“It is important to note that movement alone, done automatically, without attention, does not provide the brain with any new information…. The moment we bring attention to our movement, any movement, research shows that the brain resumes growing new connections and creating new pathways and possibilities for us. And that is when we feel most vital.”
Anat Baniel
How do you move throughout your day?
Clinical psychologist and dancer Anat Baniel says there are really only two types of movement: automatic movement, and movement with attention.
Can you guess which type of movement is associated with greater ease and less stress?
The mindful and attentive kind, of course!
Baniel, in her book Move Into Life, writes that life, like music, is made up of lots of moving parts — organize them one way, and you have a gorgeous symphony. But when you have disorganization and carelessness and chaos, you get a discordant mess!
Awareness of Movement
How aware are you of the way you physically move throughout your day?
Consider some of the following:
- Does your day feel rushed, slow, or in between? Which parts of the day feel fast, and which feel leisurely?
- Do you bring variety into your activities (e.g., switching up yoga and aerobics, or doing wild things like walking a different path through the grocery store or cleaning the house in a different order, etc.)?
- Do you stop during the day to check in with how you feel?
- Do you notice when your body feels uncomfortable during the day and make adjustments, or do you tend to not notice bodily discomfort and tension until the end of the day?
You don’t have to judge yourself about your answers to these questions. You are who you are — some of us seek greater novelty, and some of us seek the comfort of routine. But if, while considering these questions, you see places where you could incorporate movement, attention, and/or new perspectives into your day, you can enhance your sense of vitality.
Mindful Walking
One powerful mindfulness practice that can help us slow down a bit and pay attention to how we move is MINDFUL WALKING. You can learn more about the practice of mindful walking here.
Taking it SLOW
Many of us experience stress as the opposite of slow — we feel rushed, frantic, and time-starved. The speed can often make us careless… adding to more stress! And then, sometimes, when we do get a chance to slow down… it somehow doesn’t feel right. It’s almost like if we DON’T feel stressed, we think we’re doing it wrong!!
Just think about all the connotations we have in our culture around the word SLOW — we associate it with laziness and stupidity. I’d like to encourage you to spend some time being SLOW.
Slow gets the brain’s attention. We are more present and attuned to sensation. It’s like the brain realizes, “WOW, this must be really important! Look how careful she’s being!”
Slow takes us out of the time-trap that we’ve set for ourselves. I like to think of SLOW as a form of “moving without arriving.”
So often our movements are about getting somewhere else. We drive to get to work. We eat to not feel hungry. We exercise to tone our muscles. We cut the grass so we can have a pretty lawn.
It’s not that having a purpose for the movement is bad; it’s that the movement, if we’re not paying attention, can simply become a means to an end. The movement part (which is really most of our life, right? How long does it take to eat vs. experience satiety?) becomes an “on the way” moment to the goal.
Jon Kabat-Zinn says that no moment is an “on the way” moment. We only have moments to live! Each unfolding moment is the only moment you have to be alive. So instead of rushing through the meal, can you savor the taste of the food? Can you enjoy the sensory pleasure of eating?
When we bring deliberate attention to our actions, we can begin to appreciate the small micro-movements of the body, we can luxuriate in a gentle stretch, we can truly smell the fresh-cut grass we’re mowing…
The best way to experience this initially is to do something slowly. See if you can pick ONE activity (one that generally takes about 10 minutes) to do slowly. Maybe it’s cooking breakfast, cleaning up the kitchen, getting dressed, tidying up before bed, etc. For one week, do it slow (think somewhere between 50-75% of your normal speed).
Pay attention to how the muscles in the body move and how the body seems to just “know” what to do, even though this was probably once an activity that you had to learn how to do carefully. Pay attention to your exertions as you do the activity — are you “efforting” more than you need to? Are you standing or moving in ways that, when slowed down, you recognize are not helpful for your body? You may discover, in this slow variation of the activity, different ways of performing the task. You may discover variety!
Also pay attention to the mind as you do this — is there a desire to speed up? Is there frustration with the slow pace? Just notice, without judging. There’s no “right” way to do this. It’s a way to connect to the body, and also to understand a bit more about your relationship to stress. We often find that even though our stress stresses us out, we also take a bit of pride in it. We might be a bit attached to our stress and the adrenaline rush it can provide.
So play with this … taking it slow … walking mindfully … moving without arriving … and see what happens next!
This post is an excerpt from a lesson from Reduce Stress with Body and Breath, the powerful online course that helps you manage your stress through body-based practices.
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