From the article: Walking the Labyrinth
Share Post: A labyrinth pathway is a meditative walk that can be taken to help the walker go within, gain personal insight, or reach higher mind perspectives. Have you ever walked a labyrinth? If yes, please share how it felt while walking this sacred pathway. Did it feel like a spiritual experience? Also, how did the walk affect you afterwards? What did you learn? Share Walking Experience
Life Lessons
- Recently walked a canvas labyrinth 45 min. from my home that I've grown to love. About half way in, I somehow got turned around and found myself back at the beginning. It is laid out in a church sanctuary & I had stopped to pray and must have turned wrong to resume walking to the center. I entered again taking short cuts all the way to the center but it felt like I had cheated so I started over again. This time when I made it to the center I prayed and started out when it hit me-this is my life: false starts, new beginnings, taking short cuts when I should just focus on what I'm doing and put one foot in front of the other. I laughed-lesson learned... I hope.
- —Guest Elly
Gentle Kiss
- My husband and I came across a spiritual garden center in the outback of Maui. They had a shaded labyrinth which we start to walk. My husband made it to the center well before I did. He's usually not one for waiting. But he did wait and when I met him in the center he gently kissed me. Maybe that's what we both have been waiting for. We've been married 42 years.
- —Guest Karen
Laberinto Borges
- La vida es un extenso laberinto cuando se mantienen los sentidos despiertos. El gran escritor argentino es, en español, el más conocido explorador de los laberintos historicos e intelectuales. La vida que se presenta plana y con horarios no es la única percepción posible, una breve lectura del Aleph sería un muy recomendable comienzo. (English translation via www.spanishdict.com : Life is a vast labyrinth where the senses are kept awake. Was the great Argentinian writer, in Spanish, the most famous explorer of the historical and intellectual labyrinths. The life that is flat and time perception is not the only possible, a brief reading of Aleph is a highly recommended start.)
- —Guest rollerbob59
Walking a Labyrinth
- There is a labyrinth about 10 miles from my home, in a park, and I love to walk it. Depending on my frame of mind, sometimes I walk it when I am feeling content with my life and come out feeling more connected with the world, in total peace and harmony. Other times, especially if I am feeling very unconnected with the world, concentrating on only the journey, not the destination can sooth me. I wish I had one in my backyard so I could walk it whenever I needed to either reconnect with the world or gain some inner peace.
- —Guest Elaine
Amazed
- I had never heard of this until reading this article and so I immediately went online and I found a virtual labyrinth. It was little more than a dot on a screen moving through the path and at all times I could see where it was going next, but I closed my eyes and let my mind wander. By the time I reached the centre, I was feeling closed in and breathless. I stayed about ten minutes, then proceeded to leave. Just as I reached the end, I couldn't help but realise how much this path could mean to my life. For a moment, I thought I had taken a wrong turn in the labyrinth, even though it's computerized and out of my control. It was then that I realised that no matter which way I went, the path would always lead me to somewhere that I knew. Everything around me could look the same, but the destination, what I found at the end, would be what I made it. I hope to one day walk a real labyrinth, I could just imagine what I'll find.
- —Guest Robin-Saskachewan, Canada
Walking the Labyrinth
- I have a local labyrinth close to me in an old carousel building that I walk often, especially if I need help during my books (and I've included a labyrinth as a walking meditations in my work). Usually any anxieties I have are calmed and I am grounded and centered by walking the labyrinth. I am very aware of the four directions when I walk and in the center of the labyrinth. When I return down the path, it's faster and when I am done, I'm ready to work again!
- —Guest Robin D. Owens
Walking Up-Hill
- I walked a labyrinth a couple of years ago. It was only a temporary design in a church hall on a weekday afternoon but I experienced such a feeling of walking up-hill towards "something." Then the return journey felt really like a descent back into the real world. Amazing sensation.
