Standing Mindful Movement (MBSR)

Connect more deeply with your body when we move with awareness and kindness, seeing what the body needs on the day, in this 30-minute standing movement sequence. Feel free to rest at any time and move in a way that honours your precious body. Gabrielle is a certified Meditation and Mindfulness teacher, as well as a Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher. She is an Insight Dharma Teacher Trainee in Australia.

Transcript

Together let's explore the standing movement practice.

And today this movement practice gives us an opportunity to bring more awareness to our body so we can really inhabit the bodily experiences and the sensations.

And having said that,

Feel free to do what feels right for your body today.

Take authority to choose what poses feel right for you,

To modify anything that you need to or even to not do a pose that I'm suggesting.

And if you find that the pose is not safe or is uncomfortable for you,

Perhaps you'd like to visualize it.

You could imagine doing the pose instead.

So with this practice today,

Let's bring some curiosity,

Some friendliness to our body.

Having this awareness for our body and also noticing the breath and thoughts and emotions will also naturally arise.

Thinking if we can hold it all as best we can whilst we move through this standing movement practice.

So if you haven't already,

Standing with your feet to the ground and noticing the body standing here,

What does that feel like?

Can you bring your attention down to the soles of your feet?

The tops of the feet and the whole of the feet,

These feet that support you to stand with stability and ease.

And noticing now into your ankles,

The shins and calves,

Perhaps noticing any sensations here through the knees and moving throughout the whole of the body,

Bringing our attention to each part,

Checking in with how the body feels in this moment before we begin our practice.

The thighs and upper legs,

Any sensations there?

The buttocks and hips,

The pelvis.

And now to the arms,

The fingers and hands.

What is there here to notice in the fingers and hands and the rest of the arms all the way to the shoulders?

And now to your torso,

Your trunk,

Your belly,

Ribs and chest,

Perhaps noticing the breath moving,

Coming and going.

And your back,

Lower back,

Middle back and upper back.

What sensations are here to notice in the back of your body,

The back of the torso,

The neck and your face and head.

Bring your attention to your face and head,

Checking in on how that feels and what sensations are arising.

And you might also be noticing thoughts and emotions also arising as we stand here in relative stillness,

Checking in on the body and its sensations.

Thoughts and emotions are also probably arising.

And today let's work,

Let's work as best we can with this body as it is today without asking too much of it,

Putting any demands or pressure on it and taking a rest at any time or modifying as you need to.

Coming back to the soles of the feet and connecting to the ground with four points,

Four points on the soles of the feet,

The big toe and the little toe and at the back of the foot,

The heel,

The inside and outside,

Imagining perhaps feeling four points connecting to the ground.

Taking a bit of time now to imagine or feel the body lengthening a little bit more,

Knee caps lengthening up,

Thighs also lengthening,

Hips and pelvis,

The spine,

Spine lengthening.

And as the spine lengthens,

You may notice the chest expands a little bit,

Shoulders relax down,

The back of the neck also lengthening.

With perhaps the chin gently tucked or the chin parallel to the ground and this can be your starting point,

The neutral point for your practice,

The standing mindful movement.

Take a few breaths here as you check in to the sensations of this body as it stands here in relative stillness.

Can you begin to move the arms,

Allowing the breath to initiate the movement?

So perhaps inhaling as the arms begin to rise out to the sides and then up,

Up overhead,

The inner arms towards the ears,

Pausing as the arms reach towards the sky and then slowly,

You may like to use the whole of the exhale to lower the arms out to the sides and back down to the side of the body.

Let's do this three more times,

Inhaling as the arms raise out to the sides,

Up to the sky in this mountain pose and exhaling back down.

You may like to raise the heels as the arms reach out to the sides and up to the sky and then as the arms lower back down to the sides of the body,

The heels are also coming back down.

Let's do this one more time at your own pace,

Noticing the sensations of the body as we move it,

As we are with this body,

Taking a rest when you've finished,

Resting here in the standing,

Legs lengthening,

Spine lengthening,

Body lengthening but at the same time there's a sense of not over exerting,

Not over striving,

Having a little bit of kindness and friendliness towards this body.

And now beginning to raise one arm up to the sky,

So you may like to raise the left arm up,

Perhaps taking it up with the inhale,

Reaching the left arm up to the sky as you inhale.

You may like to bring the right heel off the ground,

Noticing how that feels for the left arm to be reaching up to the sky and the right heel to be lifting off the ground.

Notice the parts of the body that feel stretched and parts that feel a bit more compressed.

And then lowering,

Beginning to lower the arm,

Lower the heel.

Let's change sides,

Breathing in,

Raising up the right arm now,

Reaching the right arm to the sky,

Lifting the left heel if that feels right for your body.

Allowing the breath to flow,

Be here with this pose,

What is there to experience here with the body in this pose?

Slowly,

Lowering the right arm and the left heel,

Returning to neutral,

Returning to a standing position.

Let's do that one more time on each side,

Breathing in,

Raising up the left arm,

Raising up the right heel,

And releasing,

Noticing the difference between each side of the body.

When you're ready,

Raise the right arm,

The left heel,

Using the breath also as a support for when the pose feels a little bit intense,

You can send the breath to support that part of the body.

And lowering the right arm,

The left heel.

Take a moment to be here in this standing position,

Perhaps once again noticing the four points of the soles of the feet to the ground,

Providing support and stability.

As you observe the body,

The sensations,

And perhaps also thoughts and emotions that are naturally arising.

Let's stretch the arms out to the side.

You may like to use the inhale,

Reach the arms out to the side,

About shoulder height,

And then you may like to press the palms away.

Imagine that you're pressing into a wall and finding the balance between that pressing into the wall,

The effort to do that,

And the softening,

The softening into the arms,

Shoulders,

The back,

So we're not over-efforting.

