This embodied meditation practice is a very short and sweet seven-minute reset.
You can use it any time you'd like to step out of the chaos of the day,
Clear some things out,
Gather yourself back in,
And shift your perspective.
So you can do this practice either standing or sitting,
Whatever feels best for your energy right now and the environment you're in.
Start by simply lifting your right foot.
If you're standing,
You might want to rest your hands on a countertop or a table or a desk to support you.
And just circle your right ankle around.
Just swirl it around,
Moving energy.
And then stir it around the opposite direction a few times.
And then shake the foot and the leg.
Just give it a good shake,
Releasing any tension or anything that you've been holding there.
And then switch to your left foot.
Lift the foot,
Swirl the ankle around.
You might even spread the toes.
Swirl it around the other way.
Give it a good stir.
And then shake the foot and the leg,
Just releasing anything that you're holding on to there.
And now move on to the wrists.
Stir your right wrist around.
Again,
You might spread the fingers,
Move somewhat slowly or more quickly if that feels better.
Swirl it the other way.
Give that hand and the whole arm a good shake,
Releasing anything you've been holding on to.
And switch to the other hand,
Swirling the wrist,
Spreading the fingers,
Stirring that wrist around the other direction.
Whole hand and arm now.
Nice good shake,
Releasing any tension there.
All right,
Let's move up to the torso.
Imagine that you have a barrel around the whole torso of the body,
And you're going to begin to stir your torso around,
Imagining that you could touch every part of the inside of that barrel as your whole torso stirs around.
Stomach,
Your spine swirling,
Torso just ringing out and unwinding any tension,
Any energy it's been holding on to.
Swirl it around the other way a few times,
Moving energy.
Great,
And then let that movement get still.
Shrug your shoulders right up to your ears.
Give them a little squeeze,
Any energy that's gotten lodged or stuck or stagnant there.
And then with a ha sound,
Let your shoulders drop and release.
Do that again.
Squeeze the shoulders up to the ears.
Audible ha sound,
Let the shoulders release,
Let the neck relax.
One more time like that.
Shoulders shrug right up to the ears,
Squeezing anything that feels a little stuck or congested.
Ha sound as you release the shoulders back down.
We're going to move on to something called lion's breath.
So it's an actual yoga pose.
If you're not familiar with this and it seems a little bit hard to grasp audibly,
You can simply use an open mouthed sighing release for this.
If you know lion's breath or you'd like to give it a try,
It's a process of taking a full inhalation through the nose and then exhaling as you open your mouth wide,
Stretch your tongue out,
Curling its tip toward your chin,
Opening your eyes wide,
Maybe rolling your gaze up to the space between your eyebrows and releasing that breath with a gentle roaring ha sound.
So you can see where the pose gets its name or the breathing technique gets its name.
You might visualize a lion or I like to visualize my Maine Coon cat.
This helps us just blow off some steam,
Revive the face and lighten up.
We'll do it together.
Take a full inhale through the nose,
Gentle roaring exhale as you open your mouth,
Stretch your tongue,
Curling its tip toward the chin,
Eyes wide,
Rolling the gaze up.
Again,
Inhale through the nose,
Lion's breath as you exhale,
Tongue extends,
Eyes roll up wide,
Hold.
Full face releasing.
One more time like that.
Inhale through the nose,
Full exhalation with a giant roar sound,
Tongue extends,
Mouth wide,
Eyes wide,
Gaze rolling up.
Now just scrunch your face almost as if it were putty.
So you might move your mouth around,
Your nose,
Your cheeks,
Scrunch your forehead,
Squint your eyes,
Just move the musculature of the face around a little bit.
Again,
Like it's putty,
Moving around,
Maybe move things around the other direction a few times.
And then let that movement be still.
And again,
You can remain standing if you're standing.
You might prefer to sit down at this point if you're not already sitting.
Release your breath and let your body take in a full inhale and feel that inhale really stretch into the front of the ribs,
The back of the ribs and the sides of the rib cage.
And as you exhale,
Feel the breath slowly release through your nose,
All parts of the rib cage,
Very gently hugging,
Cinching in.
Four more of those.
As you inhale,
The whole cage of the ribs spreads wide,
Front to back,
Side to side.
And exhale,
The whole cage of the ribs gently gathers in.
Inhale,
The whole circumference of the torso fills with breath.
Exhale as it slowly and gently releases,
Energy draws in.
Inhale,
Fill the rib cage front to back,
Side to side.
Exhale,
Slowly release,
Let everything gather in.
Once more,
Inhale,
Front to back,
Side to side,
Cage of the ribs spreading.
Exhale,
Gentle,
Slow release,
Everything gathers in.
After this very short practice,
Feel your energy rearranged,
Refreshed,
Renewed,
Yourself ready to begin again.
Thank you so much and I'll see you again soon.
