By Addie deHilster
5
2020 ratings
The podcast currently has 102 episodes available.
In this episode of the podcast, we’re exploring the idea of Mindful Movement as a form of “cross-training” for your awareness. It’s a fun metaphor for how Mindful Movement and meditation can fit together and enhance each other, and it might just inspire you to try something new!
In fitness, cross-training is the idea that it's healthy to round out your routine with different forms of exercise like cardio, strength, endurance, mobility and flexibility so you get maximum physical benefits.
So, what if we apply this idea to Mindfulness? Just like there are different aspects of physical fitness, there also are (many) different aspects of Mindfulness. For starters, the full spectrum of Mindfulness practices would include: connection to the body, balancing our emotions, steadying our focus, observing our thought patterns, and cultivating positive qualities like compassion and equanimity.
Traditional meditation certainly develops all of those Mindfulness muscles, but we can also "exercise" them through Mindful Movement! And I would suggest that cross training with both movement and stillness practices gives us a wider palette to explore all of the ways we can be present with our moment-to-moment experience.
I’ll speak specifically about Yin Yoga, Somatics, and Qigong, sharing what each of these movement styles has brought to my own deepening and expanding of awareness over time.
I’ve often talked about Mindful Movement as a great alternative practice for those who struggle with the stillness and silence of meditation. But in this episode, I’m also highlighting how Mindful Movement can really benefit people who DO enjoy traditional sitting meditation.
Movement practices can challenge you to apply your meditative skills in action and to be aware amidst more stimulation and complexity. Think of it as a way of cross-training your mindfulness skills in preparation for the distractions and complications of daily life!
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For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
And, to try “cross-training” your awareness with some Mindful Movement practices, check out the Moved To Meditate Class Library! There are full memberships, and there is a FREE tier where you can sample a new selection of classes each month. Details at movedtomeditate.yoga/classlibrary
This year’s Mindful Movement Teacher Training is starting in October! Learn more and apply now at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
Today’s podcast is an exploration of life as a Highly Sensitive Person (or HSP), with my friend and colleague Erica Webb.
Erica and I sat down for a deep dive into our shared experience of high sensitivity, and how we work with these traits in ourselves.
This is something I’ve been looking at more closely over the last several months, and I knew that Erica had been speaking about HSP more, as well. So, I reached out and asked if she’d like to do a joint episode that we would each share on our podcasts, and this conversation is the result!
You’ll hear our stories of living life as a Highly Sensitive Person, and how we’ve learned to embrace our HSP traits and honor our HSP needs. We cover some basic definitions, and quite a few nuances of being highly sensitive.
We touch on:
Erica and I also share our favorite movement and meditation practices (as well as life strategies and communication skills!) for regulating our sensitive nervous systems and building more capacity to engage with the world.
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To learn more about Erica Webb’s work, visit her website, listen to her podcast SelfKind with Erica Webb, or follow her on Instagram @ericawebb_selfkind.
For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
The Mindful Movement Teacher Training is returning this Fall, and applications are now open! Learn more about this unique program at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
It’s our 100th episode! To celebrate this podcast milestone, we have a special episode this week, featuring the voices of the Moved To Meditate Podcast community.
I wanted to do something different for our 100th episode, as a way of saying thanks to all who have been part of the podcast so far. So, I asked podcast listeners and guests to call in with messages about what they practice and why.
If you need a little boost of inspiration, be sure to tune in, because the messages were amazing! You are going to hear quite a range of different movement, yoga, and meditation practices represented here, and so many unique ways of describing what these practices mean to us. I hope this episode feels like a warm, inspiring hug that reminds you that your practice matters - and you’re not doing it alone.
Expect some inspiration, a lot of warm fuzzies, and a little bit of silliness.
And, thanks for listening!
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For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
The Mindful Movement Teacher Training is returning this Fall, and applications are now open! Learn more about this unique program at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
This week on the podcast, Amanda Hanna joins me for a juicy discussion about what trauma-informed yoga is (and is not). We give examples of the questionable trends and marketing messages we’ve seen lately, related to trauma healing, Somatics, Yin Yoga and other movement practices.
