Movement Practice To Release Heavy Or Stuck Energy

In this half-hour practice, we'll move and breathe together using yoga-inspired postures aimed at moving stuck or heavy energy in the body and mind. This is a short and simple way of shifting lethargy, tiredness, stuckness, sadness, or inertia - or indeed anything that has been lingering and weighing you down. The key in this practice is to get out of the mind and into the body and to circulate energy so that we can process, assimilate and move forward. Enjoy!

Music © Courtesy of Chris Collins

Transcript

Welcome to today's meditation.

It's all about helping you to release heavy or stuck energy.

No matter what life has brought you,

No matter what you might be experiencing or holding onto,

This practice should help to shift the energy of the body and the mind and to get things moving so that you can free yourself from stuckness.

This is a movement practice,

So I'm going to invite you to find your way to your feet and to stand with the feet hip width distance apart.

You can look down at the toes,

Spread them and then plant them back down on the floor.

And I really recommend working with your socks off if you can.

Let's take a gentle bend into the knees and tuck the tailbone under.

So sending the pelvis forward and feeling a bit of length opening up through the lower back.

The arms can drop by the sides of the body.

So that we're standing in what's called mountain pose in yoga practice.

Turn the palms to face forward and drop the shoulders down the back.

For a moment let's bring our awareness down into the soles of the feet and imagine that we're growing roots through the feet connecting us deep into the earth.

If you prefer to work with the eyes closed,

I really recommend lowering the lids.

Otherwise just lowering them but keeping them open if you prefer to have them open with a sense of your surroundings.

Can you tune in in this space to the space between your fingers?

Can you tune in to the air circulating across your palms and around your body?

And as you begin to wiggle your fingers,

Can you tune in to the sensation of the tendons rippling through the forearms?

And maybe even of the body just swaying gently in this space.

Like the upper branches of a tree moving in the wind.

Feeling that connection between the feet and the earth.

As you inhale reach the arms up and overhead bringing them to a prayer position.

The fingertips touching,

The palms touching.

You can look up towards the hands.

As you exhale fold forward from the waist spreading the arms out wide.

And coming into a standing forward fold.

You might like to take hold of opposite elbows.

Bending the knees as deeply as you need to to lay the belly on the thighs.

And allow the head to become completely heavy and the neck relaxed.

If you wish to just turn the head gently from side to side to free the neck,

Feel free to do so allowing the arms to be completely heavy.

And for any weight in the shoulders and between the shoulders and through the central spine,

The mid spine to begin to release.

Invite the breath more deeply here into the back of the body,

Back of the lungs,

Back of the ribs and the kidneys in the lower back.

And open the mouth to exhale.

Let's take a couple more breaths in that same way.

Feeling that length through the hamstrings from the heels all the way up to the sitting bones and the length all the way from the hips down through the spine to the crown of the head.

Inhaling fully into the back of the body and exhaling out through the mouth.

Very nice.

Take your time here to release the hands from the elbows.

Let the arms go straight towards the ground.

And then once again,

Rooting through the feet,

Press into the feet,

Keep the knees soft and slowly,

Slowly,

Slowly begin to roll your way up to standing.

Slower than you want to.

Stacking the vertebrae one on top of the other and bringing the head up last.

Return the hands alongside the body with the palms facing forwards and soften the shoulders down the back.

Give yourself a nice round of breath here,

Noticing if the energy has started to shift.

Good.

Just check that the knees are still soft and the pelvis is tucked under.

And as we inhale,

We're going to reach the arms up and overhead once again.

This time holding them in the air.

Just arms separated,

Hands separated,

Just holding them like a wet noodle up in the air.

Taking that rooting through the feet,

Just begin to wiggle the hips from side to side,

Keeping the breath going in and out through the nose or out through the mouth if you wish to release a bit more.

Start to wave the arms from side to side,

Keep the wrists loose,

The fingers relaxed,

Moving those hips from side to side.

