Yoga Mindful Standing Postures (MBSR)

This is a mindful movement sequence designed to be used for home practice for participants in the MBSR program. The postures are primarily done standing, ending with a few postures seated and then lying on the floor. Instructions emphasize awareness of the body and mind, exploring edges of flexibility, and exercising caution with vulnerabilities.

Transcript

Let's begin this mindful movement practice by coming to stand with your feet about hip width apart and your arms resting by your sides in the standing mountain posture.

The feet making contact with the floor and perhaps noticing all of the areas of your feet that are making contact.

The whole body standing here,

The perimeter of the body,

The skin.

Perhaps there's a sense of the balancing of the body.

The internal sense of the body.

And just how it is right now.

Any particular areas of sensation,

Calling for your attention and bringing your attention to the feeling of the breath.

Just noticing where it is that you feel the breath in your body right now.

Just as best you can tuning into the fullness of just this in-breath.

The fullness of just this out-breath as you stand here.

If you'd like to for the movement opening your eyes and maybe just letting your gaze rest somewhere.

And as you're ready to beginning to very slowly raise your arms out to the sides lifting them up towards the ceiling.

And pausing as your arms come to about shoulder height.

Taking a moment here to just feel into the sense of the arms.

There's a sense of the resistance of gravity,

Other sensations.

And then when you're ready to perhaps on beginning on an in-breath continuing on upward towards the ceiling,

Towards the sky.

Reaching up with both hands above the head.

And breathing in this posture,

Letting the breath just be natural.

Noticing any particular sensations arising as you stand here.

Perhaps noticing some intention to begin to lower your arms and noticing what brings on that intention or that thought.

And just when you're ready to perhaps beginning on an out-breath,

Slowly lowering the arms.

Just as best you can staying in contact with the actual felt sensations in the arms as they're moving,

As they're slowly moving down towards the floor.

And as your arms come to rest at your sides,

Really feeling into the sense of whatever release there is there as the arms and the muscles in the arms can let go and just simply rest here.

Noticing just the actual sensations in standing here maybe resulting from the movements or whatever else is presenting itself to you.

And in the next movement,

Movement we'll call Picking Grapes.

Beginning with the feet standing hip-width apart.

And beginning with raising just one hand up towards the ceiling.

Stretching up just as if you're reaching up overhead to reach a bunch of grapes that are just out of your reach.

And feeling that stretch through that side of your body.

And if you'd like to,

If it's comfortable for your body to,

Lifting the heel on the opposite leg.

Noticing how that might affect the reach and the stretch on the side of your body.

Remembering to breathe naturally.

And just when you're ready to perhaps on an out-breath,

Lowering the heel and then slowly lowering the arm.

And just staying in contact with that actual sense of the arm moving as it comes down to your side.

Pausing here for a moment in the Mountain Pose,

Perhaps closing your eyes.

And maybe there's some different sensations on one side of the body compared to the other from just doing this stretch on one side.

Just how is it for you?

And then when you're ready to perhaps beginning on an in-breath,

Raising the opposite arm this time.

Slowly reaching out to the side and up overhead.

Reaching up as if you're reaching for something that's just out of your reach.

And so whichever arm you're reaching up with,

Perhaps the opposite heel could come up off the floor.

And noticing how that affects the feeling of stretch,

The movement of the body.

And as you're aware of bodily sensations,

Maybe tingling,

Stretching,

Breathing.

Also aware of what's going on in the mind.

Just what tells you that it's time to allow the arm to lower.

Is it some discomfort or is it impatience?

What is it?

And then when you're ready to letting the heel come back down to the floor and then slowly allowing the arm to come down,

Staying in moment to moment contact with this feeling of the arm lowering and the arm coming to rest and the muscles able to just relax.

And feeling just how it feels in the body right now after doing this stretch on each side.

Feeling the breath,

Just what is the quality of the breath right now?

Short or long,

Deep or shallow.

And then we'll do one more stretch overhead this time again with both arms coming out to the sides and up overhead.

And when the arms are completely stretched up overhead,

Leaning to one side,

Perhaps starting with the right side,

Leaning the torso to the right side and the arms stretching out to the side so the head is still in between the arms.

And just noticing where your body wants to end up here,

Just where the limit of your flexibility or comfort is and not pushing beyond it,

Just coming up to it.