Amanda Hanna is a seasoned Yin Yoga Teacher Trainer and leader of Trauma-Informed Facilitator trainings, with an academic background in psychology. After comparing notes on a few social media posts and ads we’d seen, Amanda and I decided to sit down and record an episode exploring the topic of trauma-informed yoga. It’s wonderful that awareness of this has increased in the yoga community, but there is now the issue of terms like “trauma-informed” and “somatic” becoming buzzwords for products that actually don’t align with ethical human-centered practices.
So, we’ll dig into what we’re seeing and share some examples that brought up red flags for us. We will also talk about what we DO look for in a genuine trauma-informed offering.
You’ll hear our thoughts on:
We also spend some time discussing the role of a trauma-informed yoga or movement teacher, and how we can skillfully hold space for our students. We both feel there is great value in creating a classroom “container” where students can simply practice feeling safe and learn to be with themselves exactly as they are. And, while emotions do come up naturally in class sometimes, it is not a teacher’s job to evoke a strong emotional response from their students.
Drawing from our own classes (and from my running a studio), we discuss the complexities of practicing in community. We highlight the importance of encouraging choice and self-agency in our students, rather than dismissing their feedback as coming from their fight/flight response (as we’ve seen suggested online).
We cover a LOT of ground here, so I hope you’ll find this episode interesting and thought-provoking…and more than anything that you’ll feel supported to embrace your wholeness and reject the quick fix gimmicks.
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To learn more about Amanda Hanna’s work, visit somapsych.org or follow her on Instagram at @soma.psych.
For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
The 100th Episode of the podcast is coming up, and I want to hear YOUR voice! Send me a short message about why you practice, and I will include it in this special episode. Go here to record your message, or email it to me at [email protected].
The Mindful Movement Teacher Training is returning this Fall, and applications are now open! Learn more about this unique program at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
In this episode of the podcast, I’m talking with Jivana Heyman about accessible meditation. Jivana is the founder of the Accessible Yoga movement, and he has plenty of insights to share about how meditation practices can be relevant in our world today.
You’ll hear about Jivana’s own personal journey of learning meditation, and his perspective on how an inward practice like meditation can help during uncertain times when the outer world also needs our attention.
Jivana describes the central role that meditation plays in the Yoga tradition, and the wide variety of meditation styles within Yoga (including breath meditation, mantra, chakra meditations, yoga nidra, and more). You’ll also hear Jivana’s thoughts on reframing asana AS a form of meditation.
We talk about:
I hope this episode will leave you feeling empowered to find your own ways of bringing meditation into your life!
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To learn more about Jivana Heyman’s work, visit jivanaheyman.com or accessibleyogaschool.com.
For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
The 100th Episode of the podcast is coming up, and I want to hear YOUR voice! Send me a short message about why you practice, and I will include it in this special episode. Go here to record your message, or email it to me through the website.
Our next Teacher Masterclass is on August 24th, with guest speaker Chris McDonald of the Holistic Counseling Podcast! Get the info and join us at https://movedtomeditate.yoga/teacher-masterclasses/
The Mindful Movement Teacher Training is returning this Fall, and applications are now open! Learn more about this unique program at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
Are you a movement teacher who secretly worries that your classes might be too repetitive or boring? In this episode of the podcast, I’m going to encourage you to embrace repetition as a valuable part of Mindful Movement practice.
When I was a newer Yoga teacher, I felt that pressure to come up with a brand new class plan and fresh sequences every week. I thought that if I repeated the same practices too often, students would get bored or think my classes were too basic.
However, with more experience teaching, observing others’ classes, and actually listening to my students, I realized that repetition can be incredibly helpful!
Some of the benefits of repetition that I’ll cover:
We will also talk about that fear of boredom, and where it comes from. In our hyper stimulating culture, boredom might just be the resistance that comes up for us when we’re doing something that slows us down or has less intensity than we’re used to.
While I do hope my classes are engaging, my intention as a teacher is not to avoid boredom at all costs. I would rather help people develop calm, presence, and perhaps an increased attention span.
