Hi and welcome to your gentle movement and breath practice.
We're going to start by getting comfortable in a cross-legged seated position.
So go ahead and sit on your floor or maybe you have a yoga mat or a different raised surface.
Gently cross your legs.
Place one hand on your heart and the opposite hand on your belly.
Try to just notice your breath here.
Inhale and exhale through the nose.
As you inhale let your hands rise and fall as they feel the breath moving in and out of the belly,
Of the lungs.
Try to relax the shoulders down.
Sit up nice and tall reaching the crown of the head up toward the ceiling.
Continue to breathe in and out through the nose.
And more grounded and more centered with each breath in and each breath out.
Taking the next breath or two you can start to relax the arms down at the sides.
Again checking to ensure that the spine is nice and long here.
And on your next exhale start to walk the fingertips out.
Walk them out to the sides as far as you can.
Really feeling a pull and a stretch through the length of the arms,
Shoulders.
You might even feel this in your neck.
And then we're going to gently allow the left ear to tip toward the left shoulder.
Really expanding the stretch through the right side of the neck,
The right shoulder and down the right arm.
Allow gravity to gently pull that ear toward that shoulder.
Maybe sending your breath into that stretch in the right side of your neck.
Good inhale,
Lift the head back to center.
And on your exhale let the head tip to the opposite side bringing the right ear down toward the right shoulder.
Taking those left fingertips out a little bit further.
Again sending your breath into the left side of your neck,
Shoulder,
Down the left arm.
Really feeling that stretch pulling and extending through.
Good inhale.
You can bring that head back to center and then relax the arms down at the sides.
This time you're going to take your right hand,
Place it on your left shoulder and your left hand place it on your right shoulder.
Give yourself a nice hug here,
A nice squeeze.
Maybe feel a pull through the shoulder blades,
Your upper back.
Again you're seated up nice and tall here.
Then clench your jaw,
Soften your gaze or close your eyes.
Continue to send that breath into the abdomen.
Feel the belly to rise and fall.
In the next breath or two you can relax the arms back down at the sides.
And then go ahead and clasp your hands together behind your back.
If they don't reach that's okay,
You can grab a blanket.
Maybe you have a belt around,
Maybe you have a yoga strap.
Any of those types of items will work and you're going to grasp onto that item.
Wherever you're at,
Whether your hands are clasped together or you have an item behind you,
You're going to inhale really expand that chest forward.
Opening and expanding,
Stretching through the front of the chest.
Really breathing deep.
Letting all the tension that you've built maybe hunched over a desk or standing with your posture,
Not how you've wanted to.
Really let those things melt off as you continue to breathe and expand your heart,
Expand the chest.
Good.
Exhale go ahead and release the arms back down at the sides.
Inhale sweep the arms straight overhead and you're going to be reaching those fingertips up toward the ceiling.
Exhale twist to the right.
You're going to drop the hands down as you twist.
That front hand can reach and grab your knee or if it doesn't reach the knee you can gently place it on the floor in front of you.
Try to look over your back right shoulder.
And that back right arm is just going to be wherever it's comfortable.
It's going to be down either on your yoga mat or the floor.
And if you find yourself hunching over here untwist a little bit and then straighten the spine again.
Nice gentle twist here.
Send your breath into the twist into your belly.
Continue to breathe.
Good inhale untwist sweep the arms back overhead.
Exhale twist to the left.
Twist to your opposite side.
As you twist bring those hands down.
That front hand can again reach for your knee or the floor in front of you.
Back fingertips are on your mat or on the floor and you're going to be gazing behind the left shoulder.
It's really normal to twist differently.
It's normal for your spine to adjust differently on each side.
So maybe this side feels a little different than your first.
And we're working on sending that breath into the twist allowing ourselves to settle in In the next breath or two start to get prepared for your next movement and we're going to inhale untwist sweep the arms back overhead and then exhale relax and release the arms back down to the sides.
Good once again find your nice seated posture where the spine is nice and long reaching the crown of the head up toward the ceiling.
Do a quick scan of the body.
Make sure that jaw is unclenched.
The eyes are relaxed.
The jaw is loose and we're once again going to float one hand up to the heart opposite hand up to the belly.
We're going to continue to breathe in and out through the nose finding a space to end our practice and to give ourselves and take with us anything we can from this practice into our days into our weeks.
Use this time to bottle up any moment of peace of calm of a muscle that hasn't been relaxed.
Bottle that up.
Take it with you into your day.
Thank you for practicing with me.
Good bye.
