Mindfulness and Exercise: The Magnificent Correlation

Within my own educational journey, mindfulness has been a greatly studied topic of mine. Mindfulness is the ability to look within oneself and find true presence as well as awareness within and around oneself. This is a very hard concept to grasp, and especially with how much of our lives tend to happen on autopilot, it is easy to forget the importance of mindfulness. We talk a lot about mind body connection in exercise, which is simply mindfulness put into action. This is a good way to implement mindfulness into your everyday life- starting small with exercise patterns and hopefully expanding that with some practice!

A cool thing about mindfulness is it allows us to become stronger as well as a larger force to be reckoned with. It improves cognition, sleep, memory and in regards to exercise, our body. Think about how often you are told to engage the muscles you are working during a workout. The ability to focus fully on one aspect of our body improves its ability to function: cognition and movement works hand and hand. This can add to the effect we receive from a workout, as well as a good way to notice what is safe for our bodies to perform or what hurts. Being able to implement this mindfulness practice within a workout is a great stepping stone to improving mindfulness throughout the day. 

As I have gotten better at this connection, my implementation in other aspects of my life have started to increase. Recently, I’ve started with listening to my five senses the first time I step out onto my front porch in the mornings. The birds, the wind, the brick beneath my feet, the chill from the air and the brightness from the sunshine. When I walk to and from my day to day responsibilities, I like to think about the locomotion of my legs and take time to notice images and colors happening around me. Now don’t get me wrong. I still drive on autopilot sometimes, walk and realize I got to my destination yet don't remember a thing I saw on the way,  but noticing that and pulling yourself back into the present comes with time and is a beautiful thing. 

When I notice myself feeling frantic and speeding through my day, I like to stop and feel myself breathe. Notice the deep, slow breaths I am taking, how the air fills up my lungs, and audibly sigh out to remind myself I am in this place at this moment.  

I challenge you to give it a try 🙂

See ya,

Madalyn