How Does Walking Create Peace?

How Does Walking Create Peace?

The beauty of the Monks’ 2300 mile Walk For Peace is that it didn’t ask anything of anyone. There was no call to action, no request for money, no judgments, no preaching about what or who is wrong, and no cries for change. They didn’t even ask anyone to come out and see them.

I think this is the beauty of the whole thing.

It leaves any thoughts, actions, and beliefs up to you.

This becomes a personal decision about whether walking for peace holds any meaning for you, and if so, how do you want to honor that?

That said, I see the underlying question of how to turn this into something meaningful, so I will give you some suggestions from my perspective. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

Pilgrimage has become more popular since the covid lock downs. The estimates worldwide vary from 200-330 million.

Pilgrimage requires patience, endurance, pain tolerance, boredom tolerance, resilience, and constant mindful attention. You never know if a scorpion, a heckler, or slippery rock will greet your next footstep!

In return, the walker typically gains insight, peace, calm, and self-compassion.

And of course, intention turns a walk around the block into a mindful walk or pilgrimage. So, consciously walking is an opportunity to find clarity and compassion.

Watching others walk, as millions of people watched the Texas monks go by, can also be inspiring.

When I saw them, I was deeply touched by their devotion to their mission. I could feel their serenity as they walked by. In a way, it was borrowed peace.

They also gave me a spark to create that for myself.

As you join the Walk of Peace RVA, your peaceful presence may inspire someone who sees you to pause and reflect. Perhaps their life even changes!

The Walk for Peace can be a call to action to make the peace you feel, or yearn for inside, visible. Here are some ways to get started:

• Make a personal inventory of the things you have done that you haven’t accounted for. If it’s appropriate, apologize or make amends. Fix what you have broken.
• Notice triggers that steal your peace. Find a way to resolve those things so that your can live intentionally rather than reactively.
• Notice when you judge yourself or beat yourself up. Learn to forgive yourself. Often our greatest challenges don’t come from our relationships with others, but in our relationship to ourselves.
• Find a community where you feel seen, safe, and accepted. It’s not easy to bring your best self to the world if you don’t feel safe.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ~Rumi

In other words, focus on yourself. Do what you can to be your highest and best self and show up with that face.

If your path includes joining us for a walk, I can’t wait to see you there!