Mindful Movement & Sitting

A practice exploring how we can bring mindfulness into movement 
 You are the expert on yourself and your body, it is important to be gentle with yourself as you explore the sensations of your body. The moments are done very slowly… Notice how that feels. Mindful movement is about cultivating awareness, it is not a competition with yourself, or with anyone else.

Transcript

Mindful movement followed by a sitting practice.

Even though these movements are very gentle,

Very slow,

You are the expert on yourself and your body and it's important to be gentle with yourself as you explore the sensations.

Look after yourself during the stretches.

Let the wisdom of your body decide what is okay for you,

How far to go with any stretch and for how long to hold it.

If you have known physical problems,

Then as soon as you feel mild discomfort,

Check in with yourself.

See if you're inclined to push yourself too much.

Instead,

You could try holding the position for as long as it seems okay to do so and then back off a little.

Moment by moment,

Make wise choices about whether to hold any position for a little longer to explore the sensations or to let go of this posture and move on.

You may discover that discomfort comes and goes with the ebb and flow of sensations.

You may discover that you're used to listening to your mind rather than your body.

The movements are done very slowly.

Notice how that feels.

Physical movement is about cultivating awareness.

It's not a competition with yourself or with anybody else.

To beginning by standing with feet shoulder width apart,

Knees unlocked,

Head balanced on top of the spine,

Shoulders relaxed and dropped,

Arms hanging beside the body.

Breathing naturally.

The invitation here is to deliberately practice holding the sensations of the body in kind,

Interested gentle awareness.

Really becoming aware of your feet and the contact with the floor beneath you.

Really spreading out the toes,

Becoming aware of the four corners of the feet,

The big toe,

The little toe,

The heel.

A real sense of connection,

Feeling the body grounding and moving your awareness gradually up from the feet through the ankles into the legs.

Feeling really aware of the sensations of standing.

As we move into stretching without striving,

Know that all of these stretches can be done whilst sitting.

Take particular care if you have any injuries.

Noticing your soft and hard edges.

And whether you're standing or sitting now,

On your next in breath,

Slowly and mindfully raise your arms out to the sides,

Parallel to the floor.

And then after breathing out,

Continue on the next in breath,

Raising them slowly and mindfully,

Until the hands are raised above the head,

Just to where it feels right for you.

While the arms are moving,

See if you can be fully alive to the sensations in the muscles as they work to lift the arms and then maintain them in the stretch.

Letting the breath move slowly in and out freely at its own pace.

Continue to stretch upward,

Fingertips gently pushing towards the sky,

Feet firmly grounded on the floor.

Feel the sensations of stretch in the muscles,

The joints of your body,

Wherever they're presenting themselves.

Remember this isn't about how far you can stretch,

But it's the quality of kindly,

Curious awareness that you can bring.

As you maintain this stretch,

Notice what's happening to your breathing.

Allow it to flow freely in and out,

Remain open to any changes in the sensations and feelings in the body with each in breath and each out breath.

Continuing to hold the stretch just for as long as is right for you.

If you notice sensations of increasing tension or discomfort,

Can you open up to this as well?

At a certain point when you are ready,

Slowly,

Very slowly on the out breath,

Allowing the arms to come back down,

Slowly,

Slowly,

Really feeling the changing sensations as the arms come down.

Slowly,

Slowly,

Perhaps feeling the clothes moving on the surface of your skin,

Really following the sensations with a close attention until your arms come back to rest,

Hanging from the shoulders.

If your eyes have been open,

You might wish to close them now,

Bringing your awareness on the movements of the breath and the sensations,

The feelings throughout the body as you stand here or sit here,

Perhaps noticing the after effects of doing this stretch.

Then opening the eyes and very,

Very slowly,

Mindfully stretching one arm and hand up as if you were picking fruit from a tree that's just out of reach.

Slowly,

Slowly,

With full awareness of the sensations throughout the body and of the breath as you look up beyond the fingers,

Allowing the opposite heel to the outstretched arm to come off the floor as you stretch,

Feeling that stretch right through your body from the outstretched fingers of one hand to the toes of the opposite foot.

