MBCT Mindful Movement

This is a gentle mindful movement practice for the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Program (MBCT). You are invited to move through the guided poses with curiosity and kindness, honoring the wisdom of your body. This practice is intended to be used as homework for The Mindful Way Group.

Transcript

Welcome to this mindful movement practice as part of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program.

I am your instructor,

Jen Churchill.

This is a gentle movement practice where we will alternate between poses on the floor and standing.

No special equipment is required,

However you might find it helpful to have a mat or blanket and layers to keep you warm.

These movements are inspired by the practice of Hatha Yoga,

Which consists of postures done mindfully and with awareness of breathing.

The word yoga means to yoke in Sanskrit and implies the joining of body and mind.

You are advised to practice in the same way that you have done with other mindfulness practices,

Maintaining moment-to-moment awareness,

Not striving to get anywhere or accomplish any certain task.

Instead,

Allowing yourself to be as you are and letting go of any expectations.

Move slowly and consciously,

Exploring your limits but not pushing beyond them.

This requires honoring your body and listening to the messages it sends you about when to stop,

When to ease back,

When to push yourself,

Or even when to avoid doing a posture altogether.

There can even be benefits to practicing simply in your mind,

Visualizing the poses and creating those connections between mind and body in the true spirit of yoga.

We will begin the practice lying down,

So take a moment to set yourself up,

Knowing that at any time you can pause the practice to take that extra time for yourself.

As you come into a lying-down posture,

Take a moment to simply feel your body resting on the ground.

Feel the contact points between your body and the surfaces beneath you,

Allowing yourself to be fully held and supported here.

And then beginning to move by bringing your legs together and stretching your arms out.

Bringing your arms up overhead so that you're creating one long extension of the body from the fingers to the toes and stretching the body here in opposite directions,

Finding the full extension of the spine and the limbs.

And then releasing that extension,

Perhaps bending your elbows,

Letting your ankles roll out.

Releasing any constriction or engagement in the muscles.

And then walking your feet over to the left.

As you walk your hands over to the left as well,

Creating a crescent shape with the body so that you're elongating the right side of the body as you constrict the left side of your body.

Breathing fully into the stretch along the sides of the body.

And then walking your hands and your feet over to the other side so that your feet and your hands are coming slightly to the right.

And you're elongating the left side of your body now.

Again,

Creating that c-curve or crescent shape while your head,

Shoulders,

Hips,

Heels remain on the floor.

Allowing the breath to expand down into the belly.

And now walking hands and feet back to central.

And bringing your arms down alongside your body now.

Coming back to this place of rest.

This place of checking in.

And now starting to walk your feet in towards your hips,

Bending your knees so they're pointing upwards.

Your feet are planted firmly on the ground and your arms are extended alongside your body.

Gently start to rock your pelvis,

Tucking your tailbone upwards as your low back isolates down towards the ground.

And then shifting the pelvis so that the low back rises,

The belly rises as well.

And then gradually shift back and forth,

Pelvis rocking through its full range of motion.

Allowing the pelvis to come back to neutral,

Pressing down into the soles of the feet and lifting the hips upwards.

As you lift the hips,

You can also lift the arms,

Extending the arms up overhead,

Breathing in as you lift,

Breathing out as you lower.

Finding your pace through this movement.

And eventually allowing your hips to settle back down to the ground,

Your arms to settle back down at your sides.

Taking your feet a little bit wider than your hips and allowing your knees to rest in towards one another.

Allowing some space in the pelvis and some support through the legs.

Checking in with the hollow space under your low back.

And then bringing your feet back in line with your hips and rocking your knees gently side to side.

Extending both legs out again.

And then bringing just your right knee in towards your chest.

Bringing your hands around the top of your knee as you squeeze your thigh in towards your belly.

And while you do this,

You may also breathe into your belly,

Breathing belly to thigh,

Squeezing thigh to belly.

And releasing that leg back down.

Taking a moment to register sensations in the legs.

And then drawing the other knee in.

Supporting the knee with the hands and pulling knee to belly,

Belly to knee.

As you're ready to release,

Letting go with the hands,

Letting the leg extend back outwards.

