Short Screen Break

This Embodied Meditation practice gives you a short break from your screen. It’s simple and efficient; you can do it anywhere, anytime. The gentle movement tends to your eyes, your shoulders and neck, your upper back, and your wrists. Most of all, it helps soothe your brain and coax your whole system out of cyberspace and back into your physical body.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Paige.

Today's Embodied Meditation is a short practice aimed at giving you a break from your screen.

It's simple and efficient.

You can do it anywhere,

Anytime.

It tends to your eyes,

To your shoulders and neck,

Your upper back and your wrists.

But most of all,

It helps soothe your brain and coax your whole system out of cyberspace and back into your physical body.

We'll do the whole practice sitting.

You can be sitting in a chair right at your workspace.

You can be on a cushion on the floor or anywhere else that's easy and comfortable.

Settle in and we'll begin with some slow blinks of your eyes.

So as you feel ready,

Allow your eyelids to gently close,

Almost like you're drawing down a window shade,

A slow closing of your eyelids,

Clearing the screen of your eyes,

Hydrating your eyes.

And then as you're ready,

A slow lifting of your eyelids again,

Soft gaze.

And then do that again,

Drawing down the shade of your eyelids,

Closing your eyes,

Clearing the screen of your gaze,

Hydrating your eyes.

And as you're ready,

A slow lift again of your eyelids.

And once more,

A slow dropping down of the window shades of your eyelids,

Clearing the screen of your eyes,

Hydrating your eyes.

And then nice and easy,

Open your eyelids again.

Allow your gaze to be soft.

And let's tend to any surface tension in your shoulders and your neck by inhaling and rolling your shoulders forward and way up toward your earlobes.

Give your shoulders a little squeeze,

Give your neck a little squeeze.

When you're ready to exhale,

Open your mouth and sigh and roll your shoulders all the way back and all the way down.

Two more times like that,

Nice and slow.

Inhale,

Scooping your shoulders forward,

Way up toward your earlobes.

When you're ready to sigh,

Open your mouth and sigh and feel your shoulders roll around and back and smooth their way down.

Once more like that,

Inhale,

Roll your shoulder heads forward and up,

Gentle releasing sighs,

Your shoulders roll around and back and down.

Relax your brow line,

Soften the skin around your eyes,

Release the hinge of your jaw.

And from here,

Stack your hands behind your head,

So you'll have one hand pressing into the back of your head,

The other hand stacked behind your first hand.

And as you do that,

Wing your elbows open wide so you start to feel a little bit of space across the front of your chest and maybe a little bit of a squeeze behind your heart.

And then press your head gently into your hands and resist your hands back into your head.

And then as you do that,

You'll likely feel the back of your neck engaged,

Maybe let that engagement trickle all the way down into your upper and mid back.

And from here,

We're going to do what I call text neck release.

When you feel ready to inhale,

Move the back of your head away from your hands,

You might jut your chin forward a little bit.

And then as you feel ready to exhale,

Press the back of your head back into your hands,

Hands resistant to your head,

Elbows wide,

Twice more like that inhale,

Jut your chin forward,

Move the back of your head away from your hands.

When you feel ready to exhale,

Press the back of your head into your hands,

Hands resist back into your head,

Wing your elbows wide.

Once more like that inhale forward thrust of your head.

And then exhale,

Press the back of your head back into your hands,

Your elbows continue to be wide.

And then you can release your hands down.

If you're sitting in a chair,

Your right hand could come to the seat of your chair,

If you're on the floor,

Your right hand could just make its way off to the side of your body on the floor.

Inhale,

Stretch your left arm up alongside your ear.

And as you exhale,

Hinge,

Lean up and over to the right,

Your left arm will stretch up alongside your ear and then staying in this leaned over position,

Do some slow swirls around of your left wrist,

Slowly twirling it around,

Maybe stretching into the fingers,

The palm,

You can swirl that wrist around the other way a few times,

Nice and slow,

Stirring it through space,

Releasing anything that's been holding.

And then all the way back up through center and exhale,

Relax your left arm back down by your side.

And then we'll do that on the other side.

So your left hand could come to the seat of your chair,

To the floor beside you,

Your right arm stretches up alongside your right ear,

Big inhale there.

And as you exhale,

Lean,

Hinge,

Tip your way over to the left,

Your right arm stretches up alongside your ear.