Feeling what's here to be felt.

And then when you're ready to slowly coming back up to center and leaning to the left side so that the head stays between the arms,

The torso is bending,

Just to whatever degree feels right for you.

And how do you know this in your own experience?

And then when you're ready to slowly coming back up to center,

Stretching up overhead and then perhaps just beginning this movement on an out breath,

Letting the arms slowly come back down,

Letting the breath be easy.

And as the arms come to rest,

Perhaps just standing in the mountain pose once again and tuning into whatever sensations are coming up in your body right now from this movement,

Perhaps from something else.

Finding the breath and just checking in how this practice is going for you so far and just noticing how you're approaching your limitations physically or whether there's some sense of ease or pleasure here or some sense of impatience or boredom.

There's really no one right way to feel.

As you might notice,

We feel different ways from moment to moment,

Sometimes lingering.

Most important thing is just simply knowing our experience and being curious about it.

So the next movement we'll do is some shoulder rolls.

So again,

Standing in a comfortable posture,

Standing about hip width apart and just beginning this movement by bringing the shoulders up towards your ears and then bringing the shoulders back,

Squeezing the shoulder blades together and then allowing the shoulders to drop down and bringing the shoulders forward,

Squeezing the chest together and then bringing the shoulders up towards your ears once again and just continuing this movement,

Sort of a fluid circular movement,

Rolling the shoulders backwards.

And of course you can choose to do quite large circles with your shoulders or quite small or choose to do this in your mind's eye,

Imagining rolling your shoulders in this way.

And whenever you'd like to,

Reversing this movement,

Maybe just pausing for a moment in a neutral shoulder posture,

Taking note of how this movement has affected you and then bringing the shoulders up once again and now forward first and down and then back and up once again.

And you could,

If you like to pair your breath with this movement,

You could let the pace of your breath guide the movement by inhaling as the shoulders come up,

The shoulders come up on the inhale and on the exhale,

Letting the shoulders come down so that the movement pace is guided by your breath.

Noticing if the mind is wandering,

Just noticing where it's wandered to and then just coming back to this shoulder roll movement.

No matter how many times our minds wander,

We can always bring them back.

So just beginning to end the shoulder roll movement and pausing in the mountain posture once again,

Noticing the effects of this movement on the shoulders,

Maybe noticing the effects of standing here.

You might just take a moment to shake out the legs,

Arms before coming to stillness once again in this standing posture.

And the next movement is neck rolls.

And of course,

Many of us have some injuries or we certainly all have some degree of vulnerability in the neck and so really taking care with the degree of the range of motion that we use in this neck roll.

Sometimes it's useful to imagine having a string attached to the top of the head,

The crown of the head and imagining that's attached to the ceiling so that limits our range of movement so that when we do the neck rolls,

The range of motion is not too extreme.

And so we can just begin the neck roll by bringing the right ear towards the right shoulder and then bringing the head down,

The chin down towards the chest and then bringing the head so that the left ear is coming towards the left shoulder and then tilting the head just slightly back and then bringing the head over towards the right shoulder once again.

And continuing at your own pace and with your own range of motion that's really guided by where you sense the edges,

The reasonable edges are for your range of motion with this neck roll noticing stiffness or tension or discomfort particularly if this is an area of injury for you.

Really best to use the guideline of doing 60% of the movement rather than 110%.

So really not a practice of striving here but really being curious and taking care and seeing just what our experience is in this moment.

And before reversing this movement just allowing your head to come to rest centered and then when you're ready to bringing the left ear towards the left shoulder and bringing the head back and then over towards the right shoulder and towards the chest and perhaps enjoying the flexibility that the neck allows.

And as you're ready to ending this neck roll movement coming back to the head being centered over the shoulders and just checking in what's the state of the body right now and what's the state of the mind.

And coming now to a balancing posture so if you need to you could use a chair or a table or the wall to stand next to for this balancing movement beginning with a stable standing posture feet hip width apart arms alongside your body and then when you're ready to bringing your arms up to be outstretched by at your sides at shoulder height and then perhaps beginning with the right leg shifting your weight onto your left foot and then when you're ready to lifting your right leg out to the side.

