Mindful Movement

Only what we love, we can really care for.

Mindful Movement has been created to inspire you in discovering your love and your appreciation for your lifelong companion, your body,
so that you can find back your joy of feeling truly alive.

have you ever been bored with an exercise routine?

I have. And I found out that I cannot stick to one form of exercise or one routine forever. It's just against my nature.

What I found out for myself is that it is not important to find THE MOVEMENT, THE FORM OF EXERCISE that is the absolute best for us and then to force ourselves to stick to it day by day for the rest of our life and punishing and judging us if we don’t. Like you don’t choose one diet and do it religiously for the rest of your life. That works for some few people but for many others it does not. It restricts and limits us in our experience and joy of living.

Movement is so important, it is one with LIFE. So we need to move. But we do not need to move always the same way. Finding each day movement opportunities, like spices in our meal. A bit here, a bit there. That’s exciting and keeps our connection with our body alive. We feel the body, the body finds the movement, or remembers a movement or gets inspired by a movement we see. And then we giving our body the freedom to do it: Bouncing in the bathroom up and down in the morning and feeling the ground under our feet, running up a staircase, standing up from our computer work and stretch and swing our arms..there are endless possibilities. Isn’t that exciting? It’s like being a child again

inspiring Movement

My teaching of Mindful Movement is for those who would like to get inspired and rediscover the joy of moving, the pleasure of feeling truly alive in a body, the excitement of playfulness.

With Mindful Movement I give you food for inspiration, new ideas and also those exercises that really worked for me, exercises and movements that made me happy and feel good - exercises that my body showed me because she (my body is female :-) wants to do them. My goal is to inspire you of attuning to the opportunities of movements that your body is offering and to give your body the permission to move freely. I will help you to attune to your body so that you will be able to sense the body's signals and to hear his/her voice.

It's an exciting journey! Are you joining me?

like water

Movement is like water: The body needs it to stay healthy and the body needs it all over the day. Not just one time for one hour straight at the end of the day or even only twice a week.

If we think of our great grand parents, there was nothing more that was needed as the way things were, they were moving the entire day. Just remember how women had to wash clothes and how the men had to work in the fields. Today we have another life and we have a so-called "life style" which allows us to spend time on other things than physical activities. As long as we are attuned to our body, the body will tell us when movement is needed like he/she tells us when the body is thirsty and needs water. In reality, few people hear that voice any longer and it's that ability to hear this voice, what we want to encourage and train in Mindful Movement.

three phases

Phase one - staple movements

Like the doctor will tell you to drink at least three large glasses of water every day and possibly tell you at which times of the day you should do that, in this beginning phase, we need to set a fixed time to get our movement in. As we have lost to hear the body's signal, we have to re-introduce movement in regular intervals to wake up the body's reflexes. After a while, the body's signals will get stronger - and at the same time our listening becomes more accurate. It's an automatic process which will kick in, once we allow regular movement to happen. For phase one, Mindful Movement" offers a set of exercises which will be done at fixed times of the day. We call those movements "Staple Movements".

Phase two - responding movements

This phase begins when you become aware of movement opportunities throughout the day and when you begin to hear the body's signals again. That voice will become clearer and clearer over time. You don't need to be concerned about not hearing the body's signals for movement like you are not concerned that you'll ever miss noticing that you are thirsty when you are thirsty. It's as strong as that. During this phase, you can continue the "Staple Movements" if you wish but most important you will begin to do the "Responding Movements". These are little mini exercises which you can "sprinkle" throughout your day. You will become more and more attentive to movement possibilities throughout the day and add those movements as part of your daily life. "Staple Movements" and "Responding Movements" are exercises that we teach you in Mindful Movement.

Phase three - improvisation movements

Now it gets really exciting. In this third and last phase it is YOU who finds new movement possibilities and the according exercises throughout your day. And in Mindful Movement we are supporting and encouraging you in this process. You don't need to give up the exercises that you have done in phase one and two. However now, you are getting creative in finding your own exercises. At this time you are so well attuned to your body that your body shows you what he/she needs as daily movement. In our ongoing classes you can exchange and share the exercises you find with your peers and encourage and inspire one another.