Work Break

Maybe you've got a traditional office setup. Or it could be your desk looks more like your kitchen table or a workbench in a studio. Whatever the setting, here's a 15-minute refresher to counter all the sitting down, rounding in, and loooooong sedentary stints so many of us find filling our days.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Paige and I'm here to lure you with this week's Embodied Meditation away from your desk for a few minutes.

Maybe you have a traditional office situation or it could be your desk looks more like a kitchen table where you spend time working on projects,

Answering messages and sorting through stacks of stuff.

Whatever your setup,

The fact is many of us spend too much time sitting down,

Rounding forward and then holding that shape for a long,

Long time.

So today's practice invites you to reverse some of that even if you have just a few minutes for a work break.

We'll use your chair and your desk or any flat surface as our props.

So if you need to pause and get yourself in that kind of a setup,

Do that.

And then when you're ready,

We'll start sitting in a chair with your hands on your desk or on your table or whatever surface that you have in front of you.

And we're going to use our hands on that surface to get a little bit of resistance and traction as we move into some cow and cat movement and breathing.

So as you're ready to inhale,

You might begin to almost imagine you're going to drag your hands back a little bit.

They won't really move.

You can extend through your spine,

Maybe arch a little bit,

Fill up the chest with breath.

And then as you exhale,

As if your hands were going to press away,

You can begin to really round through your spine,

Low back,

Middle back,

Upper back.

Drop your head,

Relax your shoulders.

And again,

Hands just flat on that surface,

Inhale,

Lengthening through the spine,

Maybe arching.

You could imagine that the hands are going to drag back,

But don't let them move.

And then exhale as if the hands were going to press away.

You'll get a little bit of resistance for rounding in.

A couple more like that.

Inhale,

Lengthening,

And then if you like,

Arching through the spine,

Broadening through the collarbones,

Opening up the chest.

Exhale,

Circulation moving as you round through the low back,

Middle back,

Upper back,

Dropping the head,

Breathing into the space in between the shoulders.

Once more,

Inhaling,

Arching,

And exhaling,

Rounding in.

And then inhale,

Bring yourself right back through upright,

And bring your hands down off the edge of the table or the desk.

So your hands could be kind of on that front lip of your table or your desk.

And then perhaps walk your hands out a little bit wider.

You can kind of feel into this for yourself,

Just as wide as you like.

You can play with the distance.

And then from there,

Begin to press your hands into that edge or lip of your table or desk,

And just begin to let that resistance bring some energy and circulation and broadening into the chest.

Again,

You might feel that you'd like to walk your hands a little wider or walk them in a little narrower.

Just breathing.

So you're about three more nice,

Full breaths here.

The hands can press right into that lip of the table or the desk.

You're broadening through the chest,

Maybe arching through the spine,

Sensation across the chest and the fronts of the shoulders.

One more breath.

Release the hands if you like.

Inhale,

Slide your shoulders forward and up to your ears.

And you could open your mouth and sigh out and exhale with the shoulders,

Rolling around back and down.

Do that twice more.

Inhale forward and up with the heads of the shoulders.

Perhaps an open mouth sigh as you exhale and roll the shoulders around,

Back and down.

One more time.

Inhale forward with the shoulders.

Let them shrug right up to your ears.

Open your mouth.

Sigh them around back and down.

Just pause and take that in.

Let's do an easy seated twist to the right.

And with your chair right there,

If you've got a back to your chair,

You could rest your right forearm,

Your right elbow,

Right up on the back of the chair so you've got a little bit of propping to play with to begin to twist your body to the right.

That left arm might cross over the front of the body and rest on the outside of your right thigh.

And then as you inhale,

You can imagine your spine getting a little bit taller,

A little bit more space and length.

And as you exhale and wrap to your right,

That right hand,

Right forearm again might just press into the upper back of the chair.

Inhale lengthen through your spine.

While using the prop of the chair back to not yank or crank your body into a twist but just to help the body move as much as it would like into that twisting shape.

One more inhale here.

One more exhale as you wrap and twist to the right,

Getting into that space in the mid-upper back that might feel a little sticky,

A little stagnant.

And bring yourself all the way back through center.

Just pause,

Unwind,

Take that in.

And then to the left.

So you'll begin to wrap your body to the left.

Left arm can rest on the back of the chair.

Right arm can cross the front of the body.

Maybe the right hand rests on the outside of the left thigh.

And then using that chair back again,

Not to really press your body into the shape but just to provide a little bit of resistance,

A little bit of propping.

Take an inhale nice and long through the spine.

Exhale letting yourself wrap to the left.

Inhale lengthening space and breath.

Exhale a little bit of twist to the left,

Bringing out right in that mid-back section.

One more breath here.

Nice full inhale.

Exhale release and twist.

And inhale bring yourself back through center.

Back through neutral.

Unwind.

From here we're going to move into a lunge using the surface of your desk,

Your table,

It could be your workbench,

Wherever you are.

And so you may want to just move the chair out of the way.

And come to standing.

We'll move into a lunge starting with the right leg stepping back.

So you'll step the right leg back maybe three and a half,

Four feet.

You can feel into what feels best for your body.

Your hands are resting on the surface of your desk or table or again they could be right at the edge there,

Right at that lip.