- —Guest maureen
Creating the labyrinth
- I have not just walked the labyrinth, but have actually created one, 70' wide, cut into the turf of the Cornish coast. It's just by the southwest coast path on the coast, 3 miles to the east of Looe, and very soon a gate is to be opened from the path so that anyone who is walking the path can also walk the walk.
- —Guest Caroline Petherick
Lessons from The Labyrinth
- A Mother Robin swooped into a structure in the center of the labyrinth. I heard the baby birds in the nest begin to chirp. I noticed the nest nestled in the top of the gazebo & saw their little mouths open wide as they felt their mother in their vicinity. I watched the mommy robin. She had 3 worms in her mouth & I saw her hop over near her babies & look at them. There were 5-6 mouths wide open expecting nourishment. She went back over to the center plank & dropped those worms on there and swooped out of the gazebo once again. The babies all closed their mouths and nestled back in close together. Not crying and chirping, just knowing their mom would return. The mom bird went back out to get more food & she came back when she had enough to nourish ALL her children. The Lesson I wrote a Long post about my lessons that day: http://jennymannion.com/healpain/2009/07/healing-lesson-from-the-labyrinth/ I am so very grateful for that mommy Robin!
- —jennymannion
Imaginary Labyrinth
- I found a field of very long grass, and out of the blue I started walking in it making my own labyrinth. At first I was very focused; nothing else entered my mind but spacing and the turning points of it. How refreshing that was. After, I followed my own feet through it knowing my higher power had helped me create it. I felt such peace and lightness in my heart. I stopped in the middle for awhile staying with my feelings and gave thanks for the beautiful idea of this labyrinth that I had created and I acknowledged the stillness of my Ah moment.
- —Guest Pennie
Labyrinth Article Assignment
- I'm a writer and I walked a labyrinth as part of an assignment. It was a "portable" labyrinth that was set up regularly. Since I was writing about it, I was the only one there that night besides the people who set it up. I had a candle and they played lovely music in the background. They told me to enter the labyrinth when I felt I was ready. It was a wonderful, long, slow, walking meditation for me. The lights were dimmed and my candle was about the only glowing yellow light that you could see in the room. I stayed inside the middle of the labyrinth for a while when I reached it, just to get some insights. When I walked back out I had a feeling of peace and calm. It's such a wonderful experience. There was an online labyrinth. I believe it's on the Grace Church, California website. Where you either follow the path with your cursor or pick a dove, etc. to walk the path for you. (Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/nyregion/through-a-labyrinth-for-mind-and-soul.html)
- —Linda.longisland
Life and interactions
- I walked a traveling labyrinth that visited our medical center. What struck me most was my interaction with the other people walking the labyrinth and how that mirrored real life. We never know where other people are on their journey when we first meet them, or whether we will meet them again. The Chartes labyrinth brings you closer and further from others walking it, but it is very hard to tell where they have come from and where they are going. Also, having to follow somebody slower or feel pushed by somebody faster. We all have our own pace. It made me contemplate tolerance and acceptance.
- —Guest Wendy B
Gender Differences
- My husband and I walked a labyrinth together. Afterward we shared our experiences. My thoughts as I walked were on how I absolutely needed to reduce my responsibility load. My husband said that all he could think about was what he was going to have for lunch!
- —Guest BBB
Sticky Like Glue
- I tend to live in my head a lot, I mean A LOT. I over analyze everything. I've also been told by a couple of healers that I tend to live outside of my body. When I stepped inside the labyrinth I became very aware of my body. My feet felt like they were glued to the path. I believe now that they were magnetized to the path as a constant reminder that I had feet. This helped get me out of my head. I was forced to consciously will my body to pick up my foot at every step. I was initially uncomfortable and I wanted to hurry and get the walk over with. The lesson I got out of it was the importance of not ignoring my body. I still struggle with getting out of my head and paying attention to my physical needs. I can now focus my mind's eye on a picture of a labyrinth whenever I find myself going adrift from my body. Walking a real labyrinth would be better, but not always possible. Meditating on the picture helps bring me back to a more balanced spiritual/physical awareness.
- —Guest Nate
