Improve your meditation with mindful movement

Meditation can be difficult if you feel uncomfortable

Recently I’ve had the joy of watching and learning from Jon Kammit Zinn’s Masterclass on mindfulness. Seated meditation is a bit difficult for me – especially if it’s not a guided meditation – and it’s a real challenge on a number of levels.

1. the physical discomfort after about 10 minutes of sitting with my legs crossed and
2. the ongoing self-judgement of my never-ending thought cycle (being just two).

I was so interested to read Ava Whitney Coulter’s Q&A with Cara Bradley on how mindful movement can support your meditation process.

She believes that mindful movement before meditation gets you halfway up the mountain. This is because you start the meditation with your nervous system more regulated.

Mindful movement isn’t always yoga or slow exercise

And the good news: mindful movement can be a huge variety of things! Chopping, folding laundry, weeding, sweeping, cleaning – as long as it’s rhythmic. According to Dr Bruce Perry, who has done extensive study of rhythm, it’s the fastest way to move out of a high anxiety state.

Tomorrow I’ll be giving it a try.

Of course, there’s also an IMR that I can do before hand to combat the physical aches and get my blood flowing and body well stretched!

Read more here.