By Beth Dayo

During a recent session, a new client described feeling "blind" to the harmful ways they hold and use their body. They recognized these patterns as wrong or harmful but felt powerless to change them, unsure how to stay conscious enough to shift the habits. Sound familiar?

I encounter this with every client—and in myself. It's the art of awareness, also known as mindfulness or the mind-body connection. While these ideas may seem out of reach, they're surprisingly simple. With guidance, anyone can identify harmful patterns in their body and begin to unwind them, leading to better mobility, improved reflexes, and more efficient movement—freeing up energy for life.

I use the metaphor of rearranging furniture to explain this phenomenon. Imagine your couch or desk is always in the same spot—so familiar you barely notice it. It’s just there, as expected and unremarkable. Similarly, this is how we experience our body. Like our furniture, our body is so used to its patterns, even if that pattern involves pain, we may not truly notice it, or remark on it. Even reading this, you may notice a body part that is hurting or positioned weirdly that you’re ignoring.

Now, imagine your furniture being rearranged while you were at work. You come home and are confused and may even trip over the shoe shelf that doesn’t belong there. In that moment, you are suddenly alert, and fully present. This is awareness, mindfulness, body-mind connection. It is the noticing of your experience and all things in it. 

When the movement or exercise you do centers this noticing at its foundation, you are not just getting stronger, losing weight or achieving a goal. You are getting to know your body, empowering you to change it in profound ways. You cannot remedy what you don’t notice or can’t feel. This is why friendly and even professional advice often falls flat.  Gaining ownership of this awareness amplifies your effectiveness not just in your body but in all areas of your life. 

Movement is always good for you, but movement designed around awareness, that “rearranges your furniture” so you can truly feel your body, is life changing. It becomes an integrated tool you can use anytime to navigate life’s challenges with greater ease and grace.  Isn’t that a worthwhile reason to exercise? After all, what good is a “perfect” body if it feels terrible to achieve or live in it?

Beth Dayo, the creator of Life in the Body, a pathway to whole body living, has been serving clients in West Seattle for 14 years. She teaches these principles and practices to unlock the transformative power of mindful movement at her studio Bend N Move on Delridge.