We’ve known for years that exercise helps reduce stress and now there’s a term for a specific way to achieve that benefit – mindful movement.

Being present in the moment, being aware of your body and conscious of how you’re feeling are elements of mindful movement.

As you incorporate mindful movement into your fitness routine, you’ll feel better about yourself and become more resilient to stress and mental health challenges.

Controlling the brain
Our moods are controlled by our brain and we can learn to influence our brain to how we’re feeling. 

We need to learn how to let go of that “monkey brain,” which are the voices reminding us how busy we are and telling us what we can’t do or should be doing instead.

Training ourselves to do mindful movements helps us escape from the chaos and distraction in our lives by changing our brain waves. We want to move from beta waves that create a busy, anxious brain to more calming alpha waves, so we feel more grounded. 

The area of the brain that reacts to pleasure is the same area that reacts to stress. When you learn to control how your brain interprets and responds to stimulus and flip the switch from anxiety to optimism or the bad to the good, this mindfulness ability builds resilience.  

It may sound simple, but it’s a skill that must be developed and consistently so it becomes an automatic response. Here are some strategies you can take.

Exercise
There are three categories of exercise that promote mindful movement: aerobic exercise, stretching and strength training.

  • Aerobic exercise
    There’s a difference between doing exercise to reach a goal or moving just for the pure enjoyment of being in the moment. If I’m out for a run trying to beat a specific time or reach a certain distance, that becomes a task. If I’m being mindful while I’m running, I hear my feet on the ground, feel the rhythm of my stride and breathing and experience the freedom of moving. Think of it as ‘meditation in motion.’

    That type of awareness boosts the production of feel-good hormones such as endorphins and burns off the stress hormone cortisol. If we don’t have a healthy way to reduce cortisol, it can lead to chronic stress, which causes anxiety, sleep disturbance, weight gain and hormone imbalance.

  • Stretching/yoga
    Stretching is one of the best ways to practice mindful movement and that’s why yoga has become so popular. Yoga teaches you how to be strong in the moment within the pose, how to breathe to let go of tension and tightness, and find calmness and self-control, both physically and mentally.

  • Strength training
    Lifting weights to build physical strength shifts a person’s mindset. When you’re stronger, you stand taller and feel more confident. It’s empowering to lift weights and that feeling can be applied to moments in your life when you’re faced with obstacles and challenges – you push through or rise above. As both a physiotherapist and fitness professional, I’ve always encouraged people to stand strong “or power pose.” American social psychologist Amy Cuddy is known for her research on power posing. Stand in front of a mirror and flex your muscles and say, “I am strong.”

Group fitness 
Group classes, as well as working with a trainer, inherently offer benefits. Training with other like-minded people in a class or small group for 30 minutes provides positive social interaction and support, positive feedback and a feeling of belonging. An instructor or trainer helps you to be present in the moment, leave distraction at the door and focus on how you’re feeling as you move. 

Meditation
Bringing self-guided or guided meditation into your day can help shift your brain from chaos to calm within minutes.  

Gratitude
It may sound corny to some but practicing daily gratitude can reduce stress. Reflect on what you’re grateful for and it’ll help clear your mind of negativity.

Shifting your mindset
You have the ability to choose to be confident, positive and optimistic. It’s an exercise you do to retrain your brain to change your mindset. Wake up and think that it’s going to be a great day. You’ll be amazed how your mindset will impact what you focus on.

If you want to delve deeper into the mind-body connection, canfitpro offers a Stress Resiliency online certificate course for the general public and fitness professionals. It equips you with practical tools to bring mindfulness into your physical exercise and daily life. 

It’s not so much about the type of exercise you do, rather how you do it being in that mindful state. Resilience is a coping skill that can be learned and sharpened to help your everyday life or move you out of crisis into confidence.