3. Mindfulness of Movement | Right Decisions

Mindfulness of Movement

The mindful movement in the sequences we will follow are sometimes similar to but are not yoga. They originated in Hatha yoga. The emphasis here is upon mindful awareness, and not upon achieving certain postures or results. It is important to approach these movements with an attitude of non-striving. The emphasis is upon gentleness and kindly listening to our bodies – working up to, but not beyond what feels difficult. The movements arise from a spacious awareness and are conducted slowly. They involve maintaining an awareness of breathing as we move and at times breathing into the stretches or movements. It is not important to get through the entire sequences of movements described here. Very often, we can say that “less is more”, and the exploration may be around very subtle movements, bringing awareness also to the intentions emerging before the movements. The movements can also be explored in an imaginary way (without even moving), if any of them do not seem right for you.
The intention of these exercises is to bring awareness to movement in general, and to how the body moves. They can further enhance a sense of body awareness, and perhaps a sense of the body “working”, when we may be struggling with a sense of it not being as supple, healthy or able as it perhaps once was. Once again, these exercises are about befriending our experience of the body and “coming home” to ourselves.
This might mean working at times with pain, tension, stiffness or physical discomfort, or with degrees of unfitness, if we have not been able to work our bodies in this way for some time. Our intention here is not to ignore these experiences or to strive for a fitter or better body. Instead, it is to meet our experience with awareness and acceptance, without forcing anything – just going as far as we can, and working at the “edges” of what feels comfortable – if anything, doing a little less than we would like to, and honouring our limitations, whatever they are.
Over time, it may be our experience that we feel an improvement in flexibility, strength, balance and postural awareness. Our circulation may improve and we may find it easier to release tension in the body and to relax more fully. We may find that our sleep improves. We may also experience an increased confidence in our body, and even a sense of gratitude that on the whole, it continues to function as well as it does.
Whatever we practice in the form of movement, the intention is that it is embedded in awareness, with attitudes of gentleness, kindness and self-acceptance. At times we will be aware of unpleasant sensations associated with the movement, and we can bring awareness to how we respond to this. We may find that we can open to the experience of unpleasantness, without labelling it as painful or unwanted. This can be the start of a process of changing our relationship with aspects of our suffering.
Along with the body scan, mindful movement can help us to increase our general body awareness and sense of “embodiment”. We may find that over time our body awareness becomes more enhanced and continuous throughout the different moments of our day and in the in between moments, as we move from one activity to another.

Walking Meditation:

Another way of practicing mindful movement is to pay attention to the activity of walking, and to turn this into a mindfulness practice or meditation. When we practice walking meditation, we do not need to be going anywhere, and it can be helpful to let go of any sense of a destination or a purpose to the walking. The intention of walking meditation is just to walk!
When we practice walking meditation we practice bringing awareness to the whole experience of walking: the lifting and placing of the feet, the sensations of the soles of the feet touching the ground, with shifting sensations of pressure and touch; the shift in balance of the body from one side to the next; the movements throughout the whole body as we move; the flowing of the breath. There will also be awareness of the space in which we move, the varying surfaces upon which we step, the touch of the air on our skin, the changing views and sounds and smells coming through our senses: moment to moment experiences, constantly flowing and changing.
There will be moments when we will notice that our mind has wandered into thinking, perhaps distracted by some of the sense experiences, or by some inner thought activities. Just as we would in the other mindfulness practices, we bring awareness to the fact that we are distracted, and gently bring our awareness back to the walking:
... lifting and placing; lifting and placing; breathing in and breathing out.
We can let our body do the walking, trusting that the body knows what to do – we do not need to guide it with the mind. We can just allow the mind to observe and the gently notice the changing flow of experience. We can simply enjoy our walking.
Walking meditation can be practiced slowly and purposefully, and can involve choosing a path where we may walk back and forth or in a circle. We can bring awareness to the most subtle movements involved in walking. It can also be practiced at a natural pace where we can bring more awareness to a sense of movement in space and the energy of the body as we move. There may be other times when we can choose to bring awareness to walking when we are simply going about our lives: walking down the corridors in our place of work; walking through the car park; walking to our terminal at the airport; walking though a busy high street or down the aisles in the supermarket. We can help ourselves to stay present in the mundane aspects of our lives which we may otherwise regard as uninteresting or frustrating.
For Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese mindfulness teacher, walking meditation is a key mindfulness practice which helps us to engage fully with our lives. It is a practice which connects us to ourselves, to nature, to each other and to all of life.