wellness
Maude Hirst
Maude Hirst is a yoga
and meditation teacher
based in London, UK.
She shares knowledge
about many mindfulness
practices on her website
(energyrise.co.uk), and
also teachers classes at
Re:Mind meditation studio
(remindstudio.com).Find a space where you can be totally alone. Turn on some calming,
sensual music, close your eyes and allow yourself to move freely.
Be guided by your body and the breath rather than the mind. Take
a moment to notice how you feel afterwards. It can be the most
empowering feeling to switch off from the logical mind and be fully
connected to your body. Take this feeling with you as you continue
with the rest of your day.Move your body
Maude shares a simple movement meditation
you can practice in the comfort of your home“It helped me to
reconnect to parts
of myself that
I had forgotten”
accompanied by breath and visualisation
practices. It helped me to suddenly listen
to my instincts in a new way. I had been
unaware that most of the movements I was
making in my body were coming from my
mind. I realised that my whole life, I’d been
constantly thinking about, and being
conscious of, how I thought I should move,
instead of actually listening to what my body
wanted to do naturally. It was incredibly
liberating, allowing me to find a new freedom
of movement that helped me to reconnect
to parts of myself that I had forgotten or
been ignoring.
Upon researching this topic further,
I discovered that this restriction of movement
is common in all of us. Before the age of two,
we have thousands of movements that the
body does naturally, helping us to express
how we feel moment by moment. By the
time we reach our adult life, this is reduced
significantly because we become conscious
of how we look as we move, comparing
ourselves to others. A movement practice,
such as Scott’s, is designed to reconnect
us to that childlike freedom, where there
is no judgment, no right or wrong, just an
exploration into our body, strengthening
the mind and body connection.
Inspired, I started to incorporate these
ideas into my meditation practice, creating
something which I now refer to as elemental
movement meditation and share in my own
classes. Each class takes a similar format,hoping to reconnect back to your body
and intuition.
With eye masks on, I guide everyone into
a meditative state and then the soundtrack
(carefully designed in collaboration with
sound designer Barney Quinton) begins.
We travel through each of the elements,
earth, fire, water and air, connecting with the
breath and beginning to explore movement
in each. As we’re all wearing eye masks, it
immediately stops being a practice of
comparison to the person next to you or
replication of the teacher; instead, everyone
can begin to explore movement in our own
unique way, creating a practice of trust in
ourselves and our bodies. Even just 30
minutes of this is enough to have an impact,
giving you an opportunity to step away from
the overthinking mind and listen to your
body and breath. It can leave you feeling
powerful, totally connected to yourself and
calmer, both mentally and physically.
Each different kind of movement or
meditation practice has its own unique
benefits, all of which are useful at different
times. I’d highly recommend trying as many
different practices as you can until you find
the one that resonates the most. However,
I believe that our contemporary lifestyle
presents us with different needs and
challenges to those of generations past, so
our choice of practice should match these
changes. It is important to find a practice that
allows us to both reflect inwardly to discover
how we are feeling and have an external
physical component to help shift our energy- rather than storing it in our bodies – which
will allow us to feel fully liberated in all
areas of our life.
Photog
raphy^ @grit
siw
oni
a^