Mindful Moving Meditation (MBSR) | 30 Minutes

Mindful movement is an important component of the MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) program and aims to focus mindfulness on the body and movement in the present moment. The goal of mindful movement in MBSR encompasses several aspects: Developing body awareness, reducing stress and relaxation, improving posture and flexibility, and promoting holistic well-being. Regularly practicing mindful movement as part of MBSR can help strengthen the connection between body and mind, increase well-being, and develop a healthier way of dealing with stress and challenges. Free introductory MBSR videos are available on my website, along with a complete MBSR online video course.

Transcript

Welcome to this 30-minute mindful moving meditation.

The intention of this practice is to become aware of our body in movement and in silence.

We bring our attention into the body,

Noticing the limits of our body.

So playing with our limits but not going above them,

So not going into pain.

We want to explore what is possible and what is too much.

The attitude we bring is patience,

Non-striving and acceptance.

And now let's start with this meditation.

First,

We want to find the mountain position where we stand shoulder-wide apart.

The arms are relaxed besides our body and we are breathing here,

Feeling the weight in our feet,

Grounding and arriving in this moment.

Let's begin by dropping our head to the front and then moving from side to side in a half circle,

Sensing how it feels in the neck and how far can we go on each side,

Playing around and seeing what's possible and we do not want to go into any pain.

Being fully aware as we are exploring the sensations of this movement.

Then coming to a neutral position with the head and then letting it drop onto the back.

And again moving the head here from side to side in a half circle,

Maybe noticing how there's some tension from the chest muscles in this position and while we're doing this also becoming aware how we are breathing right now.

And then letting go of this and bringing the head to a neutral position once again and simply sensing into our sensations in the neck and the throat what's here for you right now.

Bringing some movement now into the shoulders,

Maybe doing very small circles and slowly getting bigger with the circles until we are as big as we can be.

What can we notice in the shoulders right now?

And then slowly getting smaller and coming to a stop with the moving of the shoulders and then reversing the circles.

Maybe starting with very big circles and slowly becoming smaller until we make very small circles with our shoulders.

Sensing into our shoulders what can we feel in the shoulders right now?

Right now bones,

Muscles,

Ligaments.

Coming to a stop now,

Entering the mountain position and simply noticing what's here right now.

Maybe we feel how the shoulders are a little warmer,

Maybe we can feel an increased blood flow or maybe something else.

What can you observe?

In case our mind has taken us somewhere else,

Becoming aware of this and then gently but firmly coming back,

Coming back to my voice and into our body.

Sensing maybe into the feet,

Into the breath and grounding ourselves.

Then we are starting to bring some movement into the arms.

Maybe doing small circles with the arms,

Maybe getting bigger.

And if you wish you can also include moving your wrists at the same time.

Doing whatever movement with the arms and the wrists,

The hands that feel good to you right now.

This is not a competition,

There's no right or wrong.

Simply bringing the awareness into the movement as we are doing it.

Slowly getting smaller with the movements of the arms and coming to a neutral position,

The mountain position.

Simply feeling into our body,

Feeling into our arms and hands right now.

Maybe we can feel more warmth in our body.

Maybe we can feel more warmth,

More looseness or relaxedness.

Whatever it is,

Simply being with it here right now.

Bringing some movement now into the hips.

So maybe placing our hands onto the hips and then start circling.

If it feels right,

Start circling our hips the left way around.

And maybe we want to do big circles or small circles.

Simply doing that movement that feels good to us right now.

Observing what we can feel right now in this movement.

Maybe there's some tension,

Some looseness,

Some warmth,

Some cold.

Simply allowing that to be here and exploring.

Maybe now coming to a stop and going to the other side.

So circling with our hips to the right.

Doing small circles or big circles.

And finally we start to play around with our hips,

Doing the movement that feels right.

So maybe going into the areas of tension and see if we can loosen it up a little bit by breathing into them,

Breathing into the muscles.

Breathing into them,

Breathing out of them and simply softening into them through movement.

Respecting our limits,

What's possible and what's too much.

Letting go of this movement and coming back to a stop.

Entering the mountain position and sensing into the legs,

The breath,

Grounding ourselves.

Noticing how maybe the temperature in the hips has changed or it got more loose,

More relaxed,

Heavier or maybe no change at all.

In case we have drifted off,

Then simply becoming aware that this just happened,

We can then decide to stay there or coming back to this present moment.

Back into the breath,

Back into our body,

Grounding ourselves,

Arriving in this moment.

Now we start to spread our legs more than shoulder-wide and that way get a little stretch in our groins.

How does this stretch feel like?

How does this stretch feel like?

Maybe moving a little bit to the left and to the right,

So using our knees to lower our body and giving us that extra stretch.

It doesn't matter how far we get,

It's important to simply feel into the body and respecting our limits as we are doing so.

Then bringing our upper body to a neutral position and now letting it drop in front.

So letting go of the arms and the head.

Maybe we are touching the ground with our hands or maybe not.

There's no right or wrong,

Simply getting into the position that gives us a slight stretch in the legs and maybe in the lower back.

If it feels right,

Maybe moving a little bit with our upper body to the left and the right,

Massaging our hips and lower back.

We are practicing to simply be with our breath,

With our movement and in this moment.

Letting go of the head,

Simply sensing the stretch.

It doesn't matter what it looks like.

Just feeling the body and being fully present.

And then slowly we come in an upright position.

So stacking vertebra on vertebra.

Feeling how the spine gets straight.

And when we are standing upright with the spine,

Then taking the shoulders back.

Rolling up the neck and bringing our head balanced on top of the spine.

Then bringing our feet together,

Coming back into a mountain position.

Noticing what we can feel.

Maybe sensing how the legs are a little bit warmer.

What do the feet feel like?

What's the breath like?

Simply taking a couple moments and arriving,

Grounding and letting go.

Letting go now of the mountain position and coming back into a mountain position.

Letting go now of the mountain position and going into the next movement.

For that we are standing onto one foot.

And the other foot we start to slowly lift and notice how the weight is shifting.

Noticing how we are a little bit instable as our body has to start working.

And then we are lifting the knee up,

Coming to a 90 degree angle.

And then bringing the leg to the sides.

And then slowly lowering our leg without touching the ground.

And then once again raising the knee up,

Bringing it to the side,

Opening our hips and bringing the leg down again.

Repeating this.

In case it's hard to keep the balance,

We can always support ourselves by holding on to a wall.

Maybe noticing how we get warm.

And that's okay.

Practicing really being in this leg.

And when it feels right,

Maybe reversing the movement.

So first opening up our hips and then lifting our leg.

Bringing it back to center and lowering our leg.

Repeating this again.

How does that feel?

Maybe that's more difficult than the movement before or maybe not.

Then slowly bringing the leg to the ground,

Sensing how the weight is shifting.

Bringing the leg to the ground,

Sensing into the legs the breath.

What's here?

Maybe one leg is warmer and the other one is colder.

Slowly now changing the legs and putting all the weight on one leg and lifting the other leg slowly from the ground.

Maybe this is more difficult than before.

Maybe you want to hold on to the wall to support us and that's all right.

We do what we can.

And then when you're ready,

Lifting up the knee in front and then bringing it to the side and then lowering it once again and repeating this again.

And repeating this again.

So really practicing being in the movement,

Being in the leg,

In the hips.

What does this feel like right now?

When it feels right,

Maybe reversing the cycle now.

So first we bring the leg to the side,

Then bring the knee up and take the knee to center again so that we can lower our leg then and repeat that same movement.

And in case we have twisted off,

Simply coming back to this movement.

And then slowly we bring this leg onto the ground,

Coming into mountain position.

Simply arriving at this moment,

Grounding ourselves.

Feeling to the breath and the body.

Then again,

Standing on one leg and lifting up the other leg so that we can start circling our feet.

Sensing into the moving toes,

The foot,

The ankle,

The knee,

The hip.

What can you notice?

And when you are ready,

Reversing the movement,

Going around the other way with the same foot.

Reversing the movement,

Going around the other way with the same foot.

Then coming to a stop,

Having the feet parallel now.

And then doing the same thing with the other foot.

So lifting it slowly up,

Making sure the toes touch the mat or the ground and start circling.

Is it possible to be in this movement fully without drifting off?

Really sensing into the toes and the foot.

And then maybe going the other way around.

See how this feels.

And then letting go of this movement and coming back to a neutral position,

The mountain position,

Sensing into the body and the breath.

What's here right now?

Contact points against the floor,

The breath,

The air against the face.

And then we'll sit onto the ground.

Spreading our legs and maybe supporting our upper body with the hands.

So practicing bringing some stretch into the inner side of the body.

The front of our thighs.

And as this happens,

Simply sensing it,

Feeling it,

Observing it.

Maybe it's possible to bring our upper body more to the front and thus increasing our stretch.

Perhaps that's easy to do or maybe impossible.

And that's all right.

There's no right or wrong here.

Simply getting into a stretch for your body.

Respecting our limits.

Can we let go of our resistance to become more flexible or reach a certain outcome?

And simply letting go.

Being in this experience,

In this stretch right now.

Then moving on now to the next stretch.

For that we'll bring the legs together and start to bring our hands towards our feet.

Maybe we can reach our feet or maybe we cannot.

And that's okay.

Simply respecting our limits and feeling into the stretch.

Feeling the stretch on the back side of our legs and maybe in the back.

If you wish you can also bend your knees slightly so that you can bring your upper body a little bit more towards the feet and thus taking some tension out of the stretch.

We do it in a way that feels good to us.

It doesn't matter how it looks.

This is just about really being in the stretch,

Being in the body,

Being present.

Being present.

What does the breath feel like?

Letting go of this position and coming onto the ground,

Lying down.

Bringing both our knees up and hugging them towards our chest with our arms.

Breathing out,

Bringing our knees closer to the chest.

Breathing in,

Letting go.

When it feels right,

Slightly moving our knees from side to side and thus massaging our lower back.

We're letting go.

We soften.

Then slowly we let go of our legs,

Stretching them out to a distance that feels good to us.

And also the arms we let go and place them besides our body onto the ground.

We now enter this last position where we simply allow ourselves to be here and sensing into our body,

Into the breath.

Maybe noticing different temperatures and different body parts.

Maybe there's still some tension here and if possible,

Maybe breathing into and out of them.

Letting go and becoming a little bit heavier.

And then slowly we bring this meditation to a close.

And then slowly we bring this meditation to an end.

As we are lying here,

Maybe becoming aware of how our body becomes a little heavier.

How the air enters and leaves the body.

Becoming aware of the entire body,

From the soles of the feet to the top of the head.

And then we are coming slowly back to the room.

Becoming aware of what body shape we are making right now on the floor.

Noticing sounds now within us,

Such as the breath.

Or sounds inside the room or from outside.

And then we can introduce some movement into our body,

Maybe moving the feet.

The hands or the head.

Starting to stretch in whatever way feels good to us right now.

And then slowly opening the eyes and fully coming back to the room.

And with that,

This mindful moving meditation is now over.

Complete.