Stabilizing Movement & Meditation

Trouble meditating? One way to cultivate the sort of restful awareness that helps you sink into a meditation session is to start with a movement practice. This Embodied Meditation includes a 10-minute sequence that helps open your hips and side body, stabilize your back, and relax your neck and shoulders. Then we’ll settle in for 5 minutes of seated meditation. A great way to start or end your day -- all in 15 minutes.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Paige.

One way to cultivate this sort of restful awareness that helps us sink into a meditation session is to start with a movement practice.

We can use poses and gentle sequences that synchronize with breath to invite in the openness and the stability that will support us physically.

And in doing so,

We often calm some of the mental chatter so we're a little more ready to be present.

Today's embodied meditation starts with a practice to open the hips and the side body,

Stabilize the back,

And relax the neck and the shoulders.

Once we've done all of that,

We'll finish with a few minutes of seated meditation.

So you can use a yoga mat or you can just have a rug or a blanket on the floor.

And when you're ready,

We'll get started.

Let's begin in child's pose.

So if you're familiar with that pose from yoga,

You can settle right in.

If you need a little guiding,

You'll simply come to your hands and your knees,

Bring your big toes together.

Sometimes it feels nice to let the knees open a little bit wider than hip distance and sink your hips back towards your heels.

As you do that,

Your forehead might rest right on the ground or it could rest on a folded blanket if it doesn't quite touch the ground.

You could stretch your arms up alongside your ears and just begin to settle into your body resting here in this shape,

Bowing down toward the ground,

Your hips sinking back toward your heels.

So we begin to open the low back,

Begin to open the space around the hips.

And sometimes it's nice if you gently press the heels of your hands into the ground,

Then you can counter that by sinking your hips back toward your heels a little bit more,

Stretching open the low back and the hips.

Let's just rest here for a few more nice full inhales and exhales.

Again,

Arms stretched up alongside the ears,

Hands pressing into the ground so the hips can sink back,

Inhaling and exhaling.

And from here,

Let's begin to invite some opening into the side body.

So you can stay in this general shape.

Just begin to walk your hands and arms up and over to the right.

So they might even come off of your yoga mat if you're using one.

And it may have a little bit of a sense that that left arm is going to try to stretch a touch farther than the right arm so that as you inhale,

You can feel the breath moving up the whole left side of the body.

And as you exhale,

Maybe feel that left hip sinking back in space a little bit more.

So you're opening up space along the whole left rib cage,

Whole left lung,

Helping the body to simply breathe more easily.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Another couple of rounds up and down the whole left side body.

And as you're ready,

You can walk the arms back through center.

Take a breath recalibrating right there in the center.

And then walk your arms and hands up and over to the left.

So on this side,

It's the right arm that maybe feels it could stretch just a touch more as you sink that right hip back.

Right hand pressing into the ground,

Breathing up and down the right side body,

Opening up space along the rib cage.

Opening up space in the lung.

Beautiful breathing here.

Walk your hands and arms back through center.

One more breath right there in neutral,

Maybe a gentle sigh as you exhale and sink your hips once more back toward your heels.

And from here,

Gently bring yourself back up to a tabletop shape.

So you'll have your wrists right under your shoulders,

Your knees right under your hips.

And let's begin to move into some cat and cow movement and breathing.

So as you lengthen through your spine and draw an inhale into your body,

You might lengthen so much that you feel your sitting bones tip up toward the sky and your heart tug through your shoulders as a cow stretch.

And then as you exhale,

You can round through your low back,

Through your middle back,

Through your upper back,

Let your head dangle in this little cat tuck like shape.

And begin to move and breathe like that.

The inhales extending,

Maybe arching through the spine.

And the exhale slowly rounding in low back,

Middle back,

Upper back.

Continue to breathe and move like this a few more times on your own.

Starting to invite some fluidity and circulation into the hips and the shoulders.

And as you breathe and move back and forth,

Also warming up the spine,

Our axis for feeling supported and comfortable in a meditation seat.

Let yourself breathe through each of those shapes one more time.

Nice full easy inhales and exhales.

And then allowing yourself to land back in that more neutral tabletop shape,

Stretch your right leg out behind you and you could keep the ball of the foot connected to the ground.

You're just stretching the leg out,

Reaching through the heel,

Just breathing into the sole of the foot and the back of the leg.

