Can Movement Help You Meditate? The Science of Breath, Movement and Stillness

At Higher State Meditations, we teach meditation a little differently: through movement.

If you have spent the day answering emails, driving, solving problems, caring for children, sitting in meetings, absorbing information and generally operating at full speed, your body may still be carrying all of that energy when you finally sit down to meditate.

Your shoulders may be tight, jaw clenched, breathing shallow and mind still racing.

And then we ask the whole system to suddenly become quiet?

Your body may need a bridge.

Can movement help you meditate?

Yes. For many people, deliberate movement before meditation can make sitting still feel much more accessible.

The movement does not need to be intense or complicated. It might involve rolling the shoulders, gently moving the spine, twisting through the torso, opening and closing the hands, stretching the legs or moving the arms slowly with the breath.

The goal is to give some of the restless physical energy in the body somewhere to go before asking the body to become still.

At Higher State Meditations, we often think of this as preparing the body for meditation rather than forcing meditation onto a body that is not ready for stillness yet.

Why does slow breathing help calm the body?

Breathing is one of the few bodily processes that happens automatically but can also be deliberately controlled.

You do not have to think about breathing to stay alive, but you can choose to slow your breathing, lengthen the exhale, deepen the breath or coordinate it with movement.

When you change the way you breathe, other systems in the body begin responding too.

Research on slow breathing has found changes in vagally mediated heart-rate variability and other measures associated with autonomic regulation. In simple terms, intentionally slowing the breath can influence the systems involved in shifting the body away from a highly activated stress state and toward greater regulation.

This does not mean that one deep breath magically turns off the sympathetic nervous system and switches on the parasympathetic nervous system.

But slow, controlled breathing does communicate with the cardiovascular and autonomic systems in measurable ways.

The breath is one of the ways we can intentionally communicate with the body.

Why combine movement with the breath?

Movement gives the body something to do while the breath creates a rhythm.

An arm rises with an inhale and lowers with an exhale. The spine moves gently as the breathing cycle changes. The shoulders roll. The torso twists. Muscles engage and release. Meanwhile, the mind is given something very obvious to follow.

Move. Breathe. Feel.

That combination can be incredibly useful for people who find it difficult to sit down and immediately focus on the breath.

Instead of trying to drag the mind away from thirty competing thoughts, movement gives attention a physical anchor.

Research on yoga and other mindful movement practices has examined this combination of movement, breath and attention and found effects on measures related to stress, heart rate, heart-rate variability, blood pressure and cortisol.

The research varies depending on the practice being studied, but the general relationship between movement, breathing and regulation is well established enough to take seriously and at Higher State Meditations, we do.

Does mindful movement activate the parasympathetic nervous system?

Movement and breathing can influence autonomic regulation, but it is more accurate to think of this as helping the nervous system regulate rather than simply “turning on” the parasympathetic nervous system. Your autonomic nervous system is constantly adjusting and it responds to breathing, posture, movement, stress, environment, emotion, cardiovascular changes and many other signals.

Slow breathing is especially well studied because it affects heart-rate variability and the interaction between respiration and cardiovascular rhythms. Gentle movement combined with controlled breathing may help create conditions that support a shift away from high arousal and toward greater regulation.

That is why movement can be so useful before meditation.

We are not demanding calm; rather, we are helping create the conditions for it.

Does movement release chemicals that help you feel better?

Yes. The body produces its own chemicals that are involved in mood, pain regulation, reward and feelings of well-being. The world spends a great deal of time talking about stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, but the body also has systems that help us recover from stress and experience pleasure, ease and relief.

Physical activity has been shown to influence the endocannabinoid system, including compounds such as anandamide, which is involved in mood, stress regulation, pain and reward. You can think of this, very loosely, as part of your body's internal pharmacy. That does not mean that a few gentle stretches will instantly create a flood of “happy chemicals,” and it is important not to oversimplify the science; but it does mean that the body has its own built-in systems for regulation and well-being.

Movement, breathing and attention can all participate in those systems.

Does movement literally change the brain and nervous system?

Movement, breathing and meditation can all create measurable physiological changes, but it is better to think of these practices as influencing the brain and nervous system rather than instantly transforming them.

Things that can change with practice: heart rate, respitory rate, heart rate varianility, blood pressure, attention, horomones and fluid movement around the spinal cord and brain.

And over time, repeated meditation and movement practices are associated with changes in attention, emotional regulation and other aspects of brain function.

So yes, you are working with physiology. This is not simply a mental exercise where you tell yourself to calm down and hope for the best. Your body is involved in the practice and that is why we use it.

What does pranayama have to do with meditation?

Pranayama is the yogic practice of consciously regulating the breath.

Long before modern researchers were measuring heart-rate variability or watching cerebrospinal fluid move with MRI machines, yogic traditions were studying the relationship between breathing, attention, energy and mental state.

In those traditions, prana is often described as life force or vital energy, and pranayama refers to practices that intentionally work with that life force through the breath.

Modern approaches use very different language.

Researchers talk about respiratory rate, carbon dioxide, cardiovascular regulation, vagal activity, autonomic function and pulmonary mechanics.

Those are not interchangeable concepts, and modern research should not be used to claim that science has “proven” every ancient yogic teaching; but it is fascinating that traditions developed sophisticated breathing practices thousands of years before we had the technology to measure many of the physiological effects we now know breathing can produce.

Human beings have understood for a very long time that breath changes us.

Why is breath associated with life in so many traditions?

Breath and life are inseparable.

Across cultures and spiritual traditions, breath has long been associated with spirit, energy and life itself. The biblical creation story describes life beginning with the breath of life. Yogic traditions speak about prana. Ancient languages often connect words for breath with words for spirit or life. Modern science describes the same breath very differently. It talks about oxygen exchange, pulmonary function, circulation, nervous-system regulation and cellular metabolism.

All perspectives begin with the same undeniable truth:

Without breath, there is no life. Breath is life happening in real time.

It connects the conscious mind with processes in the body that usually happen without our involvement.

Why does Higher State Meditations use movement before stillness?

Because sometimes asking a highly activated body to become immediately still is asking too much too soon.

At Higher State Meditations, we often use deliberate movement and controlled breathing to help prepare the body and mind for meditation.

We move the shoulders. We move the spine. We engage and release muscles. We coordinate movement with breathing. We give attention something tangible to follow. The goal is not to wear the body out but to help the body arrive.

After a few minutes, something often begins to shift and the breathing slows and the muscles soften. The mind has had time to transition away from whatever came before and THEN we sit.

What is the connection between movement, breath and meditation?

Movement helps engage the body and breath gives the movement rhythm and attention follows both. Together, they can create a bridge between the speed of daily life and the stillness of meditation.

You could call that physiology or youcould call it nervous-system regulation. The yogis might have described it through prana. I sometimes think of it as a little bit of alchemy. It's magical. Really.

How can I try movement before meditation?

Before your next meditation, try spending a few minutes moving first.

Stand or sit somewhere comfortable. Roll the shoulders slowly. Move the arms with the breath. Gently twist through the torso. Move the spine. Open and close the hands. Stretch the legs. Let the breathing slow.

If it feels comfortable, allow the movements to begin following the breath.

Inhale as the body opens or rises and exhale as the body releases or settles. Do not rush and pay attention to what the movement feels like.

Then stop moving.

Sit comfortably and notice your breath.

Notice your body.

Notice your mind.

You do not have to make anything happen.

Just notice whether anything has changed.

That transition is a significant part of how we practice at Higher State Meditations.

We do not always begin with stillness.

You should try it with us sometime.