Mindful Movement: A New Outlook On Exercise
The human body is designed to move, and anyone can find a way to be active and acquire the benefits that exercise has to offer. Moving the body every day helps build and preserve bone mass, keep joints lubricated, and improves heart health. By strengthening our muscles, we improve stability, balance, and coordination. Not to mention the effects that go beyond the physical body. Exercise enhances brain health and improves cognitive performance, promotes a positive mood, and reduces stress levels. Even walking a few times per week, can help “regrow” the structures of the brain linked to cognitive decline in older adults.
What if there were a way to attain all these benefits through exercise yet also become more conscious of what it is precisely that we are achieving? When we move with intention and mindfulness, a crucial distinction arises in the space between how we move and the way in which we do it. In this way, the focus and importance of exercise shifts from the act of moving the body to the body movement itself.
Mindful movement is the most effective way to harness this shift in perspective and begin to see exercise as not just movements of the body, but a series of movements that are interconnected. Mindful movement is the process of engaging in different exercises while placing all of your attention (or as much as you can) on the movements of your body as well as your breathing. When we are fully immersed in our actions, we can get into our bodies and out of our heads.
Even if we were to channel our focus on the most seemingly insignificant movement, such as how our feet feel as they move – heel, arch, then ball – across the floor, we can learn a significant amount about ourselves. The tiniest movements, especially, can have the biggest impact when practiced mindfully because they are the easiest to practice consistently.
Yet, we can find the importance of body movement in anything we do. Have you ever left a dance class feeling particularly elated? Maybe it required a great deal more focus than your typical trip to the gym because you were trying to get your body into a very particular stance, and not only that but arrive there in a particular style and then memorize it. When we are focused on the movement and the breath, the mind is less clouded, and as a result, we can notice more about how our bodies feel. With mindful moving, the benefits of everyday exercise are enhanced, because while we may not be actually altering any of the movements, we are changing the way our mind thinks about the activity.
Think about a time when you’ve done a push-up, or lowered down to the ground through chaturanga in yoga; have you noticed any sensation in the joints of your elbow or the way your spine feels supported and straightened when the core is activated? At some point, you have felt tension or sensation in these places, but the more aware you are of the positioning of your joints, the more you can learn ease and relaxation while increasing coordination and balance. When we cannot find comfort and relaxation, we learn to back away from the movement or pose. These findings, while we exercise, naturally carry over into our daily lives as well. In one Penn State study, researchers looked at the activity and stress levels of 158 students. They found that stress and anxiety levels for students fell dramatically when they were more mindful and active at the same time.
Do your shoulders creep up when you feel tense? Do you clench your teeth when you worry? These natural signals from your body are inviting you to make a more habitual connection with your mind, to not only protect you from physical injury but to help you better cope with things like stress and anxiety. The goal, however, is not to view these as separate events. We focus on the body to train the mind, and we train the mind to focus on the body; just as our physical body triggers our brains to feel stressed, our mental stressors cue our bodies to react. Everything is continuously in sync, moving cyclically, so the real benefit comes from developing an awareness of this idea.
Yoga is an exercise that recognizes this mind-body connection through concentration on the breath. While the asanas (poses) may look like just another form of exercise, they serve a much bigger purpose. When we focus on the physical postures and the breath as we flow between each one we find a harmony of the body and mind, and cultivate a deeper level of self-awareness. The asana component of yoga can introduce you to your body, while the element of breath, and especially breathing deeply, activates our parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers our heart rate to calm our bodies and, therefore, our minds.
So, the next time you are tackling a new route at your local climbing gym or flowing through your next vinyasa yoga class, focus on your breath as you move through each movement. You will not only accomplish your workout in a way that feels right for your body, but your body will take with you the tools it needs to navigate every facet of your life.
What if there were a way to attain all these benefits through exercise yet also become more conscious of what it is precisely that we are achieving? When we move with intention and mindfulness, a crucial distinction arises in the space between how we move and the way in which we do it. In this way, the focus and importance of exercise shifts from the act of moving the body to the body movement itself.
Mindful movement is the most effective way to harness this shift in perspective and begin to see exercise as not just movements of the body, but a series of movements that are interconnected. Mindful movement is the process of engaging in different exercises while placing all of your attention (or as much as you can) on the movements of your body as well as your breathing. When we are fully immersed in our actions, we can get into our bodies and out of our heads.
Even if we were to channel our focus on the most seemingly insignificant movement, such as how our feet feel as they move – heel, arch, then ball – across the floor, we can learn a significant amount about ourselves. The tiniest movements, especially, can have the biggest impact when practiced mindfully because they are the easiest to practice consistently.
Yet, we can find the importance of body movement in anything we do. Have you ever left a dance class feeling particularly elated? Maybe it required a great deal more focus than your typical trip to the gym because you were trying to get your body into a very particular stance, and not only that but arrive there in a particular style and then memorize it. When we are focused on the movement and the breath, the mind is less clouded, and as a result, we can notice more about how our bodies feel. With mindful moving, the benefits of everyday exercise are enhanced, because while we may not be actually altering any of the movements, we are changing the way our mind thinks about the activity.
Think about a time when you’ve done a push-up, or lowered down to the ground through chaturanga in yoga; have you noticed any sensation in the joints of your elbow or the way your spine feels supported and straightened when the core is activated? At some point, you have felt tension or sensation in these places, but the more aware you are of the positioning of your joints, the more you can learn ease and relaxation while increasing coordination and balance. When we cannot find comfort and relaxation, we learn to back away from the movement or pose. These findings, while we exercise, naturally carry over into our daily lives as well. In one Penn State study, researchers looked at the activity and stress levels of 158 students. They found that stress and anxiety levels for students fell dramatically when they were more mindful and active at the same time.
Do your shoulders creep up when you feel tense? Do you clench your teeth when you worry? These natural signals from your body are inviting you to make a more habitual connection with your mind, to not only protect you from physical injury but to help you better cope with things like stress and anxiety. The goal, however, is not to view these as separate events. We focus on the body to train the mind, and we train the mind to focus on the body; just as our physical body triggers our brains to feel stressed, our mental stressors cue our bodies to react. Everything is continuously in sync, moving cyclically, so the real benefit comes from developing an awareness of this idea.
Yoga is an exercise that recognizes this mind-body connection through concentration on the breath. While the asanas (poses) may look like just another form of exercise, they serve a much bigger purpose. When we focus on the physical postures and the breath as we flow between each one we find a harmony of the body and mind, and cultivate a deeper level of self-awareness. The asana component of yoga can introduce you to your body, while the element of breath, and especially breathing deeply, activates our parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers our heart rate to calm our bodies and,
therefore, our minds.
So, the next time you are tackling a new route at your local climbing gym or flowing through your next vinyasa yoga class, focus on your breath as you move through each movement. You will not only accomplish your workout in a way that feels right for your body, but your body will take with you the tools it needs to navigate every facet of your life.