How 'mindful movement' can improve your mental health

Does your overactive mind make it hard for you to feel calm and present? Well, moving your body with a slightly different mindset may help you.

Both mindfulness and exercise are known to improve mental health. So, it stands to reason that combining these practices can go a long way.

‘Mindful movement’ involves concentrating on your breath and tuning in to your senses when you’re moving. This could be while walking the dog, jogging around the block, cycling to work or working out.

Instead of listening to a podcast or running through the day’s to-do list, mindful movement encourages you to focus on the present as opposed to being distracted from it.

Mindfulness is about listening to your thoughts, feelings and senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and sound). Focusing on the present can help pull your attention away from feelings like anxiety, helping you worry less about the future and live more in the present.

Research shows that mindfulness is associated with a number of important benefits, including:

• reduced stress
• reduced rumination (fixating on something that’s upsetting you)
• reduced depression
• reduced anxiety.¹

Exercise is also great for distracting you from negative thoughts, as it helps you release ‘feel-good’ hormones and improve your sense of control. It can also help you manage how you cope with things and your self-esteem.²

Combining both mindfulness and movement, then, is believed to boost these mental health benefits.

Mindfulness expert and host of ‘The Mindful Kind’ podcast, Rachael Kable, says mindful movement is especially beneficial if you’re short on time.

“One of the main obstacles people face when it comes to practising mindfulness is time,” she says.

Kable recommends starting your mindful movement journey by incorporating mindfulness into activities that you’re already doing.

To do this, you need to avoid distractions, such as turning off your phone or not using your headphones.

Mindful movement is most effective when you’re alone, so make sure you find a quiet place where you can move.

Yoga and tai-chi are good mindful movement options. But other forms of lower-intensity and distraction-free exercise, like walking, are also great.

When starting out your mindful movement journey, it can help to:

• pay attention to your breath, particularly how it feels going in and out of your body
• tune in to your senses
• focus on the sensations of movement (this could be the solid ground under your feet or the swing of your arms in the air).

Once you’ve got the hang of practicing mindfulness in lower-intensity activities, you can try applying the same practice to higher-intensity ones, like jogging, cycling or swimming.

Remember to keep the same techniques in mind, such as noticing the rhythm of your feet turning the pedals of your bicycle or your arms hitting the water in the pool.

And don’t worry if you sense your mind wandering. This is completely normal, especially when you’re new to mindful movement. Practise makes perfect.