Gentle forms of Yoga and practicing T’ai Chi are both beautiful ways to create a meditative practice. Gentle movements and a focus on breathing combine together to tone, strengthen and relax. These practices connect you to your mind, body and spirit and release toxins from your body while naturally improving your posture.
While practicing yoga or T’ai Chi, the focus goes into your poses and gently encourages your body into different configurations. There are many yoga and T’ai Chi studios for you to explore or you can search on YouTube to find online training videos you can do at home.
While a home practice in these arts can be beneficial, taking some outside classes will help you gain a firm foundation in the proper posture and correct ways to move through the poses.
Very similar to walking meditation, contemplative dance and authentic movement meditation uses forms of dance and body movements. There are not as many resources for this type of practice, although sometimes you will be able to find local classes or groups.
You can also experience contemplative dance and authentic movement meditation on your own if you like. Start with standing and connecting with your breath. Turn on music that speaks to you on an inspirational level and move with it. Experience how it feels to commune with the music that way.
I encourage you to take some time to try some of these movement meditation styles. You can also become very creative and use just about any task that you are doing as a movement meditation style. Washing dishes, folding laundry or any pastime that is active, but does not require a lot of concentration to perform.
You can use movement meditation as a standalone practice, or to help settle into a stillness meditation style. You can also rotate moving meditation with stillness meditation depending on your mood and what you feel would be most beneficial for you at the time.
The more you practice this style of meditation, the more you will feel refreshed and fully alive within your space in our world.