Mindful Movement Activities For Stress

The chaos of our daily lives creates a stressful environment inside our minds. Sometimes we get more than we want and stress can build to a point that it becomes unhealthy in mind and body. When we try to solve too many problems at once, our mind wanders off to the next problem and the next until it can become overwhelming.

Implementing a mindful movement practice can help you live in the present moment while increasing your awareness, and best of all, boost your self-love and help to relieve stress.  

The good news is that engaging in mindful movement activities is one of the best ways to get back in tune with yourself, your environment, and find peace as the mindfulness practice in this article about conquering stress will explain. You’re going to learn how to remain in complete control of your mind and your life, even if your world is spinning out of control. 

What Is Mindful Movement?

Mindful movement involves simple exercises and activities that offer a great way to help you relax. It can be anything from a gratitude list to mindful eating, some physical activity, or even yoga poses if you practice or want to learn how to do yoga. 

How do I Practice Mindful Movement?

There are different levels of mindful movement. I’m going to provide a list for you and after you’ve read through the list, you can start with the one that seems most comfortable for you. Mindful movements are a great way to enjoy the present moment and even if you hate working out, they will provide a solid and fun foundation to practice mindfulness for getting grounded and focused. 

Simple exercises like stretching on your seat or doing leg lifts in your workspace while you work or are on the phone can go a long way in helping you practice mindfulness.

Here are some simple creative mindfulness exercises you can begin with.

Mindful Stretching  

Stretching while you work gets blood flowing through the tissues you’re stretching and increases your body awareness, helping you to truly connect inwardly to how your body feels. You don’t have to stand upright to stretch because you can simply extend your feet as you sit at your desk while you work. Next, link your fingers and stretch your hands to the sky or bend your body backward and feel how your entire body reacts to this gentle stretching movement.

Mindful Eating  

Mindful eating may sound different to you at first. I’s not about dieting or watching what you eat, but it has everything to do with focused eating.  

Eating mindfully focuses on your awareness on each piece of food you put in your mouth, and on how you experience what you eat through slowing down and taking small bites while being in the present moment so you taste the full flavors of the food. So, you’re not just chewing and swallowing but tasting and noticing the texture of how it feels in your mouth. Last, you are noticing how chewing and tasting the food makes you feel.  

Mindful Walking  

Mindful walking involves walking with purpose in order to bring focus to your stride and what is in your environment. Since walking is second nature, our mind will tend to wander when we go for a walk. We think about problems, bills, past problems or regrets and many other things that take us away from enjoying the surroundings. 

As you walk, stay away from intrusive thoughts and pay attention to everything happening in your present environment. It’s important to relax into it and relieve all stress.

Breathing Exercises  

To practice mindful breathing exercises, breath in through your nose while inhaling deep into your stomach and exhale through your mouth. This works to calm your nervous system and to refresh your mind. When you’re stressed or anxious, deep breathing mindfully helps calm your nerves and help you refocus. 

One great way to combine this with mindful walking is to walk without shoes. Walking barefoot allows you to feel the ground beneath your feet as you breathe. Focus on how the floor or ground feels on your feet and if your mind wanders. Bring it back to the present moment and on how you feel at the moment. If you don’t want to walk barefoot, then pay attention to each heel as it touches the ground. This will take your mind off troubles or ideas and focus it back on the present moment. This will help you focus and relax within yourself. 

Mindful Listening  

This is a simple way to use the practice of mindfulness and a great example of this involves entering deep into the music, listening to the tones and the melody, while letting it flow through you. Mindful listening requires that you pay special attention to the music and notice the feelings that flow because of what you hear. Your favorite song could take on an entirely new meaning when you listen to it mindfully.

Gratitude List

A gratitude list is probably the most important thing you can do to program your subconscious mind for success, happiness, control stress levels, and to cultivate a mindful awareness. The purpose of writing a gratitude list is to help you relive the good feelings along with developing strong networks of the feelings of thankful love for what you have and how far you’ve come.  

