MINDFUL MANDART MOMENTS #5... "Getting inspired with a Labyrinth Walk"
WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS PODCAST.
LET’S GET ACTIVELY STILL. with this episode of a MINDFUL MANDART MOMENT on the Podcast. In it we’ll pair action with stillness to take us on a contemplative visual journey.
The new year is a time for self reflection…and a great time to add to our meditative tool box with the inclusion of a virtual labyrinth walk.
This is the 5th instalment of the Mindful Mandart Moments Series. This is a group of ten episodes within the Podcast. In this series we are bringing the meditation that concludes each episode of the podcastnto the foreground. The aim is to help us to find our own rhythm on our personal meditative journeys while also providing an additional process that you might find helpful.
The legend of The Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth in Kings park, Winnipeg.
The labyrinth, In existence for thousands of years is usually a compact journey that winds its way to a contemplative centre and unfurls as it returns us to where its curved path began.
So far in our meditative practice together we have paused to contemplate and reflect as we have taken time for ourselves at the end of each episode on the podcast.
A labyrinth walk I thought might make a thoughtful physical addition to our mindfulness practice. A walking meditation provides a nice option for all of us who struggle at times with slowing down to “BE” more, and do a little less.
I hope you’ll listen on the player above or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Together we’ll take a short pause seeking stillness and wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet.
A rose hedge might describe the outer boundary of your visualized labyrinth.
Why take a virtual labyrinth walk?
Reflecting, contemplating, pausing and taking time for ourselves has been the foundation of the personal work we have been engaging in together within this meditative practice. When we are present all kinds of opportunities become available to us. Meditation is not only a stationary practice. A walking meditation like a labyrinth walk is a nice addition to our self-care tool kit
A meditative practice that includes a virtual labrynth walk is just another way to help us to find presence as we navigate our way through all that life presents. The concept of action contrasting stillness originally paired with an active still life painting in Episode 33.
Do you imagine a paved pathway or something a little more rustic?
While there are many ritual associations with a labyrinth walk we can enter and allow the prescribed pathway to lead the way to its core.
We have a labyrinth in our city that I have always wanted to visit and for some reason a cool snowy November weekday morning was the day I chose to take my inaugural walk. See the diagram above.
If you have walked a labyrinth in your past feel free to bring those memories along as we take our self-care walk together today.
If a prescribed pathway like this is new to you as it is to me let’s just be open to listening to the wisdom at our core as we make our way along the journey
The medieval period often featured labyrinths on stone floors. Chatres Cathedral is one of the most renowned. Walking through the Bayeux Cathedral, Normandy felt like a walking meditation in 2018 with my family.
The Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth in Winnipeg.
I chose a weekday morning to walk my first labyrinth. I was thinking there would not be others in the vicinity and I was right. It was really cold.
I followed a tractor that was clearing a walkway of snow along the red river.
It was still snowing lightly. Overnight accumulation was minimal but the wind was kicking up across the adjacent pond that had recently turned solid and white.
The paths of this physical labyrinth I walked .are delineated by clusters of hardy perennials and native plants designed to survive the challenges of prairie living through all of its seasons.
Your climate might inform the visuals you experience when you close your eyes to imagine a circular path outlined by local plantings.
The boundary of your virtual labyrinth might be defined by a clipped hedge like this one?
You might imagine scented old fashioned or shrub roses planted in pastel rows or solid curated and clipped hedges outlining the pathways that divide the circular paths?
Maybe you see a more naturalistic series of plantings like those I experienced peeking out of the accumulating snow
The snow covered boundary of the Carol Shields Memorial Labrynth
The important thing is to visualize yourself entering the prescribed arcs of the pathway you choose.
My pathway curved to the left. You can follow that experience in the recording on the podcast.
The unusual bowl shape of this labyrinth on Manitoba’s prairie invited snow to blow and accumulate.
Though the snow wasn’t deep this early in the season to the uninitiated like me, six inches of snow easily blurred the boundary between the designed pathways of the labyrinth itself, and the plantings of the surrounding area.
A pathway like this is one of my favourites. Next time you are on a sandy beach consider drawing your own circular pathways into the sand to reinact this meditative process.