Bringing this wisdom to our practice so that we can bring it to our daily life.

Opening the arms if you haven't already,

And taking a moment to observe the after-effect of that,

The sensations.

Let's do some shoulder rolls.

Bringing the shoulders up,

Squeezing them together,

And allowing them to drop down and back.

Again,

Shoulders rolling up,

Back,

And down.

Let's do this four times in total.

Then we'll take a pause and change directions.

Notice where there might be tension in the body.

Changing direction if you haven't already.

Rotating,

Rolling the shoulders in the opposite direction.

Shoulders coming up,

Forward,

Down,

And back.

Four times rotating around.

Then taking a rest.

Notice that work in the body.

Let's do some neck rolls now as well.

Bringing the chin down towards the chest,

And rolling the head side to side if that feels safe and comfortable for you.

Feel free to modify this,

Particularly if you have a practice,

A regular practice of perhaps stretching your neck.

You may like to do that.

And a couple more times.

Just rolling.

Rolling the head from side to side.

Returning back to a standing position.

Taking a few breaths here.

Let's now challenge ourselves a little bit with a balance pose.

So we're going to bring the left leg firmly to the ground.

Plant the left foot to the ground.

And when you feel steady,

You may like to bring that right leg out to the side and off the ground.

If that feels like too much for you today,

Keep the foot down to the ground.

There's no need to raise it up,

Particularly if you have a sore back.

And to support your balance,

You may like to raise the arms out to the side about shoulder height.

Notice what's required to perform this pose.

Notice the impact on the breath.

Notice the strength that's required to perform this pose,

This balance.

Any time you can return back to the neutral standing position.

And now let's return back,

Releasing the arms to the side,

The right leg back to the left.

Observing the difference between the right and the left leg.

That left leg that was doing a lot of the work to keep it steady.

And shift your weight now to the right leg,

To the right foot.

And when that feels steady,

You may like to begin to bring the left leg out to the side and raise it off the ground.

Doing the same as you did on the other side,

Raising the arms as well if you like.

Breath is flowing.

Realising the sensations,

Thoughts and even emotions that might be arising.

Bringing a little bit of friendliness,

Softness to this pose.

And if you haven't already,

Releasing the arms,

Returning the left leg back to meet the right.

You may like to give the legs a shake,

The arms a bit of a shake.

Let's take a rest in this standing position.

Let's go ahead now with a standing twist.

Bring your hands to your hips,

Your waist.

And observing the body before we begin to twist.

We're twisting the torso,

So keeping the neck nice and relaxed.

There's no need to overstretch the neck.

Finding the breath.

On your exhale,

You may like to gently begin twisting towards your left.

Allowing the breath to continue to flow as you stand here in this twist.

Rising the body,

The breath and anything else arising for you.

And gently now returning back to centre with the inhale,

Taking a moment to observe the sides of the body and with the exhale,

Twisting towards the right.

Finding the breath in the body in this twisting position.

With the next inhale,

Returning the body back to centre.

Release the arms if you haven't already.

Let's take a rest here.

What is there here to notice?

We're going to move down to the ground now to do butterfly pose.

So carefully,

Mindfully making your way down to the ground,

Bring your bottom to the ground.

And bending both the knees as best you can and bring the soles of the feet to connect.

Creating a butterfly shape with your legs.

You can be still here or you may like to add a little bit of movement if that feels right for your body.

Raising and lowering the knees like a flying butterfly.

Then coming to stillness.

We'll do a forward bend.

So keeping the left leg bent,

Extend the right leg out and the left sole of the foot can come to the inner right thigh.

Keeping up tall,

Taking a nice breath in as you lengthen through the body and as you breathe out we're going to bend forward over that right leg,

Bringing our hands onto the thigh and taking a few breaths here.

If you can reach further along the right leg,

You can go ahead with that.

You could also notice any tendency to be competitive with yourself or with somebody else.

And now returning with the inhale,

Returning the hands along the leg,

Release the left leg out front and give both the legs a shake.

And now changing legs.

Bend the right leg,

Bend the right knee and bring the sole of the right foot to the inner left thigh.

Sitting up tall and slowly breathing out,

Bending forward,

Hands onto the top of the left thigh,

Holding it here,

Holding a position that feels comfortable for you and perhaps noticing the stretch in the back,

The legs,

Keeping the neck nice and soft and relaxed.

And returning now with the inhale,

Coming back,

Sitting upright,

Release the leg,

Bring the legs out front,

Give them a shake.

And let's now take some time,

A couple of minutes,

To lie down on our back if that feels right for you into a relaxation,

A Shavasana.

Stretching your legs and arms out long,

Giving your body a bit of a stretch and bringing your arms perhaps to the side of your body or you may like to bring the palms onto your belly.

The legs can be stretched out or you may like to bend the knees and have the soles of the feet to the ground.

If you need a cushion or pillow for your neck and your head,

Feel free to make any adjustments so you feel comfortable,

Perhaps a blanket over your body.

And in this lying down position,

Can we now bring awareness to and directly inhabit this body,

Be with this body,

Its experiences,

Its sensations as they are without wanting to change or control the sensations and experiences that we're having right now.

Relating to this body with some kindness,

Some friendliness and patience.

Can we allow the experiences that we're having now to be as they are?

Can we begin to accept them?

Accept the experiences that are here right now,

Knowing that they may change.

As we begin to take good care,

Take mindful care of this precious body,

Take good care of this mind and body as best we can.

Feel free to stay a little bit longer,

Otherwise begin to stretch your arms and your legs,

Bringing a bit more movement,

Wriggling your fingers and toes.

Thank you for your practice today.