For my movement teacher friends, I hope this reflection will help you relax around the idea of repetition! It’s more than ok to review, repeat, and remix in your classes. Your students will benefit from a good balance of novelty and familiarity.
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For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
The 100th Episode of the podcast is coming up, and I want to hear YOUR voice! Send me a short message about why you practice, and I will include it in this special episode. Go here to record your message, or email it to me at [email protected].
The Mindful Movement Teacher Training is returning this Fall, and applications are now open! Learn more about this unique program at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
This week’s podcast episode is a gentle movement meditation to help channel and clear the agitated energies of stress or anxiety. (The meditation itself starts around the 4:44 mark, after a brief introduction.)
This practice is intended to help you “complete the stress cycle” by engaging your body’s natural fight/flight impulses through a few simple Qigong movements, with an emphasis on mindfulness. It’s kind of like a movement practice that has the feel of a guided meditation.
You may have noticed that when you’re caught up in anxiety and worry, it can be really hard to sit still and meditate. This is where mindful movement can be incredibly beneficial, as it gives us an active way to work with challenging states.
As you put your restless energy (and stress hormones) to use through intentional mindful movements, you are signaling your nervous system that you are in control and that you’re ok in this present moment. With practice, you can use these movement meditation tools to decrease the unpleasant physical sensations of anxiety, and to help calm overthinking and worry (which is often fed by agitation in the body).
This meditation can be done either standing or seated in a chair. You can use this practice as an anxiety prevention tool, or as a form of nervous system maintenance whenever you feel agitating sensations, emotions, or thoughts building up.
This can also be a great practice to do before bed, to clear your energy and promote peaceful sleep.
I hope you find this movement meditation useful, and that it brings some ease into your day!
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(Do keep in mind that this practice can be an excellent complement to professional mental health support, but no meditation is a replacement for medical or mental health treatment when professional help is needed. If you are experiencing overwhelming anxiety or distress, please seek additional support.)
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For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
The Mindful Movement Teacher Training is returning this Fall, and applications will be accepted starting July 15th! Learn more about this program and make sure you're on the update list at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
In this episode of the podcast, I’m covering six common mindfulness myths - things I think people often get wrong about mindfulness and meditation. Don’t let these trip you up, or stop you before you even start!
I hate to see people miss out on the benefits of mindfulness because they’ve heard a confusing mix of messages about how it works.
Some of these myths have unfortunately convinced a lot of people that they can’t meditate, even if they are interested in the idea of mindfulness. And, some of the other misconceptions are actually worries people have that mindfulness might take them in the wrong direction, or make them feel worse.
The 6 mindfulness myths you’ll hear about:
1) that mindfulness is just a mental exercise and not connected to the body
2) mindfulness is all about concentrating on a single focal point
3) you need to get rid of your thoughts to practice mindfulness
4) that mindfulness leads to hyper-vigilance and self-consciousness, and can increase pain or anxiety
5) mindfulness is just a tool for performing tasks more efficiently
6) that mindfulness is an altered state, dissociation, or an escape from reality.
None of the above should be true, if you are learning Mindfulness Meditation from a well-trained teacher or a reliable source. However, the term “mindfulness” is used so widely these days in a variety of contexts, and there is a lot of unfortunate confusion.
I’ll be talking about mindfulness practices that come from the Buddhist tradition (Vipassana, or Insight Meditation), which is also the root source of secular programs like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). I hope this will help you understand how those teachings differ from other forms of meditation, and why these concerns about mindfulness are untrue.
So, let’s bring clarity to the confusion and break down these mindfulness myths!
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For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
Get the details and RSVP for the next Teacher Masterclass at movedtomeditate.yoga/teacher-masterclasses
Or learn about one-on-one meditation coaching sessions at movedtomeditate.yoga/privatesessions.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
This week’s podcast episode is a guided Walking Meditation practice! The meditation itself starts just after the 5-minute mark, after a brief introduction to Walking Meditation.
Walking Meditation is a traditional form of mindfulness practice, and it’s a great example of meditation-in-motion! If the stillness of sitting meditation doesn’t appeal to you, this might be another avenue for exploring mindfulness.
This practice is often used as a type of formal meditation, but one of the special benefits of Walking Meditation is that it trains us to be aware during an ordinary, daily activity.
