscious walking purely because of its simplicity, ability to be performed in a group, and also the benefits of actually walking and moving your body as well. This makes it a fantastic form of meditation that you can’t ignore.
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