How Small Movements Can Create Change in Your Body
To paraphrase Saul David Raye, it’s not easy being a divine soul in a human body on Planet Earth in the year 2024. Between the news, and the daily stuff, (like childcare and house repairs) it sometimes feels hard to clear my head. It’s hard to keep going.
I’m grateful for my yoga practice. Yoga Nidra, Ayurveda, and yoga philosophy give me clarity of mind. Rest practices nurture and heal. Movement practices reduce aches and pains, improve energy, and give me fuel to do my work.
There’s such a need for therapeutic yoga practices in our lives. And one of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned from these practices is that, although it’s cliche, less really is more.
My yoga therapy clients are often surprised at the power of small, slow movements. So often, people have been striving to do more – when in fact, healing often requires that they do less. This isn’t necessarily easy. Sometimes it can be really hard to slow down and make space for smaller movements or even rest. It feels like a waste of time.
Then, clients are sometimes shocked when they find simple movements challenging, fatigue quickly, or wake up the next day feeling like they worked out. And the really amazing part is how quickly they can start to feel better. Because they slowed down and did less.
So WHY does doing less work so well?
I don’t think we have a definitive answer to this question, but there are a few really plausible reasons based on what I understand from the yoga tradition, pain science, and my experience.
- It’s not how you usually do things.
Doing less is a new stimulus – it makes what you’re doing more salient, giving your brain a heads up that what’s happening is important. It also gives different input for your tissue, and creates more balance in your whole system. - It’s easier to pay attention to your body.
This allows you to build a more complete map of your symptoms, understand your body better, and improve your proprioception (sense of where your body is in space), stability, and coordination. - It’s easier to pay attention to your mind.
Noticing your thoughts, beliefs, and patterns of behavior that may be contributing to your symptoms can be a powerful accelerator for your healing journey. - It conserves and builds your inner resources.
Doing less gives you an opportunity to experience what it’s like to have a “full tank” and what it feels like to be drained.
What does doing less look like in a yoga practice? Click below to try a short “less is more” yoga therapy sequence.
It can seem like magic. Honestly, it still makes my skin tingle to witness it, even after all these times. It’s not magic, though.
It’s all about working with your nervous system, growing your control and ease of movement, and allowing your body-mind system to experience what it’s like not to have to struggle so much. Less really IS more when it comes to healing.
