Mindful Movement

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Mindful Movement

“It is amazing to me that we can be simultaneously completely preoccupied with the appearance of our own body and at the same time completely out of touch with it is as well”

Jon Kabat-Zinn

When was the last time you actually experienced your body as it is? Without thinking about it or judging it. Without getting caught up in storylines about how it used to be or how you’d like it to be.

The quote above will likely sum up the relationship many of us have with our bodies - we more than likely think about them a lot, worry about them, judge our bodies or wish that they were different in some way. We compare our body to others around us, what we see in the media, or how it used to be in the past.

Sometimes this thinking about the body is helpful and can motivate us to make healthy changes. Issues arise when thinking takes over and we fail to get in touch with how things are right now, or we can’t accept our body as it is, rushing to think about all the things it could do or used to do better, how we’d like it to look different etc.

The only body we have is the one we inhabit at this moment - we can’t live in our body as it was in the past or might be in the future.

When we talk about accepting the body as it is this does not mean we resign ourselves to any physical issues we are having, there may be a need to make changes for our health and we can of course do that, but we aim to see the body in the present moment, accurately, putting judgement on hold. In mindfulness this is often referred to as coming home to the body.

Direct Experience

I came across the following guidance recently in a book (not written by a mindfulness teacher but it had guided meditations in it)

“begin by noticing and settling into your body, and think about the sensations in your body”

If I had any hair left I would have pulled it out after reading that. This is a great example of the exact opposite of what we encourage in meditation.

We don’t want to confuse thinking about the body with directly experiencing it.

Of course we will have thoughts during a meditation practice but what we are training ourselves in is what we refer to as direct experience - tuning in to the physical sensations of the body without getting caught up in thinking about it and narrating our experience. We might use very brief labels to describe the sensations we notice such as “tired”, “warm”, “tingly” but we do our best to not then go off into thinking things like “Tingly, why? Is this normal? Maybe there’s something wrong? Should it feel like this? Am I doing this wrong? Shouldn’t I be relaxed?!”

When we invite people to bring attention to the body we are asking them to notice what physical sensations are present, not to “think about” the body as we are most likely already quite used to this and often get caught up in storylines about our bodies which leads to mind-wandering and distraction and often stress.

“When we put energy into actually experiencing our body and we refuse to get caught up in the overlay of judgemental thinking about it, our whole view of it and of course ourself can change dramatically”

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Why Bother? (I’ve enough to be doing!)

Often the body will be telling us what it needs but we need to pay attention to it. Ever stand up from your desk or chair to stretch and suddenly realise how tense the body is? How long has it been like that without us noticing?

Paying attention to the body can help us to take better care of ourselves.

So how exactly do we get in touch with our body again?

Mindful Movement Practice

Below is a short mindful movement practice to help you get a better idea of the experience of paying close attention to the body as it moves.

For people familiar with the body scan meditation (click here for an example) you can think of this practice as the body scan in motion.

Many people, especially when new to meditation, find sitting or lying still to meditate can be quite difficult and can connect with the body more easily when moving. Below is a guided meditation to help us do just that.

I’ve guided this from a standing position but do feel free to make any adjustments that might suit you better (you can sit or lay down for this if it is more comfortable for you). If any of the movements seem like they are not safe for you to do then you may like to complete them in your mind’s eye in as much detail as possible.

It is tempting to think we know our bodies completely already and have nothing new to learn about them or to jump to judgment but I invite you to come to the practice with a beginner’s mind and to relate to the body with friendliness.

Remember there is no goal to achieve here. You don’t get extra points for pushing yourself to stretch further or holding a posture for longer than is comfortable and there will never be a mindful movement event in the olympics. Regular practice of mindful movement isn’t aimed at getting you shredded for summer either.

With all that said let’s jump (mindfully, of course) into the practice…

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