A Guided Walking Meditation to Help You Truly Connect (To Nature and Yourself)
This article originally appeared on Yoga Journal
We are, at our essence, vibration. In her recently released book, respected sound-healing practitioner gina Breedlove explores and explains this truth, writing powerfully about the grace and wisdom inherent in her experiences. “Our cells respond to sound. The sound of your voice and the power of vibration married with intention can produce an immediate effect on your being,” she explains.
In The Vibration of Grace, Breedlove takes us through the known and sacred effects of vibration, noting contemporary research as well as ancient Hindu scriptures and the “thousands of mantras that create vibrational frequencies when chanted.” She shares essential insights and truths as well as practices and rituals to address our emotional states. She also reminds us of the beauty inherent in the sound of our own voices as well as the sounds of the natural world, whether “quiet streams” or “children laughing.”
Her invitation is to “expand your understanding of the medicine that exists inside you.” In the excerpt that follows, Breedlove invites you to share in the healing nature of nature itself. Her approach to a guided walking meditation helps you not only be outdoors but truly experience the outdoors. --YJ Editors
In the 1970s, summer fun in Brooklyn was an open fire hydrant. All the kids on the block would show up to play, and we would hang out by the curb, dodging cars and running through the cool water. We would spend whole days in Prospect Park, playing with marbles in dirt, climbing trees, rolling down hills, and trying to fish in the lake with poles we made from sticks, string, and paper clips.
Sometimes my father would take us to Coney Island to hang out on the boardwalk or to Brighton Beach. My father would pay his fare and wait on the train platform. When we heard the train coming, my siblings and I would jump over or climb under the turnstile and run onto the D train just as the doors were closing. We got ices at the beach with our train fare, and the trade always felt worth the risk.
I loved summer. My birthday coincided with the last day of school, a double celebration. My siblings' birthdays are in late fall and winter; I was the lucky one. Summers in my Brooklyn were full of block parties, fireworks, and sleeping on the fire escape because we had no air con- ditioning. We played outside in the heat all day long, tracking the sun, willing time to move slower. We knew that as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, the streetlights would come on and it would be time to go home.
Life for me and many of my friends was always sweeter outside. Home was synonymous with ongoing trauma. We had that in common. Summers brought respite, and sunlight was salvation.
My love affair with summer days shifted in my fifth-grade science class. Our teacher told us a terrifying story about a hole in the earth's atmosphere that put us all at risk for something called skin cancer. He told us that we needed to go home and tell our parents to stop using aerosol cans so we could save the environment. We learned new words that day, stratosphere, ozone layer, and global warming. I remember feeling angry with my teacher. I wanted grown-ups to take care of this new problem. My ten-year-old takeaway was that now I had to be wary of sunlight.
I am a grandmother now. I am one of the grown-ups who must caretake this problem. In just 47 summers, we have edged closer to what climatologists call a "climate tipping point." Tipping past that point leads to irreversible and potentially catastrophic effects on the world's ecosystems. We are already inside the effects of climate change, and we can still take action. We have the tools to limit fur- ther damage and strategies to adapt to where we are standing now. Climate change is a complex issue, mostly driven by choices rooted in greed, made by those who also protect themselves from the devastation of so-called "natural disasters." There is nothing natural about flood- ing caused by deforestation or contaminated drinking water due to mountaintop removal. Generations of people who make a living from mining and those of us who depend on coal are inside a reckoning, and we all play a part, as there are no small gestures here.
Every choice we make matters, from how we travel to the food we eat, the electricity we use, and what we do to help those whose lives and livelihoods are immediately affected by environmental calamity. For many of us, our response to this present moment, where we stand on the precipice of climate disaster, is fear and an inability to turn fully toward the reality of what is happening. We feel overwhelmed, so we send prayers and money to the country, city, or town affected by the latest weather-driven hardship, and we hope that something will save us.
We are the ones who will heal. Money and prayers are important forms of energy. We want to support the organizations doing the daily work of addressing climate change and climate justice. Climate jus- tice is a global social movement exposing the injustice that those who bear the least responsibility for climate change are suffering the most. Activists pressure governments and industry to find solutions to the climate crisis and care for those most impacted.
And the earth is asking us to do more. We must radically shift our relationship with how we use our natural resources: water, oil, gas, metals, coal, electricity, wind, solar power, and the power of our life force, our chi. There are new technologies that will support the deeply difficult walk of weaning ourselves from fossil fuels and monitoring our carbon footprint. We can be better stewards of the earth and learn to accept the fact that climate change is already in play. And we must make every effort to be of service to the children of our children.
As we deepen our daily practice on our personal healing journey, all beings benefit from how we are learning to take care of ourselves. The patient, loving regard we give to ourselves and our beloveds, we can learn to share as well with the earth and all its inhabitants. Our rituals of grief-letting, soul retrieval, and witnessing can create in us a deeper capacity to face the things we fear. It is our liberation practice that allows us to turn our full attention and power to shift climate change.
What we do to others, we do to ourselves--this is spiritual law. I will add that what we do to the environment, we are doing to ourselves. Let those of us who can begin to take full control of the choices we govern. We don't need every person on the planet to practice conservation. We need a critical mass of folk in shared agreement, and this is beginning to happen.
One practice on this journey of restoring ecological balance is to release the illusion of separation and honor the irrefutable fact that all life is interdependent. Please say this out loud to yourself right now: All Life Is Interconnected.
Feel how these words land in your spirit. What do you think about this concept? Say it again, please, and repeat it to yourself for a few minutes. Notice your body's response. Be curious. How does it make you feel? If this is true, what does it mean for how you live?
