Why I love Mindful Movement Part 1, The Physical Body
I woke up different this morning. Yesterday was the official launch of our new Wanderful Bodies website; updated, revamped, and ready, with two exciting new ways to support my clients in moving their beautiful bodies! This latest incarnation of WB has been a long time coming, with months of behind-the-scenes work to make sure all the features run smoothly and the entire experience is pleasing, functional, and easy to use for my incredible clients. And the cherry on top is that our solid new foundation is built purposefully in a way that will enable us to keep expanding as we grow. And as personal development is totally my jam, I am not remotely done growing yet.
This is crazy exciting for me because Wanderful Bodies as a concept has lived in my head for over a decade. I am in celebration mode big time witnessing this digital child of mine mature into something very special. The gratitude I am feeling is nearly palpable, visceral, and insanely elevated in a way that is honestly… mind-blowing. It feels like hiking uphill for miles and finally seeing the view from the top of the mountain. From this perspective, I now see so clearly where I want to go. And it all feels possible from here.
With such a major task checked off my ‘to-do’ list, I am feeling free and beyond excited. Free to shift my focus away from administrative work and back to my true passion, creating new ways to share my love of movement and its use as a foundation for massive human expansion. Part of this is through my movement classes. And another part is using words to connect with other humans about our shared human experience. Kinesiology and philosophy combined with building a sweaty and pleasantly sore community? Yes, please!
I love talking movement theory. I love this topic so much because I love helping other people discover what I consider to be an innate human superpower: the ability to use our bodies through the practice of mindful movement as a foundation that directly supports incredible improvements in all other areas of our lives.
Intrigued? Cool.
But first a preface… Over the last week in preparation for writing on this topic, I’ve been doing a deep dive into why I love movement so much. And I mean deep! I’ve spent hours at my computer composing and editing and I’m now staring at a blog post that’s over 5 pages long, single-spaced... Actually, it could be the beginning of a thesis. Reading that all at once seems like a lot to ask of my readers, so I’ve decided to take my brilliant husband’s advice and split it up into parts. Geek out with all of them or pick the one that calls to you most. One of the wonderful things about mindful movement is it meets you where you are. When you are interested in more it will rise to challenge you there. The work is never done, which means it never gets boring. Mindful Movement as a practice connects all the dots. Physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, it’s all there.
So let’s get into it….
For the purpose of starting from a more tangible space before going a little further into the conceptual, let’s begin with why moving with intention benefits our physical body. Moving mindfully is at its essence, the idea of choosing to pay attention to how our body parts are moving in space and what sensations we feel during the process. As we focus inward on the muscle groups that are working to perform each action or exercise, we naturally become aware of our body’s strengths, along with the areas that could use some work.
This is very different from how we tend to live in our bodies from moment to moment in our very fast-paced world. In fact most of the time we don’t need to pay close attention to the process of moving through space. This would be way too distracting and would probably cause accidents. We don’t actually think about putting one foot in front of the other to walk across the street. Nor do we consider what muscles are activating when we reach for our coffee cup each morning. We simply do what we do and get on with it. These are unconscious or habitual movement patterns that develop over our lifetimes and play out in our daily lives. And most of them are totally fine and super beneficial. But then again some of them are not.
Now our joints, when functioning properly, are made to bend millions of times in our lifetime. But when they are out of their naturally balanced position, this causes wear and tear in a way that they were not built to withstand. Imbalance within the structure of the body due to faulty movement patterns leads directly to joint misalignment, repetitive stress injury, and pain.
Bummer right?
But here’s the cool part. Awareness is the key. When you pay attention enough to notice there is an imbalance, you can take the appropriate steps to correct it. By staying present with our thoughts focused on our body as we work out, we can choose to activate the muscles that are helping to cause imbalance by their lack of strength. And by focusing on them we use our brain to activate them, calling them into action and breaking the pattern of disengagement in order to build that needed strength. We can use this same concept to focus on stretching out the overly tight muscles that are doing more than their fair share and pulling us into misalignment (Picture a tug-of-war game between a linebacker and a second grader). By staying mindfully present we actively engage our brains in the task of creating more physical balance. This not only creates a body that is more fun to walk around in; ie. Pain-free, energetic, vibrantly healthy, and toned. It also builds new neural pathways within the brain itself, leading to improved brain function.
Did I lose you?
How about this: Exercising mindfully makes your body healthier and your brain smarter. So cool!
And there’s so much more! But you’ll have to wait for part 2 to find out.
In the meantime, find moments to check in with your body today. How is it feeling? Acknowledge without judgment the areas that feel good and the areas that may feel a bit stuck.
And when you are ready for more, pop on over to our home page for access to 3 free workouts to expand your self-discovery.
