Mindful motion is simply the cultivation of mindful awareness of the movements of your body. This can be done formally, as in a mindful yoga practice, or informally, such as noticing the motions and sensations involved in washing the dishes.
Because mindfulness of this form connects you and your body and doing things, all in the present moment, it can be very powerful. In fact, if you take away nothing from the entirely of Phoenix but this, I think you will be well-served.
As with mindfulness of breath, formal mindful-motion exercises are probably best viewed as tools to help you develop your informal skills—nonjudgmental awareness of what’s happening within you and around you in the present moment.
For formal practice, mindful yoga is a good place to start. You’ll find it similar to the body scan, only with gentle motion added. Jon Kabat-Zinn has an excellent series of guided mindfulness exercise tapes on his website, including mindful yoga.
For informal practice, just take the steps of the mindfulness-of-breath exercise and apply them to movement rather than breathing. You’ll find the process is otherwise exactly the same—including our minds’ frustrating tendency to wander.
Applied to walking, an informal practice might look something like this:
find a quiet, peaceful, and safe place to walk
begin walking at a modestly slow pace
as you do so, notice the motions involved
notice where and how your feet contact the ground
notice the sensations in your legs and muscles
when you become distracted, return your attention to noticing
And that’s it.
You can do this with virtually any motion or task you can think of, and you can do it as often as you like. While mindful-motion (like any mindfulness exercise) should not be done for the purpose of making yourself feel better, you may occasionally find it soothing, and that is of course fine.
Give it a try.