Good.

Another couple of breaths.

And this time as we exhale,

We're going to flop forward and drop the arms down,

Head down towards the ground and sweep the arms up and overhead.

So you're in that standing position again,

Standing forward fold and the arms come up and overhead.

Whoosh.

Good.

As you inhale,

Rise,

Come up to standing,

Take the arms up and overhead.

As you exhale,

Whoosh,

Draw the arms down,

Fold forward over the legs,

Sweep the arms up and overhead.

It's like a sweeping motion from the arms in that standing upright position with them overhead,

Drawing all the way down to a standing forward fold and sweeping the arms up and overhead behind you.

Good.

Keep the knees bent as you do this practice and really take your time with it.

There's no rush.

You'll find your own rhythm,

But it's an inhale to sweep the arms up and overhead.

And exhale,

Bend the knees,

Fold over the legs,

Sweep the arms behind you and up and overhead.

Good.

So feeling that heat and that energy beginning to rise.

Let's do that one more time.

Good.

And then come back to standing,

Back to that mountain pose once again.

Just notice the space between your fingers.

Notice a change in your breath rate and your heart rate.

Notice the shifting of energies.

Lovely.

This time we're going to bring the arms just up in front of the waist there or thereabouts and relax the wrists.

I want you to just begin to shake out through the wrists,

Really limp through the wrists,

Really relaxed in the fingers and knuckles as if you were flicking water off your fingertips.

You can allow the movement to start in the wrists and to move up into the elbows and into the shoulders as if you're flicking water,

Releasing,

Releasing,

And of course,

Keeping the jaw relaxed.

Let's play with balance now as we keep flicking the wrists and perhaps move over to one leg and begin to shake through one ankle,

One foot,

Flicking water off the foot and allowing that movement to shake all the way up through the knees,

Still flicking through the wrists and one foot and leg and then when you're ready,

Switching over to the other foot and leg,

Shaking it off,

And then just letting the water flow through the wrists and the ankles.

Switching over to the other foot and leg,

Shaking it off,

Shaking off the water,

The energy,

Any emotion,

Any stuckness,

Just allowing the body to be free and allowing the movement to be really playful and fun,

So you can smile as well if that feels good.

Maybe you are already.

And let's keep breathing through this as well,

And those big sighs out through an open mouth can be a really helpful way just to release any extra tension from the tissue of the body.

Really,

Really nice.

When you're ready,

Just find your way back in your own time to that mountain pose.

Softening the knees,

Tucking the tailbone under and dropping down into the weight of the feet with the palms open alongside your legs.

And again,

Just notice,

Take this opportunity to pause.

Notice what you notice.

Really nice.

For this next part of the practice,

We're going to widen the stance a little more.

So you want maybe two feet distance between your feet and we're just going to begin to rotate through the spine here.

So as you're ready,

Turning towards the right,

Taking the right hand behind your back and the left hand in front of you.

And then switching sides,

Turning towards the left,

Rotating.

You'll bring your weight into the left foot and lift the right heel up.

Left hand swings behind the back,

Right hand swings in front of you.

And then switching sides,

Transitioning the weight over to the right foot,

Left heel lifts,

Right arm behind you,

Left arm in front of you.

So you're creating this sort of S shape with the arms.

You can do this with the eyes open or closed.

And just begin to move at a rhythm and at a pace that feels good for you.

Some of you might be working quite quickly,

In which case the hands will be sort of slapping the front and back of your body.

Maybe you want to do this more mindfully and to really notice the transition of weight from one foot to the other,

The lifting of the opposite heel,

The rotation of the spine,

And the change in your breath.

It's really up to you.

The more vigorously you move,

The more you're sort of releasing in a sense,

The more you're raising the energy of the body.

And the more slowly and mindfully you move,

The more aware you are of those individual movements.

And that can be quite calming,

Quite grounding.

