This guided walking meditation by Kazumi Igus offers an opportunity to slow down and notice the wonder of the natural world in our urban environments.
City life can often feel frenetic, busy, and disconnected from natural beauty. It’s not often we get to slow down and take in all there is to experience. But even in urban areas, if you pay attention, you can hear a bird call, see your favorite color in shop windows, and look up at the vast sky above.
In this guided meditation, we slow our roll and enjoy the beauty around us, no matter where we find ourselves.
A guided walking meditation to notice the beauty around us – even in the city
Read the guided meditation script below and practice, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio exercises.
- Let’s start by taking three deep breaths.
- As we begin, I want to draw your attention to how you are progressing If you are roaming around the city or trying to get from one place to another. How fast are you moving? How are you doing? What is your speed? Do you have a destination and a deadline? Or do you have some space? Wherever you are, slow it down a bit. If you can walk In fact Slow and won’t stop traffic, you’re welcome. And if you’re not walking and you’re in a wheelchair, slow walking is welcome. If you really need to be somewhere, try to relax in this place, whatever it is. Slow and steady, but maybe not too slow depending on where you are.
- bring your attention How You’re walking – your balance. Are you taking a step? Start noticing small changes, the muscles involved. And whatever you are thinking, it is all right. You are simply looking at where you are in this space at this time.
- Then, accepting that our minds sometimes race And we have so many things going on in our lives, just take a deep breath and bring your focus back to each step. Start to settle into a rhythm. Pay attention to each muscle that is involved in creating this motion to propel you forward and shift your weight. Maybe if you’re in a wheelchair, you’re using your arms. How are the hands involved? Are you holding anything? Maybe a backpack, a bag, or someone’s hand. Really focus on being present with your physical space, your physical body. Taking deep breaths. As we move through our urban environments, we begin to notice things outside of ourselves.
- The first thing I want you to draw your attention to is the smell around you.. Depending on where you are, this may be pleasant or unpleasant. Can you detect any particular smell when breathing? You may be smelling a lot of things at once. You may notice changes in smell as you move through different areas. And as you experience these smells, notice what you’re thinking. Are you making up a story? Are you feeling like you want to be near a pleasant smell or perhaps trying to avoid an unpleasant smell by moving away? If so, that’s fine. This is all normal. Simply experience the smell and label it as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. See if you can identify the pizza, poop, grass, or whatever.
- Then take a deep breath and focus your attention on the scenery. What can you see? Start by focusing on a color that brings you joy. If it’s a bright color you might see it in candy or chip wrappers, perhaps in advertisements, signs, storefront windows that have lots of flyers. If it’s something more earthy, like green or brown, you might start to see it in nature – in trees and plants. Simply choose your color and start paying attention to it on your journey. Even if the color is on a man-made object like clothes, hats, backpacks, signs and the like, it is a part of the urban environment. If these are flowers, trees, plants, we are only looking at natural parts of the urban environment. Both are necessary.
- Taking another deep breath, we begin to observe nature. Starting with animals. And for that, let’s maybe not focus on people and their pets. Let’s look for animals that exist in this environment without being owned by a person. Depending on where you are in the world, you may see lizards, stray cats, squirrels, insects.
- I would like to draw your attention towards birds. Birds are what we call birds indicator species. They tell you if your environment is healthy. So look above. Look around. Hear You may also need to pause for a moment. If you can hear birds, start listening for variations in their calls, perhaps even those of a different species. If you have mockingbirds, sometimes the same bird will make several different sounds. Stop to really listen to it as if they are telling you something. If traffic sounds interrupt some calls, that’s okay. The urban environment is complex. It contains both man-made and natural things. If you can see the birds, pay attention to their behavior, appearance, and any other details you may come across. And pay attention to your thoughts while watching or listening to birds. If you are near the coast you may see or hear seagulls, rock pigeons, aka pigeons, finches, sparrows, chickadees. Note if you can identify any of these species by sight or call. Take a deep breath and notice where the birds are. Possibly on plants, trees, bushes or grass.
- Those of us who live in urban environments often have plant blindness. And ignore the plants. Take some time to pay attention to the leaves and see if you can see any patterns in the growth of those plants. Are there any flowers? You may be able to identify a specific species. Can you tell its name? Taking deep breaths. Experience being in nature around plants and animals.
- And as you keep going, keep paying attention Your colors, new plants, new animals. Notice what you’re thinking and whether you’re telling yourself a story or whether you’re asking a lot of questions. And if you are, take a deep breath and then focus on the details of the experience – the shape of the leaves, the color of the feathers. As humans, we cannot survive without natural parts of the environment. So it is very important for us to be mindful of how our movement around the world affects the nature around us and how the nature around us can affect our experience. Take another deep breath. If there’s a big tree or a squirrel standing there looking at you, or a plant that’s interesting, stop for a moment.
- Be grateful for your part of this urban environment. Expressing some gratitude that you are even able to experience this today. Taking deep breaths. Finding your walking rhythm. Slow but steady, or whatever works for you. Continue to pay attention to your colors, plants, animals. And continue taking deep breaths.
