Recently, we’ve been exploring the talents and methods actors use when they take on a new character – and how we can apply similar skills to our own practice.

In Part I of this series, we examined the idea that life in this 3-D world is all an act … that we’re all actors on a stage ­– heroes on a journey – in this plane of demonstration. You can read Part I here.

In Part II, we focused on rehearsal and repetition as essential practices in becoming a new character – with some open-ended questions designed to help us envision how we’ll think, feel, and behave as that new personality creating a new personal reality – as a protagonist becoming a hero. You can read Part II here.

Now, we’re at a point in the journey where we encounter an important question: what is all this repetition and rehearsal for?

 

Practicing With Our Eyes Open

In the parlance of the acting world, the work actors do to inhabit a new role – memorize the script; learn their lines; practice speaking and moving as that new persona – is ultimately for a performance, where they fully embody that character for the duration of the show's run.

In terms of our work, when we practice feeling elevated emotions, thinking new thoughts, and behaving in new ways in meditation, it’s so we ultimately can sustain those feelings, thoughts, and actions in our daily lives.

It’s about practicing with our eyes open. And that’s how I developed my approach to Walking Meditations.

 

Walking Meditations: The Act of Becoming

It’s important to remember that all the time, effort, and practice we put into our meditations – seated and lying-down – is not simply to have a good meditation. We’re not practicing for that hour each morning – becoming no body, no one, no thing, no where, in no time; entering the unlimited realm of unknown potentials; awake in our coherent hearts and brains – to then rise, unchanged, and default back to the automatic patterns of the old personality.

Our goal is to rise from our meditation as a new person, feeling new feelings, thinking new thoughts, and committed to new behaviors … and then to stay awake in our day, practicing what it feels like to embody that new character.

Walking Meditations give us the opportunity to do just that. If we can consider our seated or lying-down meditations as a rehearsal, then Walking Meditations are more like the performance: the act of becoming.

 

‘Walking’ You Through a Walk: Embodying Your Future Self

Here’s what you might experience when you practice the Walking Meditation.

When you begin, you’re standing still with your eyes closed. Just like you’ve done seated, I’m now asking you to evolve your experience and practice something similar while standing. In the guided meditation, you get centered and think about who you no longer want to be – and who you’re ready to become. You remember who you are – who you truly are, as your authentic self.

With your eyes closed as you stand, you tune in to your heart … and breathe … and ultimately feel your heart’s energy interacting with your brain. You keep remembering who you are.

And then, you open your eyes. You walk as it. And, when you walk, your senses pick up on cues from your outer world – while, at the same time, you keep your awareness on your inner world of thoughts and feelings. And you balance the two.

As you walk, you’re learning what it feels like to do the same thing you’ve been doing with your eyes closed – creating and sustaining mind and heart coherence; relaxed in the heart; awake in the brain – with your eyes open. You’re practicing what it feels like to embody the future you you’re becoming. You’re “walking as it” – without being distracted by anyone or anything – so you can actually do that same thing in your daily life.

And if you keep doing it, it becomes more automatic and more inherent – just as actors become more at ease in their new characters. As they rehearse, as they perform, their performance becomes more natural and authentic; less structured and rigid. Using similar tools of rehearsal and repetition, you’re developing a new habit. You’re inhabiting a new self. And when you’re really inside that new character, there’s no pretense. It’s just real. You’ve become it.

And the more you walk, the more you’ll feel yourself easing into that new personality. With your eyes open, you learn to keep more attention on your inner world.

Keep practicing embodying that character in the act, and you'll actually become that character.

 

Staying Awake in Our Day; Staying Awake in Our Lives

Just as there are multiple performances in the run of a show, we have to keep showing up “on stage” again and again. We keep walking. We keep practicing what it feels like to embody that new personality with a new personal reality.

We have to keep practicing with our eyes open – because when we return to our everyday life and activities, the default is so powerful, all it takes is one person or one thing – or even one stray thought that slips by our awareness unnoticed – and suddenly, all our attention leaves our inner world of thoughts and feelings and is once again directed to our outer world ... and we return back to the old self.

So, we walk to embody the new self. We walk to practice. We practice being in a new body – living in a whole new space and time.

It’s possible, if we practice being divine, we can become divine. If we practice being unlimited, we can become unlimited. If we practice being free, we can become free. If we practice being whole, we can become healed. If we practice being mystical, we can become the mystic. If we practice being kind, we can become kindness.

We practice being caring. And relaxed. And awake. We practice … until we can stay awake in our lives. We practice so many times that we become … whatever it is we want to become.

 

The Journey to Freedom

I’ve found, in my own practice, there’s no greater way to break the habit of being myself than the Walking Meditation. Whenever I’ve been caught up in the act of being the same person, and can’t get beyond it, it’s a barrier to personal growth and evolution. But when I can stretch myself and become somebody else in the Walking Meditation, I always feel so much better afterward. It’s a way of breaking out … breaking through … and breaking free.

Unlike actors, there’s never really an end to our show’s “run.” We’re always in some stage of rehearsal, repetition, practice, and performance. We can make our entire life a hero’s journey – without end. We have the freedom to write the lines, change the script, and direct the action.

With imagination, practice, and commitment, we can create set and lighting design. We can create the entire backdrop. We can call for another take when we stumble or miss a cue. We’re even that person on the side of the stage whispering the lines we rehearsed when we get stuck or want to default back to an old personality. That’s our conscience, calling us back to the path. To the walk. To the hero’s journey … to freedom.

We can keep inventing and reinventing new roles; new characters. Keep discovering new adventures and challenges. And we can keep practicing … keep performing … keep becoming … until the scene unfolds exactly the way we want.

We believe. We behave. We become.