So just take a few moments here individually to explore that.

And you might be building the pace gradually.

Perhaps taking the head to turn all the way over the shoulder as you rotate through the spine.

Of course,

Being careful with the neck.

Making sure that you've got space around you to move in this way.

Eyes can be softly closed,

Completely closed or open as you wish.

Transitioning the weight from one foot to the other,

Lifting the opposite heel as you rotate.

And moving those arms in front and behind you as you rotate.

Good,

Really nice.

When you're ready,

Just begin to slow down that movement practice.

And find your way gently back to our mountain pose.

Softening the knees,

Tucking the tailbone,

Releasing the arms alongside you with the palms facing forward.

And taking this moment to check in with yourself.

Really nice.

Really nice.

So this next practice,

We're going to wake up the central nervous system a little.

And similar to our standing practice where we reach the arms overhead,

We're now going to invite a little bit of a backbend in here.

So keeping the knees soft and the tailbone tucked under.

When you're ready,

Use an inhalation to reach the arms wide and up and overhead.

Bring the palms to a prayer position above the crown,

Pointing up to the ceiling and exhale here.

As you next inhale,

Send the hips forward,

Arching the back and lifting the heart up towards the ceiling.

You can keep the chin close to the chest to protect the neck,

Or if the neck is happy,

You might look back.

Working up towards the ceiling,

Or back towards your hands reaching behind you.

Just working in line with your own body.

Good.

Keep rooted through the feet,

Keep the knees soft and take a couple of breaths here.

This is strong work for the back.

Strong work getting the heart pumping and opening the activity of the central nervous system.

Beautiful.

Open the heart on the next inhalation,

Inviting that energy and light.

And as you exhale,

Keep the knees soft and fold gently forward over the legs once again.

Let the body hang,

Keep the knees relaxed.

And just let the arms drape forward like a ragdoll,

Maybe taking opposite elbows into the hands.

Good.

Sigh out any stress,

Any tension.

Letting yourself dangle.

And as I mentioned before,

This can be a really nice place to release any tension in the middle back or between the shoulder blades.

Head heavy,

Neck relaxed.

Beautiful.

When you're ready,

Deeply bend the knees now and bring your bum to sit down on the ground.

Take your time,

Use your hands to support you.

Bring the feet flat to the ground with the knees bent and the legs together.

And then use the hands underneath the shoulders on the floor to walk yourself back to lie on the back of your body.

Making yourself comfortable and aligning the body.

So you're not in a diagonal line.

Good.

When you're lying on the back of the body,

Hug one knee and then the other in towards the chest,

Wrapping the arms around the shins.

Keep the shoulders rested on the ground.

Keep the head rested on the ground.

And you might like to rock and roll gently from side to side,

Massaging through the lower back and making connection between the lumbar spine and the ground.

If you're enjoying a gentle rocking motion from side to side,

You also might like to bring the hands to the tops of the knees and to rotate the knees together in a circle so that you're opening up the hip joint in its socket.

Take your time with this,

Just work the lower back into the ground.

It's like you're massaging around the tailbone.

And then change direction with those circles.

Staying connected with your breath.

And allowing any tension in the lower back to begin to ease away.

Really nice.

Really nice.

Beautiful.

So good for you.

When you're ready,

Bring the knees back to centre above the hips.

For anybody who has a sensitive lower back,

Bring the feet back down to the mat and simply shift your hips slightly over to the left about 90 degrees.

And anyone can do this even if you don't have a sensitive lower back,

But it's a really nice way to protect the lower back.

And then draw the knees back towards the belly and roll both knees over to the right so that they land either on the ground or towards the ground.

You can use your right hand to anchor the knees towards the ground and then extend the knees slightly to the left.

Extend the left arm away from the body 90 degrees,

With the palm facing up.

This gentle twist here is twisting all the way through the spine and into the lower back and outer hip.

And you might like to deepen that S-shaped twist by rolling the head over to the left.

