When I meditate all I'm trying to do is keep my attention in the present moment; if my mind starts to wander I bring it back, and so on.

I've always loved going on walks, and they've just turned out to be a good way to work through mental/emotional stuff. Walking helps you stay in the moment as well, and when you're focusing your attention on the moment there's always new things to sense.

Let me know if that's not clear enough.

EDIT:

Another important part of meditation is the analysis of your thoughts and emotions. Whatever comes up, try to understand why it did as well as you can.

I go on long walks, this is something I will try. I usually listen to podcasts while walking, maybe it is time to try something different.

About analyzing thoughts - I tend to over analyze everything. How do you not fall into this trap?

It's vital that you're honest with yourself in order to find some sort of base cause to any given thought/emotion. I honestly end up catching myself lost in thought after a minute or so more often than not.

It's really a best effort sort of thing. But the more you practice, and the more effort you put forward, the stronger you'll get and the easier it will be to filter the signal from the noise.

> walking meditation

Walking while meditating. There's a common misconception that you need to be sitting or lying down to meditate *or even need to be in a dark candle lite room lol). Meditating is a state of mind.

Distance running gave me the space to let stressors bubble up, acknowledge them and move on. Once all of those thoughts pass it becomes easy to focus on breathing and be present in the moment. Over time it also becomes easier to recognize this pattern and expect and accept it.

Yup, this has been the case for me too, along with any repetitive task such as rowing, turning a garden, chopping wood, etc.

Some of my best ideas come whilst doing dog poop sweeps out of my yard. ... I know