Final Lap
by pre.
This month we begin the final lap around the spiral, in which we will attempt to integrate the skills which we have learned, to pull them together so that they can affect each other, feedback upon each other, become a whole greater than the sum of it’s parts.
This month we’ll tackle awareness, and follow that by guided meditations designed to integrate your memory skills, your consciousness, your body, cognition, bio-programming abilities, social skills and ethics.
In the first lap, we concentrated on bedtime meditations. In the second, meditations to be performed while exercising, and in the third we produced guided lucid dreams to be listened to in the morning as you wake.
In this final lap, our mediations are designed to be listened to while walking, perhaps just while popping to the local shops, or walking to the bus stop or to work, perhaps while taking a random stroll around town in the evening or hiking cross country.
Walking and thinking are deeply connected things. Since the days of Aristotle the connection between them has been clear. The school Aristotle founded was known not as the philosophy university, or the thinking college, but the Peripatetic Academy. Peripatetic from the Greek verb “pertato” meaning “to walk”.
18th century philosopher, writer, and composer Jean Jacques Rousseau once wrote “I can only meditate when I’m walking. When I stop, my mind ceases to think; my mind only works with my legs.“
Zen Monk Thich Nhat Hanh has also produced walking meditations, saying that “Walking meditation is meditation while walking. We walk slowly, in a relaxed way, keeping a light smile on our lips. When we practice this way, we feel deeply at ease, and our steps are those of the most secure person on Earth. All our sorrows and anxieties drop away, and peace and joy fill our hearts. Anyone can do it. It takes only a little time, a little mindfulness, and the wish to be happy“
Walking does more than just get you from one place to another, it clears the mind for rumination and thought, it brings you past a constant stream of stimulation and inspiration as you walk through the world.
It’s even good for your health, can improve cardiovascular systems, reduce the changes of heart problems and has been reported to lower the incidence of cancer. You should likely be fitting some walking into your daily routine anyway, so it should be easy enough to combine that with meditating to improve your mind.
The mediations produced in this lap around the spiral should be uploaded to a personal music player and listened to while casually walking around town. They only take around ten minutes, but of course you can listen to them on loop if you walk is longer, or just take ten minutes out of your walk allowing you to independently continue once it’s done.