Gentle Flowing Mindful Movement (30 Minutes)

A standing mindful movement practice exploring gentle flowing movements based on qigong. You are invited to move the body slowly and pay attention to all the shifting, changing sensations as you breathe with the moving body. A gentle way to connect to the aliveness in your body.

You're welcome and encouraged to make whatever adaptations are required to suit your body. Don't feel you need to do this as guided or to get it "right", the purpose is to move and feel and breathe and be present for it all. Your practice, your way.

Transcript

Hi,

It's Mandy here.

Welcome to a gentle mindful movement practice.

It's so great to have you here.

This practice is going to be drawing from some concepts and some forms from Qigong,

But really I'm just hoping that it's an opportunity to move your body and to pay attention as you move your body.

So cultivating all of that beautiful awareness that we've been cultivating through some of these practices and bringing that attention into the body as it moves.

So to begin with we're just going to come into a standing position with the feet close together as is comfortably possible but not touching and throughout this practice all of the invitations that I make are just that invitations.

So taking your own authority,

You know your body best,

Making adaptations if you need to for how your body feels today and if you need to make any adjustments based on your own arrangements of your body then just please feel free to do so.

So in this standing position and just checking in how you've arrived today to this position,

This standing position.

Maybe taking a couple of deep breaths and really arriving into this moment,

Into this body just as it is.

These gentle movement practices can be an opportunity to befriend the body and allow it to be just as it is.

Like from this position perhaps just looking down at your feet and stepping out into a a position where your feet are relatively directly below your hips and shoulders.

So just checking how that how that looks,

That arrangement,

Maybe wriggling the feet a little bit just to you know adjust to that change in posture.

And we're just going to work through the body to get this arrangement of standing ready for our practice.

So just feeling all the different parts of the feet as they connect with the earth.

Having a gentle soft bend to the knees.

Allowing the top of the legs,

So around the bikini line,

To sort of open a little bit.

Softness in the belly.

Bring a bit of space between the arms and the body,

So a little bit of space under the arms.

Opening up the palms of the hands,

Stretching the fingers.

Broadening the chest a little bit.

And reaching the ground of the head up towards the sky.

And from here just allowing a little bit of softening throughout the whole body.

If you notice little pockets of tension,

Just seeing if you can ease them a little bit.

Soften with the breath.

And in this basic standing position,

I often like to think of it like you're just a puppet on some strings,

Dangling.

Relaxed yet also alert and ready to move.

And you might like to even bring a smile to the lips.

And when you're ready,

Just to start this mindful movement practice,

We're just going to draw some circles around the body.

So taking the hands and allowing the arms to come up out to the sides,

Overhead,

Turning the palms in towards each other.

Drawing the hands down so that the palms are pointing towards the earth,

Just down through the center line of the body.

And back by your sides.

So that's one repetition.

We're going to do three of those.

So just again,

When you're ready,

Just slowly drawing a circle around the body,

Around this moment.

My Qigong teacher likes to say this is an opportunity to draw yourself home to yourself,

By calling all parts of you back.

And so just once more,

Up and over and down through center.

And again,

Just softening,

Breathing.

And our first movement is just to gently swing the arms from side to side.

So the front arm will come around and gently tap on the hip area.

And the back arm will gently swing around to behind the belly button in the center of the lower back.

And you're just gently swinging the arms from side to side.

Keeping a nice soft bend in the knees.

Just going at your own pace.

Your own rhythm.

You might like to take a couple of deep cleansing breaths here.

Drawing in through the nose and out through the mouth.

And you might like your gaze to follow the arm that's swinging around the front.

So that you just bring a gentle twist to the waist,

Looking behind you from side to side.

Maybe when you're ready,

Just bring that gaze back to the front.

And when you're ready,

Allow the arms to really slowly,

Slowly,

Gradually,

Gradually come back to stillness beside you.

And just pausing here and checking in.

If you can feel any changes in the body,

Any sense of aliveness that's here.

And next we're just going to continue to wake up the body with a little bit of gentle tapping.

So just using the fingertips of both hands to just tap across the chest area.

Just from sort of one collarbone across through the top of the chest to the other side.

Just some gentle tapping.

And then when you're ready,

You might like to extend one arm and tap down the inside of the arm all the way down to the wrist.

Maybe rubbing the palms together.

And then some gentle tapping on the back of that same arm up towards the shoulder,

Giving that area a nice little tap.

And then coming across and doing exactly the same thing on the other side.

Tapping down the inside of the arm,

Rubbing the palms together.

Rubbing the hands together.

Tapping on the back of the arm up to the shoulder.

And then taking both hands now and tapping the back of the neck,

The base of the skull.

Perhaps up above the head to the crown of the head.