Whenever feels right for you,

As you begin to let go of the stretch,

Allow the heel to come back to the floor,

Beginning to lower the hand,

Following the fingers of your hand with your eyes if you choose,

Noticing the colors and the shapes that your eyes drink in as you follow your hand down,

Slowly,

Slowly.

Let's really become aware of the possibility of stretching without striving and allowing the arms to come down,

Resting.

Let your eyes close,

Tuning into the after effects of that stretch.

Any difference between the left and right hand side?

Before we open our eyes and stretch to pick fruit with the other hand,

So mindfully stretching the arm and hand up,

Slowly,

Slowly,

With full awareness of the sensations throughout the body and of the breath as you look up beyond the fingers,

Allowing the opposite heel to the outstretched arm to come off the floor as you stretch,

Really tuning into the sensations of that stretch right through your body from the fingers of the one hand to the toes of the opposite foot.

And then as you let go of the stretch,

Allowing the heel to come back to the floor,

Slowly,

Slowly lowering the hand,

Following your fingers with your eyes,

Gentle awareness of the colors and shapes as you lower the hand down,

Coming back to face center,

Both arms hanging by your side,

Closing the eyes,

Tuning into the after effects of that stretch.

Stretching without striving,

Allowing the eyes to open and slowly,

Mindfully putting your hands on your hips,

Allow the top part of your body to stretch to the left with the hips moving a little to the right,

So the body forms a curve,

A crescent moon shape,

Rather like a banana.

And imagine you're doing this between two large panes of glass,

Front and back,

So you're keeping your body in a single plane rather than allowing it to bend forward or backward,

Feeling the stretch in the sides of the body.

Become aware of your breathing,

Taking slow,

Deep breaths,

Feeling the stretch.

And on an in breath,

Slowly coming back to standing,

And on an out breath,

Slowly stretch,

Forming a curve,

A crescent moon in the opposite direction.

Remember it's not important how much you bend sideways.

You might even feel like you're standing still.

What's important here is the quality of attention that you bring to the movement.

What are the sensations in the body?

What happens to your breath?

On an in breath,

Slowly come back to standing,

Allow your eyes to close,

Acknowledge how your body feels.

Finally,

Playing with rolling the shoulders while letting your arms dangle passively.

Just raising the shoulders upwards towards the ears as far as they'll go,

And then backward as if you were attempting to draw the shoulder blades together,

And then letting them drop down completely,

And squeezing the shoulders together in front of the body as far as they'll go as if you were trying to touch them together,

And up towards the ears and back again.

And let your breath determine the speed of rotation so that you're breathing in for half the movement and breathing out for the other half.

Just in one direction,

And then changing direction.

Aware of the movements,

The feeling,

The sensation,

Noticing any judgments,

Any stories coming to mind,

And awareness of that,

And then seeing if you can drop that and come back to the feeling.

The sensation of the body.

And as you allow the sequence of movements to draw to a close,

Remain standing or sitting still.

Let the eyes close,

Take a few slower,

Deeper breaths.

Tune into the sensations from your body.

And then moving to a comfortable sitting position.

So settling into a comfortable seated position,

Aware of the sensations of contact,

The feet on the floor,

The body on the chair or cushion.

Aware of that lower half of the body,

A sense of grounding down,

Rising up through the length of the spine,

And anchoring your attention with the sensations of breathing.

Noticing where you notice the sensations of breathing and using that as your anchor point.

There's no need to try to control the breath,

Let the breath breathe itself.

Noticing whenever the mind wanders away,

And gently but deliberately bringing it back.

Sat deliver.

Straight forward.

Senator move.

Expanding your awareness to include the whole body if there's any intensity,

An emotion or sensation choosing for yourself if it feels right to explore,

To feel into it kindly curiosity whether you choose to return to your anchor acknowledging whatever's here resting in stillness resting in awareness resting in being

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌺🌷🌺🌷🌺Thank you so much for the wonderful movements 🦋it is so soft and harmonious 🌸I’m feeling wonderfully 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste