Sense Aware Movement

In this movement-based mindfulness meditation, the mind and body unite in the present moment. With gentle awareness, notice each sensation, breath, and movement without judgment. Cultivate mindfulness and presence as you flow with grace and intention, connecting deeply with your body and the present moment.

Transcript

All right,

So as we are just settling in on this Wednesday evening,

As I just came back from a walk,

So I can sense my body still being really warm,

And I was walking by the river and looking at some parts of the river were already melted,

And it looked like a beautiful crystal clear space where there was a reflection of the buildings and trees and light.

It was beautiful.

And then just 20-30 meters away from that part,

There were blocks of ice and one part of the river completely frozen still.

And we concluded that we wouldn't dare really to walk on or try how thick the ice was,

But just noticing this moment of transition when the nature is transitioning from melting and waking up,

And parts are still being cold and carrying these signs of winter.

So let us now also,

As we are transitioning,

And maybe some parts are warm from everything that has been happening through the day,

Already melted and in acceptance,

And maybe in some parts of our body,

Mind as well,

There is some resistance,

Some closing,

Some freezing,

Not really opening to what is.

So regardless of what is present,

Let us just slowly and gently exhale first,

Letting your exhale just be a little bit longer,

And then noticing that moment when the inhale brings the new breath in,

Gently,

Slowly,

And then another long breath of exhale.

The breath to bring some ease,

The ease of familiarity,

And yet the ease of curiosity.

And if you wish,

You may bring your hand to your heart,

Your chest area,

Or your belly,

And just let your hands rest in your lap,

As a reminder that you can always anchor this presence also by feeling sense of kindness,

Especially as we open up to the sensing of familiarity of the breath.

Sometimes let it happen just automatically.

Let us open up to that existence of breath,

Existence of breath,

Just with a little bit of kindness to ourselves.

As with each new breath comes new sense of life,

And with each moment of the experience of life,

You open up to the sense of whole and sense of suffering as well.

May we now begin to explore this space between our hand on the chest,

Or the belly,

Or resting in our lap,

And the inhale and exhale coming in and out of our body,

Just like the ocean comes to the shore.

Notice from time to time your mind wanders,

It drifts away,

Brings some memories,

Or some thinking patterns about future.

As you notice that,

Gently come back to your hand,

To your breath.

If you begin to explore your whole body,

How it is right now,

How it's holding itself,

Or your neck is holding your head,

Or your shoulders holding your neck,

Your hips holding the upper body,

Are your legs crossed or uncrossed?

And then gently and kindly,

One more time,

Coming back to the breath.

Just breathing,

Sensing breathing,

Fully surrendering yourself to the breath.

Notice how deep your breath goes.

Now let your whole chest expand and accept the breath fully.

Let your belly be open to the breath,

Allowing this rhythm of the breathing to feel each and every cell of your body,

I mean,

Alive with your breath.

Notice that you may even be thinking of breathing,

Observing the breath.

Let yourself fully surrender,

Allowing the breath to touch you,

Let your senses be open to it.

Breathing,

Gently releasing the awareness of breath,

The sensation,

And letting your mind release and be free.

Just letting yourself be exactly as you are in this moment.

Whenever you're ready,

You may open your eyes or shrug your palms together,

And then cover your eyes before opening them up.

Being kind to your eyes.

Notice that this kind of breathing brings a lot of warmth to my body.

I tend to,

You know,

Like sometimes even feel the little sweat coming down my spine or my neck.

Sometimes that feels pleasant,

Sometimes unpleasant.

Yeah,

I'm also wondering if there is anything alive for any of you.

You may share in the chat if there is space for that.

I have been just looking at the date and thinking of last week at this time,

I was actually recovering from my surgery,

Minor surgery.

And then for this past week,

It's been really interesting,

This awareness of how important it was for the body to come back to its optimal self.

And I,

Yeah,

Thank you for sharing.

I see that someone else had a surgery too.

And it's,

There is something when we receive the instructions that we need to take it easy with the body coming back to its optimal self.

And then how a couple of times I would forget about that.

And then I would think like,

Oh,

Well,

For sure this is okay.

Like if I eat this,

Or if I just maybe walk a little bit faster,

And then the body has such a quick way to give feedback and say,

No,

I'm not okay with that.

And then pain reminds us of what the boundaries are.

Yes,

Sounds familiar.

Right.

Yes.

Exactly.

Seeing the reactions.

Yeah.

So this feedback,

Pain feedback,

Right?

It's very peculiar how we learn from pain.

And sometimes we can,

Yeah,

The winter and spring are in the same day.

Yeah.

So when we are reminded of the boundaries through pain,

We can sometimes learn the lesson very quickly.

You know,

Like it's when the parent tells the child,

Don't go near the oven or stove,

It's very hot,

Right?

Like,

And don't touch it,

Don't touch it,

You will burn yourself,

Don't touch it,

You will burn yourself.

But until the child really touches and burns themselves,

They don't really know what that exactly means.

So sometimes it's important to also learn that way.

Right.

But I also noticed that after my body gives me that feedback that there is pain present and that I really need to respect it,

I then become overly cautious.

And then I kind of like can go into the other direction and then I can be a little bit more static than I'm afraid to take risks or I'm afraid to even make any movement or I will go and say,

Oh,

No,

I can't do anything.

Right.

Because there was that moment of when I felt,

Got that feedback that my body is not fully recovered.

Yeah.

And body can become rigid in that process.

Right.

Like,

So and then when the body is rigid,

When we tense then because we have fear that of hurting ourselves additionally,

Then that tension itself is actually hurting the body.

And this is how our mind can actually contribute to kind of like creating this extra pain.

So now here,

Then here I am,

I'm not moving,

So I'm not causing doing extra movement and I'm not doing much.