And then maybe just some really light tapping around the face,

The forehead,

Down the bridge of the nose,

Across the cheekbones,

The top of the lip,

The jaw and the chin area.

And then again down the centre of the,

Towards the belly,

Around to the back of the body.

And here on the lower part of the back,

You might like to even pummel with the back of your fists or rub or continue tapping.

Whatever feels nice.

Down into that meaty part of the bottom,

Giving that a good bit of attention.

And then continue to tap or even slap the back of the legs.

And if it feels okay for you,

Coming down towards the back of the knees,

Giving them a little rub.

You can just hang out here or if you want to keep going down the back of the calves to the ankles,

Giving the feet a little bit of rub.

And then gently tapping the inside of the legs as you slowly draw your way back up into uprightness.

Maybe giving that area of the bikini line a nice firm tap.

Taking a couple of cleansing breaths as you do so.

And then lastly,

Just taking the right hand and placing on the left hip and just gently drawing a diagonal across the belly,

Up to the upper ribs on the right side,

And then swapping over.

So you're just drawing that hand across the belly in a diagonal shape.

Nice little stroking of the belly.

And then just coming into a bit of stillness and just checking in with that arrangement that we talked about at the start again.

A bit of space between the arms and the body,

Opening the palms.

A bit of softening here.

And just checking in.

Seeing what sensations are here.

Seeing if you can feel any sense of energy in the body or any change in terms of sensations.

Parts of the body that might be calling to you.

And then when you're ready,

Just drawing both palms together in front of you in like a prayer sort of shape.

And then we're just going to alternate between drawing one hand up towards the sky whilst the other opposite hand comes down towards the earth.

So the hand that's up towards the sky has the palm facing the sky.

And the hand that is pointing to the earth has the palm facing the earth.

So we're pushing heaven and earth and then returning to centre so that the palms come back together in front of the heart.

And then alternating to the other side.

So the other arm now goes up and the other arm comes down.

And we're just going to shift between these two arrangements.

Just gently going side to side.

And just checking in with the breath that you're not holding the breath.

Just breathing naturally and normally as you stretch one arm up,

Push one arm down,

Come back to centre and alternate.

You might notice that it feels like a bit of extension when you're pressing up and down and when you come back to centre it's a bit more soft.

Just tuning into the sensations through the shoulders.

Just noticing the touch of hands.

And as you're reaching up and down,

How the hands are exposed to the air,

Just noticing all the different shifting,

Changing sensations as you move.

And of course the mind will wander to other things,

Thoughts or sounds in your environment.

As best you can,

Just bringing the attention back to the body,

To the movement.

To this moment.

And we'll just do one more for each side here.

Reaching up,

Reaching down,

Coming back to centre.

Reaching for the heavens,

Reaching for the earth and back to centre.

And maybe you might like to put your hands on your heart just for a moment here,

Just checking in.

What's here?

What can you notice in the body?

And then allowing the hands to come to the hips now,

Just resting the hands on the hips.

And we're just going to draw some very small circles with the hips.

Just listening to your body and how far and how fast you make this movement is up to you.

Just drawing circles forward,

To the side,

Back,

The other side.

Noticing how the feet press down and change in their sense of pressure as they connect,

As the hips move.

When you're ready,

Perhaps changing direction.

Allowing those circles to form in the opposite direction.

And when you're ready,

Just coming back into some stillness here.

Perhaps bringing those hands again back to that prayer shape in front of the heart,

Palms touching.

And for this next form,

We're just going to open the arms out to the side so that the palms are pointing outwardly.

And then allowing the hands to come back in to that same prayer shape.

Breathing in and extending out,

Perhaps squeezing the shoulder blades,

And then allowing the hands to just softly return.

And just making this movement your own.

Opening and closing.

And as best you can,

Not rushing.

Feeling all parts of the movement,

From when the hands connect,

To when they're fully extended,

To when they reconnect once more.

And just one more here.

Opening and closing.

Allowing the arms to just come back by your side.

And if it feels okay,

Bringing the feet back together so that they're a little bit closer.

And just again,

Maybe wriggling a little bit,

Noticing this change in arrangement in the body.

We're just going to explore a little bit of balance.

We're just checking out if you're up for that today.

Coming forward onto the toes,

Lifting the heels a little bit.

And then just slowly allowing the heels to come back down to the earth.

Exploring how much of a lift feels right for you.

It might be just that you come and bring the weight to the tips of the toes and that's enough today.

It might be that you extend right up onto the balls of the feet with the heels lifted,

And then just slowly coming back down.

So we're lifting and lowering the heels.

And there might be some wobbliness,

Just checking that out.

If it helps,

You can focus your gaze on a fixed position in front of you.

That can sometimes help with balance.

And if you're choosing not to do this movement as well,

You can even just stand here and imagine moving into this position of balance,

Of lifting and lowering the heels.