And then just pause here as you exhale and swirl your right wrist around nice and slow.

So that swirling echoes all the way into your palm and your fingers,

Maybe through the tendons of your forearm,

You can swirl your wrist around the other direction a few times.

And then when you're ready,

Inhale,

Bring yourself all the way back up through upright and exhale,

Let your right arm rest back down.

From here,

Let's twist to the right.

You can just swivel your spine to the right.

Your right hand again could be on the seat of your chair,

It could be right beside your hip,

Your left hand could cross your body and just gently anchor on the outside of your right thigh.

As you inhale,

You can let your spine get a little bit taller,

Kind of un-hunting any rounding you may have been doing.

And then as you exhale,

Let your body twist a little bit more to the right.

You can broaden through your collarbones,

Even take your gaze,

Swiveling it all the way to the right.

And then staying in this upright twist,

If you like,

Some little half neck rolls.

You could drop your chin to your chest,

Roll your left ear way over toward your left shoulder.

You could tip your chin up,

Maybe rock your jaw a little bit side to side.

And drop your chin back down to your chest,

Roll your right ear over toward your right shoulder,

Tip your chin up,

Maybe rock your jaw,

Let your whole face relax.

Drop your chin back to your chest,

Float your face back to upright and unwind your body from that twist.

Just come through neutral,

Come through center.

And we'll twist the other way.

Twist your body to the left,

Your right hand could cross your body and anchor on the outside of your left thigh,

Left hand,

Wherever it's comfortable.

Use your inhale to feel your spine climbing a little taller,

A little bit less hunched and rounded in.

And as you exhale,

Let your body ring out toward the left.

You could broaden through your collarbones,

Maybe even drift your gaze out over to the left.

And you can stay just as you are,

You can move back into those half neck rolls,

Dropping your chin to your chest and rolling your right ear toward your right shoulder,

Maybe tipping your chin up,

Maybe rocking your jaw.

Drop your chin back toward your chest,

Left ear toward your left shoulder,

Tip your chin up,

That little rock of your jaw might seep all the way into the muscles of your face.

Drop your chin back to your chest.

Let the crown of your head float up,

Your face comes back to upright and unwind your body,

Unwrap back through center.

Let your shoulders drop away from your earlobes.

Let your chest feel spacious,

Body gently breathing.

Then bring your palms together and rub your hands together,

Creating some friction,

Creating some warmth.

And once your hands start to feel warm,

Palm your eyes,

So you'll rest the palms of your hands over your eyes.

And then the fingers might rest onto your forehead,

Your fingertips might even rest all the way up into your hairline.

Letting your hands soothe the front of your brain,

Letting your attention recede away from a forward focus as if it's dropping toward the center of your head.

Allow yourself to breathe and feel here one more breath.

And then you can rest your hands down,

They can land wherever they're comfortable.

Continue that moving of your attention back away from your forehead and your eyes toward the center of your head.

And from that space,

Explore dropping your attention like a plumb line down through the center of your body until it rests maybe somewhere near your belly or your hips.

Dropping from the center of your head like a plumb line down through the center of your body until your attention rests and grounds and anchors.

Sitting effortlessly tall,

Anchoring in your physical body.

Three more quiet,

Still breaths,

Anchoring in the here and the now.

Thank you so much for creating this break for yourself.

I hope you can head back into whatever's next,

Feeling a little more focused,

A little more clear and a little more embodied.

I look forward to being with you again soon.

Reviews

The perfect quick break to reset during my work day!

Wonderful! This was the perfect transition between a major report and another set of meetings. Thank you, Paige! ✨

Love that, thank you. Will try doing it a couple of times a day, great to come away from the screens! 🙏 xx

r sure I've been gettingetting for my needs right now as I enter another period of intense screen work during my degree program. I really like the opening movement of the eyelids, although I have yet to master the art of that "soft gaze" unless I'm juggling. 😊 I've been relying in my tried and true tracks from you, but do you have any (that I may have missed) to address the results of unconscious jaw clenching? I've been getting headaches lately from doing that, and even after I got the built-up trigger points smoothed out, I still find myself having a hard time relaxing those neck, jaw, and scalp muscles. This practice here takes care of the eyes nicely for sure though. Thank you do much for continuing to share these with us here on Insight Timer, Paige. I see you and the light within you. Be well. 🤲🏻❤🤲🏻

Thanks.
🙏🥁