{"id":18142,"date":"2017-09-22T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T06:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mindful.org\/?p=18142"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:39:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:39:37","slug":"aimless-wandering-mindfulness-practice-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindful.org\/aimless-wandering-mindfulness-practice-video\/","title":"Aimless Walking: An Allowing Practice for Your Wandering Mind","content":{"rendered":"

Mindfulness<\/a> has experienced a wandering backlash. Every few years, a study<\/a> or a Goop \u201cwellness protocol\u201d (pick your poison) seeks to recalibrate our relationship to the present moment. Fifty per cent of our time is spent with our head in the clouds, they say. Too much of our time is spent watching our favorite bands lovingly compose songs from Game of Thrones accompanied by an orchestra<\/a>, they say.<\/p>\n

But what if I told you the pioneer of mindfulness himself regarded an inquisitive brain that followed its natural instincts not as the enemy of mindfulness, but as another form of practicing awareness? It\u2019s practiced as part of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) curriculum as a technique called choiceless awareness<\/i>, which roughly translates into being open to what unfolds in front of you, what emerges in your mind.<\/p>\n

Aimless wandering is also one of those practices.<\/p>\n

Going Nowhere as a Mindfulness Practice<\/h3>\n

In the video below, Editor-in-Chief Barry Boyce<\/a> takes us on an aimless walk. On a park bench between locations, he provides some insight into why we can meander down a park path admiring trees, bother strangers for plantain chips, and call this random cluster of activities a mindfulness practice<\/a>\u2014one that some meditation teachers actually consider more advanced.<\/p>\n