Having just experienced this year’s Universal Medicine Health Retreat in Vietnam, one of the main points (amongst an absolute jammed pack 5 days of gems) that has really stood out for us is the importance of taking the quality of our being into movement – movement including all the various ways in which we express.

So what does this actually mean? Well, what we have been exploring and discovering over the past few years and which was strongly re-emphasized at this retreat is that movement is more than meets the eye. In fact, it includes that too (the movement of the eyelids) – everything from how we walk, to how we stand up and sit down, to the gesture of our hands, to the way we speak as well as the obvious very physical movements that make up our day.

Everything that we do is a movement. And if we pay attention to the HOW we move, we can start to sense if it is happening from a place of connection with ourselves and our body or not.

What we have found useful to develop our quality of being in all our movements (i.e in how we live) is to take some pause moments, perhaps by connecting and feeling our gentle breath or by being still and bringing attention to the body and connecting deeper to a feeling of stillness within. This stillness within is that part of us that is always there and remains untouched by the stresses and impositions of life.

We then offer ourselves the gift of our movements to initiate from this space, from this innate feeling and quality of stillness. At first the quality may be a little difficult to hold, but what we have found supportive is to keep bringing the focus back to the quality, make it a priority, make it your  “good medicine” to move from that inner connection.

Now why would we do this? Because it feels lovely and is purposeful to move in a way where we are connected with our essence.

Initiating our movements from a place of quality and presence builds a deeper and ongoing connection to our body and ourselves, and it steers us naturally to be more self-nurturing and self-honouring in all that we do.

Bringing quality to our everyday movements, to the way we live also deepens and expands the love in our body, a love that we then share with all of those we come into contact with.

And when we are with our body in what we do, those thoughts that sometimes drive us a little crazy – well they drop away because we are not giving them attention as we make how we move our focus, the priority in all that we do. A sure way to see a change in our thought patterns towards a more harmonious way of thinking – approaching the mind through the quality of the movements of our body, through the quality of the way we live.

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Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Yoga/Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Connective Tissue TherapyEsoteric Healing and Massage at their clinic in Balmain , Northern Beaches and Cammeray.  Contact us for enquiries or bookings.

Universal Medicine Retreats are offered each year in three locations; Hoi An in Vietnam, Lennox Head in Australia and Frome (Somerset) in the UK. Click here for more information on these health retreats.