![]() Anxiety creeping in? Take a deep breath and get up and move that body. Maybe stress is weighing heavy and you feel your shoulders getting tense and pulling up closer and closer to your ears? Get out and get moving while also bringing in some mindfulness and feel that stress melt away and those shoulders start to relax. Mindful movement also helps us get out of our heads when our heads are in a funk. I am a fan of the warm water therapy pool myself and taking trips to the beach to get my toes in the sand and listen to the waves. Whether it is out on one of our trails, at one of our beaches, or in the pools, classes, or gyms at the YMCA. Here in Tillamook we have so many great places to engage in movement in a mindful way. Anything that engages the body and tunes the mind into how the body feels in the present moment or what sensory experiences are happening in the moment is mindful movement. You could have them move different parts of their bodies and describe how it feels. Maybe have a scavenger hunt on your next family walk or see who can spot the most things that are a certain color or find something that feels rough or slimy. Having them tell us what they can hear, see, smell, feel, or taste while out on a walk or engaging in playful movement. Mindfulness is a fun way to get kids involved in movement as well. What muscles are firing? How does it feel when you do certain movements? What can you see, hear, smell, feel or taste while you are doing movement? Taking time to tune in to how your body feels as it moves. Listening to music or a podcast while exercising. Making sure you are engaging your core or other muscles as you walk or work out. We can also incorporate mindfulness into our exercise. ![]() Or maybe go to the beach and feel the sand in between our toes, listen to the waves, and feel the sun or breeze on our face. Taking walks where we stop and smell the flowers, feel the bark of the trees under our fingertips, and listen to the birds sing. Mindful movement also means we are doing movement practices where we engage our senses. We have to take care of the vessel that carries our beautiful souls around this great planet! Then take the time to meet whatever needs those signals are communicating. Start to pause and become aware of your body’s signals when it is sending you a message. If an area is tight or stiff, spend some time doing gentle stretching or yoga (I also love my heating pad). If it hurts to move something, stop moving it and give that area some TLC (I always remember what I learned in first aid, RICE-Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). It is time we become more mindful with our bodies and tune in when they are trying to tell us something. We can ignore pain signals, tiredness, weakness, hunger, thirst, and so much more in our busy lives. ![]() To me this quote, when applied to mindful movement, means we have lost the practice of tuning into our bodies and miss out on the important things our bodies are trying to teach us about what they need. “Most of us find that we sleep-walk through life, and become immune to life’s riches” – Professor Mark Williams, the director of mindfulness at the School of Psychology at Oxford University. It is about getting out of our heads and back into our bodies. Mindful movement is all about the awareness of our bodies as we move them and tuning into our body’s signals as they show up. We don’t have to shut our minds off, instead we find a way to keep them busy tuning into our senses, our bodies, and our surroundings in the present moment. Mindfulness often gets a bad rap because so many of us find it hard to quiet and still our minds to engage in things like meditation, one of the most well known forms of mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is the practice of non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. Watch for upcoming self-care workshops, suicide prevention trainings and more.īy Amanda Ferrat, Founder of Value Yourself Counseling LLC and Certified Advanced EFT Practitioner & Wellness Counselor May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the Tillamook County Pioneer, along with other healthcare partners will be sharing a variety of mental health articles, information and more.
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