Using your imagination.
As you move forward in your meditation notice what surface you see your feet step upon as you make your way into the prescribed circle
Is it a path of short clipped soft green grass that invites bare feet?
Is it a compacted and we’ll trodden gravel walkway
Is it the colour of Crushed pink granite or blue metal grey.
Is it made of warm and rounded sun bleached river rock?
Or is it a temporary pathway sketched into sand?
On the day I made my first walk the tracks of squirrel and deer criss crossed the paths ahead of me in the fine soft white snow.
A labyrinth walk is said to be a journey on which we can take with us our concerns and prayers, our questions and hopes or our dreams and desires.
It’s a place we can choose to work through something or a place we can move through with acceptance and an open heart
How you choose to navigate these concentric arcs on any visit is up to you.
With each step along your chosen substrate allow yourself some space to listen to your own thoughts. If you came with an open and curious mind be aware and notice if anything resonates for you along the way.
My journey on this day was not an easy one and maybe that’s what I needed?
In stepping across the deepening snow I was reminded that the paths we travel are not always what we plan for or anticipate. They don’t always follow a prescriptive path.
On this path I found myself blazing my own trail
Contemplating each step as I negotiated the bumps in the road
I was aware that the loads I carry within me and into the curve of this circular path are what I needed to take there in this moment
There are obstacles
There are turns
some were prescribed by the form the labyrinth took
others were unexpected and due to external circumstances like the weather.
Weather was a literal barrier to my journey
We can also carry metaphoric weather like turbulence or volatile conditions within us as we travel through this process
Wherever your journey takes you know that it is exactly where it should be at this singular point in time.
When in bloom at the height of summer the border planting that delineate the pathways at the Carol Shields Memorial Labryntyh might look a little more like this.
There is no right or wrong way to undertake this short journey and also no single way for a revelation to manifest. We are all unique and our impressions and our responses will be too
It pays to pay attention, to embrace the quiet. The core of a labyrinth is said to be a place of wisdom so take a moment to pause in the middle.
On the exit route our pathways begin with the shorter interior arcs that turn more quickly. We gather momentum. With each prescribed step along the returning pathways feel yourself becoming lighter and more light filled. Accept any inspiration as well as the metaphysical support you have received on the journey.
Be present
Listen to the sound around you
listen for any sounds within
Encourage the healing energy of resolution and acceptance to infiltrate the cells of the physical body as you make your way back to the beginning.
Your steps might have taken you on a smooth and contemplative pathway within clearly delineated boundaries, or, your path may have felt like it was climbing uphill.
Maybe it was like my Canadian path that was literally tough sledding in a transitioning season where my steps were labored as I waded through deepening snow.
Whatever you feel, or experience as an image, or heard as a sound, or knew as a stream of consciousness during your meditative process will be exactly what you are destined to discover as you navigate a visual journey like this one. Each time you return to it allow the universe to guide your thoughts and curate the images you visualize.
Post bloom prairie plantings
Whatever path you choose for your actual or virtual journeys
May you feel as refreshed as I did as I made my way from the healing bowl of the labyrinth’s concentric circular paths to the warmth and protection of my car out of the elements.
I hope you have enjoyed this mindful moment. It really is about the pause and offering ourselves an opportunity to slow down. When we quiet the noise of distraction around us we allow our energetic body to rest and expand. We find presence together.
At the time I walked this labyrinth and developed this visualized meditation the Red River was freezing up and snow was falling.
The inspiration for the meditation in this episode…
Being present at the time this podcast airs …
I am getting back to the studio after a break. I am definitely ready to get back to work on some fresh ideas.
This brings us to the end of the blog this time.
THANK YOU for tuning in to this episode on the player inset above or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Time is valuable and I really appreciate you spending some of your precious time with me. I am grateful to have you with me, complimenting your own meditative practice by joining in with my examples.
If you are finding something that resonates for you in this podcast please feel free to Invite a friend to join in on this weekly self care project.
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I hope you’ll return to WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS PODCAST often to pause and reflect on your personal journey toward mindfulness. Together we’ll seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet.
Until next time, Amanda xoxo