Hi all, just curious if anyone else experiences a ‘clicking’ sound when they do walking meditation?
The clicking sound doesn’t happen with every step, and I don’t have the clicking when I am walking ‘normally’ i.e. walking around the apartment, walking to work, shops etc.
There is no particular pain when my left knee ‘clicks’ but am curious if anyone has the same thing?
I do tend to walk slower when I am doing walking meditation as I have limited space in my apartment and am not in a monastery like WBD were they have proper long walking platforms.
My knees click sometimes, meditating or not meditating. It’s a strange feeling, but it’s never been consistent enough for me to ask my Dr’s opinion. I think we’re more likely to notice such occurrences when we’re meditating, due to increased mindfulness.
I lived at WBD before they built walking platforms and we walked on the bare forest floor or natural paths. I rather think this is what the Buddha and his disciples did.
Okay that’s good to know, you read my mind…I was wondering if I need to see a doctor regarding this however as you mentioned as well, there does not seem to be a consistency as to when it happens.
Wow, walking meditation on bare ground, yes I imagine that’s how the Buddha did his walking meditation
Just wondered if you are doing your meditation barefoot? It could be that. I’ve been in the country since the end of March, and have been doing walking meditation out of doors. There was no path when I started, but here’s a recent photo of the path I’ve worn. I wear shoes. Not everyone would recommend shoes, but I have really bad feet and need to keep them on.
I talked to my physio about clicking knees, it’s usually little air pockets popping due to the displacement of synovial fluid. Maybe something about moving slowly makes it happen more in your knees. In any case nothing to worry about.
Knees can also make a crunching or grinding sound when they move, this is due to the wearing of cartilage (osteoarthritis). But this has a very different,distinctive sound.
Joints also “crack” when a tight tendon slides over bone. I don’t think that’s what Adrian is experiencing at the moment, though. I agree with Sasha’s physio, having heard about the synovial fluid explanation myself.
In case it is helpful to someone, I will say that I have sometimes had with knee inflammation on retreat doing slow walking on hard surfaces (inside a hall, etc). Walking slowly removes the normal momentum, and so requires more force to start each step, so it’s worth checking how you are walking to make sure that you’re not putting some unusual stress somewhere. When I deliberately put my feet in front of each other it seems to remove much of the stress.
