Walking Through the Mud
Literally?
Meditative walking is a practice that shows up across many different spiritual traditions of the past and has a practical place in the modern world. In the clinic, patients often present with low back, knee and hip pain from a variety of reasons. The trouble with injuries to these areas is that they take time to heal and we often have to go on with our lives before everything is one hundred percent better. Low back pain has a tendency to affect the gait, cause imbalances in the hips and can lead to things like Achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis if left unresolved.
This is one way to look at the idea of root and branch theory in medicine, the low back or Ming Men, is weakened and not functioning properly leading to issues down the branch at the ankle and foot. Practices like meditative walking help us to actively restore proper functioning of these areas while also focusing on calming the nervous system and cultivating an environment of healing within the body.
Becoming More Parasympathetic
The parasympathetic nervous system is our rest and digest system, when it is active the body is able to recover, process and detoxify through various systems. When we actively turn on our parasympathetic nervous system, while exercising simultaneously, we can help areas of our body that have been moving improperly to release that pattern and learn new healthy movement patterns.
We’re really just catching ourselves every time we walk
Walking with the intention of healing is a very powerful process that strengthens the foot, ankle, lower legs, knees, hips, low back and corrects the gait over time. If you watch someone who is rushing around from one place to another it almost seems as if they are falling forward and putting one foot out to catch themselves over and over again, a controlled forward fall.
Meditative walking, slow stepping, mud walking, tai chi stepping and mindfully walking are the opposite. Oftentimes there is no place to go, you are just putting one foot in front of the other, slowly transferring weight from foot to foot, breathing and moving.
Practicing walking in this way is useful for improving balance, correcting the gait, learning to relax areas of tension that are not needed and creating more efficient movement patterns. With consistent practice it will improve energy, stamina and endurance while connecting movement with breath and building healthy structure. These benefits are due to the creation of more efficient patterns of internal and external movement. Internally the lungs are functioning better, expanding and contracting more efficiently, doing a better job at oxygenating the blood and nourishing the brain and tissues.
Externally the feet, ankles, knees, hips and low back are engaged and active supporting the weight of the body and moving slowly and controlled. In this way the lungs and large intestine can work together to digest food and assimilate energy while the body is actively moving and working, everything begins to work smarter and not harder. Whether you are a practitioner working with patients facing these issues or a patient looking for relief, give meditative walking a try.
Beginning January 6, 2025, Ryan will be hosting an 8-week Moving Meditation Series. To learn more about it, click here.
