Welcome to Stretch Your Body,
Stretch Your Mind.
May the next 15 minutes allow you to feel better,
Different.
Feeling better doesn't have to be complicated or difficult.
It truly is adopting small habits that in time will give you more energy,
Positivity,
A sense of well-being and joy.
So let's start by rubbing our hands together.
Feel the energy and heat building.
Now place them over your eyes.
Feel the warmth under your hands.
Relax and bring your hands to your sides.
Give yourself a jaw stretch.
Open your mouth wide and then smile and do that a few times.
Let's roll our shoulders up and back.
Bring your shoulders up to your ears and then rolling your shoulder blades back and squeezing your shoulder blades together.
And just move through that.
Now take a big inhale and exhale longer.
Take an inhale and roll your chin to your chest.
Hold it there as you stretch your neck.
Inhale and move your head to a neutral position and just tilt your head to your right side and hold.
Now slowly move your head to the other shoulder and stretch that side.
Bringing your head neutral,
Take a deep breath in and inhale your arms all the way to the ceiling,
Lowering your shoulders.
Spread your fingers and press your arms to the wall behind you.
Bring your hands to your sides and do that a few times.
Inhaling up,
Opening the chest,
Squeezing the shoulder blades as you bring your hands to your sides.
Your true compassion is the ability to see the deep connectedness between ourselves and others.
In this moment,
May you allow this deep understanding to open your heart to receive.
So close your eyes.
I want you to visualize yourself standing on a frozen lake.
Breathe into this experience.
The sun is shining brightly overhead and it penetrates through you,
Warming you.
Your hair is crisp and you sense the power of the frozen lake and the life that lives underneath the surface.
You feel the winter's cold.
You understand its power.
And then you notice the ice where it has expanded and it's grown and it's cracked.
Our journey of life is sometimes filled with brokenness,
But that is when the light gets into our souls.
That is where true growth occurs.
With your brokenness,
You stand strong.
You know that you are filled with light and it is ever burning within you and it is always growing and it shines through to others.
You also know that seasons change.
Life changes.
What happens with the changing of seasons?
Ice turns once more to water.
Newness sprouts and all hope is renewed.
As seasons change,
You change.
You are not the same calendar,
Not the same location.
You can change as quickly as the sun rises.
So breathe in courage.
And breathe out fear.
Breathe in hope.
And breathe out despair.
Breathe in light.
And breathe out darkness.
It is impossible to avoid all pain and suffering during a lifetime.
Setbacks have a larger meaning and purpose.
You are light within the world,
So embrace that power.
It cannot be hidden,
Just like the life that thrives under the frozen lake.
When we light a candle,
Do we turn our backs to it or do we savor the flickering,
Unpredictable levels of its flame and see the resulting shadows that grow from its glow?
You are that glow and the light that you give grows beyond your physical limits.
Let your light shine as you stretch your body and stretch your mind.
Let the light shine as you stretch your mind.
Let the light shine as you stretch your mind.
Let the light shine as you stretch your mind.
Let the light shine as you stretch your mind.
Let the light shine as you stretch your mind.
Stretching is uncomfortable and sometimes we choose to let excuses enter.
And we allow our internal voice to maybe take control.
But that is when we look away from the statements that say,
I'm not enough.
I'm not worth it.
Why am I doing this?
I want to give up.
I want to quit.
I don't want to do the things that I know I have to do.
We let the excuses fade.
And we silence the internal voice and we say,
I want to do the things that ultimately bring me to my truest self.
I choose to take the steps that systematically help me design my best life.
I want to engage and commit myself to change and improvement.
I will stay in hope and invest in myself.
I want to stretch my body and stretch my mind.
I want to make my life better.
I want to make my life better.
Slowly draw awareness to your presence once more.
Your breathing.
How your body feels.
And rub your hands together once more and raise them to cover your eyes and breathe calmly and be aware of this self soothing moment.
Lower your hands to your sides.
I'm nowhaus you don't want to now.
Slowly open your eyes and blink them a few times.
Whatever season you are in right now,
Know that there is purpose.
Know that you will stretch your body and your mind will grow and you will become stronger.
You will expand and allow.
May you rise with a renewed sense of self.
You have arrived.
