Identifying Key Ingredients of Meditative Movement

Background and Purpose: Meditative movement has become a common non-clinical intervention to address physical and mental ailments. This has been demonstrated by the “2012 National Health Interview Survey, [which states that] the use of yoga, tai chi, and qi gong has been increasing for over a decade and has nearly doubled from 2002 to 2012” (Green, n.d.). This overarching category includes the following practices: Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qigong. However, further research needs to be done into what ingredients constitute meditative movement and relay powerful effects such as lowering anxiety, depression, and/or blood pressure etc. for practitioners of the exercise. This paper will detail how the Meditative Movement Component Identification Tool (MCCIT) was developed and how a preliminary test of the MMCIT resulted in four overall components. This tool will serve as an instrument to assess the fidelity of meditative movement studies in the future. Methods: The MCCIT categories were extracted and chosen from a literature review of current articles on qigong, tai chi, and yoga, and overall meditative movement. There was a focus on articles that outlined ingredients significant for the type of exercise. Then the twelve selected components were reviewed using videos that were small 3–5-minute digital nuggets of meditative movement. Results: In a components analysis of the MMCIT, three factors: mind and body fluidity (α=.656) , breath (α=.991), inner calm (α=.760), and one potential factor: movement perception (α=.351) arose. Mind and body fluidity, breath, and inner calm subscales show item reliability, but movement perception needs further investigation. Conclusion: Mind and body fluidity, breath, and inner calm subscales show strong potential for being part of a tool used to ensure there is delivery of a meditative movement in an intervention with it in the protocol. However, the movement perception subscale needs to be reworked. The presence of nature and energy in meditative movement need to be further explored in a study with more participants, as well.