Key Points

• Mindful movements are practiced anytime we pay close attention to our bodily sensations, position in space, and subtle changes in heart rate or breathing as we move.

• We can refine our artistry and happiness by creating a lifestyle of mindful movements—like the ones found in this article—before, during, and beyond our sessions.

In the seminal publication Awareness Through Movement, author Moshe Feldenkrais proclaims, “Movement is life!” He follows this up promising, “There is no limit to the improvement of movement.” 

Imagine there being no limit to how good you can feel moving in your body. As bodyworkers, we are gifted by daily opportunities to embody these adages of greater vitality. It is the dance around the table and moving with the rise and fall of the breath, with the expression and dissolution of pain and tension, and with the waves of emotions that surge and soften. 

Our work is artistry in motion. And one of the challenges we face is remembering to notice our own movements, particularly while tending to someone else’s. It requires sensitive attention and dedicated practice to include our own body intelligence in our every micro- and macro-movement in and outside the treatment room. Over time, we have discovered a simple yet potent question that helps us remember ourselves and relish our aliveness: Does it feel good to move? 

Moving our bodies plays a major role in how we learn, connect, express, and feel. Our bodies reflect the ever-changing formations of thoughts, ideas, dreams, and emotions—even our feelings are in motion! Thinking and learning does not exclusively take place in our heads. The mind and body are inseparable and can be mindful collaborators or unaware adversaries. When we add moving with mindfulness, we tap into the wellspring of our body wisdom. Studies show that by making mindful adjustments to our posture and our breath, we reduce stress and inflammation and feel happier.¹ We also feel more connected, more creative, and smarter.²

Mindful movements are practiced anytime we pay close attention to our bodily sensations, position in space, and subtle changes in heart rate or breathing as we move. We grow our awareness through moving. Here, we share easy moves that may be practiced as a full-body refreshment sequence, or as individual, stand-alone mindful movement moments to be interspersed throughout your day. You choose how you move. The series is specifically designed to help you feel good in your body by bringing your attention to the major joints. What mindful move can you make today that your future self will thank you for?

What If?

What if you used “feeling good” as the primary directive for how and why you move (and rest)? What if you moved simply because it feels good? What if you moved not for the sake of fixing, aligning, looking a certain way, or weighing a certain number (although these are all reliable side effects of moving)? What if you chose instead to be a mindful mover simply because it feels good to move? 

We believe you can live your entire life without ever doing an “exercise,” and still be healthy. Instead, enjoy mindful movements every day to feel happy, smart, and refreshed. Together, we can refine our artistry and happiness by creating a lifestyle of mindful movements before, during, and beyond our sessions. Perhaps allow your movement practice to become so natural that it’s not what you do, it becomes who you are. Remember: There is no limit to the improvement of movement. Our lifelong wish to all healers is to embody the possibility that you are a living, breathing, moving work of art—inspired by feeling good and inspiring others to do the same! 

Notes

1. Harvard Health Blog, “How Simply Moving Benefits Your Mental Health,” March 28, 2016, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-simply-moving-benefits-your-mental-health-201603289350. 

2. Michael Slepian and Nalini Ambady, “Fluid Movement and Creativity,” Journal of Experimental Psychology General 141, no. 4 (2012), www.researchgate.net/publication/221849417_Fluid_Movement_and_Creativity.

Spinal Cord Breathing

In a standing position, lift your arms level with your shoulders and bend your elbows into a 90-degree angle, creating a field-goal post shape with your palms facing forward at head height. Inhale as you point your tailbone back, arch your spine, and look up. Exhale as you tuck your tailbone, round your spine, bend your knees, and squeeze your elbows toward each other in front of you. Go back to the starting position and repeat six times or more, moving with your breath. Qigong asserts that this exercise opens your highway of chi and information. As you move your spine, you move your spinal cord, gently pumping cerebrospinal fluid and waking up your brain. Additionally, Spinal Cord Breathing opens and releases tension around your spine, intervertebral disks, facet joints, ribs, shoulders, and hips. 

Shoulder Floss

Maintain the field-goal post position with your arms, sustaining a 90-degree angle in your elbows throughout this sequence. Inhale as you externally rotate the shoulders by pressing the elbows forward and the palms back. Then exhale as you internally rotate your shoulders, so the palms face down and then back behind you at waist level. Once again, press the elbows forward and palms back. Inhale and bring the palms back up to head height as you externally rotate and continue for six or more reps. Shoulder Floss helps open your shoulders (the rotator cuff muscles in particular), organizes disorganized fascia, aids the production of synovial fluid in your shoulder joints, encourages greater mobility, and dissolves shoulder and neck tension.

Shake Hands

A wonderful way to prepare, relax, and limber up your hands for the work ahead is to shake, shake, shake! Hold your hands at chest level and give them a vigorous shaking for about 10 seconds. Shaking is not limited to just before a session; consider integrating the shake between and after each session too. Shake Hands is a quick and efficient way to recirculate venous return, aid lymphatic drainage, and encourage synovial fluid production in and around the joints of the hands, fingers, thumbs, and wrists, thus reducing inflammation and helping our tools feel their best.

Peanut Butter Jar Hip Circles 

Stand with your feet wider than your hips. Start with hip hinges by placing your hands on your hips and gently press your hips forward and back several times. Notice and feel the opening in your back body, hips, and even your feet. Now add shifting your hips to the right, back behind you, left, and in front. Smooth out your movement and continue to move your hips in large circles. As if you were standing in the middle of a peanut butter jar, imagine you’re scraping all the remaining peanut butter off the inner edges of the jar. After approximately six reps one way, repeat moving in the opposite direction. Peanut Butter Jar Hip Circles open and enervate your core, sacroiliac joint, and L5–S1, and massage the inner organs to encourage peristalsis and elimination.

Train Track Lunging

Step your right foot 2–3 feet behind you and balance on the right ball of your foot. Be sure your feet are hip-width apart like you are standing on train tracks (rather than a tightrope). Now, raise your arms over head, interlace your fingers, and press the heels of your palms overhead. Enjoy a few deep breaths as you gently reach up and extend back.

While you are reaching back, try lifting and dropping the back right heel up and down six times. This will open your plantar fascia and hip flexors at the same time and often leads to several pleasant autocorrections in the many bones and joints of the feet and ankles.

Pause with the ankle lifts as you take the hip flexors and front body for a deeper stretch by sidebending your torso to the left over your bent knee and simultaneously pressing your right heel toward the ground. Luxuriate in this systemic stretching and strengthening of the entire posterior kinetic chain. Repeat on your opposite side. This series of movements helps reset and stabilize the alignment of your feet, ankles, knees, and hips, all while improving balance and coordination, and providing a head-to-toe full-body integration. Where did you feel it the most?