Seeing if it's possible to even slow that down a little bit more,

So that you might come up onto the toes,

Lifting the heels,

And then slowly,

Slowly,

Slowly,

Lowering them.

That's a bit more of a challenge to your balance.

Just one or two more here.

And then coming into a bit of stillness,

Taking a couple of deep breaths here.

And then looking down and stepping those feet back out to that basic standing.

So hip width apart,

Softening the knees,

Opening the tops of the legs,

The bikini line area,

A bit of space between the hands and the body.

And we're just going to do some slow flowing movements here with the hands.

Just bringing the arms up in front of you to around shoulder height,

Allowing the wrist to kind of guide this movement,

And then allowing the wrist to guide the movement back down again.

So very,

Very slowly and gently lifting the arm,

Let the fingertips come up last,

And lowering the arm,

And again the fingertips are the last things to come back to neutral.

Simply lifting and lowering here.

Seeing if it's possible to be aware of all parts of the movement.

Noticing the lifting and the point at which you change and start to lower again.

Really being there for all parts of the movement.

No rushing,

We've got plenty of time.

You might like to coordinate the movement with your breath if that feels okay.

Just checking out what happens if we slow this down even more.

And just one more here,

Lifting,

Lowering,

And bringing the hands up in front of you,

The lower belly,

And making the hands into the shape as if they were holding a ball.

So both palms are facing each other,

The hands are sort of slightly curved,

As if you're just cradling a small ball in front of the belly.

And then moving that ball to one side,

Just as far as feels comfortable,

And then swapping the position of the hands,

So that the hand that's on top becomes the hand that's on the bottom,

And the hand that's on the bottom becomes the hand that's on the top.

And then bringing that ball back to centre and across to the other side,

And again swapping the positions of the hands.

So you don't need to turn very far,

We're just shifting from side to side,

Swapping the position of the hands,

Coming back through centre and across to the other side,

Keeping the hips relatively pointing towards the front.

This is really just a movement out in front of you from side to side.

And if it feels okay,

You can even lean into the side that you're going to with the leg a little bit.

So taking the ball to one side,

And that side the knee will be a little bit bent,

Swap the positions of the hands,

And then gently floating across to the other side,

That knee bends a little bit,

And swapping sides of the hands,

And just exploring this in your own way,

Allowing the hands to flow from side to side.

And then just one more to each side here,

And coming back to the centre,

And taking that top hand and just turning it over and placing it on the bottom hand.

So now you've got one,

The hands are sort of just resting on top of each other,

Both with the palms facing up,

As if you're just lightly holding something really precious,

And taking whatever hand is on the bottom,

And sweeping it out to the side,

And up towards the sky with the palm facing inwards,

And the other hand's just staying where it was,

Just resting in front of the belly.

You have one hand up in the air now,

Above your head,

With the palm facing towards the centre,

And then just allow that hand to come down through the centre,

Just in front of the body,

Past the face,

With the thumb pointing towards the body,

And as it comes down it just meets that other hand,

And lays on top of it,

Back in that same starting position,

As if you're just got the hands resting on each other,

Holding something precious.

And now the other hand should be on the bottom,

So just taking that other arm,

Allowing it to come out to the side,

And reaching up of the head,

With the palm facing inward,

And allowing that hand to just slowly come down through the centre,

In front of the body,

And landing gently on top of the waiting other hand,

And we're just going to shift from side to side in this way,

The bottom palm reaches around,

And up,

And comes down through the centre line of the body,

And lands softly,

And just exploring this in your own time,

In your own way,

Really lovely grounding,

Centering kind of movement,

And really be there when that hand lands back on the other hand,

Noticing the sensations of that,

Just one more for each side here,

And when your hands are resting back in front of the belly,

Maybe just turning them inward now,

So that both hands are actually pressing on the belly,

And just take a couple of breaths here,

And notice what's here,

Checking out the sensations in the body that are calling to you,

And then to close this practice,

We just do the same movement as we did at the start,

Just allowing the hands to draw a circle around the body,

Out to the side,

Palms up towards the sky,

Palms come together,

And draw down in front of the body,

And we're just going to do this three times,

Like we're drawing a circle around this practice,

Drawing in the energy,

The wisdom,

The observations,

Allowing the practice to really settle in the body,

Just taking your time,

And when you're finished,

You might like to draw the feet together again,

So that they're as close as they can without touching,

It feels comfortable,

Take a deep breath,

And just again,

Bring the hands to the lower abdomen,

Just below the belly,

Perhaps offering yourself a little bit of gratitude for taking the time to move the body in this way,

This slow,

Connected,

Present movement,

And just knowing that at any time throughout the rest of the day,

You might like to return to the body,

Return to these movement practices,

Allow a connection between mind and body.

See you next time.