Episode 270 | How And Why To Add Mindfulness To Physical Activity With Anne E. Cox, Ph.D.

In this episode, we're discussing how mindful movement can shift the experience of exercise or physical activity for people. This is important because the mindful movement can help people exercise in a way that is more fluid and easier, alleviate pain and with body image something they oftentimes struggle with when they begin an exercise program. Some of you may know that as a kid and adolescent and even into college, I was a gymnast. Mindful movement is something that was comfortable for me.

However, I didn't fully dive into what mindfulness was with regard to movement until about the year 1997. At my first job at St. Vincent's Medical Center, there was a free yoga class that was offered by a yoga studio down the block called Integral Yoga in New York City's Greenwich Village. It has wonderful yoga classes and I became hooked on yoga as a form of mindful movement. Although I've never become certified in yoga, I've done thousands of hours of many different types of yoga methods and techniques. I always recommend it for people with pain. Somewhere around the year 2000, I worked for a practice here in New York City that specialized in Sports and Performing Arts Medicine.

As part of that practice, we use the Pilates method of body conditioning for rehabilitating people with pain, as well as the performing artists and dancers that would come into our clinic. Moving with the mind or mindful movement is a big part of what Joseph Pilates created. He has five principles of mindful movement that he includes in his method, which is called Contrology. They include breathing, centering concentration control as well as precision. You see people bringing in these principles of movement into various types of movement methods and practices.

You'll meet Professor Anne Cox, whose research has been focused on understanding key determinants of physical activity-related behaviors as a professor and a researcher, has completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training and uses the knowledge of mindful movement to examine the effects of yoga on things like mindfulness, body image and the promotion of the physical activity.

In this episode, you'll learn all about mindful movement and how mindfulness shifts the experience of movement or physical activity? How does yoga increase mindfulness and how does being mindful affects body image or physical activity motivation? Without further ado, let's begin and meet Professor Anne Cox and learn how and why to add mindfulness to physical activity.

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