Meditative Walking and your ipod
Posted by Luminakisharblaze on March 23, 2011 at 7:32pm in Meditation Group
When most people think of meditation they think of soft, slow music with light simple melodies. But there are some of us who take a slightly different approach. Personally I find the most productive meditation sessions are ones where I just put on my ipod and go outside. With no intended place to go and no intended way to meditate, I put it on shuffle and let the music guide my feet into the world.
Some days I may end up at the mall after walking down the large hill atop which my house sits. As I turn left out of the drive and onto the street, I find my feet carefully negotiating the hill toward the main road. Past the freshly blooming mimosa and honeysuckle, I take in the fragrance and listen to the notes as they work their way through the song that is playing. My eyes dance to the next point of vision and I see the harsh road as it clashes with the grassy edge. I walk this line gazing and imagining the ever persistent battle between nature and man and how it is so beautifully displayed at the edge of the road. It crosses my mind to ponder whether the road perhaps thinks it is keeping the grass safe from the cars, and does the grass try to tell the road that it doesn't want to be kept safe because life is messy and uncertain.
Then I turn onto the main road and watch the busy people as the hurry past in their shiny metal boxes. All of them so concerned with time and keeping the status quo that for a while on this walk I am overcome with the sadness for them. For they cannot see that they have trapped themselves away from Mother Earth and so much intwined into the machines they have come to worship and as the songs play on my ipod, I wonder if they will ever see what they are missing.
Then as the beat changes and another song, perhaps this time a harsh screamo from one of the bands my sons have introduced me to, and I cross the busy street noticing how the tempo and sound of the screamer give perfect background to all that surrounds me as I cross to the mall. I take a walk to the front entrance to touch the only life allowed to flourish around this monument of capitalism. I say hello to the plants and the few scattered birds and I begin my way back home.
Then there are days like today, perfect weather and perfect to set my feet to the woods behind the house. I listen to the cries and wails of the sad song that starts this meditative walk and I begin to let it guide me through the woods. I stop at a place where the sun breaks through the treetops and I let myself sway to the music. Watching the life around me and for the moment I am here forgetting any worry of how I may look to a passerby should one happen through the same patch of woods.
Swaying and dancing in slow synchronicity to the world around me, I walk until the music stops calling me. I stop where I feel led and sit or study or take a closer look at the scenery I am privy to at this moment. For it is only the moments that matter. In the long run, they are all that really exists. And as I let this moment of meditation walk to the next and the next and the next bit of forest, I stay lost in the trail of music on my ipod and let the messages in the songs take out all the stresses and cares you hold onto. For it is though the connection to songs that pull out your pain that it is easiest to unburden yourself.
This is just one of many ways I use music to meditate. And before you go looking for the sweet serene sounds of typical mediation, I will leave you with some of the groups I use for this type of meditation. That way the next time you are unsure if any certain kind of music is preferable, you will know that it is all in how you perceive it, just like the meditation process itself.
AFI, The Used, My Chemical Romance, Pink Floyd, P!nk, Stone Sour, Journey, Led Zepplin, Alanis Morissette, Coldplay, Tool, Slipknot, Korn, etc...
Remember meditation is about letting your mind, body and spirit dump the unnecessary excess and recalibrate into one. Some of us just need a different catalyst than others. Never be afraid to go with what you feel led to go with.
Blessed be and happy walkitating.