I’ve been playing with listening to birdsong as a fun, easy way to transform my neighborhood walks into meditations! I got the idea from this (amazing!) book by Martha Beck 😀 All you need to try this out is 20 minutes of free time for a walk.
The first thing you may notice is that you don’t even hear any birds chirping!
That’s all right, you will 🙂 If there’s no birdsong, then pay attention to all sounds trying to pick out if any of the really far away ones are bird noises. Then every once in a while you’ll hear a bird chirping from a nearby tree, a crow calling far away, some bird chirping really loud in the tree you’re passing under.
You may notice a pattern, the closest birds sound like they’re scared to see you!
That’s when Martha Beck suggests trying to pull your presence closer in toward your center to see if you can keep the birds from alarm calling as you go by. This is fun, but if you’re not ready for the advanced class yet, just keep listing to all the bird calls, chirps and songs as you make your way around the neighborhood.
By the end of this walking meditation you’ll be surprised how aware of sound you’ve become!
Last week, at the end of one of my birdsong walks, I was hearing squirrels chuttering (not that loud alarm squirrel cry, but gentle squirrel talk) then I heard a woman cough, but when I looked for her, I realized she was inside her house! The coolest thing I heard on the home stretch was when I thought I heard a bicycle coming up behind me on the street, but nothing passed by though the sound continued. I turned around and saw it was the sound of tiny leaves falling from a tree in a yard across the street.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂 I hope you’re inspired to try the birdsong meditation on your next walk, it’s really fun! And if you’re interested you should check out Martha Beck’s book, I read it cover to cover, no lie!
Kathryn says
I so much appreciated this post! You did such a wonderful job of describing the process that I could see myself walking and listening and just being in the moment throughout my usual walk. This idea of making an already happy part of my day even BETTER was icing on the cake. Many many thanks.
jennyhoo says
Yay! It’s one thing to write the posts, Kathryn, and quite another to find out that they make sense and are meaningful to other people, too!! Thanks and here’s hoping your next walk is full of faraway tweets and overhead caws!!