So the arms are outstretched at shoulder height and the right leg lifting out to the side balancing on the left foot and perhaps some experimenting here allowing the toe of the right foot to touch down finding some degree of balance which might be supported by keeping your gaze at a single spot on the wall or the floor something that's not moving.

And just noticing what areas are working maybe there's some tensing some muscles burning tingling shakiness and when you're ready to come back down if you haven't already maybe slowly lowering the arms and the leg at the same time coming in for a three-point landing taking a moment to stand on both feet maybe closing your eyes feeling the breath and when you're ready to shifting your weight to your right foot allowing the arms to come up once again out to the sides at shoulder height and then lifting the left leg out to the side and balancing on the right foot and just noticing maybe the body is quite still and steady or maybe it's quite wobbly what's wobbly perhaps there are some judgments here about how well you're doing this or not and we can just simply notice that when you're ready to slowly allowing the arms to come down and the leg to come down perhaps all at the same time and feeling the release of the muscles as you just stand here in stillness for a moment noticing how it is in stillness now the effects of doing this balancing posture just how you're approaching the practice and beginning the next posture by bringing our hands onto our hips at the waist just above the waist on the hip bones feet hip width apart and this is a spinal standing twist so the first part will just begin by turning towards the left so turning the head and turning just at the waist so that the hips stay pointing forward and looking over the left shoulder and just noticing where the head ends up where the torso ends up with this turning towards the left not overly straining noticing how the breath is not needing to make it any particular way and when you're ready to beginning to turn towards the center again pausing here for a moment and then turning to the right and looking over the right shoulder so that the head is turning and just turning at the waist so that the hips are still facing forward and looking over the shoulder whether the eyes are open or closed and when you're ready to just beginning to turn back towards the center and this time as we turn to the left will allow the movement also to come from the ankles so beginning to turn towards the left looking over the left shoulder and allowing the body the freedom to move from the ankles as well just noticing where you end up now perhaps this affords a greater range of motion just being present here at this end of wherever your body has ended up as you're turning to the left and taking your time to turn back towards the center pausing and then turning to the right now looking over the right shoulder allowing the movement to come from the waist from the ankles and just being curious noticing where your body has ended up with this turn just how far it can turn just what flexibility is allowed breathing in this posture letting the breath just be natural noticing the state of the mind whether it's pleasant or unpleasant just this willingness to stay with this experience interesting or boring and then as you're ready to if you haven't already turning back towards center allowing your arms to drop towards your sides and just pausing a moment in stillness feeling the breath feeling the body as a whole standing here now the next movement is a forward bending movement which you might take care with if there's some sensitivity in the area of the back in particular or with the blood pressure you may choose to do this one as any of the postures in your mind's eye so first of all we begin this posture with a comfortable stable standing posture bringing the arms on an inhale out to the sides and up overhead and then when you're ready to on an exhale beginning to bend forward at the waist and the hips lowering the upper body down towards the floor and just seeing where your body ends up perhaps your fingers reaching the floor perhaps not perhaps the arms dangling and feeling free to allow the knees to be soft again no sense of striving necessary here just really being curious and kind to your body and if you choose to you could include a stretch for the arms here by just stretching one arm forward as if you're reaching forward so one arm is dangling or perhaps touching the ground or holding the leg and the opposite arm stretching out forward head still facing downward towards the floor taking care of the neck noticing the quality of the breath not holding the breath and then lowering that arm if you've raised it and pausing for a moment before you raise the opposite arm stretching that arm out in front breathing with this posture perhaps breathing into any areas of discomfort or tension knowing when it's right for you to move out of the posture and when you're ready to move out of this posture really taking care slowly rolling up from the lower back allowing the spine to uncurl as you come upright and come back into the standing posture and perhaps just noticing it's almost inverted posture really just the state of the body and in the next movement the next posture the chair posture again beginning with the feet about hip width apart and we can use the arms to help us to balance by bringing the arms straight out in front of us at about shoulder height and then beginning to allow the knees to bend the hips to bend so that the knees come over the feet and really being aware of your posture taking care coming down as if you're sitting on an imaginary chair and just noticing maybe your chair is quite tall or maybe it's quite short just depending on what your body is capable of what's reasonable for your body and just spending a moment or two to hang out here and maybe noticing there's some