Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1501042
L i s te n to T h e A B M P Po d c a s t a t a b m p.co m /p o d c a s t s o r w h e reve r yo u a cce s s yo u r favo r i te p o d c a s t s 33 WHAT IF? What if you used "feeling good" as the primary directive for how and why you move (and rest)? What if you moved simply because it feels good? What if you moved not for the sake of fixing, aligning, looking a certain way, or weighing a certain number (although these are all reliable side effects of moving)? What if you chose instead to be a mindful mover simply because it feels good to move? We believe you can live your entire life without ever doing an "exercise," and still be healthy. Instead, enjoy mindful movements every day to feel happy, smart, and refreshed. Together, we can refine our artistry and happiness by creating a lifestyle of mindful movements before, during, and beyond our sessions. Perhaps allow your movement practice to become so natural that it's not what you do, it becomes who you are. Remember: There is no limit to the improvement of movement. Our lifelong wish to all healers is to embody the possibility that you are a living, breathing, moving work of art—inspired by feeling good and inspiring others to do the same! Notes 1. Harvard Health Blog, "How Simply Moving Benefi ts Your Mental Health," March 28, 2016, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how- simply-moving-benefi ts-your-mental-health-201603289350. 2. Michael Slepian and Nalini Ambady, "Fluid Movement and Creativity," Journal of Experimental Psychology General 141, no. 4 (2012), www.researchgate.net/ publication/221849417_Fluid_Movement_and_Creativity. Heath and Nicole Reed are co-founders of Living Metta (living "loving kindness"), a continuing education company now offering touch therapy tools and self-care practices in their online community. Try their community free for 30 days at livingmetta.com/trial. Enjoy free resources or become a member at livingmetta.com. VIDEO: "MINDFUL MOVEMENT" 1. Open your camera 2. Scan the code 3. Tap on notification 4. Watch! Train Track Lunging Step your right foot 2–3 feet behind you and balance on the right ball of your foot. Be sure your feet are hip-width apart like you are standing on train tracks (rather than a tightrope). Now, raise your arms over head, interlace your fi ngers, and press the heels of your palms overhead. Enjoy a few deep breaths as you gently reach up and extend back. While you are reaching back, try lifting and dropping the back right heel up and down six times. This will open your plantar fascia and hip fl exors at the same time and often leads to several pleasant autocorrections in the many bones and joints of the feet and ankles. Pause with the ankle lifts as you take the hip fl exors and front body for a deeper stretch by sidebending your torso to the left over your bent knee and simultaneously pressing your right heel toward the ground. Luxuriate in this systemic stretching and strengthening of the entire posterior kinetic chain. Repeat on your opposite side. This series of movements helps reset and stabilize the alignment of your feet, ankles, knees, and hips, all while improving balance and coordination, and providing a head-to-toe full- body integration. Where did you feel it the most?