Can't get on with meditation apps? Try a guided walk instead

A meditation app plays a recording, and most of its tracks are made for sitting still with your eyes closed. A Stride in the Mindtrek app is a short guided walk outside with a voice in your ear. You pick what's on your mind and how long you have, the voice gets you out the door and gives you one practice, and then mostly leaves you to the walk.

I built Strides because the first kind never worked for me. The moment I sat still, my head got louder. Walking outside gave it somewhere to go, and a few well-placed words on the way out made the walk do more.

The short version

• A meditation app guides you through a recording, mostly for sitting. A Stride is a guided walk outside, 5, 10 or 20 minutes long.
• The voice speaks at the start, gives you one practice for what's on your mind, then leaves long stretches of quiet.
• If sitting settles you, keep sitting. If it makes your head louder, take the practice for a walk.

Side by side

• Where you are. Meditation audio is mostly made for a chair or a cushion, eyes closed. A Stride starts from any door and happens outside, on the move, eyes open.
• How much is said. A guided meditation usually talks you through most of the track. A Stride has a handful of lines, and after halfway it is mostly quiet.
• What does the work. In a sitting practice, your attention does all of it. On a Stride, the movement and the change of scene carry part of the load, so the voice can say less.
• What it follows. A recording runs on its own timeline. A Stride follows your walk: pause it, take a call or pull out your headphones, and the voice waits for you.
• What you hear. Your own music or podcast from Spotify or any other app can keep playing underneath. The voice lowers it while it speaks, or pauses it if you prefer.
• What you see. During a Stride the screen shows your time outside, distance and steps, so you know the walk really happened.

What happens on a Stride

You open the app and answer one question, what's going on, by picking a chip like Calm, Clarity or Energy. Then you choose 5, 10 or 20 minutes and press Start. From there, a 10-minute Stride goes roughly like this.

• The welcome. A few seconds in, the voice says hello and invites you outside, wherever you are and at your own pace. There is no route to follow.
• The settle-in. You get a minute or two to just walk before anything is asked of you.
• The practice. The voice turns to what you picked and gives you one thing to try, with a plain reason for it. Often it points outward: something ahead of you, a corner, the sky.
• The quiet. Around halfway the voice says it will mostly leave you to it, and does. A light nudge now and then, nothing more.
• The landing. Near the end the voice comes back to why you went out, asks one question, and hands you the last stretch.

Why less talking, and why outside

Strides rest on a few findings that point the same way: a walk can be a practice of its own, a short voice helps you stay with it, and too much instruction gets in the way.

The walk can be the practice. In a study across 37 sites with 2,239 people, a 15-minute mindful walk lowered stress about as well as a body scan or mindful breathing.

A few cues help you stay with it. Walkers who heard short mindfulness instructions kept their attention on the walk, felt less wound up and enjoyed it more. I wrote more about that in what a voice in your ear does to a walk.

Outside adds something. Students in Iceland who walked in nature during exams came back in a better mood than those on a treadmill or watching nature on a screen.

Your own music helps too. A review of 139 studies found that music during exercise lifted mood and made the effort feel lighter. On an outdoor walk, music made people enjoy the walk more than a podcast or silence, and it also drew their thoughts away from the walk. That is why the voice lowers your music when it has something to say.

And quiet matters. In a 2022 study, people given no instructions came back with the most attention restored. The researchers think the exercises took some effort of their own.

So the shape of a Stride is simple: a voice to get you going, one practice, then the walk.

Which one should you pick?

The one you will actually do. If ten minutes of sitting most mornings settles you, keep it. A Stride is for the other moments: when sitting makes your head louder, when you've been at a desk all day, or when you need to move and think at the same time. The two work fine side by side.

Questions people ask

What is a Stride in Mindtrek?

A Stride is a guided walk in the Mindtrek app. You pick what's on your mind and 5, 10 or 20 minutes, and a voice guides you as you walk: a welcome, one practice, long stretches of quiet and a short landing at the end. The voice is AI, and every line it says is written by the Mindtrek team. Your first three Strides are free.

Is there a Headspace alternative for people who like to walk?

Yes. If you like guided meditation but would rather move, look for an app built around the walk itself. Mindtrek's Strides are made for walking outside: short, mostly quiet, and they pause when your walk does. Try one on a day you'd otherwise skip your sit.

Can I listen to music during a guided walk?

Yes. On a Stride your own music or podcast keeps playing from Spotify or any other app, and the voice lowers it while it speaks. Music is worth keeping: on outdoor walks it made people enjoy the walk most. If you want the quiet stretches fully quiet, set the music to pause instead.

Can you meditate while walking with headphones?

Yes. Keep the volume low enough to hear traffic and people around you, keep your eyes open, and start on a route you know. A guided walk works best when the voice is short and leaves gaps, so most of your attention stays on where you are.

If you'd rather be guided through a place than from your own door, that is what a Trek is. Ease & Ground in the City circles the Great Lawn in Central Park in about 35 minutes. And if you came here because sitting still never worked for you, start with walking meditation for when you can't sit still.

On the science: every study here is real. The underlined phrases link straight to the papers, and the full list is below. The summaries and takeaways are my own reading, simplified to be useful rather than complete.