Written by Founder and CEO, Sara Potler LaHayne
Mindfulness and meditation are officially buzzwords.
You’ve seen them in headlines, blogs, videos, tweets, and somewhere on your new company workplace policy.
These words are being thrown around so much that they’re now being conflated or used interchangeably.
However similar, meditation and mindfulness are not the same thing. A bit like rectangles and squares, you can’t really meditate without being mindful, but you certainly don’t need to meditate in order to be mindful.
That’s where Move This World hits the sweet spot, in our curriculum and in our own individual daily rituals.
Though we often include meditation as part of our daily practice, we also harness movement, creativity, and joy to access our inner most thoughts and feelings, authentically.
For me, this means beginning each day with the Artist’s Way Morning Pages and a good workout.
The Artist’s Way has proven very effective at unlocking inhibitions and allowing me to uncover interests, curiosities, and questions that provoke action and change. Other ways to unlock this energy include painting, choreographing movement, taking photos of what inspires you, or keeping a journal.
Working out has always been my bread and butter. Engaging in embodied practices–like sweating, running, biking, or dancing–connect our minds and bodies, which allows our bodies to understand what we’re processing in our brains, and vice versa. Sweating and moving releases energy and endorphins, awakening our expansive, creative, loving self.
Rituals like these allow us to relax our minds and bodies, and comforts us to be open to the creative practice. They get us into a flow, enabling us to ride the ups and downs of life with grace.
When we are in a state of flow, when we are engaged in activities and work that fill us up with happiness and satisfaction, we are functioning at the highest versions of ourselves. We are accessing our sense of purpose and doing work and activity that matters. We are finding the intersection of our heart’s deep gladness and the world’s greatest need.
To put it simply: it’s the heart of the empathy revolution.
You can certainly tap into this energy through meditation. But it’s far from the only way.
By harnessing the power of creativity and joy in our daily rituals, Move This World opens up all of our channels to mindfulness.
We cultivate exuberance, play, and movement to connect with our bodies and with others simultaneously. We embolden self-expression as a means of collective connection. We share with one another as a way of making ourselves stronger.
Though research-based, nontraditional mindfulness practices, Move This World achieves measurable outcomes and impact.
So don’t let anyone confine your path to mindfulness to traditional preconceived notions.
We don’t. And we know it works anyway.
