Self-Care Through Movement

Hello, everybody. My name is Jean Mitchells, and I'm really excited to be here today. It's my first Cadre, and if I were to say that I was a little bit of nervous, I would be lying. But I am very excited to be here today with you. I'm sitting outside, it's a beautiful day. And, you know, I had listened to a few of the different cadres talking about grief recently, and I was so inspired, inspired by them and so excited to see them. But what inspired me and excited me the most was that. Hello. Good morning.

What excited me the most was that we could process grief in a lot of different ways. So on this Sunday, when we're here on these beautiful days, wherever you're located, I wanted to talk to you guys about active meditation. And the reason I called attention to a couple of the grief streams that have been posted was because active meditation is what helps me process and what helps me work through that whole grieving process. And, you know, it's really exciting to think about meditation in different ways.

So I am a meditation practitioner. I do breath work, sound bath. I'm a coach. I work in corporate America, like many people do. And finding time to do, like actual meditation, I find, can be really hard. And I have taken varying certifications on it. And I also teach a lot of Smith classes. And so for me, when I think about meditation, I think about the act of going inside to find a space to process, going inside to find a space to clear my mind and clear my head and find some freedom in thought.

And the element of movement with a meditation process, to me, is where I feel like I can find home. So in the last year or so, hello, everybody. As I see you popping in, first time here for me, I'm excited to meet all of you. My name is Jean, and I may have jumped the gun a little and started a little early, so I'm gonna backtrack and then go forward again. So for anybody watching this in the future. Hello. My name is Jean and Jeana Jules. I'm excited to be here. It's my first live stream and I am nervous and excited, but have so many things that I can't wait to share with you guys.

On future conversations, I mentioned that I had watched Marigold's and Anya's livestreams around grief. And the reason why I watch those and why those hit home for me is that we all go through a grieving process, right? And we all find a way to move through it, and it's not going to be perfect or right and it's not going to be the same for anybody. In the last year, year and a half, I've had to close one of my businesses. I've lost both my mom and my dad. And for me, meditation, breathing, sound, baths, movement have helped me to really work through and touch on all of those emotions.

So I felt like today would be a great day to talk about active meditation and what that can really mean and what that can offer and how I use it in my life. Happy Sunday. You know what I love about active meditation and thinking about it this way is meditation in general is about creating space between thoughts. And sometimes sitting and trying to hold space for not having a thought or creating space in between a thought can be really difficult. Like, if I just took a pause right now for 10 seconds.

10 seconds is a long time. And if we think about all of the books that we read and talk about meditation and taking five minutes a day, or taking ten minutes a day and building up that ability to meditate, it's about building space between our thoughts and even sitting, sometimes for 10 seconds, in silence. If you're going through grief or you're having a really hard day, that can be a lot, and it can feel overwhelming. And so, for me, I find that I process best through movement. It's not to say that sitting quiet and meditating that way isn't also valuable.

But for me, movement helps me to move energy and work with energy in a different way. So I teach a lot of spin classes, and I will often tell my classes as I'm teaching that this is a time for us to let go and release and to find one breath somewhere in the middle of a class, or find one moment in a class where you feel suspension. You feel that your body and your spirit and your mind are connected as one, and you can let go. For me, Jean, when I ride horses, I feel like I am transported to a whole other world.

As we're racing down a path and we're celebrating the movement in an outdoor space, I get lost. It's like I only connect with my breath and the breath of my horse. And that movement, that connection to the earth, to the wind, to my horse, is what's allowing that movement within me, that energy within me, to release and let go. And even if I don't always know what I've let go in that moment, I feel lighter. And so if I come back again to that theory or that concept of active meditation, it really is about identifying a space where you can be free in your mind.

That could be as simple as going on a walk. How many times I've been on a conference call listening in while walking my dog outside, because I needed to walk my dog and I needed to be on this call, but I didn't have to talk. I really just needed to listen. And then I finished that call, and I finished that walk. And it's almost as if I don't remember spending that time with my dog, who I love or what was outside with me that day. So an active meditation, an active movement, could be as simple as not wearing headphones and going for a walk with your dog or not, and just observing and allowing yourself to simply observe that moment and observe the trees or the different birds or sounds that you hear and allowing that movement to.

To integrate into your body so that you can feel whole. And, you know, meditation. Again, if I go back to the science, it's about creating space between thoughts. So oftentimes, what happens is we have one thought that goes to another, and it's a continuum. And so when I go for a walk, as I did this morning with my dog, and I knew I was going to talk about active meditation today, I felt I needed to practice it again because it's not easy. It's not easy for us to just take that time and be present.