I find that when I practice Walking Meditation more often, it seeps into other moments. I might be walking somewhere, and instead of staying lost in thought, I start feeling my feet or my breath, hearing sounds, or seeing what’s around me. Those brief, spontaneous opportunities to touch into the present moment are incredibly valuable – it helps me find my composure, to feel less pulled in a million directions, or to savor a sweet moment more vividly.
I also wanted to record some basic instructions for Walking Meditation because you don’t really get full as-you-go guidance for this practice at in-person meditation groups and on meditation retreats. For obvious practical reasons, the teacher has to give you all the instructions upfront, then send you off to do the walking on your own. So, having a recording might be helpful to practice along with at home, especially if you are newer to this kind of meditation!
All you need for this practice is some space to walk several steps in a straight line and turn around. We will be walking back and forth along that path. I recorded this practice indoors, simply walking across my yoga mat (and maybe a foot beyond). Hallways work well, too. You can also take this practice outside if you have a safe, peaceful place to walk.
With some practice, your Walking Meditation can become a portable mindfulness tool that supports you throughout the day! Walking to the kitchen, walking to your car, walking to a meeting (even at normal walking speed) - you can ground yourself in the present moment while you’re involved in the movements of your life.
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For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
And, you can sign up for your "Library Card" to access this month's FREE practices in the Moved To Meditate Class Library!
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
What is the role of alignment in Yoga? Is technique always the best route to safety in Mindful Movement? In this episode of the podcast, I’m sharing my take on these important (and big) topics through another excerpt from the book I’m writing.
The working title of my book is Teaching Mindful Movement, and here you’ll be hearing a section where I reflect on what it means to teach movements responsibly. We will address the issues of technique and alignment, the role of the teacher, and how mindfulness can support safety.
We train as movement teachers because we want to help people feel better in their bodies. The last thing we want is to unintentionally cause harm through the practices we guide. However, my best advice for teaching safely might not be what you think.
In my time in this field, I’ve observed a trend for Yoga and movement teachers to take on a lot of responsibility for “keeping people safe.” This desire to ensure safety takes various forms: some undertake detailed studies of anatomy and biomechanics, or mastering the skillful use of props, while others may emphasize ideals of Yoga alignment, or the precise execution of forms in Qigong. Some of the Somatic movement styles put a great deal of focus on achieving “correct” posture, as defined by the prevailing theories in their school.
For quite a while in the Yoga world, structural alignment was considered the best means to ensure safety. But, as the teaching community has gradually learned more about the brain and nervous system, and has begun applying principles of tissue mechanics and pain science to Yoga, we can see that safety is much more multi-faceted than just positioning our bones and joints in a particular way. As we’ve become more aware of the range of differences between individual bodies, it has also become clear that there is no universal set of alignment standards that work for everyone.
You’ll hear about:
So, if technique is not our best guarantee of safety, then is there still value to giving instructions on precision and form? If we cue movements in a less prescriptive way, will our classes become a sloppy free-for-all that leaves our students wondering what they are even doing?
I will give some examples of how teachers can provide enough structure and clarity for students, while also allowing space for individual needs. We will explore a “middle way” with alignment in which technical cues can be used as a form of mindful inquiry, rather than rules to be followed.
I hope the perspective I offer here will help you feel more empowered in your teaching, and that it will relieve some of the pressure of thinking you need to have all the answers to keep your students safe!
If you have feedback to share after hearing this section of the book, please contact me. I would love to know what you find intriguing, challenging, or helpful.
And, if you’d like to be notified when my book Teaching Mindful Movement is ready, sign up for updates here!
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For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast.
Find more info about the donation-based Teacher Masterclasses at movedtomeditate.yoga/teacher-masterclasses.
Get the dates for the next Mindful Movement Teacher Training at movedtomeditate.yoga/mmtt.
Feel free to reach out through my website with any episode requests, topics you'd like to hear about, or guest interview suggestions. You can also connect with me on Instagram or Threads at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, pictures of Pacific Northwest nature, crocheting projects, and my adorable kitty, Mustache).
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