Too Restless to Sit? How to Practice "Wild Meditation" This Summer

We’ve all been there. It’s a gorgeous, warm summer day, the birds are loud, the sun is shining, and you decide it’s the perfect time to connect with your spiritual practice. You sit cross-legged on your cushion, close your eyes, and take a deep breath.

And within forty seconds, your brain is screaming.

“My foot is asleep. I wonder if I turned off the stove? I should be outside. Why is that bird so loud? Am I doing this right? I’m bad at meditating.”

If trying to force your mind into a silent, static void makes you feel like crawling out of your skin—especially during the vibrant, high-energy months of summer—I have a secret for you as a shamanic practitioner and meditation leader:

Your restlessness isn’t a failure. It’s data. And right now, your soul is rejecting a cage.

In our modern wellness culture, we’ve been told that meditation only "counts" if you are perfectly still, silent, and detached. But summer is the season of peak solar power, outward expansion, and primal life force. Forcing yourself into rigid stillness right now is like trying to freeze running water.

It’s time to leave the cushion behind and step into Wild Meditation.

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What is Wild Meditation?
Wild Meditation is an animist and shamanic approach to mindfulness. Instead of trying to detach from the world around you, you intentionally connect to it. Instead of silencing your senses, you awaken them.

In shamanic traditions, we don't view nature as a backdrop; we view it as a living, breathing web of consciousness. When you practice Wild Meditation, you are matching your internal frequency to the vibrant rhythm of the Earth. It shifts your nervous system out of "fight-or-flight" and into a state of felt safety through dynamic, sensory immersion.

If your mind is too buzzed for a silent room, your energy needs a destination. Here are three ways to practice Wild Meditation this week:

1. Earthing & The Rhythmic Shamanic Walk

Instead of sitting still, let your feet do the meditating. Find a safe patch of grass, dirt, or sand, and take off your shoes. As you begin to walk, match your breath to your footsteps.

• The Practice: Inhale for three steps, exhale for three steps.

 

• The Energetics: Focus entirely on the soles of your feet. With every step, consciously imagine sending heavy, frantic, or anxious energy down through your roots into the Earth to be composted. With every inhale, pull up the cool, stabilizing frequency of the ground. This is active Reiki for your root chakra.

2. The Elemental Symphony (Auditory Tracking)
When our minds are racing, it’s usually because our awareness is trapped in our heads. We can use the summer sounds to pull that awareness back into our bodies.

• The Practice: Find a spot outside and close your eyes. Instead of trying to ignore the sounds around you, hunt for them. Find the furthest sound away (a distant car, a airplane). Then, find the closest sound (your own breath, a bug buzzing near your ear). Identify three distinct bird songs. Listen to the wind through the leaves.

 

•  The Energetics: By giving your brain a "job" (tracking sounds), the frantic inner monologue naturally quiets down. You aren't forcing silence; you are replacing chaos with harmony.

3. Somatic Shaking & Moving Mindfulness

Summer energy can sometimes get trapped in our bodies as anxiety or restlessness. In shamanism, we know that stagnant energy must be physically moved before the mind can rest.

• The Practice: Put on a drum track or a song that moves you. Stand up, close your eyes, and just start shaking. Shake your hands, bounce your heels, let your shoulders loose. Do this for just two or three minutes.

 

• The Energetics: Shaking breaks up emotional density in your aura and releases physical tension from your nervous system. Once the song ends, stand completely still, place one hand on your heart and one on your solar plexus, and feel the tingling life force running through your veins. *That* vibrant stillness is meditation.

Give Yourself Permission to Change the Rules
As a women's empowerment coach, I spend a lot of time helping women break free from rules that don't serve them—and that includes spiritual rules.

Your spiritual practice should feel like a sanctuary, not another item on your to-do list that you're failing at. If your soul is calling you to move, to touch the t rees, to dance, or to just lay flat on the grass and watch the clouds pass by--trust that medicine.

This week, I challenge you to take your practice wild. Meet the Earth at her current frequency, let your body move, and remember that you are a part of the nature you are trying so hard to connect with.

Step Deeper Into Your Power This Summer:
If you are ready to stop forcing yourself into boxes that don't fit and want to learn how to truly harness your personal power, boundaries, and energetic sovereignty, I’d love to guide you. [Click here to explore my 1:1 Empowerment Coaching Sessions] or join us for an upcoming women’s circle by signing up below.

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