And then if you like from there,

You can begin to float that right leg up so it becomes parallel with the ground.

You're floating it up and simply watching the body recalibrate to absorb that change.

So you might sense a hugging in toward the midline of the body,

That stabilizing the low back,

The middle back and that axis of the spine again.

And as we breathe here for one more breath,

That right leg just floating parallel to the ground.

If you would like to play with stretching your left arm forward so you're in even more of a challenge in this balance,

You could just play with that.

See how the body stabilizes around the spine,

Around the low back and then put the right knee back down if you lifted the left arm,

Put the left hand back down,

Just pause,

Absorb that.

And then the other side,

Stretch your left leg back,

You can keep the toes tucked to start reaching through the left heel,

Opening up from the sole of the foot all the way through the back of that leg.

And then just experiment with floating that left leg up so it gets parallel to the ground.

The body will have to make some subtle shifts to absorb that change.

All of that shifting is stabilizing around especially the low back.

And as you let your body breathe here for another breath or so,

Again,

If you want to just play with stretching the right arm forward,

Right up alongside the ear,

You could play with that.

See how the body stabilizes to respond and then put the hand down,

Put the knee down,

Again back to neutral.

From here,

Let yourself rise up to standing on your knees so your shins are on the ground,

You're standing on your knees.

We're just going to briefly get into the neck and the shoulders here so as you feel ready to inhale,

Scoop your shoulders forward way up to your ears,

Give them a little squeeze and then open your mouth and sigh,

Let your shoulders roll around back and down,

Feel your shoulder blades slide down your back and do that twice more.

Shoulders forward way up to your ears,

Little squeeze and a gentle releasing sigh with the shoulders rolling around back and down.

Once more like that,

Shoulders forward way up to your ears,

A little squeeze here,

Sigh your shoulders around back and down.

If it feels nice from here,

You could bring your hands back behind you,

You might hold on to opposite hands or wrists.

Maybe if you have some openness across the shoulders,

You even hold on to opposite forearms or opposite elbows,

Open up through the collar bones and the chest and gently drop your chin toward your chest.

Let the left ear roll over toward the left shoulder,

You might tip your chin up toward the sky,

You might gently rock your jaw side to side.

Let your chin roll all the way back toward your chest,

Right ear over toward the right shoulder,

Tip your chin up,

Maybe gently rock your jaw,

Chin back to your chest.

One more time each side,

Little half neck rolls here,

Just finally getting into the sides of the neck,

The space along the throat,

Even letting this release seep up into the jaw and the muscles of the face.

Bring your chin all the way back to your chest when you're finished,

Release your hands or your arms,

Whatever you're holding back behind your back,

Let your fingertips drip down to the ground,

Float the crown of your head back up so you're neutral again,

Letting your system take all of that in.

Great,

And from here we'll begin to move into our seated meditation practice.

So you may have a meditation cushion that you'd like to use or maybe you're just going to use a blanket and fold it up so you have a little elevation to sit up on.

If you need to pause and grab any props like that to support you,

You can do that.

And then when you're ready,

You'll just gather yourself in for a seat in which you can have your hips a little bit higher than your knees.

So that might mean you need to pile up a few supports to feel that you can get your hips a little bit higher than your knees and the creases of your hips can relax.

There are lots of ways to practice meditation.

If a cross legged seat doesn't feel completely comfortable to you,

You could always stretch your legs out,

You could use a chair,

You could even stand and there's even a walking meditation practice.

But after the opening that we've done,

Some of the stabilizing we've done around the back,

If your body feels interested in experimenting with a cross legged seat on the floor or a seat in a chair,

Get yourself settled.

Feel a sense that the natural curve in your low back is moving in and up so you feel that you're sitting right on top of your sitting bones.

If you're crossing your legs,

You can cross them in any way that feels natural and comfortable to you.

If you're sitting in a chair,

You might just want to let your feet rest evenly on the ground.

Your palms can rest right on your thighs.

Sometimes it feels grounding to let the palms face down on the thighs.

Once more,

Feel your shoulders simply relax away from your earlobes.

Feel the sides of your neck released.

And we'll begin with a focus on the breath.

Really the most classic way of gathering in concentration,

Which is a foundational meditation practice.

You can focus on anything,

But the breath is an easy tool because it's always with us.

