Mindfully Moving Toward Resilience
Presented by Cheryl Van Demark
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Intentional resilience building is an often overlooked yet critical asset to successful rehabilitation. Fundamental, evidence-based skill sets to build resilience can be integrated into self-care plans to support optimal healing for patients and to nurture the health professionals who serve them. Each course in this series features a facet of the science of resilience, then offers an experiential component that can be immediately applied to home practice or used in a clinical setting.
This course will explore perspectives on how mindful movement builds human resilience beyond physical fitness. The skill of interoception (inner body sensing) is described for application to clinical practice. The relationship between resilience and interoception for promoting self-regulation is featured. Useful cues for integrating mindful movement into daily activities are presented. The course will benefit health professionals who wish to move more mindfully themselves and will be useful for anyone training others to enhance their physical activity.
Meet your instructor
Cheryl Van Demark
Cheryl Van Demark is a physical therapist, yoga therapist, and yoga teacher with a master’s degree in physical education and exercise science. She is approaching 40 years of helping individuals optimize body alignment, restore movement, build strength, and cultivate a balance in body, mind, and spirit to pursue joyful living.…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Moving Into Resilience
Movement is a great gift. Its scope of contribution to human resilience goes far beyond its benefit to fitness. Yogic action is defined, and its purposes are described. Impairment of movement perception and quality with chronic illness, particularly chronic low back pain, is discussed, offering additional important facets to be included in rehabilitation.
2. The Science of Resilience Relevant to Movement
Resilience refers to positive adaptation to stressors in ways that extend to the impact of physical activity at the cellular level. Mindfulness in our movement shifts our attention to more deeply sensing our movement experience. Yoga has informed much of what we now refer to as mindful movement. While mindfulness directs our attention, it is different than developing body awareness and interoception. Whether health professionals are applying these skills in personal self-care or in clinical practice, they are helpful in training to increase physical activity and deepen our mind-body relationship in ways that build resilience and well-being.
3. Experiencing and Facilitating Mindful Movement
Mindfulness enhances our sense of embodiment and enriches our mind-body relationship. We can train our attention to experience the qualitative aspects of movement in our ADLs and fitness activities as a pathway to developing better interoceptive skills. As we practice this ourselves, we can help patients become curious about the qualitative experience of their physical activities and perhaps gain insight in identifying barriers to physical activity.
