Feel It To Heal It: Meditation Works Great With Movement

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”
― Helen Keller

Many people long to feel calmer, more confident, less anxious, and more content. And they (correctly!) believe meditation can help them realize these goals.

But when the rubber meets the road and they plunk down on a cushion or a mat to get quiet–they find it’s too uncomfortable to stay.  

Why? Because of SOOO many things:

• They “can’t sit still”
• There are too many thoughts–their brain is too loud and they cannot relax
• But what about all the “to-dos?”
• Their bodies get physically uncomfortable–sitting in the same spot feels painful after a time
• They DO finally get quiet, the “feels” begin to come up, and it’s too scary to stay put

This is just a shortlist of why so many people try and then abandon a meditation practice. Our mind's resistance to feeling unwanted feelings shows in a myriad of ways.  The resistance may be an itch, a pain in the back or hip, a though, or a feeling of discomfort that overwhelms you.  Another avoidant, protective strategy might be using meditation to dissociate and energetically go somewhere else.

We Must Feel it to Heal it

Like the title of this article suggests, we must feel to heal. Emotions are energy in motion and they want to move up and out of you.  In order for emotions to move, they must be felt.  And if we are doing all of the things to NOT meditate, to NOT feel, then the emotions cannot move.

If your emotions arise and are met with judgment, such as trying not to feel them or wanting them to go away, they will be recycled and stored within your body. And they will show up again and again until they are acknowledged, felt, and released. Those signals of resistance mentioned above are our way of not feeling those emotions.

However, when emotions are met with compassion and acceptance, the energy of the emotions can be processed and move out of you. 

This emotional release practice guides you to have compassion and love for yourself and your emotions is meant to support the release of suppressed emotions to allow you to move the energy through and out of you.

How Movement Supports Feeling and Healing

The idea of releasing emotions logically makes sense to most people, but the practice of it can be more challenging.  How do we let go of our resistant, protective strategies?  One way is to move out of our heads and into our bodies.

Most of us may think that for meditation to be successful, we have to sit for hours in quiet contemplation and deep and unwavering focus.  We think that our thoughts have to stop or our mind must be empty.

Nope. Not even a little of that image is true–although many long-time meditators LOVE the practice so much that it’s become a non-negotiable in their lives.

Believe it or not, MOVEMENT is an essential tool for meditation–especially as a beginner.  Here are some of the benefits of pairing movement with meditation:

• Mindful movement practices can help us get out of our heads (and our overthinking) and into our bodies.
• Moving our bodies with bending, stretching, and gentle or more rigorous yoga pose sequencing can help our brains overcome the “noise” of everyday living and the fear of confronting big emotions when we finally slow down.
• Moving around before sitting still can also help us strengthen our muscles to support comfortable posture for longer periods so that you CAN sit in relaxation, not pain.
• Moving helps us align and focus our breathing–also an essential meditation tool.
• Moving our bodies helps us accept our HUMANITY and imperfection–to get out of our logical, rational self get into the “felt” sense of ourselves.
• Dropping into your physical body is where you relieve depression and anxiety symptoms, which you can do when you meditate as well.

If this resonates with you, here are a few free resources to give this mindful pairing a go:

• Healing Yoga Moving Meditation
• Pain Relief Practices: Mindful Movement and Meditation
• Evening Ritual: Yoga and Meditation to Prepare for Sleep
• Relieve Anxiety and Stress Naturally: Yoga and Meditation Practices

Next time you prepare for your meditation practice, begin with a few minutes of explorative movement and simply do what feels good for you. Or, if you feel ready for guidance in this endeavor, I invite you to join our FREE 21 day commitment of movement and meditation to get started experiencing the amazing benefits of this combination.

Take good care,

–Sara