Hello,
Welcome,
Good morning or afternoon or evening depending on when you're coming to this practice.
This can be a helpful and short practice to do in the morning or after you wake up just to get your body moving a little bit and welcome in some fresh air.
I know for me my body can feel especially tight when I wake up.
So we'll actually begin this practice standing.
So take a moment to get there if you're not already standing.
Let your feet be about hips width apart and take a moment to spread out your toes.
Maybe rock left and right,
Forward and backward on your feet just to spread your weight out evenly across your feet.
And then let there be a slight bend in the knees but very slight just to welcome in a little bit of space into the knees.
Draw your navel in and tuck your tailbone.
Your arms can rest along your side with your palms faced forward or faced inward toward the sides of your body.
And your eyes can be closed or open,
Doesn't matter,
Whatever feels good for you.
Let your shoulders be soft,
Letting gravity pull them down towards the earth and feeling the pull of gravity all the way down through the arms into the hands.
Let there be an openness to the chest but still keeping your navel pulled in,
Your tailbone tucked.
And grow long through your spine all the way out through the crown of your head as if there is a string attached to the top of your head and it is being pulled very gently upwards lengthening the spine.
And just pause here for a moment feeling into the feet,
Feeling into the body,
Feeling yourself connected and rooted to the earth.
Maybe take a few deep breaths.
Just beginning to fill the body with awareness,
With breath.
And on your next inhale begin to let the arms rise up toward the sky,
Bringing your palms to touch over your head,
Arms are long.
And then exhale to pull your hands toward heart center,
Palms still together.
And then again to inhale your arms out wide,
Palms come to touch,
Maybe your gaze lifts toward your hands.
And exhale to draw your hands to heart center.
And one more time on your own breath.
And now bringing your hands to your hips and maybe stepping your feet out just a little wider and begin to make small circles with the hips and seeing if you can link your breath with your movement.
So inhaling as you move the hips forward and exhaling as you move them back.
Just following your own breath as you do this.
And gradually widening your circle.
Still staying with the breath.
Okay,
Now pause and begin to move the other direction but starting again with smaller circles.
Being gentle with the body,
Giving it time and space to unravel,
To wake up.
And again,
Growing the circle a little wider with each breath.
Good.
Now come back into a neutral standing position.
And we will slowly begin to make our way down to the floor to a seated position.
And you might sit on a cushion or maybe a pillow just to elevate your hips slightly above your knees.
You're also welcome to just sit on the floor or in a chair.
And your palms can rest against your thighs.
Let your shoulders soften.
And on an inhale,
Begin to bring your shoulders up towards your ears and exhale to round back,
Pulling the shoulders down the spine.
Again,
Inhale shoulders towards the ears.
And exhale to draw them down and back along the spine.
Do this a couple more times on your own breath.
And now we'll go the other direction,
Inhaling shoulders up towards the ears and exhale to round them forward.
Again,
Inhale to lift the shoulders and exhale to round.
And following your own breath,
Your own rhythm,
And seeing just how much you can welcome in fresh breath.
And notice how your breath and the quality of your breath helps to open up the body.
And bringing your shoulders to a neutral position.
And then begin to drop your right ear towards your right shoulder,
Stretching out the left side of the neck.
And take a deep breath here.
A couple more deep breaths.
Then on an inhale,
Bring your head back to center and drop your left ear to your left shoulder.
And again,
Take a few deep breaths here on your own.
And again,
Seeing if you can lengthen your head away from your shoulder just a little bit with each inhale.
And now on your next exhale,
Slowly drop your chin toward the chest.
Bringing it all the way to the center and pausing here to stretch out the back of your neck.
And then inhale to slowly make your way towards the right,
Pausing if there's an area that feels extra tight.
And then again,
Keeping the chin toward the chest,
Moving it towards center,
And then pausing in the center.
Take a deep breath here.
And then inhale to slowly move the head toward the left shoulder.
And then bring your head back to center.
And lastly,
We're going to take a minute to do a little bit of movement through the hands and some breathing.
So bring your hands out in front of you with your elbows bent.
Your palms can be facing out.
Facing toward your face.
And just begin to move the hands,
Maybe rolling the wrists,
Opening and closing the hands.
And then let that movement work down through the elbows,
Whatever that looks like for you.
Moving the hands,
The forearms.
And now bringing that movement into the upper arms and into the shoulders.
Making larger movements with your arms and still keeping the hands engaged.
And now begin to shake the arms and the hands.
You might make motions with your hands as if you're flicking something from the tips of your fingers.
And shaking,
Shaking,
Shaking.
Keeping your arms up high.
Keep going.
Okay,
Good.
Now pause.
Bring your hands in front of your face so your palms are facing toward your face.
And let your eyes close if they haven't already.
And now just tune into the sensations in your hands.
Noticing any vibrating,
Tingling.
Notice a sense of aliveness in your hands.
Just becoming intimately familiar with what you feel.
Feeling the hands from the inside out.
And now very slowly,
Keeping your eyes closed,
Begin to lower your arms.
So let yourself take a couple minutes to get all the way to your thighs.
Taking your time.
Imagine that if somebody was watching you,
They would barely be able to perceive movement.
And see how closely you can notice the sensations of moving very slowly,
Gently,
Through air,
Through space.
Noticing what it feels like to move so slowly and intentionally.
And taking the next couple breaths to make your way all the way to the thighs,
Letting your palms rest against the thighs.
And begin to tune into the breath.
Notice the quality of the breath.
Becoming familiar with the breath in a non-judgmental way,
If possible.
See if you can meet the breath with curiosity,
With kindness,
With openness.
And enjoying these next few breaths to be in a space of stillness and awareness as you begin the day.
