Try Mindful Walking

Quick Win

Every step you take can be an opportunity for awareness — and stress relief. Find a quiet area outdoors for a 10- to-20-minute stroll.

Try This Today

• Walk at a natural pace, and tune in to your senses, one at a time. What do you see? Pay attention to the lifting and falling of your feet. How does that feel? Then listen to the sounds around you. After that, focus on your sense of smell. Try to take in your perceptions without the usual accompanying opinions.
• Notice your thoughts. When your mind wanders (it will!) to your to-do list or worries or a daydream, gently bring your attention back to what you are experiencing in the present.
• Experiment with pace. Is it easier to pay attention to the present if you slow way down or speed up?

Why

Whether you’re doing a formal meditation or simply walking, bringing awareness to the present moment may help you relax. Mindfulness, which involves intentionally paying attention to what’s happening in the moment without judgment, has been linked to lower stress levels in many studies, including one of more than 2,000 people reported in 2021 in Frontiers in Psychology. The benefit seems to extend to mindful movement. In a study including 29 people published in 2016 in the journal Mindfulness, practicing mindful walking along a river improved mood compared with walking in the same location without being instructed to practice mindfulness.