And then bring both knees in,

Locking the feet in,

And then hugging the knees to chest.

Creating a gentle squeeze here as well.

You may even enjoy lifting your head off the floor Drawing your chest a little closer to your knees.

Curling the body up,

Contracting the muscles.

And then releasing when you're ready.

Releasing your feet back down to the floor.

And then shifting now into a twist by letting your knees drop to one side as your head turns in the opposite direction,

Allowing a twist through the spine.

Knowing that you may bend or straighten your legs as much as you need to to experience the twist and honor your limits in this posture.

Arms can extend out from the shoulders.

Fully expanding across the chest.

Taking up some space here.

And bringing the knees back to center when you're ready and then gradually letting them fall to the other side.

Head turning the opposite direction as well.

A spiraling action from the base of the tailbone all the way up through the spine and out the crown of the head.

Noticing here which muscles engage and which muscles let go.

Guiding your knees back up.

Turning your head back to center.

And then rolling over on to one side.

Taking a moment here to simply lie in this position.

On your side,

Perhaps head supported by your arm.

In this place of transition.

Simply being here to mind,

Body,

And breath.

Moving as one as we start to transition up to seated.

And then from seated on to our hands and our knees.

Coming to a posture of knees under the hips.

Hands underneath the shoulders.

Finding stability here.

A sense of evenness in the weight between your knees and your hands.

And this is a place where you may attune to your body and adjust to your needs.

Either padding under the knees or the wrists.

Or modifying.

You can use fists or go down on to your elbows if needed to accommodate any pain or discomfort.

In the wrists.

And while here in this what we would call a tabletop position.

You can start to move the spine through its full range of motion.

Forward and back.

By doing what we call cat and cow positions.

So moving into cat first as you might picture a cat arching its back upwards.

As you draw the tailbone under and draw the chin towards the chest.

Reaching upwards through the mid back.

Pausing here for a moment.

And then starting to move in the opposite direction.

Feeling the chest pulling forward and up.

As the tailbone tips upwards as well.

Elongating through the front of the body.

Belly drops.

Finding the pace of the natural breath here and starting to link movement to breath.

Perhaps breathing out as you arch the back upwards.

And breathing in as you lengthen through the front of your body into cow.

Exploring this movement.

Resting in any areas that may need a little more attention right now.

Staying curious about whatever you find here.

Noticing the quality of sensation as well.

From dull,

Faint.

To more intense.

More all-consuming.

Being guided by the wisdom of the body.

Gradually easing yourself back to stillness.

Returning to that tabletop position.

And coming back to seated for a moment.

Just to give the arms,

The shoulders,

The knees a rest.

Checking in here in a comfortable seated position.

Taking these next few moments to just explore either stillness or any movements the body may be asking for.

And then from here,

We'll return to the tabletop position on the hands and the knees to begin to engage in some gentle balancing poses.

So first starting out with finding the natural balance of the body over the upper body and the lower body.

And then gradually extending the arms and the knees.

Extending the left leg back behind you so that the toes rest gently on the floor.

Left leg outstretched.

Right knee still supporting us underneath the right hip.

And the hands therefore support underneath the shoulders.

Might keep the toes rolled under and create a little reach or pressure back through the heel.

Feeling any sensation,

Engagement through the calf in the back of the leg.

And then you might start to lift that left leg away from the floor so that the leg extends out from the hip parallel with the floor beneath you.

Holding here for a moment.

Before releasing the leg back down and bringing that left knee back underneath the hip.

And then gradually extending the right leg back now so that the right toes are on the floor and the left knee is supporting underneath the left hip.

Hands still supporting us underneath our shoulders.

Reaching back through the heel.

Finding a stretch perhaps through the calf.

And when you're ready,

Starting to lift and extend the leg.

Playing with balance here.

Feeling as the weight shifts into the other limbs.

Before releasing the leg back down.

Knee coming back underneath the hip and returning to that tabletop position.

You might enjoy taking a round of cat and cow here to readjust the spine.

Or perhaps sitting back down,

Giving the upper body a time to rest.

From here,

We'll begin to transition into some standing postures.