discomfort with this posture muscles working noticing what your edges are in terms of flexibility in terms of how long to hold the posture noticing if they're striving here or curiosity and as you choose to come out of the posture slowly coming to upright perhaps shaking out the arms shaking out the legs noticing the quality of the breath deep or shallow short or long just letting the breath be natural the next posture is also a balancing posture the tree posture and so for the tree posture we have a few options so first of all perhaps beginning with the right foot being the weight-bearing foot and you can bring your left foot so that it depending on your flexibility might come up onto your side of the inside of your right calf or on your inner thigh probably avoiding the knee just to protect the knee so either resting your sole of your foot on the the shin the calf or the inside of the thigh or perhaps just resting partly on the ground and partly on the ankle and balancing here on the right foot and again it can be supportive for this posture to find one point to focus on with your eyes and if you'd like to you could bring your palms together in front of your chest as you balance here wobbly balancing steady balancing really being curious and kind in this practice and if you're feeling steady enough in this posture you could begin to bring your hands up overhead and the palms could remain together or they might be quite broad branches out to both sides up overhead breathing in this posture bringing a sense of curiosity and experimentation you can always begin again when you're ready to perhaps allowing the arms and the foot to come down at the same time and pausing in the standing mountain noticing how you're meeting the state of your body in this tree posture before we shift over when you're ready to let the left foot be the weight-bearing foot bringing the right foot up onto the inside of the left leg on the side of the lower leg or the upper leg above the knee or perhaps just at the ankle and when you feel relatively steady there you could bring your hands together in front of your chest the palms together and then if you'd like to slowly raising your hands up overhead the palms can remain together so that the hands are centered overhead perhaps stretching up towards the sky and if you'd like to releasing the hands so that your arms may form wide branches maybe your tree is swaying maybe it's quite still staying in contact with your experience and when you're ready to slowly allowing the arms to come down the leg to come down and standing once again closing your eyes if you wish to just how this period of standing has been how you've been relating to your practice the difficulties the ease the mind wandering and coming back so we'll just transition now to a few movements on the floor so just coming down to sitting on the floor and bringing the soles of the feet together so the soles of the feet are together in front of you the knees out to the sides without any straining but perhaps grasping onto the toes if that's comfortable for you maybe a little bit of rocking from side to side feeling the stretch on the insides of the thighs maybe it's a subtle stretch maybe it's a stronger stretch really can you bring a sense of ease to this posture on the out breath allowing the body to relax even just a little bit so that there's no forcing and shifting this posture to keep one knee bent and stretching out the let's stretch out the right leg first so the right leg is stretched out to the side and the left knee is bent with the sole of the foot towards the right thigh the back relatively upright just noticing maybe there's some stretch in the hamstrings maybe you're quite flexible there and then perhaps on an in breath beginning by stretching the arms up overhead bringing the hands together and when you're ready to beginning on an out breath bringing the hands down reaching out to the outstretched leg all the way down to the toes or as far as your body ends up as you reach down towards the toes of the right foot the outstretched leg and just noticing where your body ends up here maybe it's quite flexible and you can reach the toes maybe just reaching to the shin or the knee or the thigh but wherever you end up can there be a sense of releasing into the posture rather than a stretching into and striving into it noticing how the breath is how the breath could be easy or easier in this posture when you're ready to slowly coming back up bringing the torso upright bringing the right leg so that the knee is bent and the right foot the sole of the foot against the inside of the left thigh stretching the left leg out to the side and then when you're ready to maybe beginning on an in breath stretching the arms up overhead and on an out breath reaching down towards the toes of the left foot and just noticing where your body ends up breathing into the posture and just how you know when it's time to move out of the posture and just when you're ready to slowly coming back up to center bringing the torso upright and then we'll just take some time coming onto our backs in the corpse pose stretching out flat on your back if that's a comfortable posture for you and coming to feel your body resting on the floor maybe feeling into the support of the gravity holding you and feeling into just how it is in your body right now after this period of different movements reflecting on how you've been engaging with them how you've been meeting any challenges and perhaps moments of enjoyment some moments of ease as well and just how it is right now and acknowledging this time that you've taken to pay this kind of attention to yourself to your experience just offering this kind of hearted attention to just this body lying here breathing.

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Reviews

Strong, soothing voice for a classic and useful progression. Thank you! 🌻🦋🌅

Thank you! Very nice!