Moving your physical body before meditating either through a dance, walking, stretching or a workout allows you to clear out the excess stress, tension, thought forms and emotion out of your body. Then when it comes to sitting in presence the body can drop into a space of relaxation much more ease-fully.
Manic monkey minds + over thinking are usually the surface symptom of stress, unresolved trauma, unprocessed emotions and over-doing. Like a hamster stuck on a wheel it is near impossible to go from that state to then shift into zen-like pose and serenity. There is steps required to slow down and shift gears. After 10 years of teaching students to meditate almost always people’s resistance at the beginning is “I can’t do that, my mind just won’t slow down”. My invitation always is, move your body THEN meditate.
There is a reason why so many spiritual paths incorporate a movement practice before meditating. Yoga, Daoist teachings, Qi Gong, Mantra singing, Hands on healing with Reiki. I’ve actually had some of my most profound spiritual experiences during massages, as again with the stress moving out of the muscles and the nervous system getting the green light to relax, bam – the magic of spirit can blossom from within and flow.
All the practices above are methods to clear out the excess thoughts, emotions and stress so that once cleared it’s much easier to sit in mindful presence. From this space the magical doorway of the heart can open into connection, unity and grace. The magic is always within us, we just have to clear out all the clutter that gets in the way to re-connect to it. x Sara