We begin this practice to restore balance in our present moment, wherever we are living. Actions that may feel like small steps are vital. All that we do to correct the course of climate change makes a difference to the whole. We are to practice simultaneity: acknowledging the challenges of this moment while also holding the vision of what we want and doing the work to make it happen. Let us imagine a critical mass of people in shared agreement of what is still possible for the healing of our planet, and let it begin with you and me.
Guided Walking Meditation: I Breathe the Earth, the Earth Breathes Me
This is a guided walking meditation ritual that may be practiced in a park, on the beach, by a river, in the woods or any natural setting. Please adapt this offering to your accessibility needs, any movement outside is fine. If you can't be outside, sit comfortably where you are and imagine that you are reveling in nature. The intention of this ritual is to support you in embracing your connection to the natural world, as you connect these words with your movement, speaking aloud and planting this truth inside your body.
Preparation
Memorize this practice if you can. You will be speaking the words aloud, leaning into the sound and vibration of your voice. You are welcome to record this ritual or to write it on a separate piece of paper to hold in your hand as you walk. And be mindful of what is around you.
Ritual
Bring your awareness to your breath as you slowly inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth; cycle this practice. When you feel ready, in between breaths, begin to say these words softly to yourself:
I inhale the sky; I exhale the ground. I inhale the sky; I exhale the ground. I inhale the sky; I exhale the ground.
Feel the ground beneath your body, supporting your walk or your sit. Glance at the sky above you, or imagine its beauty and vastness. Are there clouds, birds, stars, rain? What is your sky doing? See or imagine, and continue speaking out loud:
I inhale the sky. I exhale the ground. I inhale the sky; I exhale the ground. I inhale the sky; I exhale the ground.
Notice what you notice: people, pets, green grass, red dirt; autumn, summer, spring, or winter weather, the sounds around you, the feel of wet grass, dry leaves, the wind across your skin. Notice or imagine as you breathe deeply and slowly, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
When you are ready, say to yourself:
My voice is powerful and pristine, like the mighty headwaters of the Amazon, Mississippi, Alabama, Yangtze, and all the rivers of the earth.
My veins and arteries carry life's blood like the roots of Oak, Baobab, Cypress, Tupelo, and all the trees of the earth.
My heart anchors my life like a taproot that descends to the center of rock, iron, ore, diamond, and all the minerals of the earth.
My lungs breathe me, generous and deep, like rainforests breathe for all the creatures of the earth.
My eyes release tears like rain cleansing and nourishing the land; water is vital to all beings of the earth.
My skin holds my body, a dwelling for my soul, like the ocean floor and the mountaintop; the earth holds all things.
I Am, we are, all life is one life. I Am, we are, all life is one life. I Am, we are, all life is one life.
This meditation on oneness may be engaged as often as you wish. Imagine what you are saying as you speak the words. See trees, rivers, rainforests, an ocean floor, and mountaintops in your mind's eye, and feel your heart beating and your body breathing. Listen to the sound of your voice and practice speaking these words in a calm, soothing way, the way you speak when you seek to bring comfort to someone. The vibration of your voice, wrapped in the intention of peace, can bring a feeling of connection with the world that surrounds you.
Closing
You close your walking meditation by turning toward the rest of your day. We invite you to cycle the words I Am, we are, all life is one life often, to allow this knowing to become part of your everyday thinking.
Waking to Presence
Here is another component of a simple guided walking meditation ritual you may practice daily, as able, that may expand your awareness of nature:
Greet trees as you pass them on the road; admire their majesty and thank them for the gift of fresh air, shade, fruit, and myriad medicines.
When you feel the wind on your skin, exhale and imagine that the wind is gifting you with an energetic cleansing, taking all that you are releasing and repurposing.
When you feel the sun on your face, remember that life on earth is possible because of the sun's light, heat, and energy.
Notice patterns in nature, a language of interconnection that is everywhere present. Pay attention. Riverbeds throughout our planet look like veins and arteries in the body, carrying fresh water across the earth the way blood is carried to the heart and lungs. The path of the vagal nerves in the body, moving inexorably toward the pelvic floor, looks like the roots of trees moving toward the center of the earth. Spirals, circles, hexagons, fractals, repeated shapes in nature. What will you discover about the earth and yourself once you take a closer look?
Watch birds in flight. Imagine the bird's view from the sky, of you and all that surrounds you. Take to the air for a moment and look down. What do you see? Imagine feeling a sense of expansion, and take deeper, slower breaths to allow this feeling to take hold of your being.
Excerpted from The Vibration of Grace: Sound Healing Rituals for Liberation by gina Breedlove. November 28, 2023; Sounds True. Reprinted with permission.
About Our Contributor
gina Breedlove (she/they/Grace) is from the people's republic of Brooklyn. She tours the world sharing the vibration of Grace as a vocalist, composer, actor, playwright, sound healer, and grief doula. gina began her walk with music and spirit at age nine, singing in her family's church in Apalachicola, Florida. When she was sixteen, she sang background for the incomparable Phyllis Hyman; toured with legendary artist and activist Harry Belafonte; worked on two Spike Lee joints; released two records, "Open Heart" and "Language of Light"; and is an original cast member of the Broadway production of The Lion King. gina has been sharing the medicine of sound and the power of grief-letting for over twenty years, working with people and organizations around the world. She is grateful for this life of service, practice, fellowship, and love. You can learn more about gina's work at ginaBreedlove.com.
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