Moving Meditations with Ompractice

Episode: Moving Meditation – 10 Min Walk with Michael (Feb 28, 2025)

Host/Guide: Michael Lee

Episode Overview

This episode offers a 10-minute guided moving meditation, designed to help listeners find presence, ease, and mindfulness through walking. Michael Lee gently facilitates awareness of the body, breath, and connection between movement and inner calm. Whether walking outdoors or indoors, this session aims to ground you in the present, foster bodily awareness, and bring clarity and equanimity for the day ahead.

Key Discussion Points & Guided Steps

1. Introduction to Moving Meditation ([00:04])

• Michael warmly welcomes listeners and introduces the concept of walking meditation—a subtle, accessible way to practice mindfulness.
• Emphasizes that “no one even knows you’re meditating” while walking, making it practical anytime, anywhere.

2. Finding Your Rhythm ([01:00])

• Listeners are invited to begin walking at a pace that feels natural, with Michael reminding:

  “It doesn’t have to be fast, it doesn’t have to be slow, just any kind of pace that works for your body today. Different days, different paces perhaps, huh?” ([01:16])

3. Tuning In to the Body ([02:00])

• Focus shifts to bodily sensations while walking—both pleasant and uncomfortable ones.
• Encouragement to bring awareness and acceptance:

  “Whatever it is...just welcome it, let it be here, let it go for the walk with you.” ([02:37])

• Reframes discomfort as something to carry along, rather than resist.

4. Embracing the Present-Body ([03:00])

• Michael addresses personal experiences of growing older and encourages self-acceptance:

  “Sometimes...I’m sometimes wishing I had the body I had 50 years ago, but not to be. So here’s the body I have. Let me be with it. Let me be with it now...” ([03:30])

• Listeners are guided to pay attention to arm movements, leg movement, and the tactile sensation of feet hitting the ground.

5. Connecting with Breath ([05:00])

• Listeners are directed to notice their breathing as it interplays with walking.
• Exploration of natural synchronization (or lack thereof) between breath and steps:

  “Breathing, walking, walking, breathing, Breath, step, step, breath. Feeling the breath, feeling the body, body, walking, body, breathing. Nowhere else to go, nowhere else to be. Just here, walking and breathing.” ([05:40])

• Option to gently count steps with each in-breath and out-breath to find personal rhythm.

6. Integrating Body, Breath, and Movement ([06:30])

• Michael encourages synthesizing all elements: body sensations, breath awareness, and step rhythm.
• Encouragement to let any feelings or “kinks or quirks” be present, adjusting for comfort as needed.

7. Slowing Down & Coming to Stillness ([07:50])

• Guided transition to gradually slow the walk, carrying mindfulness into stillness.
• Listeners pause and stand, focusing on the current state of body, breath, and presence.

8. Gentle Reflection and Closing ([09:00])

• Invitation for self-reflection:

  “Maybe ask yourself, have I come a little more home to myself through this 10 minutes of walking and breathing? And notice whatever the impact is. How do you feel now?” ([09:18])

• Final encouragement:

  “If anything should come your way that might be a little hard to face or handle, just know you can always pause, take a breath, feel your feet on the floor, take a step back and a step forward. Take a breath, come home to your body, home to this place of refuge.” ([09:55])

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Personal Acceptance:

  “This body, this moment, right here.” ([03:42])

• On the Simplicity of the Practice:

  “No right or wrong here, it's just whatever you experience.” ([05:20])

• On Using Mindfulness as Refuge:

  “Take a breath, come home to your body, home to this place of refuge.” ([09:55])

Significant Timestamps

• 00:04 – Introduction and welcome
• 01:00 – Guidance to start walking and find a personal rhythm
• 02:00 – Noticing body sensations
• 03:30 – Accepting the body as it is
• 05:00 – Noticing and syncing breath with steps
• 06:30 – Integrating body, breath, and step awareness
• 07:50 – Slowing to stillness
• 09:00 – Reflecting on the impact and closing encouragement

Final Takeaway

Michael Lee’s calm, gentle guidance supports listeners through a mindful walking practice that brings them “a little more home to [themselves]” ([09:18]). This moving meditation is accessible, compassionate, and centered on embracing both presence and the realities of the body—offering a reliable tool for finding clarity and peace in daily life.