Mindfulness & Movement 1: Introduction & Overview

Slow down with this guided audio that introduces a series of tracks that offer experiential and guided movements. While this audio includes concepts to learn through meditative listening, it also includes guided breathing and grounding.

This track can be listened to while relaxing with your eyes closed, while drawing, or walking. Pause the audio at any time to create more space to slow down, anchor in, and tune in with what’s stirring internally. This track includes a voice recording with no background soundscape, you can choose from Insight Timer's free background audio options by pressing the music note left of the play button.

This track, nor any other by this author, is intended to be a substitute for professional mental health services.

Transcript

In these few minutes that we're going to spend together,

We're going to slow down with some movements that come from a framework called Body-Mind-Centering.

This was developed by a woman named Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen,

And these movements come together to form what she calls the Satisfaction Cycle.

Now,

Before we dive in,

I want to invite you to take a couple of minutes just to let your body get settled,

Maybe taking a few nice deep breaths,

Maybe shaking some of your limbs or stretching your neck or your jaw,

Just noticing what your body might need to get comfortable,

Knowing that we'll have a lot of spaciousness to slow down here,

But you'll also get to just kind of passively listen.

So this is an introductory audio before going into a series of other audio tracks that invite you into actual movement,

Invitations to embody each of the things that we're going to survey in this audio.

Right now,

I invite you to place a hand over your heart or abdomen,

Maybe over your shoulders or legs,

Whatever feels most comfortable to you,

To just connect with your body so that as you listen,

There is this groundedness,

A sense of being anchored in your body being,

What some people talk about as being in your body as you're listening.

And then if you'd like,

You can join me with a really heavy sigh,

Just a deep exhale,

Nice deep breath in,

And you can pause the audio to take any more time to settle in if you'd like to before we begin.

Now,

When you feel ready,

Throughout this whole time,

You get to just listen.

I invite you to be with your body,

To be your body as you listen in,

Just being curious about how the words that I'm speaking connects not only at a head level,

But at a gut level.

And really,

That's why I love this framework so much.

It connects at a visceral level and is simultaneously both so simple and so profound.

And the reality of our lives,

Of existing as humans,

Is that we're not just a thinking being,

We're not just a doing being,

We are a holistic being.

And our bodies,

Our whole self moves through life.

And so while I love spaces to slow down to tune in with what's happening inside,

Those things are not going to cultivate or craft change or transformation or new kinds of rhythms or movements in our life unless we play with actual new movements.

Now,

I want to say from the get-go,

Trying out new movements is risky.

There's no way to get around this.

I just want to acknowledge that and honor that.

And we'll talk about that a little bit more as we get into what these movements are.

So I'm going to tell you a little story to depict what these look like.

And I'll tell you the terms first so that you can hear them throughout the story.

So the terms used in this satisfaction cycle of body-mind centering are yield,

Push,

Reach,

Hold,

And pull.

Now hold and pull go together,

And sometimes hold is referred to as grasp.

I prefer hold over grasp,

So that's why I use that,

But you might see it as grasp in other places.

So listen for those terms as you listen to this story.

Again,

They are yield,

Push,

Reach,

Hold,

And pull.

Now our story will center around a little boy named Jack.

You can imagine Jack as a tiny little baby being held by his mother,

And as he is resting on her chest,

The full weight of his body is yielding into gravity.

He is fully melting and sinking in.

He knows that he is safe.

There is no question as to whether or not he is secure in her arms.

And of course,

As a tiny little baby,

His prefrontal cortex is not developed,

Right?

So he doesn't know that he's safe in this thinking brain,

Cognitive kind of way.

He knows that he is safe in his body,

In his tiny little baby gut.

He knows in her arms,

Resting against her chest,

He can fully sink in to the full weight of gravity.

And then,

One day,

Similar to how Jack yields into his mother's arms,

He's laying on the ground for tummy time,

And he is similarly yielding into the ground beneath him.

His muscles are able to relax,

Not in a way that's collapsed,

But in a way where he knows he is safe and secure right where he's at.

And he doesn't want to be where he is in the room.

He sees something else on the other side of the room,

And he wants to go away from where he is and go toward this other place.

And so he pushes his little arms,

His little legs into the ground,

And ever so slowly,

He works toward successfully crawling,

Having the ability to push against the earth and push against being near a person or a thing that he doesn't want to be near.

Now,

This might also be depicted in the way that he might push against his mother if there's a time that he doesn't want to be held,

Or something just doesn't feel comfortable on his body.

And then we might also consider how this sweet little boy,

As he's growing,

Has this mobility and ability,

This autonomy,

To kind of independently explore the world a little bit more as he's crawling around.

He starts to get really curious about the family cat.

We'll see that he not only wants to crawl toward her,

He also wants to reach out for her fluffy fur.

And so in his curiosity,

He reaches out his little hand,

Wanting to know more about the world that's around him.

Now,

There's a risk here,

Right?

Because this cat might not want to be reached for.

This cat might scratch,

Might bite,

Or maybe just will walk away and not be accessible or reject that reaching that's coming from Jack.

And then as Jack gets accustomed to getting just the tiniest touch of this silky soft,

Long hair of mittens,

He becomes even more enthusiastic about wanting to be near her,

Wanting to savor that softness,

Wanting to savor his love for her.

And he not only reaches out his hands toward her,

But he holds on to her and pulls her close.

Now we can back up for a minute and first imagine this maybe with a stuffed animal or a beloved toy or blanket.