So you're using the desk or the table as support,

Stepping the right leg back.

The right toes will be tucked,

The ball of the right foot connected with the earth.

And then as you reach through that right heel,

You can bend just as deeply as you would like with that left leg into a lunge.

So you're feeling a little bit of stretch and also strengthening in the back of that left thigh.

And as you reach through that right heel,

Feeling the sole of the foot,

The tendons of the ankle,

The muscles of the calf begin to open a bit.

And also perhaps some opening right along the hip crease on the right side which gets pretty compressed as we spend a lot of time sitting.

So just enjoy another breath or two right here,

Just stretching through the back of that right leg,

Feeling some strength and some engagement in the back of that left leg.

And then staying in this lunge just like you are,

See how it feels to float your right arm up toward the sky.

So now perhaps that feeling of opening and decompression in the front of that right thigh,

Hip crease there begins to open even a little bit more with the right arm stretching up toward the sky right alongside your right ear.

And you might even circle that right wrist around if you've been doing a lot of work with your hands and your wrists.

It could feel nice just to swirl it around,

Get into the webbing in between each finger,

Swirl it around the other way.

And then float that arm down,

Hands both hands now back on the desk or the table,

Step that right foot forward and just pause to recalibrate there in center.

And we'll just move to the other side so the left foot can step back maybe three and a half,

Four feet is a good place to begin to play around with.

You can feel how deeply you'd like to lunge into that right thigh,

How much you can stretch through that left heel so you feel some both stretch and engagement in the back of the right thigh.

And then feel things perhaps beginning to open up in the sole of the left foot,

Tendons of the left ankle,

The muscles of the left calf,

And then right along the hip flexor area,

That crease where the thigh bone settles into the pelvis on the left,

All of that beginning to open as you take another breath or two here.

And again if you'd like you can stretch the left arm now up toward the sky so just beginning to perhaps draw a little bit more sensation into the hip crease on the left side as that arm stretches up and opens up that whole front chain of the body.

And from there again you might swirl the left wrist around a little bit,

Stretch open through the webbing in between the fingers,

Swirl it around the other side,

Other way,

And let that arm float back down,

Step the left foot up to meet your right foot,

And then simply come to an easy standing position.

Keeping your hands back behind your head,

So you'll stack one hand behind your head and then the other hand can be behind the first hand.

And this gives you a little bit of resistance so that you can press the back of your head into the hand that's holding it and press that hand back into the back of your head so you're feeling a little bit of engagement.

And we'll undo some of the forward thrusting that we tend to do if we round,

Hunch,

Fold in around things that we're working on.

So see if you can just jut your chin forward a little bit,

You'll feel the head pull away from the hands.

And then press the back of your head back into your hands and let the hands resist back into your head.

And we'll pulse like that on the breath so your elbows are winging out wide.

As you inhale you can jut the chin forward a little bit,

Move the back of the head away from the hands and then exhale,

Press the back of the head into the hands again,

Draw the chin back in,

Lengthen through the back of your neck.

Do that one more time.

Jut the chin forward and then exhale,

Draw the chin back in,

Press the back of the head into the hands,

Hands into the back of the head.

Inhale open your arms wide,

It might feel nice just to take a big breath there.

And then we'll do that on the other side or reversing the position of the hands.

So the other hand now will be on the back of your head,

Opposite hand behind it,

Elbows winging out to the sides.

Inhale jut your chin forward just a little bit,

Exhale press the back of your head into your hands as you draw the chin back in and lengthen through the back of the neck.

Twice more,

Inhale forward with the chin,

The head moves a little bit away from the hands.

Exhale,

Draw that chin back in,

Lengthen through the back of the neck,

Press the back of the head into the hands.

And one more time,

Inhale forward with the chin,

Exhale,

Press the back of the head into the hands,

Draw the chin in.

And open your arms wide again and exhale,

Let your hands and arms float down by your sides.

So just pause,

Take that in.

Good.

And one more time,

Just nice and effortlessly open your arms wide here,

Just as wide as you'd like with your palms facing forward,

Your fingers spread,

Inviting in just what you need for your next stretch of work today.

And we'll take three guided breaths here,

The arms effortlessly wide,

Hands open wide,

Undoing the compressed shallow breathing that sometimes happens if we hunt over our desks for long periods of time.

So standing here tall,

Arms gently open wide,

Release your breath,

Release and exhale.

And as you inhale,

Feel the breath first as if it could start deep in your low belly and then fill all the way up into the torso and all the way up into the chest,

Maybe all the way out to the fingertips.

And as you exhale,

Release that breath from the chest,

The torso and the belly.

Do that again,

Inhale all the way into what feels like the belly and into the ribs,

The full circumference front to back,

Side to side,

All the way up into the chest and the upper back,

Maybe all the way down the arms.

Exhale chest,

Ribs,

Belly.

One more time,

Nice full breath into the belly,

Even the low back,

All the way up into the torso,

All the way up into the chest,

The shoulders,

Down the arms to the fingertips,

And maybe just sigh out your exhale,

Let your arms relax by your sides again.

Ready for what's next in your day.

Thanks so much for taking this little work break.

I look forward to being with you again soon.