Moving Meditation

This guided meditation will lead you through gentle movements in order to deeply connect with your body. Joining movement + breath allows the body + nervous system to settle down + reset. Enjoy this moving meditation while seated on the floor, chair, or even your bed. Tune in + wind down + move with ease.

Transcript

Hello,

Hello.

My name is Erin of eMindMove and today I want to walk you through or guide you through a moving meditation.

So a lot of times we think of a meditation practice as having to be super still seated or lying down and there's definitely a time and a place for that and a benefit to that.

We don't spend enough time slowing down usually or enough time in stillness.

But today I want to invite you to really tap into your body sensations and maybe move around a little bit of stuck energy in the body.

A lot of my work revolves around pain.

So if you're here for that reason this will be really enjoyable I hope.

And of course always listen to your body.

We're not going to do anything real crazy today.

I just want you to come to a seat so that can be on the floor.

It can even be in a chair or at the edge of your bed.

Finding as much comfort as you can especially if you're on the floor.

And we're just going to start to sway a little side to side.

And what I really love about this practice is there's no one for you to look at.

So you get to interpret as I give these or guide you through these instructions what that means to you.

So swaying side to side.

And remember this is your body,

Your practice.

So you dictate the pace,

The intensity,

The movement.

But as we're swaying side to side let's tap into the breath.

So we'll take a big inhale through the nose.

Open mouth,

Sigh it out,

Let it go.

Let's take at least two more like that.

Deep breath in through the nose,

Breathing low into the belly.

Big sigh,

Let it go.

Last one like that.

Inhale,

Breathing in through the nose,

Expanding the belly.

Good,

Let it go.

And now we'll start to take the shoulders around in circles.

So as I say that your thought may be bringing the shoulders up to the ears and circling them down back and around.

Or you can make really small or big circles with the entire body circling the shoulders around the hips.

Like you're kind of doing a little hula hoop move with the top half of the body.

And then we'll start to notice the breath here.

So you can keep with those cleansing breaths,

The in through the nose,

Out of the mouth that we just did.

Otherwise we'll start to inhale and exhale out of the nose.

Tapping to that Ujjayi breath,

Trying to match the length of the inhale to the length of the exhale.

Maybe that's three seconds or five seconds.

And as you breathe in and out creating just a little of that constriction at the back of the throat.

So you can think of the motions it would take to fog up a mirror that sort of H type of sound.

And sticking with that but keeping the mouth closed.

Good,

Now we'll come upright to a seat just coming to center.

If you're comfortable,

Go ahead and close the eyes.

And I just want you to notice any shifts or different sensations in the body,

In the mind in the breath.

Can you keep your awareness on those deep intentional inhales,

Easy exhales.

We'll set up for a little twist here.

We're going to gently be going side to side,

Back,

Left and right.

So coming from a center position,

Let's take a twist over that right shoulder.

So again,

Depending on if you're on the floor or on a chair,

Maybe that left hand comes to something,

The knee,

The chair,

The edge of the bed,

Right hand can come behind you.

We'll take a big breath in,

Easy breath out as we come back to center and over to the left,

Left hand behind us,

Right hand can rest somewhere on the body or some prop or something nearby,

Whatever's supporting you.

We'll take a big breath in and start to come back to center as we exhale.

We'll do a few more like this,

Your breath,

Your pace.

So inhaling,

Twisting to the right,

Inhaling coming back to center,

Inhaling twisting to the left,

Exhale,

Come back to center.

I'm going to leave you in a little bit of quiet for these next few rounds,

Maybe taking three to each side,

Noticing that connection with the breath in through the nose,

Out of the nose or the mouth,

Twisting to each side.

Beautiful.

Coming back to center again,

If you're comfortable,

Maybe closing the eyes taking a moment here in the stillness,

Scanning the body and again,

Without judgment,

Observing any shifts in our physical body.

Maybe there have been some shifts in your state of mind.

Maybe you feel a little lighter,

Maybe the body feels just a little more at ease and maybe not.

If it doesn't,

That's okay too.

Next we'll bring those arms up overhead as we breathe in.

Exhale,

Just bring those hands back down to touch the earth beside you or if you're in a chair,

The chair.

Again,

Inhale,

Arms come up overhead.

Exhale,

The hands come to touch something,

The earth,

The bed,

The chair.

Inhale,

Lift the arms.

Exhale,

Hands come down.

And now I just want you to take a little bit of intuitive movement with the neck maybe involving the shoulders,

But just releasing any tension in the jaw,

In the face,

In the neck and the shoulders.

Rolling that head side to side,

Maybe tilting the chin up or tucking the chin to the chest.

Maybe taking a moment to just orient to the space that you're in.

So if the eyes are still closed,

Maybe you open them and really look around the room.

Notice the thing that you're sitting on.

Are you on a mat?

Are you on the carpet?

Are you on a pillow?

Are you in a chair?

Are you seated in bed?

And maybe look to your right.

Notice anything in the room.

Colors,

Other sounds,

Maybe smells.

We'll take that gaze all the way to the left.

Same thing.

Looking even behind you,

Over the shoulder.

After you feel like you've really gotten a good sense of where you are in space,

We'll come back to center.

And depending on what your setup is,

You may need to extend the legs but we're just going to start to scrunch the toes like you're trying to squeeze a towel or something underneath the toes.

So just bringing them in and then letting those toes come back out.

If it feels okay,

Maybe you start to roll the ankles a little.

And just notice as we looked around the room,

Did you lose that connection with the breath?

And that's okay.

It's normal.

But can you bring your attention back to the inhales through the nose and exhales out the nose.

We'll let the feet just rest.

Grow nice and tall through the spine again,

Really sitting and letting whatever is beneath us support us.

Sitting tall,

Sitting firm.

And then just finding a little forward and backwards movement for the spine here.

So if you've practiced yoga before,

You can think of that traditional cat-cow pose where you're kind of arching the back and then rounding the spine.

So maybe you inhale,

Bring the chest forward,

A little arch to the low back.

Exhale,

Round the spine,

Tucking the tailbone,

Tucking the chin.

Again,

Inhale,

You can open through the heart.

Exhale,

Round it back out.

Let's take a few more rounds here like that.

Your breath,

Your pace.

Just again finding that kind of forward and backward motion for the spine.

Nice work.

And I will ask you to come back to a still seat.

Maybe close the eyes one final time.

And taking a moment here again to check in.

Without judgment,

We don't even need to label if we feel good or bad.

Just maybe,

Hmm,

Interesting.

I feel different.

I feel blank.

Labeling what it is that you feel after this little movement,

Meditation,

This little practice of connecting the breath and some small movements.

So I'll leave you here with this if you have a little more time and space to continue moving your body in a way that feels right for you.

Please take time to do that.

Noticing each breath in,

Each breath out.

If you don't have the time and space,

You can start to open the eyes.

Come back to the body.

And I will leave you with that.

I hope you have a wonderful day or evening whenever you're listening.

And I'll be back in touch soon.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌺🎀🌺🎀🌺Thank you so much for the wonderful practice 🌺🎀it was a pleasure and full of joy to do it 🌞I’m sunny smiling 🗺️ much love 🕉️Namaste

Thank you 🙏🏻 that was a really nice way to start into my day 👏🏻