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“Don’t fidget.” That’s what they tell you beginning at a young age, and in yoga, you’re taught the same. The idea, at least in yoga, is that as you consciously release tension through awareness and intentional movement, you begin to settle into stillness and access a more meditative state. Your surroundings recede, your internal focus clarifies, and your inner calm becomes less elusive.
But then it happens. That undeniable impulse to tap your fingers, bounce your knees, clear your throat, shift your weight, pull up your yoga pants, tug on your shirt, or flip a strand of hair off your face. Although these seemingly unnecessary fidgeting movements tend to get a bad rap as “un-yoga-like,” recent research suggests they may be an evolutionarily driven mechanism.
So in between your fidgety self and the version of you who is able to tame your impulses to move, is there one who is more evolved? Science has something to say about that.
What is Fidgeting?
Typically defined as small, non-exercise movements, fidgeting has long been associated with anxiousness, impatience, and a general inability to focus. In social situations, it’s regarded as negative or rude behavior and often considered to reveal feelings of disinterest or boredom. In the yogic setting, it’s typically construed as a willful resistance to the practice.
However, behavioral science suggests the act of fidgeting could also be an innate coping mechanism, one that’s designed to reduce your stress. According to James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., fidgeting is “an innate and healthful drive” for movement and self-regulation that can help direct focus and reduce stress. His research reveals evidence that people tend to be happier as well as healthier when they engage in these small, spontaneous, impulsive movements.
Further exploration suggests fidgeting could provide the necessary stimulation to help focus attention and energy in tasks which traditionally require stillness. One study found that those who were instructed to doodle during a monotonous phone message managed to remember 29 percent more on a surprise memory test than those who remained still.
Research also indicates fidgeting can help modulate our experience during intense situations. In one study, adults took part in a simulation in which they faced a job interview and a mental arithmetic task. Those who were observed fidgeting through displacement behaviors—such as touching their face, biting their lip, or scratching an itch—reported experiencing less stress.
In response to these findings, Levine suggests that the tendency to fidget might be better defined as “a neurologically programmed rhythmic movement of a body part.” In short, he considers it an outward expression of the body’s attempts to regulate energy as it mediates internal motivation and external movement.
When you consider the actions vital to human life—feeding, foraging, and fleeing—it’s no surprise that fidgeting would be the “end product” of our control center in this contemporary world, according to Levine.
What About Fidgeting in Yoga?
For many of us, yoga is an opportunity to explore self-awareness and connection between the mind and body. Could fidgeting contribute to the balance that yoga asks us to explore?
Both asana, or physical poses, and pranayama, or breathwork, teach us that we experience both effort and ease in yoga and in life. Known as sthira and sukha in yoga tradition, this concept asks us to explore finding steadiness in uncomfortable moments and handling discomfort with ease. We are encouraged to work through any stress—and the fidgeting impulses that may accompany it—through pranayama and pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), which act on us both physiologically and psychologically.
If science suggests that fidgeting is a stress-coping mechanism, does it mean that yielding to those tendencies is the only approach to quieting the urge?
“In yoga, the answer is often no,” says Pranidhi Varshney, Ashtanga teacher and founder of Yoga Shala West in Los Angeles. Varshney explains that we have the opportunity to bring consciousness to the unconscious in our yoga practice. “This includes physical behaviors like fidgeting. When we find ourselves engaging in these behaviors, we can take a closer look at them and decide if they are serving us,” says Varshney.
She gently encourages students to bring their focus back to the practice when she notices them playing with their hair or adjusting their clothing. Sometimes these actions may be necessary, says Varshney, although when she observes students lose their focus and examine the state of their nails, she will “gently remind” them to bring their awareness back.
She notices fidgeting most commonly in Savasana. “For some students whose nervous system takes longer to come to a place of balance, it can be incredibly uncomfortable to lie down without moving,” explains Varshney. She quietly encourages them to find a comfortable position, perhaps using props, and to “breathe through the desire to move.”
As Varshney explains, and as many students and teachers of yoga and meditation know from experience, “Only by getting through those first few minutes of discomfort can we find deep rest.”
Lessons From Fidgeting
Perhaps the lesson from both scientific and yogic approaches to fidgeting is that the answer isn’t straightforward. When you experience the urge to let your fidget flow, rather than default either to shaming yourself or unconsciously indulging your instinct, try pausing being curious about what’s behind the need to move. The following insights and questions may help you start to explore your own answers.
1. Consider Movement and Stillness as Equals
We each show up to the yoga mat with unique experiences and perceptions. How we express that, on the yoga mat and otherwise, looks different in each of us. That means we unlock and reveal different parts of ourselves through the practice of yoga in ways we may or may not realize, whether fidgeting, emotional release, or clarity.
As psychiatrist and trauma researcher Bessel A. van der Kolk states in The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, “Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than fear, everything shifts.”
Try to observe the various forces in yourself by recognizing your innate tendency to fidget and being aware of your ability to overcome it. When you become the observer, you can begin to explore these various aspects of yourself, which aligns with the traditional definition of yoga, which is to yoke or to unite.
2. Ask “Why?”
Notice what else may be arising for you when you feel the need to fidget. What mental controls are you using to quiet any movements? Although we rely on the physical practice of yoga to help bring our minds into stillness, our physiological system may be asking something more of us. Listen to what is needed and be curious as to why. It is this type of ongoing negotiation that helps balance self-awareness with self-understanding.
3. Fine-Tune Your Focus
Whether you’re the one fidgeting or it’s someone on the mat alongside, you can work on practicing sense withdrawal each time these distractions from stillness happen. Ultimately, your experience comes down to your perception of what is happening rather than what is actually taking place. Knowing that enables you to determine which stimuli you choose to let go.
Observing yourself also allows you to notice any stories or judgments you create about the stimuli. Consider these distractions from stillness a chance to practice being aware of any irritation or frustration you experience, whether with yourself or others. Stillness is not at destination. It is a state that you sometimes enter, one from which you can observe not only the fluctuations of the mind but the fidgets of the body.
Perhaps the primary takeaway in the moment is to appreciate and accept that these small movements are a sign of the body’s larger adeptness at handling so much more than you are even aware.
