This 20 minute practice is based on Breathwalk, from the Kundalini Yoga tradition, incorporating pranayama (breath) and mantra (sound) techniques to improve cardiovascular health, tone the nervous system, boost energy, stabilise your mood, quiet mental chatter and enable you to ‘be in the moment’. Once you are familiar with the techniques you can extend the time to 60 minutes.
1. Start in Tadasana pose (stand straight with arms beside your sides)
Begin to walk…
Walk at a normal pace, observing your bodily sensation.
Then tune into your breath:
- Are you breathing with your chest muscles or with your diaphragm?
- Is your breath shallow and erratic or smooth and deep?
- Noisy or quiet?
- Through your mouth or your nostrils?
Adjust breath to: nasal, diaphragmatic, quiet and regular.
2. Match your breath with your stride:
- Inhale for four steps – one puff through the nostrils for each step to the count of four. Fill your lungs with air.
- Exhale for four steps – one puff through the nostril for each step to the count of four.
Continue for five minutes.
3. Walk and breathe normally for three minutes.
4. Repeat step 2 and add the mantra this time.
With each breath mentally say the mantra SA – TA – NA – MA, one sound for each step.
5. Stop and stand in Tadasana for a few breaths and enjoy the benefits of your walking meditation.
Meaning of Mantra Sa Ta Na Ma
- SA – birth, the beginning, infinity, the totality of everything that ever was, is, or will be.
- TA is life, existence, and creativity which manifests from infinity.
- NA is death, change, and the transformation of consciousness.
- MA is rebirth, regeneration, and resurrection which allows us to consciously experience the joy of the infinite.
