Trauma Sensitive Brief Yoga Practice

This track invites a gentle exploration of the body in motion. Use this track to journey into the body with gentle awareness and care. Mindful movement or yoga is an invitation to bring care and nourishment into our bodies. This track moves from standing to floor postures.

Transcript

So welcome into this time of mindful movement,

Making sure that you will not be disturbed and inviting yourself into this precious time to bring awareness to the body,

The breath,

Your thoughts,

The whole of you in movement and in stillness.

In mindful movement,

We're here to explore the miracle of the body,

However it is,

And what it's able to do.

It's not about getting anything right.

It's more about exploring the body and movement,

Learning more of what the body needs,

And the best ways to respect the limits of the body and to take care of ourselves.

So allow the mindful movements that follow just be an invitation to practice moving without a goal,

Just as a way of connecting in presence to the mind,

The body,

Doing what you can.

And remember,

It's enough of a yoga just to imagine yourself doing the movements.

So let's start by bringing the feet,

Coming into an upright position,

Bringing the feet firmly onto the ground.

Knees are soft and slightly bent,

Not locked,

Standing upright and at the same time relaxed.

The shoulders are loose and you can imagine an invisible thread attached to the top of your head that pulls you up towards the sky.

You can tuck your chin in slightly so you feel the length of the neck.

And as you breathe in and breathe out,

Maybe bring awareness to your belly,

And then let that awareness move all the way down to the feet and sense the body standing solid and steady.

When you're ready,

You might like to inhale and extend both arms up and to the sides with the palms of the hands facing upwards towards the ceiling and allow a slow movement,

Allowing the palms of the hands to meet at the very top of the head.

And then when you're ready on your out-breath,

Turn the palms of the hands outwards and feel that slow movement downwards,

Allowing the arms to find their own way back down by the sides of the body.

So as you breathe in,

You allow the palms to face upwards towards the ceiling and you allow the arms to move up in their own way,

Eyes open or eyes closed,

Seeing if you can just sense the meeting of the palms of the hands right at the top of the head.

And then as you exhale,

Bringing the arms down slowly,

Feeling the air around you,

Feeling the movement of the muscles,

The joints,

Perhaps the feeling of gravity,

And taking your own time to feel this movement.

As you do so,

Feeling the groundedness through the feet and the sense of extension all the way up into the fingertips.

And then just doing another cycle in your own time,

Slowing it down a little bit so that you can really feel the movement,

And then allowing the arms to find their own way back down by the sides of the body.

Coming back into mountain pose,

Just standing and breathing,

Feeling the ground beneath the feet,

Feeling the extension through the head,

And perhaps sensing your own sense of dignity,

Strength,

Majesty,

Grace.

And you might like to take a deep breath in and a slow breath out.

And then in your own time,

Bringing the body down into a comfortable sitting position on the floor,

On your yoga mat.

You might like to move the flesh of the buttocks behind you so that you can feel the sitting bones connected to the ground.

And now explore that awareness through the spine,

Feeling it from the base of the spine all the way through the neck and up into the head.

Once again,

Feeling the support of the ground beneath you and the sense of elevation through the torso right the way up to the head.

And simply sitting and breathing is a posture in itself.

So what do you notice as you sit here?

And now when you're ready,

We might explore some rotations through the hips,

So circling from the waist,

Resting the hands on the knees.

As you inhale,

Circle the torso forwards and around.

And as you exhale,

Circle the body to the back and to the side.

So you might like to inhale,

Extend the body forwards,

Left to right.

And as you exhale,

Circling through the back,

Right to left.

Remembering that this is more about the exploration.

Exploring moving the body through the central axis point,

Keeping the head level.

Making the circles as wide or as small as feels right for you today.

Noticing as you move,

If you can feel the breath moving right down into the belly.

And at any point,

If you feel ready to,

And you might notice that impulse,

You might want to explore moving in the opposite direction.

Finding your own rhythm with this movement again,

Feeling free to explore the movement with the eyes open or the eyes closed.

Maybe noticing any areas of the body that need attention and sending your awareness or your breath to those particular regions.

And when you feel ready to start to make the spiral slightly smaller and smaller,

Until you find your way back to that center point,

Taking a deep breath in through the nose.

And a slow breath out through the mouth.

And take a moment now just to notice the echo of that movement in the body.

Aware of the body just sitting and breathing.

Noticing the subtle sensations or the strong sensations.

And now let's explore one more posture when you are ready,

Inviting yourself onto all four so that your hands are directly underneath your shoulders,

Your knees are directly underneath your hips,

So that you feel a sturdy,

Strong base with your hands,

With the knees,

With the feet.

And on your in-breath,

You'll just soften through the belly,

Open through the chest and lift the chin up.

And on your out-breath,

Arching the spine in the opposite direction,

You can consciously bring the belly button up towards the spine.

So as you inhale,

You soften through the lower back,

Soften through the belly,

Open through the chin.

And as you exhale,

Just reversing in what we sometimes call cat and cow.

Just exploring this movement again in your own way,

Exploring that wave-like motion through the spine.

Noticing if the movement originates right from the base of the spine up to the neck.

Just sensing the miracle of being able to breathe and move in a way that is right for you.

Again,

No right or wrong.

Well done,

You might like to take one more deep breath in,

Lifting the chin up,

Softening through the belly.

Exhale and just arch the spine one more time like an angry cat.

And then on your next in-breath,

Bring the buttocks towards the heels,

Extend the arms in front of you in an extended child's pose or the arms by the sides of the body.

Just sensing what is right for you.

Taking a few breaths here,

Again just noticing the residue,

The echo of the movement so far.

Beautiful,

And on your next in-breath,

You can just extend yourself back up.

You might like to place the left hand on top of the right and just hold the heart for a few breaths.

And then on your inhale,

You might like to just bring the shoulders right the way up to the ears and hold the shoulders up there.

And as you exhale,

Let the shoulders soften down in their own way,

In their own time.

So we're inhaling,

Bringing the shoulders up to the ears,

And we're exhaling,

Releasing the shoulders,

Noticing the left shoulder and the right shoulder,

Whatever is held here.

And exploring this just a few more times,

Bringing a kind of curiosity to what is here in the field of sensation.

And inhaling one more time,

Shoulders up to the ears,

Holding the breath.

Exhaling,

Releasing,

Breathing out through the mouth.

Taking a moment just to acknowledge yourself for having taken this time,

Maybe noticing the rivers of feelings and sensations in the body.

And now coming,

Lying down onto the back for a few breaths,

The arms by the sides of the body,

The feet relaxed.

Allowing yourself to rest here.

And just taking this time to be present to whatever is here with kindness,

Acceptance,

Generosity,

Maybe even appreciation of the miracle of being able to breathe and move and explore in the way that you just have.

And the miracle of just being able to rest now here in stillness.

Knowing that we are practicing returning to our true home,

The present moment.

So that we can learn to live more mindfully in every moment of our lives.

You might like to take one more deep breath in.

And a slow breath out.

Resting here for as long as you need.

And of course when you feel ready to,

You can stretch the body in whatever way feels right for you.

Maybe with a new awareness of this body that you inhabit.

And maybe with a new awareness of the care that we can take as we meet our bodies just as they are.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🪻🌷🪻🌷🪻Thank you so much for the wonderful movements🌸🌷🪻it gives me smiles ☯️peace and softness 🗺️ much love 🕉️Namaste