I'm,

Let's say,

Just lying down,

But my mind is worried because I experienced pain and now I'm thinking like,

Oh,

I can't do anything.

So this is when the mind begins to control and then the mind is going to because of that control and that sense of creating very strict boundaries and acting from a like putting fear upon us,

Then the body tenses up,

The muscles are not relaxed and then it's going to take a longer time to recover.

And it goes like that.

That's the vicious cycle,

Right?

Like it can go like that for over and over again until we kind of like,

Yeah,

Learn to do it in some other way.

So how can we experience pain?

And yet,

Even though the pain teaches us about boundaries,

That we can at the same time be fully open and also have the wisdom of knowing ourselves and knowing what is exactly the kind of like the scope of our what is right and what is wrong for ourselves,

Not because someone else tells us,

Not because we need to listen to the doctor,

But because we really have that wisdom.

I know what feels right and I know that that is working as well.

Because on the other side,

We have a lot of things that other people tell us that it's right,

But it's not working for us.

A diet or even exercise is highly harmful,

But we keep going for it because somebody else says that it's good,

Right?

So this wisdom of the body is so important.

I heard this expression in Chinese that is very new for me.

I have not heard it like that before,

Or maybe it was the right moment that I was listening to someone talking and the word is 觉知,

Like the sense,

知 like knowledge or awareness or maybe even wisdom,

And 运动 like movement,

Sense aware movement,

Right?

Like the movement with awareness,

Yeah,

Awareness is right,

Yeah,

Thank you.

And so now,

Like if we are in a continuous space,

So it's not some,

There are some practices that bring more of that than the others,

But if we can bring that to ourselves,

And as I'm speaking,

I'm noticing there's adjustment of the posture and everything,

Right?

So it's really about the invitation to go and check in with the body of where is it,

Where am I right now?

And some parts of the body are going to be easier to access than the others.

So may notice that maybe from the meditation it's much easier to connect maybe with the nose or even chest,

Maybe if we are placing our hand on the chest or even noticing our shoulders,

Right?

Even,

You know,

Like being,

Like feeling our feet on the floor.

So just for the moment try to check if you can go to some part of your body that you don't necessarily go that often,

Like your elbows for example,

And notice how your elbows are placed right now,

Or perhaps noticing just the lower back,

The area perhaps that is directly opposite from your belly button,

Just that part of your back.

And if you can't really go there with your mind,

Perhaps you can just touch it gently with your hand,

Just to feel if you can go there.

And when we do that,

Or maybe just place your hands over your knees,

Feeling the warmth of your hands on your knees,

And when we begin to do that,

When we begin to bring awareness with the sensations,

Not awareness just like only thinking about it,

But being open to the sensational awareness,

Then we can begin truly to open to life.

And also to,

In our practice and also,

You know,

Daily life,

When we do that,

When we enter our body to,

I don't know about you,

But I tend to do things a little bit too seriously at times.

I can focus really hard and then I notice that my forehead is a little bit kind of like wrinkled,

And I put so much attention into where I'm going,

But if we can do it lightly,

Almost playfully,

Right?

And not trying too hard,

Just noticing,

Yeah,

Even through a hug,

Exactly.

Right now in your body,

All those blood cells flowing.

Right now,

Each and every pore of your skin breathing.

There might be places in your body that feel a little bit frozen,

And you haven't been there for a while,

You haven't visited,

And if it's frozen,

It's going to feel numb.

So,

Notice if you can bring your hands to that part of the body where there is numbness or some pain,

And just letting your body receive a gentle,

Soothing touch.

You may also bring your breath,

And allow your breath to go into that part of the body,

Just as if you're breathing with your skin,

Because you are all the time gently noticing how your soothing touch rests on any part of the body that might need that connection,

Using the awareness of that sensation,

And noticing what is your hand providing right now for that part of the body.

Will it be warmth,

Support,

Perhaps ease or protection,

Anything else that might be present for you?

And sometimes we might be feeling also some sense of pressure,

Or maybe demand.

This could mean that you're putting too much attention to your hand,

Or trying to provide something for that place.

Could you soften your awareness just a little,

Soften your touch as well?

And then gently allowing the small circular movement,

Beginning at the bottom of your spine,

Like at the tailbone,

And just allowing this small circular movement to begin to take your body,

Allowing it to bring the movement from the bottom of the spine all the way up to your shoulders,

Perhaps where shoulders are the movement is a little bit even bigger,

Like letting little circles move clockwise,

Counterclockwise.

You may roll your neck,

Allowing your neck to accept those circular movements,

And continuing to keep that awareness of sensations as the neck moves.

If we do it too fast,

We can't be aware of every movement.

If we do too slow,

We might lose the movement.

And then pausing for a moment,

And just allowing the movement to continue to be alive inside,

And then noticing the movement that comes from your breath,

Sensation of the breath filling up your chest,

Your belly.

Notice the quality of your awareness.

Could you soften a little,

Warm up to it a little,

Letting a sense of joy become alive in you?

For no reason,

Just like that.

Breathing in,

I am aware I am breathing in.

Breathing in,

I let life touch my whole body.

Breathing out,

I know I am breathing out.

Breathing out,

I let all old energy release and bring relaxation through my whole body.

Still,

I am aware of the movement inside of my body,

The movement inside of my body.

I am also aware of sitting still.

Gently allowing your body now to purposefully move in whichever direction you might be.

Rolling your shoulders,

Or moving your spine,

Neck,

Just letting the movement from inside be expressed outside.

Seeming to be aware of any discomfort or pain that might be present,

Or release,

Whatever is alive.

And then opening your eyes whenever you are ready and just letting yourself be exactly as you are.