And just taking a few conscious breaths here,

Inhaling into the front and back of the ribs.

Into the belly.

And exhaling,

Allowing the whole body to soften down into the ground.

Try to release any resistance here in the body and just imagine that you're made of chocolate and you're melting into the ground.

So nice.

So,

So good for you.

Really helps to detox the inner organs,

Taking this gentle twist.

Beautiful.

And when you're ready,

Just slowly bring the head back to centre.

And draw the knees back towards the ceiling part,

Planting the feet on the ground.

We're going to take our time to transition over to the other side so there's no rush.

But if you scooted your hips over to the left on that last one,

Find your way back to centre,

So you're laying on your back with the knees bent and the feet flat on the floor.

And then gently scoot your hips over to the right an inch or two.

This just takes some of the intensity out of the lower back stretch as we revolve the knees.

So when you're ready,

Bring the knees in towards the belly and then rolling them over to the left towards the ground there.

And again,

You can use the left hand to anchor the knees and extend the right arm away from you with the palm facing up and perhaps turning the head to the right.

You can always adjust when you're in this supine twist but the idea is for it to be a gentle stretch and a gentle challenge but to be able to soften into that challenge as well and to feel that stretch all the way up through the right side of the body from the hip,

Through the waist,

The side of the ribs,

Into the armpit and down through the length of the arm.

So again,

Just taking a handful of conscious breaths here filling up the ribs and the belly with the inhale and really encouraging the body to soften like melted chocolate on the exhale.

Staying with the breath and staying with that sense of softening and releasing.

Good.

When you're ready to release,

Begin by rolling the head back to centre and then gently lifting one knee and then the other back towards the sky and hugging the knees in towards the belly and if you need to align yourself again after shifting your hips to the right you can do so with the right hand and then the left hand and you can do so with the help of your hands.

We're going to explore one final posture or movement here so in order to come up you can either roll yourself up to a seated position rolling up through the spine and rocking and rolling through the spine if that's not available to you just roll entirely over onto your left hand side and take a moment to push yourself up to seated pressing the hand into the floor to lift away and going to sit in the centre of your mat or on the ground on the sitting bones once again with the knees bent and the feet flat on the floor and we're going to slowly separate the knees so that the soles of the feet are touching and the knees are open wide like pages of a book or in fact a butterfly bring your hands to the front of the shins and then inhale lift the spine as if you're trying to draw the spine out from the hips root down into your sit bones and as you exhale fold forward from the hips softening any amount over the open legs and the hands at this point can slide to interlace around the toes or you might like to bring the hands to the mat in front of the feet with the arms a little soft just allow the spine to round and if it's helpful or if you're new to opening the hips in this way you might like to just gently bob the knees up and down like wings of a butterfly just helping to release those muscles and tissues around the hips good,

Allow the breath to circulate inhaling to fill the back of the body and exhaling to release the weight of the body down into the mat or the ground good,

Let's take one more breath here together and at the end of the exhalation slowly roll the spine back up to upright and then to close the legs together finding a cross-legged position checking that the shoulders are directly over the hips so the spine is aligned and bringing one hand on top of the other over the heart softening or closing the eyes and just tuning into yourself here if you'd like to give thanks for the practice you can join me in bringing your hands together in front of the heart in prayer position simply bowing the head towards the hands in a gesture of thanks enjoy the rest of your day

Reviews

That was a lovely movement practice, releasing and opening and soothing. Thank you

Hello beautiful 🌸🎀🌸🎀🌸Thank you so much for the wonderfully movements 🎀my body is sparkling like champagne and I’m sweet smiling 🥂happy new year 🕉️

Thank you. Beautiful yoga practice. The sequence of the moves were great and instructions were easy to follow. I felt energized and more positive after it.!

Incredible guidance into release and surrender. Thank you!

This was so beautiful! You've left me feeling inspired. Thank you ✨️