Impact of Slow Rhythmic Movement on State of Coherence and Integrative Wellbeing

The focus of this paper is the study and evaluation of the effect of a short slow rhythmic movement practice on state of coherence and perceived wellbeing. The practice was made available via video during the Covid-19 pandemic.

An integrative wellbeing model grounded in autopoietic theory of self-organisation in living systems was used to inform the evaluation of impact and ensure the relevance of the data. More specifically, data quality was enhanced by focusing the participants’ awareness on their immediate embodied experience of physical, emotional and relational wellbeing, sense of meaning, valence and activation.

The slow movement practice was found to have a positive impact on physical and emotional wellbeing, valence and sense of meaning. The changes that these entrainments produced were measurable and significant with a large size for physical and emotional wellbeing, sense of meaning, and a medium effect size for valence. This suggests there are potential health benefits to slow movement interventions and there is a need for further research into the impact of slow movement on health. Linking the rhythmic slow movement with resonating music is suggested for enhancing impact.