So as you feel your body settle into your seat,

Gaze soft or if you like,

Eyes closed,

Begin to simply follow the inhales and the exhales of your breath.

You're gently directing your attention at the inhales and the exhales of your breath.

Your attention will probably naturally wander.

That's a part of the practice.

You notice that it's wandered and you gently redirect it back to its resting place on the rise and fall of your breath.

See how able you are without forceful effort to follow the full length of your inhales and the full length of your exhales.

Classic gentle concentration practice of resting your attention on the steady inhales and exhales of your breath.

And as your attention wanders,

The practice is noticing that it's wandered,

Directing your attention back to your breath and resting back there.

And for the last moment of meditation,

See how it feels to let go of even that focused awareness on your breath and simply rest your mind.

Let it feel perhaps expansive.

Restful awareness.

A sense of calm alertness.

Body stable.

And spacious,

Perhaps even joyful.

For the last few seconds,

Can everything be welcome here?

Thank you so much for making this time for yourself.

I look forward to being with you again soon.

Reviews

Gorgeous voice, excellent elocution, meaningful movement & meditation.

Such a lovely way to start the day (and an excellent transition from movement to meditation). Thank you Paige! ❤️✨🙏

I love the combination of embodied asana and meditation. I am so glad that I found Paige’s meditations and welcome any additional practices or courses.

Love this practice. Only issue I have - and it's purely a personal one - is that with my sleep disorder, I wake up groggy and fuzzy-headed, so I tend to forget that grabbing a blanket or mat means I'm going to actually be in a position for a while other than sitting or kneeling - it takes me by surprise, basically. 🙃

A good chunk of the time I end up sitting on my bed and for child, I am cross legged towards the edge of the bed, and I lean forward so my arms and upper body dangle over the side. Wonderful loose stretch, and easy to walk my hands over to each side at whatever height feels best. Cat/cow is modified, and with my bad knees, I don't often do table, but the bed is comfy - and just unstable enough to give me a good core workout at the same time - so that works too.

I do absolutely adore the casual and accepting guidance of how to move- the idea of "playing with" the positions and exploring the body sensations is always much welcomed. (I really do need to get back to my Feldenkrais, truly.) If I am unable or not ready to do a position or movement here, I always feel warm and welcomed and supported, never pressured to do this or go there, sit up, breathe this way. The focus on the unique inner body awareness and outward body movenent that is right at that present moment is such a beautiful gift to us all.

It reminds me of the gentle Kripalu yoga practice I used to do regularly until my healthcare team put some limits on the frequency of my practice to keep me from injuring myself with hyperextension. Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and poor proprioception among other things make yoga a much more concentration-intensive practice than it is for most, so unless I'm super awake/alert, and focus on tone and biomechanics rather than flexibility, yoga is generally a no-go as a full practice these days. Selected poses are fine on a daily assessment basis...all the ones here are quite familiar and work fine for me except the kneeling/table type sometimes, which my physical therapist and I figured out how to modify long ago anyway. 😊 I just toss in a few extra upper back/neck loosening moves here and there.

I have yet to find any practice that helps me loosen the side of my ribcage, alas. I can't feel any trigger points or knots (neither can my two medical massage therapist, nor my chiropractor), and I do static foam roller floor stretches to ensure there isn't odd rotation of the ribcage to the spine, but there's been this one area of sore, almost frozen, constricted movement on my left ribcage about elbow height (when held at 90° angle) that just doesn't go away. Pulmonologist said I have paradoxical lung inflation and probable diaphragm weakness too, which is odd considering my years in choir, playing a wind instrument, competitive race walking, and military service. I will say that your practices give a lot if relief in other areas, which makes this particularly annoying spot much easier to handle, absent "noise" from elsewhere in my body once I've completed your sessions. ❤ If you have any suggestions, I'd gladly take them on board. 😊

As always, wonderful session, and my thanks to you, Paige, for continuing to make this available to us here on Insight Timer. This and other tracks if yours continue to hold places on my Playlist for frequent use, and I don't see that changing on my side any time soon. 😊

Thank you again, Paige, so very much. I see you and the light within you. Be well. 🤲🏻❤🤲🏻

I love this perfect combination! Wonderful way to begin strengthening my body as I continue to expand my mind and develop in being more aware, centered, and grounded.