Moving Meditation
by Emily Wright
In contrast to forms of mindfulness that cultivate awareness from a posture of stillness, moving meditation emphasizes an attention to sensations, emotions, and thoughts from the moving body. Moving meditation can be integrated into simple daily tasks, such as washing dishes, watering plants, or walking the dog. We often engage in daily tasks mindlessly – while checking social media, listening to a podcast, or simply while lost in thought. By slowing down and drawing our attention to our bodily sensations as we move through the familiar rhythms of our day, we can bring a greater sense of presence, appreciation, and even delight to our daily lives.
To explore the “daily task” moving meditation, select a simple chore that you perform regularly.
Take a moment to pause before you begin. Notice the floor beneath you and the parts of your body that connect to floor. Can you sense the temperature, texture, or movement of this surface?
Then, draw your attention to your breath. Where do you feel the movement of the breath in your body? At the nostrils or the throat? In the chest or belly? Can you sense the subtle lifting and expansion of your body as you inhale? The softening and condensing of your body as you exhale?
As you shift your attention to your task, continue to notice the physical sensations that arise in your awareness. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you hear? What can you taste or smell? Sometimes it helps to imagine that you could perform this task ten percent slower than you normally would. You might explore varying the ways you complete your task. For example, if you are reaching down to pick up something up, explore all the different ways you can bend down and rise up.
If at any time you notice that you’ve become lost in thought, simply pause, reconnect to your breath, and then resume your task.
Maybe you’re thinking, What a waste of time! If I do this, I’ll never get anything done. In my own experience, I’ve found the opposite to be true. When I’m rushing or distracted, I’m usually clumsier and more prone to forget things or make mistakes. Incorporating moving meditation into my daily tasks sometimes even saves me the time I would have spent correcting my mistakes or back-tracking for forgotten items. And it always makes me feel more present and alive to my body, to others, and to the world around me.
Moving meditation can also be practiced as a separate activity that incorporates creativity, curiosity, and play. For this variation, it is useful to have a space where you can reach in any direction from standing or sitting without knocking anything over.
Choose a simple anchor in the physical body as an invitation to move. In the video below, I use the cyclical movement pattern of the breath as a way to explore movements that expand and contract. Other anchors include responding to sounds, focusing on one body part, or moving with the shapes and textures in your environment. Sometimes just turning on a favorite piece of music and allowing your body to respond to the rhythm is a fun and easy way to begin.
You are invited to find an open, quiet space for this moving meditation with Emily Wright.
Based in Charlottesville, VA, Emily Wright is a dancer, movement educator, and author with a passion for the transformative power of dance. An experienced teacher of dance for all ages and a scholar with numerous publications, Emily is available for workshops, master classes, lectures, writing, commissions, and consultation. She offers an online and in-person Movement Medicine class that blends yoga, dance, and contemplation. Her book, Dancing to Tansform: How Concert Dance Becomes Religious in American Christianity, was published in June 2021 by Intellect Press. Learn more about Emily in an interview with her in Vita Poetica’s Autumn 2021 issue.
