I recognize that most of what I write is fairly esoteric; I like to find the meaning in the things I encounter and I like to offer to the world not so much conclusions or answers but opportunities to deeply feel what an experience might be bringing you to.

But today I am going to do something a little different. I am going to offer some very practical tips for how to walk a labyrinth (which are also tips for how to walk through your day because of course the labyrinth is just a metaphor for life). You may never find yourself at the beginning of an actual labyrinth, preparing to walk the winding path, but if you are reading this you most certainly are awake and you will very likely have another day of waking up, going about your business, and going to sleep. So I hope these tips will also be useful however you can use them.

The theologian Walter Brueggemann suggests reading the Psalms through a lens of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. I really like this model because I find it deeply relatable to the macro experience of our lives and the micro experience of a day, so I will use this as the guide for how to walk as well.

We come to the entrance of the labyrinth, or to our waking with a need for orientation: where am I exactly, what am I doing here, what will support me today? I start with noticing: where am I physically, what is around me, how do I feel. I am lying in bed or I am standing at the entrance; animals, spouse, trees, rocks, building; groggy, confused, hopeful, warm, cold. You get the idea. It is very simply orienting oneself to the time and space of your current existence. And then I pray. It does not have to be a long prayer, or in a certain language or tone or order, just a check-in with God: here I am, my heart is ready for you to come along with me. Some mornings the best I can muster is “okay God, here we go,” somedays, “help me to walk in your light.” At the entrance of a literal labyrinth I will often repeat a short prayer or mantra three times for head, heart, and spirit. A way of acknowledging where I am and what energy I want to take with me as I go.

The walk itself, the day of life gets busy or distracting or frustrating or you feel like you are just not getting anywhere or certainly not any closer to the “goal.” Disorientation comes easily. Some faith traditions have built in pauses through the day to pray, to stop and reorient, but I think that for most people reading this it is probably true that we don’t live lives aligned to those practices. Like the morning check in, or the prayer offered at the beginning of a walk, it is worth pausing at least a couple of times to look around and see where you are, take a breath, maybe repeat that starting prayer. You will often be surprised by how far you have actually come, how the view has changed, how valuable it can be to rest for a moment and remember that you are not doing this alone, or even just to ask for help in those times of feeling lost.

On a very very practical note I have been especially fond of the mindfulness reminders on my watch. Three times a day I get a little chime that asks me to take a moment. The truth is most of the time I ignore it because I’m right in the middle of something, but even in that three seconds of noticing and then ignoring I am reminded of my intention and where I want to put my attention.

Now we come to the end of the day, to the exit, which not too long ago was the entrance. Reorientation: we have been here before but we are different than when we here last, even if just slightly, or only on a deep cellular level. When I’m walking a labyrinth I take a little more time with this, I face again to the center and repeat the prayer I started with three times, then I face the exit and say it another three times. The first is in gratitude, the second is in preparation for going back out into the world. Hoping I grow from a little of what I learned, or what shifted with me.

I am a morning writer and am usually just ready to be done by the time the day is ending so my time here is brief. For many people this is a good time to reflect, to say another short prayer, asking for what you need for tomorrow, or acknowledging what you learned this day (positive or negative, God can take it all). My husband bought me some beautiful polished rocks in the shape of hearts that align to chakral points that I keep next to the bed. Each night I pick one and ask for a little wisdom, a little growth in that place and put it under my pillow. I am reorienting based on where I have been this day, what I have learned on this particular walk.

You can start with one of these practices, you can try them all. I recommend a little step at first. Building a habit is best done one small piece at a time, just like the labyrinth walk, the point is the building. Try it one day a week, then two and so on. Sometimes you will enter the labyrinth and feel like everything has changed, sometimes you will walk and feel like nothing. It’s all part of the learning. Notice where you are, check in with yourself and God, and then keep going.