Stretch & Fill - Guided Active Meditation & Breathwork

This active breath meditation with stretching is all done while lying down with eyes closed. Open up through the joints and tight tissues of the body and breathe in fresh prana, blood flow, and nutrients. This stretch, breathe, and relax method allows for gentle healing and rejuvenation. It is perfectly suited for anyone with physical ailments or mobility limitations that make exercise difficult.
Music by Christoper Lloyd Clark, Enlightened Audio

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Stretch and Fill. Today we will be stretching the body open and filling up with more of you, More of your light, More of your essence, Bringing in your light bodies and really stretching into some areas that can be tight and constricted from the density within and around us throughout our lives. So begin by lying down, Either in a bed or on a carpeted surface perhaps and make sure that your head is level with your body. So use no pillow or perhaps a small towel or something soft and small underneath your head. We want to be totally flat. Turn your palms down next to your hips and take a moment and just wiggle around and make sure that you're good and comfortable. We will be opening into the joints and the vertebrae column as well as the fascia and other tight tissues so you may hear or feel some crunching as your body stretches open and also between breaths if your body wants to move or twitch or anything like that just allow your body to rebalance itself physically as needed. We will begin with the legs so flex your feet meaning draw your toes up towards your head as though you're going to try to touch your nose and as your feet are flexed extend through your ankles just like if you were going to try to touch the far wall with your heels. So you're extending through your heels as your toes are flexed up towards your nose. The real important thing here is the movement of extension. You're lengthening from your heart all the way out through your heels and this is creating space in your body in very small subtle ways. So go ahead and release and we're going to bring in the breath. Begin to take a nice deep inhale as you flex your feet and lengthen your heels away from your heart. Inhaling all the way in really challenge yourself to fill your lungs all the way up as you energetically merge your heels away from your heart. And once your breath is completely full on the exhale releasing everything exhale through your mouth as you release your legs completely and allow your breath to naturally settle in between movements. And once again inhaling through your nose flex your toes lengthen through your heels you're merging away from your heart so lengthen lengthen lengthen as you breathe all the way in and see if you can even hold that inhale once your lungs are full for a moment or two and then just release all effort let your legs soften and allow your breath to become natural feel it ebb and flow. One more time take another big slow deep inhale as you gently but firmly merge your heels away from your heart reaching reaching reaching on the inhale and then releasing everything on the exhale and feel your breath settle. Feel what's happening in your hips your knees your ankles and your feet. Now we will move into the arms this will open up through the neck shoulders elbows wrists and fingers. So as you begin another beautiful deep inhale lengthen your fingers away from your heart reaching down towards your heels just like you were going to touch your feet and once again merging into this as you draw your shoulders away from your ears reaching reaching reaching everything towards your feet and on the exhale just releasing all effort and feeling how your breath flows into a new direction. And once again taking a nice long deep breath in as you reach your fingers towards your feet letting your shoulders merge away from your ears feeling the stretch through your neck shoulders elbows wrists and fingers and at the top of your inhale holding it even for a few seconds or for however long you can and then just letting go of all effort. And again drawing a deep deep breath in reaching your fingertips away from your head filling up the lungs all the way holding at the top of your inhale if you can and when you're ready to let go this time exhaling through your mouth just releasing every ounce of effort and control simply feeling what's happening in your breath your shoulders and your arms and your hands. Now we will move up to the head helping to open the vertebrae column even more and stretching through the shoulders and neck and even the back of your head. We have fascia that connects us all through our shoulders neck and head so just feel what's happening as you tuck your chin towards your chest and lengthen out through the crown of your head just like you're going to try to touch the wall behind your head now as you lengthen out like you did with your heels in the other direction. Let the rest of your body be heavy as you do this action to get that nice stretch in your neck. Always be gentle with yourself through these movements and really every movement as you reach energetically you're putting a lot into it yet you're being very aware of your body and moving with ease and grace. So let's begin on another big beautiful inhale tuck your chin to your sternum and lengthen out through the crown of your head just like you're going to try to extend your neck longer. At the top of your inhale maybe hold your breath for a moment or two and when you're ready just releasing all effort let your head drop down and relax. As you simply feel your breath now flowing naturally finding its own flow after this movement. If there are any tight muscles holding on go ahead and release let everything be totally relaxed between movements. And again tuck your chin to your sternum and reach up through the crown of your head reaching reaching reaching as you inhale filling your lungs all the way to the top and once your lungs are full and you hold for a moment or two exhaling releasing all the effort and feeling your breath and your body. Let's do that a third time tucking your chin towards your sternum inhaling filling all the way up as you lengthen your head and this time really as you exhale focus on releasing every ounce of effort. Feel what's happening in your body right now. Welcome more of your pure essence your pure light to meld and merge into these tight spaces helping them to open up and release bringing not just an energetic lightness but a physical lightness as well. And from here we will combine all three movements to really do a grand finale opening within your body. So when you are ready we're gonna flex the feet and lengthen the heels away reach through the fingertips and tuck your chin and lengthen out through your head taking a nice deep inhale now as you lengthen lengthen away from the heart at the top of your inhale holding for a moment or two and when you're ready just releasing everything. Feel how the breath and energy rebalances in your body. We're going to do that again except this time you're going to flex your hands so draw your fingers up just like your feet as though your fingertips are going to reach your chin and you're pressing through the heel of your hand so pressing through your palms so as you flex your fingertips you press your palms towards your feet flexing your toes lengthening through your heels tucking your chin to your sternum and lengthening up through the crown of your head let's take a nice deep breath in as you merge and stretch lengthening everything away from your heart breathing in filling your lungs up completely and at the top of your inhale even holding it for a breath or two feeling this energetic merge very powerfully now and then just exhaling through your mouth releasing every ounce of effort and feeling how the energy and the breath move through your body. Let's do this one final time once again you're going to flex your fingers reaching through the palms of your hands getting a nice stretch through your wrist as you flex your feet lengthen through your heels tuck your chin down to your sternum and lengthen through the crown of your head let's take a nice deep breath in inhaling inhaling lengthening reaching flexing opening and at the top of your inhale see if you can hold that breath maybe a little bit longer this time really feel the full expansion taking place in your body and when you're ready just releasing every muscle every fiber and every ounce of effort feel the energy and the breath taking its own shape and form and movement in your body now. Let's go ahead and direct the energy now to rebalance restabilize and reintegrate for you and relaxing into your breath and feeling nothing more. Thank you so much for joining me today let's just take a moment of gratitude thanking our body our breath and all the energies for doing the work for us have a wonderful day namaste. You