So mindfully guiding yourself up,

Slowly,

Deliberately into a standing position.

Arriving here with your feet underneath your hips.

Elongating from your feet up through the crown of your head.

Taking this time to orient yourself here in space.

Finding yourself balanced over the arches of your feet.

Perhaps rocking forward and back,

Side to side to find that balance.

As your arms relax at the sides of your body and your shoulders fall away from your ears.

Standing here in this dignified posture.

Beginning to move with the breath as we extend the arms out to the sides and upwards.

Breathing in as the arms rise.

Breathing out as the arms come back down at the sides.

Staying curious about sensation and movement.

Pacing intuitively.

And now letting the arms settle back down into stillness.

Perhaps allowing the eyes to close.

This body,

This breath.

Bringing the hands to the hips and some softening to the knees.

Stepping the feet a little wider than the hips.

Starting to gradually twist through the torso,

Side to side.

The hands can remain at the hips.

Or if it's more natural to you,

Arms can drop back along the sides,

Swinging as you twist.

Moving intuitively,

Taking a slow mindful pace.

Or a little quicker pace.

Some shaking,

Some moving through the arms.

As they swing at the sides.

Gradually returning back to stillness.

And with the feet here wider than the hips,

Starting to play around with some balance.

Shifting weight into the left foot as the right heel lifts off the floor.

And the arms lift slightly away from the sides of the body.

It can be helpful to find a point out in front of us to let our gaze settle.

And perhaps choosing to start to lift the foot off the ground.

Feeling the engagement of the muscles through the leg.

And up into the torso.

And then gradually shifting over to the other foot as the opposite heel lifts off the floor.

Begin to play around with balancing on the right foot now.

Either holding steady or shifting back and forth.

Playing around with mobility,

Balance,

Concentration.

Eventually allowing both feet to settle back down on the ground.

Stepping the feet back underneath the hips.

And bringing the arms out in front of us.

Extending from the shoulders out at shoulder level.

Palms facing down.

Fingertips reaching out in front.

And here start to bend both knees as if you were to sit down in a chair.

As you do this,

You might feel the thighs start to activate.

The torso,

Core muscles,

And arms activating as well.

Feeling some heat beginning to build with this muscular activation.

And then making a choice.

Do you come back up to standing?

Easing in and out of the pose?

Or do you stay a little longer?

Playing around with the edges of sensation.

Making choices for what the body needs right now.

Eventually coming back to stillness and standing.

Taking a moment to pause,

To feel the muscles relax.

And then taking these next few moments to shake intuitively.

Starting by creating some shaking movements with the hands.

Wringing out the body.

Moving from hands to elbows,

To the whole of both arms.

And then shaking legs,

Shifting from one leg to the other as one leg lifts and shakes out.

Twisting the torso and shaking here.

Shaking the head and the neck.

Moving the body with fluidity.

Exploring some movement.

Shaking,

Stepping,

Dancing even.

How does the body want to move right here,

Right now?

No right or wrong.

Just you in this body,

This breath.

Moving.

Now starting to slow down the movements of the body.

Gradually making smaller movements as you transition back to a place of stillness.

And making a choice for these next few moments of stillness we'll be taking to either do this standing,

Seated,

Or lying down.

And as you come into this posture that is right for you in this moment,

Orienting yourself to this place.

Starting with the body.

Orienting to the physical sensations.

From the body,

Allowing the attention to shift.

Where does the attention want to go?

You might take a broad attention.

Allowing sounds to enter the field of awareness.

Smells,

Tastes,

Vision,

Even the light filtering through the eyelids.

Allowing space for thoughts as well.

Staying in the seat of observation.

And gathering awareness back into the body.

Orienting the body here in space.

Becoming aware of the possibility of movement.

Bringing awareness to the body.

Paying attention to the hands and the feet.

And then beginning to move mindfully,

Gradually.

Small movements at first,

Becoming larger movements over time.

And I invite you to take your time here.

Taking some extra time to rest here,

If that's appropriate.

Or choosing to transition into your day.

The sense of mindfulness.

Either way,

I thank you for practicing with me.

And I look forward to practicing with you again soon.