Welcome to standing yoga.
Please take a moment to find yourself in a place and at a time where you are unlikely to be disturbed.
Acknowledging the efforts that you are making to take time for yourself,
To be with yourself,
To be for yourself.
Time to be with this precious body,
Practicing mindful movement.
Awareness,
Moment to moment.
Connection by sensation.
Come to standing mountain pose.
Acknowledging the connection of the feet to the floor.
Perhaps on carpet,
A yoga mat,
Or whatever surface you're standing upon.
Noticing the connection to the support underneath you.
Take a moment to sense and feel into your physical body.
Acknowledging what is here now.
Whether it be balanced energy or fatigue,
Aches and pains,
Neutrality.
A steady breath or a rapid breath.
As you stand in mountain pose,
To the best of your capacity in this moment,
Let go of unnecessary tension in the body.
Perhaps relaxing the shoulders or the jaw.
Softening the belly so that it is receptive to each inhale and allowing of each exhale.
In the next moment or two,
Begin to slowly raise your right arm up towards the ceiling.
Paying attention to each sensation as it comes into the field of your awareness as the arm travels through space up towards the ceiling.
Pausing with the hand up overhead and then allowing the arm to come back down,
Slowly moving until it rests at the side of your body.
Taking this movement with this arm a couple more times.
Slowly noticing what is here to be felt.
The next time your arm comes down to the side,
Pause again in standing mountain pose.
You may or may not notice a difference in the sensations in the two sides of the shoulders or arms.
Again acknowledging what is here now.
As you are ready,
Please take the second arm,
Bringing the arm up slowly,
Bringing the arm overhead or as far as it can go comfortably,
Pausing with the arm up and as you are ready letting the arm come back down slowly to the side.
Repeating this a few times on this side.
Bringing a sense of friendly curiosity into the sensations that arise as you slowly move your arm up and down.
The next time your arm comes back down to your side,
Pause again in mountain pose.
Checking in with both sides of the body,
Both arms,
Shoulders.
Noticing what is here now.
Bringing both arms at the same time,
Stretching out from the sides of the body,
Moving up slowly through space and bringing the arms to full extension as far as they can go up overhead as your arms land in a position that is comfortable and appropriate for you,
Reaching out through the fingertips.
And in the next breath or so,
Allowing the arms to slowly move back down to resting at the sides of your body.
Breathing into standing mountain pose.
Using this movement to cultivate moment to moment awareness.
Acknowledging sensations,
Thoughts,
Emotions that may be arising and passing away.
Then please bring your arms up to the sides slowly.
Let them come up overhead.
Extend your fingers up towards the ceiling,
Reaching down through the soles of the feet.
And very gently in a way that is comfortable and supportive of your body,
Let both of your arms reach over to the right,
Just enough so that you might feel some sensation in the side body.
Bringing your arms up to center and taking your arms over to the left.
Just enough so that you might feel some sensation in the side body.
Bringing your arms back up to center and letting your arms lower down to the sides,
Coming again into standing mountain pose.
Now shifting your weight into your right leg.
Imagine that the leg is filling with sand.
There's a heavy steadiness in the right leg.
Bringing the right arm out to the side and letting the left leg lift up off of the floor any amount.
If balance is tricky here,
The toe can touch down on the left side.
Exhaling,
Sustaining the balance.
Allowing the arm to come down and the leg to come down,
The left foot coming back down onto the floor,
Returning to standing mountain pose.
Staying your weight into your left leg,
Imagining or feeling the left leg becoming stable,
A sense of heaviness perhaps.
Bringing the left arm out to the side and lifting the right leg up any amount.
Perhaps the right toe stays on the floor for a steadiness or the left leg lifts a little bit higher.
Noticing all the movements that come into play in order to support your body in this balance pose.
Letting the arm come down,
Letting the leg come down,
And returning again to standing mountain pose.
Tucking in with the breath.
Inviting unnecessary tension to the best of your capacity in this moment to be released from your body.
Softening the shoulders.
Relaxing the belly.
As you're ready,
Let the head tilt towards the right.
The right ear comes towards the right shoulder.
You can imagine that there's a heaviness in your left arm.
Notice if there's an agenda to feel a certain way and see if you can let that go and simply reside in the present moment experience.
What sensations are here now?
If it feels appropriate for you,
Taking the right hand and arm and just gently resting the forearm on the left side of the head.
Taking the right arm back down,
Lifting the head,
And turning the head side to side.
Looking over your left shoulder and then your right shoulder.
Your left shoulder and then your right shoulder.
Letting the left ear drop towards the left shoulder.
Perhaps imagining that the right arm is just a little bit heavier.
If it feels appropriate to you,
Taking the left arm and gently resting it on the head,
The right side of the head.
Letting the left arm come down,
Raising the head up,
And turning the head side to side.
Looking toward the right shoulder and then toward the left shoulder a couple times.
Coming back to standing mountain pose.
Taking a moment to acknowledge your body's participation in this standing yoga practice.
Perhaps offering gratitude toward yourself for taking care,
For paying attention,
And taking time to be with yourself in a gently,
Gentle and friendly way.
At this time,
You're welcome to end your practice.
If you'd like to do a short lying down corpse pose,
You may want to take a couple minutes to do that.
