Labyrinths offer safe and calming ways for dealing with anxiety, grief, or feelings of disconnection. There is a mindful state of presence that psychologists call the “zone” or the “flow.” Some people find this space through activities like jogging or swimming. Some find it through meditation. And some find it by slowly walking through labyrinths. Being in the present moment puts distance between concerns for the future and regrets from the past. It is a space for recovering our composure … for recovering a sense of balance in a turbulent life.
The combination of meditation and gentle, rhythmic, walking helps relieve anxiety. To walk a labyrinth, feel each footstep as they naturally ground us. Sense the path turn and spiral as it gently flows towards the labyrinth center. At the center, pause, check-in on your feelings, and then continue to gently walk back to the labyrinth entrance. Just as no one can step into exactly the same river in exactly the same way twice, each walk through the labyrinth is a unique experience. We leave slightly different from who we were when we first entered.
Some labyrinth walkers prefer to walk in silence, some prefer listening to music, and others prefer to feel themselves softly humming as they walk. Some seek only brief walks, while others walk or re-walk a labyrinth for extended times. Some walkers will carry a small token to leave at the center of the labyrinth as a symbolic statement for what cannot be said in words alone. Whether walking during day or night, formally as a meditation or creatively as part of a ritual, or for personal healing or transformation, your experience is uniquely your own.
The Warren walking meditation labyrinth project seeks to raise public awareness of the silent emotional struggles that burden our communities, and at the same time to raise town-wide interest in labyrinths as behavioral health assets. As a community, our willingness to install one or more public labyrinths signals our care for each other as neighbors. The Warren labyrinth project offers talks, exhibits, and experiences to help us consider what we would want from a town labyrinth.
To spark and spread discussion, Blue Skies has recently painted a temporary labyrinth in the parking lot of Thrive Behavioral Health and the East Bay Recovery Center at the corner of Joyce Street and Railroad Avenue in downtown Warren. The labyrinth sits just west of the bike path and north of the police station. Everyone is invited to walk the labyrinth and let us know what might make the experience more meaningful.