Write even the little things you can be thankful for. Of course health and success are good ones but put things like being able to take a warm shower every day and having a washing machine. Those may seem small and irrelevant but try living off grid sometime and you’ll see their value as much stronger. Practicing mindfulness through a gratitude list helps you to cultivate a cheery attitude (an attitude of gratitude). When you do this, ensure you pay full attention to what’s on your list and the warm feelings of love that flow through you. 

Group Mindfulness Activities

Mindfulness doesn’t have to be a done alone. You can practice mindfulness activities with your friends or family members. Doing these mindfulness techniques this way helps with bonding and reflecting together. Below are some popular and favorite mindful group activities you can practice with family, friends, members of your work, or a mindfulness meditation group you lead.

Eye Gazing 

Eye gazing is a wonderful mindful approach that helps you connect with someone in the group. To perform it, you simply stare into each other’s eyes for about ten minutes, being conscious of paying attention to your feelings and physical sensations. For best results, allow everyone in the group to laugh if they feel like laughing and talk if they feel like talking while performing the eye gazing in the mindfulness classes. The big idea here is to connect in a friendship way with your partner. 

Blindfolded Movement  

This is a great mindfulness activity for members of your family, since you trust them more than just strangers in a group. It helps elevate your senses and your perception of the surrounding people. To perform this mindfulness lesson, simply blindfold yourself and everyone taking part, and then move slowly around the room until you can sense the other people around you. There might be shoulder bumps here and there, but soon enough, you’ll be able to move mindfully and sense when the other person is near you. This mindful movement meditation is an example of how quarterbacks and running backs in football can sense when someone is approaching them from their blind side.

What Are Structured Mindfulness Activities?

These are mindfulness activities that require extra time and effort. While you can practice simple mindful movements anywhere and anytime, structured mindfulness practice requires more time and a specific location. Here are some you can use in a meditation practice.

Body Scan Meditation  

Body scan meditation is a great group mindfulness activity; it requires a guide that teaches you how to scan every single area of your body with awareness. It is the best way for young people to connect with their bodies and gain self-confidence. This activity would best be carried out in a comfortable space. The body scan meditation can go on for about twenty minutes, so it’s a good idea to start it when you know you have plenty of time.

A body scan is a form of meditation that emphasizes our need to pay attention to our bodies. It is a practice that involves you scanning your entire body for different sensations. This requires you to place mindful attention on your body and you’re scanning for any pains in your body all the way to muscle tension and anything abnormal. By performing this scan using close attention, you will develop a deeper awareness of these feelings, and it can help you better understand and feel more secure inside your body. You’ve probably heard people talk about feeling ok in your own skin, and this helps with that effect.

Mindfulness Yoga Poses  

Yoga and meditation have been popular for many millennia, but recently people have woke up to these mindful movement ideas and their supreme importance. Basic stretches have the power to loosen our muscles and help us relax, so imagine what a more intense practice of yoga can do. 

Mindful yoga poses take basic yoga to a higher level by involving the feeling of every single move you make. It is the combination of regular yoga with mindfulness. It creates great muscle relaxation and the most important thing is that it’s easy to do.

Some of the well-known benefits of mindful yoga are a superpower for your mental health. It’s a wonderful stress reliever and helps you develop a stronger connection to your body. Try different yoga positions on your yoga mat and feel how your body bends or responds to each bend as you do your breath work.

More about simple mindfulness exercises and activities.

You don’t have to be a professional athlete or yogi to practice mindful movement activities. You can start in your living room at home, your home gym, or wherever you feel most comfortable doing some of these simple movements. 

We can’t always control the things that happen to us, but we can surely control how we react to them in our daily life. By practicing mindful movements, we are opening ourselves up to a more meaningful way, and for many new ways of living. Checkout Mary’s story about mindfulness based stress reduction.

Conclusion:

Practicing mindful movement activities is one of the best ways to overcome stress and go about our daily routine, with little of the destructive stress that can easily overtake us and lower our quality of life significantly. To learn more about this wonderful way of experiencing peace read about what the root of mindfulness is all about.