Welcome to a guided office yoga meditation and breathing exercise break.
This will give you a little time to refocus the mind,
Relax the mind,
And when you return to your work after this brief 10 minute meditation,
You'll feel more refreshed,
Be able to make better decisions,
Think clear,
Even multitask better.
Sometimes when we're busy,
We think we have no time to meditate,
But in fact that's the most important time to take a pause so that we can return to our workday or tasks with more ease and focus.
So to begin,
Sit tall.
If you're sitting at your desk,
You can turn away from the computer,
Let the eyes close,
Place the feet on the floor,
Sit away from the chair back so you can sit tall and be alert.
If you're sick or not feeling well,
You can do this lying down as well,
But for focusing the mind,
It's most useful for meditation benefits to stay upright so that you can focus versus relaxing.
We still want to relax,
But stay sitting tall in the chair so the head is centered over spine and you're clear yet relaxed.
Place your hands on your legs.
There's no right or wrong way.
You can interlock the fingers or rest the hands on the thigh.
And just start to take some slow deep breaths,
Feeling the body,
Bringing awareness into the body and into the breath,
Away from the busyness of the workday or the tasks you were working on and just letting the mind be present.
As you inhale,
Sit taller.
As you exhale,
Relax into your body.
Now wiggle your toes and then relax the toes.
Just sense now the toes and bottoms of the feet.
Maybe noticing the temperature,
Whatever part of your foot touches your socks or shoes or floor.
Take a slow breath in through the nose,
Long breath out,
Keeping connected to the earth,
Feeling the feet rooted on the ground.
Then notice the legs and the base of the body in the chair.
As you inhale,
Sit a little taller,
Exhale,
Relaxing and now noticing the stomach,
Letting go of any extra holding or tensions in the stomach.
Feel your back,
The strength of the back,
Yet relaxing as you breathe.
Just being present.
Now lift the shoulders up to the ears as you inhale,
Shrug,
Exhale,
Drop and relax.
This will help get rid of extra tension we hold in the shoulders,
Often from holding the mouse or typing all day or tensions of the workday.
Repeat,
Eyes can stay closed,
Inhale,
Shrug the shoulders,
Exhale,
Drop.
Try that on your own a few times.
You may even want to exhale through the mouth,
Perhaps a big sigh,
Really letting go.
Inhale through the nose,
Shoulders lift,
Exhale,
Deep sigh,
Letting go.
Now just let the shoulders relax.
If you still notice tension in the shoulders,
You can try circling the shoulders a few times and then letting them relax.
Now with just your awareness,
Notice your arms and hands.
Perhaps notice the texture of wherever your hands touch,
Either each other or the legs.
Notice the temperature in the hands.
Take a slow breath in,
Long breath out.
Now notice the neck and throat and the position of the head over spine.
Notice our chin goes a little bit forward when we're at the computer all day or on our phones.
So with eyes closed,
Pull the chin a little back towards throat,
Lengthening back of neck,
Feeling the head centered over spine,
Almost like a flower over the stem.
Imagine the top of head being pulled up by a string.
So feet are rooting into earth,
Spine lengthening,
Crown of head rising.
Now relax all the muscles around the jaw and face,
Almost like you're looking out at the face.
Notice if you're holding extra tension above the eyebrows or jaw and let it relax.
Sometimes we squint or if we're wearing glasses,
Can have extra tension above eyebrows.
So now let it soften.
Now that we've done a body scan and some tense and release exercises to relax the muscles,
We're going to go a little deeper within,
Letting the mind now concentrate on breath.
So sitting still,
Start to deepen the breath in through the nose,
Comfortable breath out through nose.
And on your own,
You're going to count four seconds in,
Four to eight seconds out.
This is a calming breath and can help us focus and relax.
So at your own pace now,
Count four seconds on your inhale,
Four to eight seconds on your exhale.
Make it comfortable.
At the end of exhale,
You can even pull navel in towards spine to get a little more air out,
But make sure the body's relaxed and no tension.
Four seconds in,
Breathing four to eight seconds out.
Slower exhale,
A little longer exhale tends to have a calming effect on the nervous system and then the mind.
Try that a few more rounds.
All the focus on breath,
Letting everything else be in the background.
Inhale,
Slow,
Four seconds at your own pace.
Exhale four to eight seconds out.
Now you can continue with that for the next few minutes of our silent meditation,
Or just simply let the breath be as is without trying to count or breathe any specific way now.
Just notice your natural rhythm of breath,
Letting the mind relax within.
When we meditate,
Instead of trying to stop the mind,
Just focus on one point,
In this case the breath.
When the mind gets distracted,
Bring it back to breath without judging.
The mind naturally may have many thoughts,
So just do your best to focus and over time it does settle.
Observing breath now,
Just like watching waves in the ocean.
Inhale and exhale.
You don't have to count,
Just watch the breath,
Being a silent witness.
You can continue to stay here meditating in silence,
Even when this recording ends.
If you just wanted that 10 minute break,
Keep the eyes closed and start to slowly deepen the breath without moving the body yet.
Inhale through the nose,
Slow,
Long exhale.
Imagine you're inhaling energy,
We call prana in yoga,
Like chi,
Our vital energy.
Long exhale.
Try three times on your own,
Inhaling a refreshing breath,
Bringing energy.
Clarity.
Enthusiasm.
Exhale,
Letting go anything you don't need.
And now if you have to return to work,
Let's stretch the arms overhead,
Energize the body with a nice stretch.
Reach the arms up.
You can pretend you're picking something off a tree,
Reach one arm then the other,
Lengthening side body or interlock fingers,
Stretch the fingers up to the sky,
Turn the palms up or any movement that feels good,
Energizing the body.
No right or wrong.
You know your body best.
Then shake the hands out overhead,
Lowering the hands back to the lap.
Take a moment now with eyes closed and just pause.
Sit still for one more moment.
Feel the effects of your 10 minute office yoga meditation break.
My name is Stacey and I hope you enjoy this.
I've been enjoying sharing and teaching yoga for over 25 years for companies and know this helps so take your office yoga breaks as much as you need so you can return to work with more ease.
Have a great day.
Namaste.
