Can a mindful movement-based program contribute to health? Results of a pre-post intervention study

BACKGROUND: Mindful movement integrates interoceptive, proprioceptive, kinesthetic, tactile, spatial, emotional, psychological, and relational aspects ‘through’ and ‘into’ movement and is expected to contribute to individuals’ health. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of a mindful movement-based program (named Movimento Biologico, MB) on participants’ psychological well-being (PWB), positive mental health (PMH), sense of coherence (SOC), and interoceptive awareness. METHODS: We set up a training program based on MB for students attending the Degree in Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Perugia, Italy. The program included one session per week for a total of 8 weeks and 48 hours. Participants were requested to fill in four questionnaires before and after the MB program: 1) 18-item PWB scale; 2) 9-item PMH scale; 3) 13-item SOC scale; 4) 32-item scale for Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed to determine whether the MB program produced a significant difference in post-intervention scores. A p-value of less than 0.05 was deemed statistically significant. RESULTS: 38 students (mean age 21.2 years; range 20-25; 60.5% males) attended the MB program. The majority of the MAIA subscales, including noticing (p = 0.003), attention management (p = 0,002), emotional awareness (p = 0.007), self-regulation (p = 0.001), body listening (p = 0.001), and trusting (p = 0.001), improved significantly after the MB program. A significant increase also occurred in the PMH score (p = 0.015) whereas SOC and PWB improved, but not significantly. CONCLUSIONS: The MB program significantly enhanced participants’ psychological well-being and interoceptive awareness. This can be due to the positive physiological sensation recognition and management, a deeper connection between physical sensations and emotional states, and a greater perception of one's own body's reliability. KEY MESSAGES: • Mindful movement is a practice based on the integration of more physical aspects with emotional, psychological, and relational ones and can contribute to individuals’ health. • This study showed that a mindful movement-based training program for university students in significantly improved participants’ psychological well-being and interoceptive awareness.