And so what I thought about, I put an intention into my walk. I set a little opportunity of gratitude that my body was healthy to walk my dog. And I set out. And on this morning's walk, I observed what my dog might find. You know, it sounds silly, but he found this napkin and was curious about the napkin. And then he moved on to a tree, and it was as if each individual thing he went to was suspended in time for him. And so I did the same. I watched the trees, and I took a pause, and I watched the movement of the trees to see how the movement of the leaves and the wind would impact my body and impact my breath.

And I found that that active movement of the trees and the wind that was around me, I was able to match my breath with the feeling of that wind and the breeze and the rustling of the leaves in my body. And so using that opportunity, opportunity to really be curious about what's happening around me and how might I use what's happening around me to really allow my body to be present, allow my breath to be present and not be so anxious about what my next step is or what the next thought is or what the next movement around me is going to be, but really allowing myself to hold space for that and be present in that.

I mentioned early that I also teach a lot of spin classes. And for me, it's that element of movement to music that I. I will say words to my class. I will. I will find what I'm feeling in that moment, and I'll use those phrases for my class, and I'll look up and I'll look out and see their thoughts and see them getting lost in a moment. And I know for that period of time that we all suspended a little bit. And that act of meditation is a form of release. I've had people in my classes start to cry.

I've had people whip their towels. I felt the need to yell and scream and almost do a visceral lion's roar to just release some energy, not knowing exactly what I'm releasing, but finding the space of time. If we think about a day, we have 1440 minutes in a day. And if you take one walk for 45 minutes, let's say that's 4% of your entire day that you spent moving actively to release. Now we have a choice. We can wear our headphones. We can listen to a podcast. We can be on a conference call. We can talk to a friend.

But how might we even, in those moments, find a little space to be able to open up and allow ourselves to really hold space to really be present in that conversation, allow ourselves to feel in our bodies. What's happening in my toe? What am I feeling in my ankle? What do I see? And. Exactly. I love the way you said that, to just look down and see what's around you, what all the beauty is that is available for us. So I invite you to explore with me today, and maybe we check in next Sunday. And if you come back and we talk about another topic for self care on Sunday, what did you observe this week on your walk?

Maybe it's just one. Or maybe you go to a fitness camp class. Maybe you have group classes that you go to, or a peloton or some other modality where you're finding your body to move. And I invite you for just one of those opportunities, to take a few breaths, to set an intention, maybe. And maybe the intention is to feel into my body. Maybe your intention is to feel light when you're done. Maybe your intention is to just feel while you move. And so I invite you to set that little intention, and then as you're going through whatever that movement is, it could be a yoga practice.

Maybe you take three minutes to stretch your body in between a call, take that breath, and feel. Feel what you feel in your body when you start and then feel what you feel in your body when you're done with whatever that movement is. And then what do you notice? What did you observe? It's funny, I have been processing a lot of grief. I mentioned this probably at the very beginning, and I have lost my mom in the last three months. A year prior to that, I lost my dad and my favorite aunt. And inside of all of that, we had to close one of our indoor cycling studios.

And so when I think about what Marigold mentioned is grief can take many, many forms. It can be the loss of a job, it can be a loss of a friendship. It can be loss of a life, an animal, your home that you lived in. And now you move to a new city friend group. And I bring that up because the one thing that has been my consistent whenever I feel a great heaviness is movement. And that might be taking some new classes with a friend. It might be joining class pass, which is an opportunity for you to try a lot of different fitness modalities.

It might be looking on YouTube or seeing what a dance move is on Instagram. I have this lady I follow and she dances. And sometimes I just get up and I try to dance like her. And I'm not good, but I just like that movement. It helps me to feel lighter and it helps me to process whatever energy I might feel stuck in. So I would love to hear from you either in the comments when you watch this or as you go throughout your week, if you tried a tip or a trick, to just be more present and be more in your body as you're moving and meditating.

And I have these cute little cards that sometimes I'll pull out. And on my little intention affirmation card today, it happens to say, go ahead, feel it. Pure, radiating unapologetic joy. So if we think about moving in our bodies and feeling joys in our bodies, how might we move just a little different today, a little different tomorrow to release one thing and create more space, more space for joy, utilizing active meditation to find an opportunity to release. Because when we let go, we create space for something new and magical to come in.

So I invite you to join me to find a little more joy and to create more space to just move, actively meditate, and actively allow our minds to simply be present, to hold space between our thoughts and to let go. I hope you of all have an amazing rest of your day. Whatever your day, feel free to pop in the comments and I look forward to seeing you again. I'll be here tomorrow talking about personal development. m. Central standard time. And while you're at it, maybe check out one of the other main authors that's on Cadre as well.

Have a great day.