This week’s Mindful Body lesson is on Mindful Movement Habits. Remember that word: habit? We learned about habits in last week’s introduction to the Mindful Body series. In case you need a refresher, habits are something that becomes automatic for us to do after we spend lots of time practicing it. This means that we practice it so much, we do that thing without even having to think twice about it. Creating healthy habits will help you all throughout your life, because they will keep your mind and your body strong for all of the things you want to do!

Mindful Movement is any kind of movement that we do with the intention of keeping our bodies and minds healthy (remember our Setting an Intention practice?). Mindful Movement can be challenging and make you sweat, or it can be really slow and make you super calm. The best part is that there are SO many ways to practice Mindful Movement. One of the easiest ways to do this is to go for a walk outside (with a parent or older sibling) or in a garden! You can practice Mindful Movement Habits with the activities we’ve learned so far, like Mindful Steps Walking Nature Meditation, or simply paying extra attention to whereyou are and how you move through your walk.

Another wonderful Mindful Movement practice is postures like Tree Pose, or Mountain Pose, Balloon Breathing, or other yoga poses that you might learn at school or in future blog exercises. If you like to swim or play other sports, those also count as Mindful Movement, so long as you are paying extra attention to your body and mind while you do those activities.

What kind of Mindful Movement Habits do you have?

What kind of Mindful Movement Habits would you like to try?

Think of some times and places that you can practice these Mindful Movements. Maybe you can even challenge yourself to practice them at least two times this week.

Student Tip: See if you can find other peers who have the same Mindful Movement interests as you and play with them during recess or outside of school (with your parent’s permission). Mindful Movement Habits are a great thing to practice with your friends and a great way to make even more friends.

Teachers Tip: Try practicing Mindful Movement with your students during class time. If you have a garden, a garden walk would be a great way to practice Mindful Movement. Earlier posts are also available to support you with Mindful Movement ideas.