How to Move Mindfully
What is Mindful Movement?
Moving mindfully means paying attention and staying in the present moment. When we bring mindfulness to our movement, we are letting go of distractions and are aware of our bodies. If I’m being mindful when I move I am in my now body and listening to the messages that it is giving me in real time. I am not thinking about what happened before or what will happen afterwards. I quiet my thinking brain and I am fully in the moment and receiving information from my body. This is what we practice in Nia.
Examples of Mindful Movement
What does mindful movement look like? It can mean a lot of things, but here are a few examples:
- noticing my breathing – sensing the flow of air when I inhale and exhale
- being aware of what my foot feels like when I take a step
- tuning in to what’s happening with my hips when I shift my weight
- being connected to the environment around me (taking note of what I see, hear, smell, etc)
What is not Mindful Movement?
The contrast to mindful movement is being unaware. It’s “checking out” of your body and getting caught up in thinking. Have you ever been in the shower and weren’t sure if you’d already washed your hair? That is an example of mind-less movement. Your thoughts were elsewhere and so you were completely unaware of your actions.
This is exactly what I was doing pre-Nia with my disordered exercise. I was not at all in my body, I was in my head. As my meditation teacher would say, I was “dreaming” – thinking about the past or the future and not remaining grounded in the present moment. My exercise back then was mechanical movement, I was just going through the motions while in my mind I was pre-occupied by, for example, what I thought others thought of me, or by my “to do” list or by replaying something irrelevant from my past in my mind. When I was not being mindful, I was ruled by stories about how I look or what I “should” be doing. Mainly I was exercising to control my body which meant that I was disconnected from my body and was mindlessly unaware of my body’s messages and needs.
How to Move Mindfully
There are so many ways to use mindfulness principles to establish a beneficial relationship to movement. Nia offers many many tools that help us move mindfully. Below are just a few:
- We set a Focus & Intent at the beginning of classes – this allows us to zero in on what we want to pay attention to and what is the desired result at the end of our class. This gives our mind something to engage actively with and is a way to keep our minds focused (and not wandering).
- Beginner’s Mind – this means approaching experiences with the mindset that “this is a brand new experience; I have never been here before”. This allows us to be curious, to not compare to a previous experience (or to others) and to be open to what might be new and fascinating. This gives us an opportunity to practice patience and take a non-judgemental approach to ourselves or our experience.
- Non-Judgement – when we judge our movement, we are taking ourselves out of our body and into our brain. Instead, we practice being a neutral observer, just witnessing and not assigning value to any movement as “better” or “worse”.
- Seek Pleasure – when we listen to our bodies, we can make fine adjustments to our movement that can help us feel better.
Benefits of Mindful Movement
Being mindful of movement helps us move with more ease through life:
- Reduces Stress and Tension – when we are aware of our bodies we can work with them to maintain what the body is always striving for – homeostasis. For instance in a stressful situation we can noticing our breathing, relax the jaw which reduces neck and shoulder tension and feel our feet supporting and grounding us.
- Boosts Mood – being present can help us access feel-good sensations and positive insights.
- Better Focus – practicing paying attention while moving can help us become more aware in other parts of our lives.
- Improved sleep – when our mind is focused on the here and now, we can relax more easily.
Join a Nia class soon to put mindful movement into practice!