How to meditate if you can’t sit still
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We all know the
We all know the benefits of meditation and tend to think of meditation as an exercise in stillness.
Mindfulness meditation has become somewhat of a productivity trend, which makes it easy to forget what it’s about at its core.
Recent advances in affective
Recent advances in affective neuroscience, or the neuroscience of emotion, have made it clear that movement, sensation, feeling, imagery, and thought form a dynamic whole, and that health and well-being are best supported by addressing all of these aspects.
Meditative movement differs from
Meditative movement differs from exercise.
Instead of just counting reps in a gym and going through the mechanical motions, you focus on the movement itself.
When you can actively feel the movements, you give your mind something to focus on so it doesn’t wander.
Mindfulness is a state,
Mindfulness is a state, a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience. Meditation is just the tool you use to reach that state.
And yet for many people, sitting still has the opposite effect, making them anxious to the point of distraction and thus rendering the whole thing pointless.
Start with some basic
Start with some basic tai chi moves, like the pushing hands exercise, or some simple crawling movements, that don’t require any real fitness skills.
Consider meditative movement, like
Consider meditative movement, like tai chi, chi kung, or yoga.
Research suggests the therapeutic effects of meditative movement can be useful for dealing with depression or anxiety.
Modern neuroscience fully supports the basic premise of meditative movement.