I love what I do, teaching restorative movement. I’m consistently amazed at how the simplest change in our day-to-day movements can make a huge difference in how our body feels. As we move it is important to direct our attention to what is happening in our bodies.

In my classes, I typically begin with the most difficult thing to teach, relaxation. Once the group begins to get a sense of how it feels to move in a relaxed way, the next natural step is to introduce the concept of body awareness. 

Our modern lifestyle offers many distractions that draw our attention away from what is happening within us. Wellness demands a more balanced perspective that uses internal cues in addition to external ones to navigate our experiences. Restorative movement techniques are designed with slow, gentle, and purposeful movement to begin to retrain the nervous system to amplify internal messages from our body and draw our attention to those messages.

Body awareness refers to the ability to perceive and understand our own physical sensations, movements, and posture. It involves being conscious of our body in space and time and being able to identify and control our movements. Understanding how our body feels, such as noticing tension or relaxation in different parts of the body, optimizes physical movement, balance and coordination, and overall physical and emotional well-being.