This way of bridging the gap between the world around us and ourselves and cultivating this connection,

This closeness,

This nearness.

Moving from something being a longing,

A longing for closeness,

To savoring that closeness.

And of course,

This is even riskier when it comes to mittens,

Because mittens might scratch or bite even more or run away and hide.

She's not so keen on the idea of being held and pulled close by Jack.

Now I invite you to check in with your breath and check in with your body.

Just noticing if anything's been stirring inside,

Noticing if there's anything that popped up for you.

Maybe it felt good to imagine this sweet little baby resting calmly.

Maybe it felt playful or whimsical to imagine his interactions with the cat.

Or maybe there was some sort of discomfort or numbness or disconnection that came up.

However you experience this story and different pieces of it,

I simply invite you to notice that.

If you'd like to pause the track and spend a little bit of time noticing that,

Tracking with that,

Jotting anything down,

You're more than welcome to do that.

Otherwise,

We're going to talk about how these movements play out in our own lives as adults,

Which will set the stage for the other audio tracks after this,

Where we will play with embodying each of these movements,

Both in the ways that they currently play out in our lives and in ways that we would long to see them play out in our lives.

So this first one,

Yield.

You can think about yielding as kind of settling in,

Sinking in.

If you're familiar with polyvagal theory or work with the nervous system,

You can think about how our body is going to need to have a sense of being safe,

A gut level,

Neuroception sense of,

I am safe,

To really yield,

To really sink in.

And you might think about this if we're on a beach vacation,

Just basking in the warmth of the sun and hearing the waves behind us.

Or you might think about how this plays out or doesn't play out in certain relationships,

Where we feel like we can really just sink in and be.

Or maybe there's this gut level sense of,

Oh no,

I cannot really relax in this relationship,

In this dynamic.

I can't just be.

I have to have my guard up or I have to be doing or I have to be performing.

And then with pushing,

We might think about the ways that we do or don't feel permission to push.

You might think about the ways that we receive the messages about whether or not it's okay for us to explore,

Exercise,

Assert our autonomy,

To say no,

To set boundaries and follow through on those boundaries.

And then with reaching,

We might think about the people,

The dreams,

Anything else in our life that we do or don't reach for,

Knowing that this is inherently risky.

And maybe there was a time in our life where we allowed ourselves to follow through on curiosity,

To reach for things more.

Maybe there are enough experiences like,

Metaphorically,

A cat scratching us or biting us.

You know,

Maybe this happened in certain relationships,

Certain experiences that taught us,

Oh,

It's not even worth the risk of reaching because I'm going to get hurt.

People will hurt me if I reach for them.

People will let me down if I reach for them.

And then last but not least,

With hold and pull,

You can think about how this is even riskier than reaching.

Okay.

And so if we have a sense of it's not safe to reach,

And really we can go all the way back to square one because these build on each other.

If it's not safe enough for me to yield,

If it's not okay for me to reach,

If it's not okay for me to push,

And it's too big of a risk for me to reach,

How in the world am I even going to imagine holding and pulling close?

Whether this is a loved one,

Whether this is a dream,

Whether this is something in our spirituality,

Our relationship with God.

And in all of these,

There are ways that they can go sideways and they can get complex.

Ways that we can feel like,

Okay,

Part of me is able to yield,

But not all of me.

And if that causes some sort of distress in me,

What does that do when I feel like I need to set a boundary,

I need to say no,

And then I also don't feel permission to do that.

And then I feel chaotic or confusing as I'm trying to set boundaries,

As I'm trying to say no.

Or maybe rather than reaching wholeheartedly,

I reach frantically.

Maybe rather than holding or pulling,

I frantically grasp and don't know how to pull something or someone close and also be present and also be in my body.

Now,

These are just a few examples to start to think about these categories.

And so in any ways that they didn't resonate for you,

That's completely fine.

Let that be what it is.

And in whatever ways these did resonate for you,

I invite you just to be curious about that.

To notice how that's settling in your body.

To notice any of the curiosities that are coming up,

Any of the maybe memories,

Maybe even body sensations or discomfort or disconnect.

Whatever it is or is not,

I invite you to just notice that with curiosity,

With compassion,

No judgment.

And before we close,

We'll take a few nice deep breaths together.

But before that,

I want to let you know that the other series of audios that go through each of these,

They will include guided prompts to embody and act out these movements,

Which can be really powerful and can also sometimes be overwhelming to our body.

So as I will say in each of those,

I really encourage you to be mindful of what's happening inside as you explore these movements.

So remember that none of these audios are a substitute for professional mental health services.

And to connect with a safe therapeutic space,

If you would like to explore these more,

That you feel like there's some more support that you would need,

Or even just more support that you would like,

Even if you don't need it,

If there's a sense of,

I would really like to walk through this with someone,

Exploring a therapeutic space where you might be able to do that.

All right,

Now,

Before we take these deep breaths to close,

You can place a hand over your chest,

Over your shoulders,

Over your legs,

Maybe give yourself a hug,

Whatever would feel helpful in this moment.

We'll take three deep breaths.

I'll take them with you.

A slow inhale,

A heavy exhale,

And two more just like that.

All right,

Thank you for joining me.

I'd love to walk through these movements with you in more depth.

And then as you'll see,

The last of these is an invitation to explore how these movements can intersect with our spiritual formation and our relationship with God.

And so if that is something that you're curious about as you explore these movements,

Make sure that you check out that audio as well.