Standing Mindfulness Movement (MBSR)

This gentle meditation is a slow mindfulness movement practice with stretches designed to develop awareness of the changing sensations of the moving body. This restorative practice can be done by anyone.

Transcript

Mindfulness Movement Meditation Welcome to the standing movement practice.

Being open and curious and gentle with yourself as you can be.

Coming into a standing posture with the feet hip length apart and noticing all the sensations of just standing here right now.

Opening to the flow of sensations,

Noticing the emotional tone and any thoughts arising.

Bringing your attention to the feet on the floor and making contact with the surface of the floor.

Noticing the ankles,

Knees,

Thighs and hips and allowing the knees to be slightly loose,

Not held tightly or locked.

Noticing the standing sensations of the hips,

Pelvis and belly.

How the spine extends upwards from the pelvis,

Paying attention to the diaphragm and the chest,

The rib cage and the sides of the chest,

Through the back of the body,

Through the buttocks and through the lower back.

Noticing the experience in your arms and paying attention to the neck,

Allowing the neck to gently extend upward.

The head sitting gently on your shoulders.

Standing upright with a sense of purpose,

Bringing awareness into this moment.

Noticing as you're standing here,

But standing still involves a lot of very subtle and dynamic movements to keep you standing.

Noticing the experience in your arms.

The body automatically knows how to adjust to keep you upright and stable.

Bringing your attention now to the soles of your feet,

Allowing yourself to gently start shifting the weight slowly from side to side,

From one foot to the other.

Noticing any changing sensations as you do this.

And then coming back to the stillness of standing on two feet.

Beginning to shift the weight forward onto the balls of the feet and into the toes.

And then the middle,

Following into the heels.

Allowing yourself to move through this range of movement,

Through the toes,

To the middle of the foot and to the heels.

Keeping your feet firmly on the floor as you do and just exploring the range of sensations,

Physical,

Emotional tone,

As you shift your weight gently from your toes through to your heels.

Noticing the work that the leg muscles have to do to allow these movements.

And coming back into stillness.

Now we're going to explore the standing mountain pose.

Try pressing down on the big toe side of your feet and also with the little side,

Little toe side of your feet.

Making contact with awareness of the inner heel and also the outer heel.

And noticing of this intentional attention to the four places of contact,

The toes,

Heels,

Sides of the feet.

Gives a greater sense of groundedness and connectedness to the earth.

Now increasing the tones by gently lifting the knee caps up and bringing some firmness into the legs,

The buttocks and the hips.

Feeling into the tone in the leg.

Now extending up through the spine and allowing yourself to gently reach through toward the ceiling through the top of your head.

Lengthening up through the legs,

Spine,

Through the neck and head.

And now allowing your hands to reach downward towards the floor.

Allowing your shoulder blades to travel down the back of the body as your arms and hands reach towards the ground.

Noticing the effort of this stretch,

Standing like a mountain.

Now softening those muscles as you let go of the effort for that posture and giving your arms and legs a little shake out.

Bringing your body back to the standing pose,

Feet and legs,

Shoulder width apart and parallel.

Start to swing the arms back and forward.

Letting the arms be soft and loose,

Shoulders soft and loose.

And noticing the sensations in the chest,

Back and shoulders,

Finding your own rhythm.

And then in the next few swings,

Allowing your body to come back again into relative stillness.

Noticing the sensations in the body and breath.

And noticing the subtle sensations in breathing as you stand here.

Now raising the right arm and allow that left heel to come off the floor,

Extending the right side of your body.

And then releasing and returning to a standing position.

Now slowly raising the left arm.

And allowing the right heel to come off the floor,

Extending the left side of the body.

Then releasing and again,

Raising the right arm,

Allowing the left heel to come off the floor,

Extending the right side of the body.

And now noticing the sensations in the body that arise from those stretches.

Returning to a standing position and now noticing the sensations in the body that arise from those stretches.

Now on the in breath,

Raise both arms extended to the ceilings,

Spreading your fingers upwards through your arms,

Shoulders,

Stomach,

Hips,

Legs and lowering them down on the out breath.

Now,

Releasing on the out breath,

Releasing on the in breath,

Releasing on the out breath,

Releasing on the out breath,

Releasing on the out breath,

Releasing on the out breath,

Releasing on the out breath,

Releasing,

Releasing on the out breath.

Again inhaling arms towards the ceiling.

Exhaling strengthen arms out to the side and down.

Now a little challenge if you like.

As you inhale raise your arms to the ceiling.

Come on to the balls of your feet.

Start really tuning into how your body is feeling and access that feeling of really standing like a mountain.

Allowing your feet to deliberately contact the ground and then exploring the legs,

The kneecaps,

The pelvis,

The spine,

The chest,

The head,

The neck and allow the arms to reach down to the ground at the same time and come on to the heels of your feet.

Noticing the sensations that you're feeling in this moment.

The quality of your mind,

Thoughts and the feelings.

Now we're going to do a roll down through the spine.

If this isn't comfortable for you just imagine you're doing it as I guide you through the exercise.

Establishing your connection,

Allowing your shoulders to be apart.

Begin to let your chin move towards your chest,

Feeling the stretch in your back.

Gently rolling down through the shoulders,

Your upper back,

Your middle back,

Bending your knees,

Arms and head hanging loosely.

Rolling down as far that is comfortable,

Feeling the sensations in the back of the body as you hang,

Perhaps bending the knees even more so,

So the fingers can brush past the floor.

And when you're ready begin to roll up again.

Pushing up through the legs,

Allowing the spine to unroll and bringing the head up last,

Allowing your chin to move towards the spine,

Allowing your whole body to follow gently with awareness,

As you slowly begin to roll down again.

This time you might like to sway gently as your fingertips brush the floor,

Rocking from side to side.

And when you're ready begin to roll up again,

Pushing through the legs and allowing the spine to unroll.

Just noticing how the body is feeling now,

Noticing the quality of sensations in the body,

The quality of your thoughts and feelings.

And begin again when you're ready to roll down,

Allowing your chin to move towards the spine and just gently following with your whole body,

Swaying gently as your fingertips brush the floor,

Gently rocking from side to side.

And when you're ready begin to roll up again,

Allowing the spine to unroll,

Noticing the flow of sensations and tiny movements that arise naturally from doing this activity.

Now we're going to focus on the neck movements.

If you have stiffness in your neck you may just want to imagine this movement.

Looking over the right shoulder,

Roll your neck around to the centre,

And then the other way,

Looking over the left shoulder,

Rolling your neck right around.

Again looking over the right shoulder,

Roll your neck gently around to the centre,

And then in the opposite direction looking over your left shoulder,

Rolling your neck right around to the centre.

Now clasp both hands together behind the back and stretch the arms upward,

Stretching out the shoulder blades with an inhale and a release on the exhale.

And once again inhaling and raising the arms behind you and then on the exhale releasing.

Noticing how you're breathing and what's on your mind.

Noticing the sensations flowing through your body.

Releasing the hands and now just standing and just allowing the awareness of all the sensations,

The circulation,

Any heat,

Any tensions or softening through the body.

And just bringing into awareness how the whole body's feeling in this present moment.

Thank you.

Reviews

Great! My first time doing a "moving meditation". Really helped me listening to my body. Similar to body scan, but my body "spoke louder" with this meditation. Merci!

This was a really nice meditation for me with very gentle movements that were great for my arthritic knees, shoulders and back, while keeping me in the moment.

Very nice and soft exercise to become more aware of body sensations. Well guided and pleasant to do.

Loved this standing/moving meditation. It was incredibly centering and well led. Thanks!